San Filippo Brunello di Montalcino 2006

San Filippo Brunello di Montalcino 2006 Scoring big with Robert Parker and Wine Spectator, (92 points each!), this Brunello is full, persistent with dense and silky tannins.

J. & H. Selbach Riesling Spatlese Saar 2010

J. & H. Selbach Riesling Spatlese Saar 2010 From the ancient wine growing family of Selbach, this outstanding Riesling comes from steep, south facing mountain slopes on the Mosel River.

Lou Ven Tou 2010

Lou Ven Tou 2010 From an organically farmed hillside vineyard on the slopes of Mont Ventoux, this blend from the successful 2010 vintage combines Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, and a little dose of Viognier.

Smooth Rambler "Old Scout" Straight Bourbon

Smooth Rambler "Old Scout" Straight Bourbon From the rural Appalachians, state-of-the-art distillery equipment combines with natural resources in this handcrafted, small batch, straight bourbon with a robust 99 proof!

"Le Nain Violet" Grenache 2009

"Le Nain Violet" Grenache 2009 "The 'Purple Dwarf' is a pure Grenache cuvée sourced from younger vineyards that produce very few clusters of small-berried fruit. The tiny yields result in wines of great concentration and deep colour.

Siduri Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands 2010

Siduri Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands 2010 Named for Siduri, the Babylonian Goddess, this producer sources their fruit for their Santa Lucia Highlands Appellation blend, from some of the most consistently fine single-vineyard Pinot Noirs.

Death's Door Gin & Vodka

Death's Door Gin & Vodka Once know for potato farming, Washington Island, Wisconsin, now contains everything needed to produce Death's Door Spirits, since brothers Tom and Ken Koyen began growing wheat on the island.

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Merlot 2007

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Merlot 2007 History... a producer whose Cab Sauv took first place in the 1976 Paris wine tasting that changed the world's view of California wines forever. This 2007 Merlot amazes, with intense and complex fruit notes with a touch of cigar box.

Poggio Al Tesoro "Solosole" Vermentino 2010

Poggio Al Tesoro "Solosole" Vermentino 2010 In prime Bolgheri wine-making territory, this Vermentino is named "Solosole", meaning 'just sunshine'; a wine that's the direct result of the work undertaken in the vineyards and the ripening sun.

A Year in Grapes: Dormancy

FEATURE ARTICLE A Year in Grapes Here begin your 2012 wines!  Whether a vine is a clone, a hybrid, a cross or a mutation, it follows a certain annual growth pattern. Your 2012 grapes will begin with bud break in the spring, culminating in harvest in the fall (in the northern hemisphere.) From a winemaking point of view, each step in the cycle plays a vital role in the development of grapes with ideal characteristics for making wine. If you visit Napa Valley right now, the vines appear somewhat unexciting... no leaves, no grapes. The vines, however, are not at all inactive. Following harvest, vines want the same thing we want around the holidays:carbohydrates! Using the process of photosynthesis, a grapevine creates carbohydrate reserves which it will store in roots and the trunk. The vine continues accumulation until the appropriate level of reserves have been stored for winter energy and for the upcoming growing season. At some point, chlorophyll in the leaves beginsto breakdown and the leaves change color from green to yellow, and then fall off. The vine now enters its winter dormancy period. There will be no leaves or growth activity until bud burst the following spring. This is a critical time for grapevines; they are exposed to potentially damaging low temperatures. Acclimation begins, where the grapevine transitions from a non-hardy to a fully hardy condition. The ability of a dormant grapevine to tolerate cold temperatures is termed as 'cold hardiness'. Grapevine cold hardiness is a highly dynamic condition, influenced by a number of growing conditions and environmental conditions, varying among grapevine varieties. Mid-winter, the period of most severe cold and greatest cold hardiness, might not be the best time of year for your vacation pictures, but it's the first chapter in the grape's annual journey and the first step to your 2012 bottles!

Chateau de Saint Cosme Gigondas 2008

Chateau de Saint Cosme Gigondas 2008 One of our favorite producers and the most ancient estate in the region, Saint Cosme is located in a cooler, later-ripening corner of Gigondas. This precise, modern style Grenache is aged with minimal racking.

Bloomer Creek Vineyard 'White Horse Red' Finger Lakes 2007

Bloomer Creek Vineyard 'White Horse Red' Finger Lakes 2007 Experimental and indisycratic, this Finger Lakes winery and vineyard is run by a longtime grape grower husband and artist wife duo. From Seneca Lake, this Cabernet Franc-Merlot blend is concentrated with ripe black fruit and dried herbs.

