Treat Yourself This Season!
As
you work through your holiday shopping list, be sure to add something as a
treat for yourself! And . . . we know just the place where
you can indulge yourself. You can find any number of special
"treats" for yourself in our store, such as a bottle of fine
wine, a selection of specialty beers, one of our beautiful gift boxes, an
assortment of delicious cheeses, or a collection of fun, festive paper
plates and napkins to decorate your table.
You
can also make arrangements now to attend special tasting events in
January, which can be a great way to break up the post-holiday
"blahs." We've been planning our calendar for next year,
so sign up now for the fun:
January
5 Ladies Night Out, 7:30 pm: Wines from Spain
January
15 Cellar Master Series, 6:30 pm: Wines from California
January
20 Special Sake Tasting, 6:30 pm
We'll
also continue our weekend complimentary tasting events, every Friday &
Saturday afternoon.
We
wish all of you a happy holiday season!
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In this issue:
Port Wines
Sake Tasting Planned
New Store Hours
Schedule of Events
Legal Notice on Ordering Wine
More
Beaujolais Nouveau
Est Arrive!
We're
happy to announce that we've received another shipment of the Georges
Duboeuf 2003 Beaujolais Nouveau.
Stop
in soon to pick up some of this great wine!
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Feature Article
A Look at Port Wines
December is a
month in which we search all over for that extra-special something to give
or serve that will elevate the occasion and make a lasting impression.
And, here in Chicagoland, December is also (usually) freezing.
It’s a good month to discover Port wines, if you haven’t already.
Port is a sweet, potent (19-22 % alcohol content),
usually red wine that is produced from grapes grown in the province of
Tras-os-Montes (“across the mountains”) in northern Portugal. It gets
its name from Oporto, Portugal’s second largest city and the source of
Port wines for more than 300 years. The history of Port is as intriguing
as the wine itself, when you consider that this most revered of dessert
wines came into being as a result of an experiment in food preservation.
Until the mid-17th century Portuguese reds
were table wines, exported mainly to England and subject to the perils
associated with sea transit at that time. Travel time was unpredictable,
and often the wine arrived in England overly fermented and of poor
quality. The vintners in Portugal searched for a way to control the rate
of fermentation in transit and hit upon the idea of introducing brandy
into the wine before it left Portugal. The brandy halted the fermentation,
and the result was a sweet derivation of the complex flavors the region
was famous for.
The introduction of this sweet, heady concoction changed
the winemaking industry of Portugal’s rugged Douro Valley forever, and
the tiny region retains exclusive rights to produce the wines labeled
Port. It’s a lucrative endeavor, closely regulated by the Portuguese
government and jealously guarded by the growers, who harvest just seven
varieties of grapes each fall in the hopes that they will yield a wine
worthy of a vintage appellation.
Port comes in a variety of styles, ranging from
relatively inexpensive 3-year-old Ruby Ports to the celebrated Vintage
Ports, which may be aged 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years and are viewed as
investment property by collectors. Declaration of a Vintage Port occurs
only after the growers have monitored the development of the wine for 2 or
3 years. It designates a Port of exceptional quality, from an exceptional
harvest. 2000 is the most recent harvest to earn a Vintage appellation,
along with high praise from Wine Spectator’s Marvin Shanken, who hailed
the vintage as “setting a new standard for the category as a whole.”
Recent banner years also occurred in 1994 and 1997.
In between the Rubies and the Vintage Ports is a vast
array of wonderful wines. Late Bottle Vintage (LBV) wines are made from a
single year’s harvest, aged 4-6 years in wood casks prior to bottling.
Vintage Character Ports contain grapes from several harvests, matured LBV
fashion. Single Quinta Ports are made from grapes of a single vintage, all
from the same estate or “quinta,” and bottled after 2 years in wood.
And the so-called “Crusted” Ports, an unfiltered blend of vintages,
are matured 4 years in the bottle and named for the sediment, or
“crust” that develops over time. Ask Jack Thew about the proper way to
present a Crusted Port, next time you're in the store.
Tawny Port wines are aged in wood 5 years or more. The
combination of time and wood produces gradual changes in the character of
these wines, produced from a careful blending of older and younger wines.
Younger tawnies are rich, red, and fruity. Aged tawnies, nurtured 10 to 40
years in their barrels, fade to mellow amber tones and take on a nuttier
flavor. While Tawny Port may lack the cachet of a Vintage Port, it does
possess certain advantages. Tawny Port is ready to drink upon release, and
will hold its flavor for a few weeks after opening the bottle.
To appreciate the majesty of these wines it helps to
submit to the sense of “special occasion” they embody. Port is at its
best served in a tulip-shaped glass, accompanying a dessert of cheese
(preferably Stilton, but cheddar will do), walnuts and/or chocolate. The
French, who consume the vast majority of Port produced each year, enjoy it
year ‘round, as do the British. Americans are more apt to pair it up
with a cold winter’s night, a fire in the fireplace and a few companions
carefully chosen for their conversational skills. Sound like an occasion?
Exactly. Let’s open the
Port.
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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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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 for the Holidays
Mon
- Sat 10am - 8 pm
Sunday
1 - 5 pm
(After
January 1, we'll be open Mon - Sat, 10 am - 8 pm
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Port
Tasting Review
Our
first Port tasting, held last week, was great fun. We'll plan
another similar event after the New Year. Keep watching our
newsletter for details!
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Schedule
of Events
We look forward to seeing you soon at our events:
Prairie
Sampling:
Friday, Dec. 26, 4
- 6:30 pm and
Saturday, Dec. 27, 1 - 6:30 pm: Happy New Year Sparklers
Friday, Jan. 2, 4
- 6:30 pm and
Saturday, Jan. 3, 1 - 6:30 pm: Wines from Chile
Friday, Jan. 9, 4
- 6:30 pm and
Saturday, Jan 10, 1 - 6:30 pm: Wines from Australia, Part 1
Friday, Jan. 16, 4
- 6:30 pm and
Saturday, Jan. 17, 1 - 6:30 pm: Wines from Germany
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Cellar
Master: January 15
In January, our Cellar Master program will focus on Wines from
California. Plan to come learn about and celebrate some of the great
wines from our own country.
The evening features an educational
presentation and a full flight of nine wines paired to gourmet food
samplings from The Upper Crust bakery in Lisle.
Call now to order your tickets -
we've been selling out early! The deadline for purchasing tickets is
Tuesday, January 13, 2004.
Thursday,
January 15
6:30 - 8 pm
Cellar Master Series - Wines from California
$30 per person
Call for Reservations: 630.435.9463
or toll-free 1.888.656.9463
Ladies Night Out: January 5
Our Ladies Night Out events have been so popular, we're continuing them
throughout the New Year! Plan to join the fun on Monday, January
5th, at 7:30 pm, when we'll be tasting Wines from Spain.
The evening includes a tasting of seven wines with
gourmet hors d'oeuvres from The Upper Crust bakery in Lisle. Cost is
$20
per person, and the deadline to register is Friday, January 2.
Call for Reservations: 630.435.9463
or toll-free 1.888.656.9463
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