Cellar Master
- a Consistent Winner
We hope you're planning to join us for an upcoming
Cellar Master Series event. These once-per-month educational
seminars have been fabulous, and we've been receiving rave reviews from
those attending.
The program runs 1 1/2 hours and includes an educational
presentation and a full flight of nine wines paired to gourmet food
"samplers." Tickets are $25 per person. Consider
this - for about the price of a nice dinner out, you get fabulous wines, a
gourmet sampler meal, a pleasant atmosphere, and educational materials on some
of our finest wines.
Here are some comments from customers who have recently
attended this program:
"My wife and I attended for our 37th wedding
anniversary, and truly enjoyed the evening."
"Jack's presentation is great, the food is
excellent, and we enjoy learning about the wines as we taste them."
Come experience the evening for yourself! Our next
program takes place on Thursday, July 17th from 6:30 - 8 pm, and
features wines from Ravenswood Winery of California.
Call today for tickets! The deadline to register
is Tuesday, July 15th.
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In this issue:
Wines for Summertime
Current Events Schedule
Restock Notice
Announcing:
Ladies' Night Out!
Our Red Dot Sale
Store Hours
Legal Notice on Ordering Wine
Cancellation of
Napa Valley Trip
We're
sorry to announce that our planned trip to Napa Valley is cancelled this
year. We didn't get enough registrations to guarantee our ticket
prices.
We'll
try again next year, and keep you posted on our plans. As always,
send us your comments and ideas.
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Feature Article
Wines for Summertime Enjoyment
Whatever you have on your summertime grill menu, we can
help you find great wines to complement the meal.
Whether it’s a light, crisp white or a rich flavorful red, any
number of wines offer variety and enjoyment throughout the warmer months.
(Just for fun, as we talk about different wines in this
article, we’re including some of our favorite recipes – try them and
enjoy!)
Easy Wins
with White Wines
The Riesling grape, one of the
most versatile varieties, provides an incredible range of wines.
This grape can be manipulated depending on the soil where it’s
grown, so that in the Moselle region, for example, the wine provides
strong green apple and pear flavors, while Riesling from the Rheingau
reflects more minerality and stone fruit nuances.
Sweetness levels in Riesling wines also vary greatly;
those from German regions can be quite sweet, while French (Alsatian) or
Australian Rieslings are notably dry.
With this range, you can certainly find some great Rieslings to
enjoy with your summertime menus.
We offer several fine Riesling wines that would work
wonderfully with chicken or shrimp. Try
Garlic Grilled Shrimp for a fantastic summer
appetizer. As we mentioned in
a previous newsletter, the 2001 German Rieslings represent a phenomenal
vintage, one of the best to come out of Germany in 30 years.
(See Wine
Express #10 for that article.)
Some of these winners currently in the store are Weingut
Spreitzer 2001 Oestricher Lenchen Riesling Kabinett Rheingau and Weingart
Mittelrhein 2001 Riesling Kabinett. Another
great German Riesling we have is the 2000 Weingut Josef Biffar, a Kabinett
Riesling from Deidesheimer Kieselberg.
If you’re planning to serve something a bit spicier,
such as bratwurst, try a slightly sweeter wine, such as the 1999
Gewurztraminer from Jean Baptiste Adam.
This medium-bodied wine contains rose water, spice and violet
aromas, and was rated 86 points from Robert Parker.
It contains the residual sugar level of a dry wine, but you do pick up
a slight sense of sugar on the palate as you drink it.
Our recommendation for preparing bratwurst is to boil
them first, then brown the brats on the grill.
This provides for more thorough and even cooking and keeps the
bratwurst moist.
Another great summer white wine is Sauvignon Blanc, a
lighter wine that goes well with a variety of summer appetizers and
lighter grill fare. We have a
2001 Sauvignon Blanc from the Santa Barbara winery that provides intense
flavor, and a good balance of oak and fruitiness.
The Santa Barbara area
is cooler than you'd expect in Southern California, and that coolness
helps growers produce great wines. The mountainous area and cool
Japanese sea currents temper the climate and create a pleasant growing
season for the grapes.
We also want to mention a couple of Chardonnay wines for
your consideration. The 2001
McGuigan Bin 7000 Chardonnay, from the Australian Hunter Valley, is fresh
and round, with pretty pear and pineapple fruit flavors and a nice finish.
This wine was rated 84 points by The Wine Spectator.
The 2001 Edna Valley Chardonnay from California is a
nice crisp wine with lemon, hints of white peaches and spice.
Barrel fermentation and aging on the lees contribute honey,
caramel, vanilla and smoky oak aromas.
Robert Parker rated this wine at 87 points.
For recipe ideas, try Marinated
Grilled Vegetables and Grilled Trout.
You can serve any of these whites with this menu.
Summertime Reds
Red wine lovers, take note –
there are plenty of offerings that work well with such items as roasted
lamb, hamburgers, barbeque ribs or steaks.