Selbach Incline Riesling Mosel 2010

Selbach Incline Riesling Mosel 2010 Named to honor the steep sloped terroir of the Mosel, Incline produced by Johannes Selbach simply outshines all Mosel Rieslings at, or near, its price point.

The Hedonist Shiraz McLaren Vale 2009

The Hedonist Shiraz McLaren Vale 2009 The Hedonist wines adopt a minimalistic approach to winemaking, and this 2009 Shiraz, grown biodynamically in a McLaren Vale vineyard, is soft, velvety, and mouth-filling with tinges of oak.

Santi 'Solane' Ripasso Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2009

Santi 'Solane' Ripasso Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2009 Santi traces its origins to 1843, when Carlo Santi established a wine cellar near Verona. The original winery still houses the winemaking facilities and aging cellar, and turned out this 2009 Ripasso that received the coveted Tre Bicchieri.

Spring Event Preview: April 28th The Art of Sport Showing & Wine Tasting

Spring Event Preview: April 28th The Art of Sport Showing & Wine Tasting   Meet the artist while tasting wine! James Fiorentino, highly regarded illustrator and painter, will display of his pieces and be available for conversation at Vintology. Mr. Fiorentino has propelled to the top of the sports art community and has painted some of the most famous sports figures. James Fiorentino online

A Year in Grapes: Pruning

A Year in Grapes Just a Little Off the Top, Please   A vision, a winemaker, walking under a summer sun through aisles of green vines... glamourous. A grower in the cold, gray winter shivering and pruning grapevines... not so glamourous.    Pruning, however, is often the most crucial annual vineyard practices affecting vine and grape quality.   Your 2012 grapevines are receivinghaircuts right now, a haircut called 'dormant pruning'. Next year's crop is directly dependent on pruning and 'vine balance', by not pruning too much or too little. Grapevines can produce as much as 13 feet of new growth on a single vine in one season; left underpruned, the vine will grow too many fruit producing buds, too many for the vine to support. Excessive pruning can lead to undercropping and too little buds. Achieving a balance is a skillful art and challenge for the grower, yet allows high grape quality and ideal volume.   A grower needs to know where and how to cut. Pruning removesthe previous year's fruiting canes or spurs. Canes are large, thick vines that sprout from the head; spursare buds or notches that will sprout thinner, younger vines that bear fruit and leaves. Canes are carefully selected with this year's vine health and next year in mind. Canes will produce fruitful shoots in the coming season, and produce healthy shoots for future cane in the next dormant season. Canes are also trimmed to retain the desired number of dormant buds. As much at 80% or more of last year's growth will be removed!   It's not surprise pruning is one of the most expensive vineyard management practices. Though mechanical pruning machines are used, a manual secondary pruning is still necessary. Time and labor spent, all in cold weather, is worth it, to benefit the season's crop and the 2012 vintage that is making its way toward the bottle you'll enjoy!

Vertical Amarone: A Once in a Lifetime Tasting

Vertical Amarone A Once in a Lifetime Tasting   by Dean Morretta    I was invited by my friend and supplier Winebow to experience a once in a lifetime tasting. We would taste wines following the tasting presented for Antonio Galloni, famed reviewer for Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate. Arriving at the tasting on Central Park South, I was in awe of the park views! The wines presented to me here, next to this beautiful view, also left me in awe. This would be two days of back to back tastings, with verticals ofCastellare I Sodi di San Niccolo andZenato Amarone Riserva going back to 1979. We would taste 20 different vintages each day. My first thoughts were, "When do you get this type of opportunity?" and second that I was the luckiest guy in the world. Each wine demonstrated its varietal and vintage influence, more importantly the style of the estate. Tasting through each producer's wine, you stumble upon a trait that runs through each and every vintage, that make these wines truly special and in the spirit of the estates. Castellare I Sodi di San Niccolo is a blend of Sangioveto and Malvasia Nera aged in French oak, approximately 50% new.Castellare is one of those properties that never seems to get the attention it deserves, despite boasting a track record of superb quality that goes back several decades. This works to the consumer's advantage, as prices have remained quite reasonable, especially for the flagship I Sodi di San Niccolo. Zenato Amarone Riserva is a blend of 80% Corvina, 10% Sangiovese and 10% Rondinella. Simply put, this is a gem. While the wines are ripe and have supple flavors on the nose and palate with plum and berry jam front and center, there is a sense of freshness with volume, density and a lengthy, balanced finish. I love this style of Amarone. Your palate does not become fatigued! On top of all this, they sneaked in a small vertical tasting ofPrunotto Barolo Busia (1988, 1995, 2004, 2005, 2006), where we even tasted the 2008 which is not even in bottle yet. Nice! The wines were smoking and all still babies. It truly was a one in a lifetime wine experience!

2010 Red & White Burgundy Tasting

Had the opportunity to taste through approximately 20 different Burgundy producers yesterday, including Sylvain Cathiard, Armand Rousseau, Burguet, Meo Camuzet, Jacques Prieur, Lamarche, Moreau and Faiveley. We tasted all of the 2010's. The wines are fabulous and blow away the 2009's. There is purity of fruit, freshness and beautiful acids. The 2010 wines are for the true Burgundy lovers.

2010 Fass4 (Ott)

More steeley, peppery- smokiness. I prefer the am-berg.

2010 Am Berg (Ott)

100% Gruner Veltliner

Much better than what I tasted at the Skurnik/Thiese show. Nice gruner.

Duc de Romet Champagne Brut Prestige NV

Pinot Meunier 80%, Pinot Noir 20%.

Very full, ripe and open.

2011 Events & Happenings

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Wine Tastings Galore!
Chateau Rauzan-Segla, JAQK Cellars, Lancasterpalooza, kosher tastings, Tua Rita, Tuck Beckstoffer, rose wine tastings, COMB spirits... the wine and spirits flowed in 2011 and many of you were able to expand your repertoires!

Wine Maker Dinners
Spadaro of New Rochelle prepared a number of fine dishes to pair with the selections of our visiting winemakers. In March, Antonio Argiolas paired each wine from his family's estate with Spadaro's Italian cuisine.

Customer Appreciation Weekend
Our first three day Customer Appreciation Weekend! For one full weekend before Thanksgiving, many of you joined us, with visiting wine experts, and Hartsdale's Caffe Azzurri for food, music, spirits and some of our favorite holiday wines!

Savor Your Senses
Our most unique wine tasting experience of 2011, Dean Morretta teamed up with concert pianist Elaine Kwon to pair amazing music with fine wines. We were surprised and impressed by the knowledgeable and enthusiastic audience, and grateful to have the event benefited Guiding Eyes for the Blind.

Dean at 2010 Bordeaux en Primeurs
Deans' visit to Bordeaux in April was a fantastic week of sunny, clear weather throughout the tastings. He felt 2010 lived up the hype, although unlike the more modern 2009 vintage, he found 2010 is more classically structured, and a great Cabernet vintage. Many of Dean's 2009 picks are now in!

2011 People & Producers

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Our visits throughout 2011 from remarkable individuals and producers remind us whey we sell and enjoy wine. We heard producers' stories of their visions and hard work realized in a bottle. Wine is the result of many people making many decisions, dealing with unexpected circumstances, honoring tradition yet innovating with hope for improvement. We enjoy sharing with you the journey and people behind each bottle in our selection.

Antonio Argiolas
Winemaker Antonio Argiolas visited Vintology in March and presented his family's wine. Antonio's grandfather planted his first vineyard on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia in 1918. Since then, the Argiolas family have been leaders in the region's enology and are devoted to indigenous Sardinian grapes. Young winemaker Antonio Argiolas follows with his grandfathers' passion, making wine from some of the island's finest locations.

Chateau Rauzan-Segla
In January, one of Bordeaux's great classified Second Growths, Chateau Rauzan-Segla, shared a tasting with Vintology's customers. Chateau Rauzan-Segla has expressed the Margaux terroir for three and a half centuries and is classified as one of fifteen Deuxièmes Crus in the original Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. The chateau's Robin Corvez visited and shared the grand vin Chateau Rauzan-Segla and the second wine, Segla.

Marcia Mondavi Borger of Continuum
Marcia Mondavi Borger stopped in on us in March and shared the legacy of Mondavi and her family's exciting return to growing grapes and making great wine. Robert, Marcia and brother Tim were inspired by four generations of wine making to found Continuum in 2005. Marcia shared their aim to produce a single red wine from a single exceptional estate. She poured for us the 2007 vintage, now a very special offering at Vintology.