One of our highlights in the store is the 1999 Malbec
from Valentin Bianchi, San Rafael, Argentina.
The Mendoza region of Argentina is basically a high-altitude
desert, lying on the east side of the Andes Mountains.
The Andes provide a natural barrier to heavy storms and winds, so
that this region experiences fantastically calm growing seasons for the
grapes. There is almost no
rainfall; water comes from pristine glacial melt that flows through the
region.
The 1999 Malbec from Valentin Bianchi is delicious.
It contains flavors of sweet toast and vanilla, with juicy black
and red berry fruit and some spice. The
Wine Spectator rates this wine 87 points.
For spicier items, such as barbeque, serve the 2001 Hop
Kiln, “Marty Griffin’s Big Red.”
This California wine blends Zinfandel, Alicante Bouschet, Cabernet
and Pinot Noir. There’s a
lot of spice in this wine, thanks to the Zinfandel, which works well with
barbeque meats. Try
our Barbeque Sauce recipe that you can use
with ribs or pork chops, or brush onto hamburgers.
Another great summer red wine is the Paringa 2002 Shiraz
from the Barossa Valley of Australia.
The Barossa Valley was settled by the Germans in the late 1800’s,
and they tended to cultivate Syrah (Shiraz) because the grapes did so well
in that climate. Many of
these vines are quite old, which leads to slightly lower yields and adds
more structure to the wines.
The Paringa Shiraz contains plenty of blackberry fruit
flavor; you can also pick up boysenberry and black pepper spice on the
finish. Serve with steaks or
beef roasts. Try a Raspberry-Marinated
Flank Steak for something a bit different.
You can taste the Paringa Shiraz at our in-store tasting
this weekend, July 11 & 12.
We hope you have some fun trying these wines and
recipes. Certainly come in
and talk with us about your particular menu questions.
The wines listed here are just a few from the hundreds that we
offer! More good news –
almost all of the wines mentioned here are available for $15 or less per
bottle.
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About
Our Mailing List
The
mailing list for this newsletter was gleaned from the personal email
archives of Wine Expressions' owners and from direct requests received
from our customers.
We
hope you enjoy the newsletter and decide to remain on our distribution
list. You are welcome to pass this newsletter along to a friend, or
click unsubscribe
to be removed from our lists.
By
the way, we never share your email or address information with anyone
else.
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Oh
No, We Ran Out!
Those
of you who attended our beer tasting on June 27 & 28 know that the
Sprecher Triple Abbey ale was a fantastic hit! So much so, that
we ran out early Saturday afternoon.
You'll
be happy to hear that our replacement shipment has arrived, so stop
back in to grab some more!
This
ale is brewed in the abbey tradition, and Sprecher artfully created the
balanced taste unique to these beers.
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Store
Location
We
are located in downtown Lisle at the southwest corner of Burlington Ave.
& Main St.
Extra
parking is available behind our building.
Hours
of Operation
Tues
- Sat 11am - 7 pm
Sunday
1 - 5 pm
Closed
Mondays
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Schedule
of Events
We look forward to seeing you soon at our events:
Prairie
Sampling:
Friday, July 11
4 - 6:30 pm Staff Favorites
Saturday, July 12 1 - 6:30 pm Staff Favorites
Friday, July 18
4 - 6:30 pm Wines of Southern Italy
Saturday, July 19 1 - 6:30 pm Wines of Southern
Italy
Friday, July 25 4 - 6:30 pm Beer
Tasting: Staff Picks
Saturday, July 26 1 - 6:30 pm Beer Tasting:
Staff Picks
Friday, August
1 4 - 6:30 pm Grilling Companions
Saturday, August 2 1 - 6:30 pm Grilling Companions
Friday, August
8 4 - 6:30 pm Wines of Tuscany
Saturday, August 9 1 - 6:30 pm Wines of Tuscany
Friday, August
15 4 - 6:30 pm Visiting Southern
California
Saturday, August 16 1 - 6:30 pm Visiting Southern California
Cellar
Master: July 17
Our Cellar Master program for July will feature Ravenswood Winery of
California. Sine the founding of this producer in 1976, every
Ravenswood wine possesses a unique vintage and vineyard identity in
addition to the intense, powerful character with which the winery has come
to be associated.
Ravenswood is known for Zinfandel,
and we'll be tasting several fine Zinfandel wines on the 17th. We'll
provide details about the winery, its production techniques, and details
on the fine wines being served. The full flight of nine wines will
be served with gourmet food paired to the wines.
Call now to order your tickets -
spaces fill up fast! The deadline for purchasing tickets is Tuesday,
July 15th.
Thursday, July
17th
6:30 - 8 pm
Cellar Master Series -
$25 per person
Call for Reservations: 630.435.9463
or toll-free 1.888.656.9463
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