Stefano Frascolla of Tua Rita
Owner Stefano Frascolla of Tua Rita, Tuscany, joined us in February. On his family run estate, in 1994 they decided to leave two barriques of Merlot and make them into wine without blending. The resulting wine, Redigaffi, became a cult wine,  the first Italian wine to obtain a score of 100 from Robert Parker with its 2000 vintage. Stefano shared with Vintology customers his estate's wines, with vintages not yet even on the market!

Tuck Beckstoffer
Tuck Beckstoffer tasted our customers on his critically acclaimed wines in September. His love of wine making began as a young boy. In college, he spent summers working in the famous wineries of Napa Valley alongside some of the most influential winemakers in California. In 2004, Tuck created Tuck Beckstoffer Wines, combining his family's farming legacy, cellar knowledge and vineyard experience to produce his creative, exquisite wines.

JAQK Cellars
We enjoyed a tasting of the full JAQK Cellars line in August and learned more about this unique Napa producer. JAQK Cellars is the creation of a few people with one idea: do what you love. After founding winemaker Craig Maclean, authored his first 90+ wine, his wines have received great acclaim. His wines for JAQK Cellars are tempting in playful bottles with names like "Charmed" and "High Roller"!

2011 Wines, Spirits & Trends

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Saint Cosme
A long time favorite of Dean's and now a critically acclaimed estate, Saint Cosme, the most ancient estate in the region just north of Gigondas, has been hot! Following the 2009 Saint Cosme Cotes du Rhone red (one of "Wine Spectators" Top 100 Wine of 2010), their 2009 "Valbelle" placed #10 on the 2011 Top 100 list. Dean shared the Cotes du Rhone white, at September's Savor Your Senses music concert and wine tasting, an audience favorite as it paired with grand, intense classical piano piece!

Local Spirits
With the 2009 micro-distilleries act, craft distillers have been cropping up all over NY. In 2011, we were introduced to Brooklyn Republic's Brooklyn Vodka distilled in Clinton Hill, came to love the full line of Port Chester's COMB offering all distilled from honey blossom wine, and reintroduced to Vintology the Hudson line including a 100% corn Baby Bourbon and a Single Malt! Outside of New York, we found bourbon from the Berkshires, a vodka and bourbon from Breckenridge, Whistle Pig Rye from West Virginia, and delightful domestic single malts like Triple Smoke and Brimstone!


Sake
With sake emerging as a world beverage, we thought it time to reintroduce sake to Vintology. While sake has been culturally significant in Japan for centuries, breweries are popping up on most continents, and many are returning to traditional production methods and increased quality. We brought in several premium sakes, including Tozai Snow Maiden, which scored 91 by the Beverage Tasting Institute, and Tozai Living Jewel, a great sipping sake whose name is inspired by shimmering koi.

Grower Wines
As opposed to heavily marketed wines, with familiar names due to expensive and aggressive marketing efforts, we continued in 2011 to seek out wine grown by individuals or families own estates that they own and control. Bottles like Mondavi's Continuum, Antonio Argiolas' Sardinian wines and the Benzigers' offerings contribute to Vintology's selection, a selection that caters to a more savvy customer, interested in how a wine was produced just as much as how it tastes!

High Roller
Sitting on our shelves, in a custom crafted Imperiale bottle, inlaid with a real poker chip, the High Roller caught a lot of attention at Vintology this year. Produced by JAQK Cellars, their flagship wine, with 100% Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, pleased many customers, on the outside and on the inside. We understand this was one bottle that did not go into the recycling bucket!

Rose Wine
Shaking off it's undeserved reputation as sweet and simple, rose made the summer of 2011 the summer of Rose. You all, some cautious and some adventurous, tasted through our rose selection, a global flight including multiple continents and multiple varietals. From Provence's Triennes and Pink Floyd, to Spain's Muga, to Long Island's Wolffer Estate rose, many of you fell in love with rose and learned it's complexity and delight!

Pol Roger Champagne
A long time favorite of ours and a wine industry professional's champagne 'go-to', Pol Roger received global attention when it was selected as the official Champagne at the royal wedding in the spring. A champagne long associated with British aristocracy and a well known favorite of Sir Winston Churchill, it's one of our recommendations for this New Year's Eve!

Happy New Year

We at Vintology wish you and your family a healthy and wonderful New Year!  You all have given us a great 2011!

In building our website this year, we spent a good deal of time crafting this statement:

"What is Vintology? A place, where passion and respect for all things relating to wine, from the vineyard, to the people, to the palate, live."

As you peruse this issue, Our O-Eleven Vintage, we think you'll agree 2011 has lived up to our statement.www.vintology.com

San Filippo Brunello di Montalcino 2006

www.vintology.com
Scoring big with Robert Parker and Wine Spectator, (92 points each!), this Brunello is full, persistent with dense and silky tannins.

J. & H. Selbach Riesling Spatlese Saar 2010

From the ancient wine growing family of Selbach, this outstanding Riesling comes from steep, south facing mountain slopes on the Mosel River.www.vintology.com

Lou Ven Tou 2010

www.vintology.com
From an organically farmed hillside vineyard on the slopes of Mont Ventoux, this blend from the successful 2010 vintage combines Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault, and a little dose of Viognier.

Smooth Rambler "Old Scout" Straight Bourbon

www.vintology.com
From the rural Appalachians, state-of-the-art distillery equipment combines with natural resources in this handcrafted, small batch, straight bourbon with a robust 99 proof!

"Le Nain Violet" Grenache 2009

www.vintology.com
"The 'Purple Dwarf' is a pure Grenache cuvée sourced from younger vineyards that produce very few clusters of small-berried fruit. The tiny yields result in wines of great concentration and deep colour.

Siduri Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands 2010

www.vintology.com
Named for Siduri, the Babylonian Goddess, this producer sources their fruit for their Santa Lucia Highlands Appellation blend, from some of the most consistently fine single-vineyard Pinot Noirs.

Death's Door Gin & Vodka

Once know for potato farming, Washington Island, Wisconsin, now contains everything needed to produce Death's Door Spirits, since brothers Tom and Ken Koyen began growing wheat on the island.www.vintology.com

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Merlot 2007

www.vintology.com
History... a producer whose Cab Sauv took first place in the 1976 Paris wine tasting that changed the world's view of California wines forever. This 2007 Merlot amazes, with intense and complex fruit notes with a touch of cigar box.

Poggio Al Tesoro "Solosole" Vermentino 2010

In prime Bolgheri wine-making territory, this Vermentino is named "Solosole", meaning 'just sunshine'; a wine that's the direct result of the work undertaken in the vineyards and the ripening sun.www.vintology.com

Winter Dormancy

Here begin your 2012 wines!

Whether a vine is a clone, a hybrid, a cross or a mutation, it follows a certain annual growth pattern. Your 2012 grapes will begin with bud break in the spring, culminating in harvest in the fall (in the northern hemisphere.) From a winemaking point of view, each step in the cycle plays a vital role in the development of grapes with ideal characteristics for making wine.


If you visit Napa Valley right now, the vines appear somewhat unexciting... no leaves, no grapes. The vines, however, are not at all inactive. Following harvest, vines want the same thing we want around the holidays: carbohydrates! Using the process of photosynthesis, a grapevine creates carbohydrate reserves which it will store in roots and the trunk. The vine continues accumulation until the appropriate level of reserves have been stored for winter energy and for the upcoming growing season.

At some point, chlorophyll in the leaves begins

to breakdown and the leaves change color from green to yellow, and then fall off. The vine now enters its winter dormancy period. There will be no leaves or growth activity until bud burst the following spring.

This is a critical time for grapevines; they are exposed to potentially damaging low temperatures. Acclimation begins, where the grapevine transitions from a non-hardy to a fully hardy condition. The ability of a dormant grapevine to tolerate cold temperatures is termed as 'cold hardiness'. Grapevine cold hardiness is a highly dynamic condition, influenced by a number of growing conditions and environmental conditions, varying among grapevine varieties.

Mid-winter, the period of most severe cold and greatest cold hardiness, might not be the best time of year for your vacation pictures, but it's the first chapter in the grape's annual journey and the first step to your 2012 bottles!

A Year in Grapes

Ratings, large corporate buyouts of smaller producers, carefully designed labels and catchy names, savvy advertising campaigns, changing labeling laws, the inflating futures market... there is much about wine to be distracted by. Let's get back to the basics: grapes.

We love wine, an agricultural product, which begins with a grape and ends with great winemaking. Two years from today, the earliest, you will enjoy a bottle of the 2012 vintage... now, that wine is not yet a grape, or even a bud. It is merely a grower's hope. In this year's Vintology Wine & Spirits Newsletter, we'll take you through a year in grapes, and tell you where your 2012 grapes are every step of the way, as they make their way, slowly and carefully, to your glass! www.vintology.com