Perfect for Valentine's Day
We're pleased to offer unique, elegant
gifts for Valentine's Day. In teaming up with two other downtown Lisle
businesses, we present the best from all three of us. Choose from one of
the following gifts to provide a great Valentine's Day for your loved one!
Please note, orders must be placed by
Wednesday, February 11th.
All orders must be picked up at Wine
Expressions.
Romance
Basket
Delight your sweetheart with this basket
of goodies! For less than the price
of a dozen roses, we provide you with the perfect compliment to your romantic
evening. Our basket includes three
red roses arranged in a vase, a bottle of wine, a wedge of French Brie cheese, a
box of Carr’s water crackers and an assortment of sweets.
(You choose the wine from one of three selections.)
Everything is beautifully presented in a large gift basket, accented with
a French wire ribbon and bow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $59.95
plus tax
Surf
& Turf Dinner for Two
Impress
your valentine with the ultimate romantic dinner!
This Valentine’s Day package includes a surf & turf dinner with all
the trimmings, including dessert. Everything
is ready to take from our store to your table.
With dinner, you receive a
half-dozen fresh red roses and a bottle of wine (you choose from one of three
selections). Order now to enjoy a perfect dinner in the privacy of your own home.
. . . . . . . . . . .$125.00 plus tax
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In this issue:
Blended Wines
Chicagoland Women's Expo
Upcoming Events:
Cellar Master
Lisle Golf Club
Ladies Night Out
Single-Malt Scotch Tasting
Prairie Samplings
Email Changes
Legal Notice on Ordering Wine
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Feature Article
Blended Wines (Some Things are Better Together)
As Valentine’s Day approaches you look for a unique,
personal expression of your affection. Jewelry’s a reliable performer,
but the good stuff gets pricey. Lingerie is not
always the perfect gift (trust us on this one), and chocolate, well,
chocolate’s not going to earn you a lot of points for imagination.
You want something that makes you look thoughtful,
eloquent and intelligent. Something that embodies your conviction that a
great relationship is much, much more than the sum of its parts and that
yours is worthy of a celebration. And
this perfect metaphor-for-your-deep-and-complicated-feelings would
be…wine, of course!
Better yet - enhance the metaphor this Valentine's Day
by selecting a blended wine. Blended wines combine the
fruit of different, even opposite vines in magical ways to create
something unique and memorable. How’s that for a metaphor? We knew
you’d like it.
Winemakers around the world continually experiment with
blending different grapes, looking to capitalize on the best aspects of
the varietals and create a better end product. In this article,
we'll take a quick tour around the world to highlight blended wines that
will work well for your Valentine, or your Valentine's Day dinner.
Let's start in France. No, not Paris, though that would
definitely score you points with your sweetie. For blended wine par
excellence we need go no further inland than Bordeaux, whose
winemakers have for centuries schooled the rest of the world in the fine
art of assemblage. The wines of
Bordeaux typically combine Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.
The proportion of each in a specific bottle can reveal as much about the
soil, topography and climate (what the French call terroir) of the vineyard as the winemaker who crafted its
produce.
The light, gravelly, well-drained soils of the Médoc
region favor Cabernet Sauvignon vines, while Merlot grapes tend to fare
better in the heavier, clay-dominated soils of St. Estèphe, St. Emilion
and Pomerol. The wines of these regions reflect this, of course, while
still offering great variety within each region. Assemblage
is of almost ritual significance in Bordeaux, and each château has its
own recipe for the perfect blend.
Two great Bordeaux wines to try are the 2000 Château Citran cru Bourgeois (60%
Merlot, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon) and the 1999 Château La Bridane Cru
Bourgeois du Médoc from Saint-Julien. Pair either with a couple of choice New
York strip steaks and a choice phrase in French (“Ma chérie” is a good start*).
Bon chance.
Though they’ll vehemently deny it, the French don’t
own a monopoly on romance, or blended wine either. Just ask the Italians.
Chianti is the quintessential Italian blended wine and the perfect
accompaniment to Italian food. The best Chiantis are produced in the
Classico zone of Tuscany from a blend of Sangiovese and Canaiolo red
grapes and a small amount (less than 5%) of white grapes. Compliment your
loved one and your lasagna with a bottle of Castello D’Albola 2000
Chianti Classico while Dean Martin croons “That’s Amore” in the
background.
Lasagna not on your diet? No time to learn a language?
How about an Australian blend, and some hearty grilled or roasted meat to
go with it? The 2001 MadFish blend of 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 26%
Merlot and 22% Cabernet Franc is a wonderful full-bodied wine with good
structure, notes of spice box, cedar and black currant fruit. Try it with roasted lamb and dig out the original
Crocodile Dundee movie or, if you can find it, “A Town Like
Alice.”
Closer to home, Hedges Cellars in Washington State offers a
fabulous wine from the Red Mountain appellation. The Hedges 2000
Three Vineyards combines Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc,
grown from three different vineyards. Awarded 89 points by Wine
Spectator, the wine is "supple and refined, with meaty flavor around
a solid core of black cherry and currant."
Lastly, for those of you who’ve had it up to here with
February in Chicagoland (or most other places), we offer a bit of
California sun. California does Zinfandel better than anyone else in the
world, so a Zinfandel blend is another great choice.
To help set the Valentine mood, select the Il Cuore 1999
Rosso Classico. "Il Cuore" means "the heart" in
Italian. The vineyard name is a tribute to the Italian immigrants
who first planted the North Coast of California to vine in the late
nineteenth century. The Rosso Classico is a unique combination of
48% Sangiovese, 39% Zinfandel and 13% Charbono. The result is a wine
with a rich expression of berries, plums and ripe cherries. The
spicy flavors from the Zinfandel and Charbono grapes will work well with
lamb, roasted herb chicken, or grilled meats and vegetables.
Another great Zinfandel blend from California is the Ridge Wines
2001 Sonoma County Three Valleys red, which contains 50% Zinfandel and a
blend of Petite Sirah, Carignan, Mataro (mourvedre) and
Grenache. Ridge belongs to the association of west-coast winemakers known
as the Rhone Rangers, whose purpose is to produce and promote wine from
grapes traditionally grown in the Côtes du Rhône region of France. So
you can sound international without ever leaving the country. Pair this
with slow-cooked brisket, flank steak or London broil.
With these choices, you're sure to find a great wine to
help make your Valentine's Day special. Oh, and one last thing. Remember the flowers!
*It’s “mon
chéri” if your sweetie is male.
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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 of Operation
Mon
- Sat 10am - 8 pm
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Chicagoland Women's Expo
February 21-22, 2004
Arlington Park Racecourse
Plan
to attend the Chicagoland 2004 Women's Expo, sponsored by the Chicago
Tribune. This two-day event provides seminars, entertainment,
tastings, shopping and prizes.
Visit
us at booth #207 on the main floor. The show is open Feb. 21 from 9
am - 7 pm and Feb. 22 from 10 am - 6 pm.
For
more details, visit the Women's
Expo website.
Stop
by our store to pick up discount tickets to the show, while supplies last.
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Schedule
of Events
We look forward to seeing you soon at our events:
Prairie
Sampling:
Friday, Feb.
13, 4 - 6:30 &
Saturday, Feb. 14, 1 - 6:30: Wines for your Valentine
Friday, Feb.
20, 4 - 6:30 &
Saturday, Feb. 21, 1 - 6:30: Wines from Argentina
Friday, Feb.
27, 4 - 6:30 &
Saturday, Feb. 28, 1 - 6:30: Porters, Stouts &
Dunkels
Friday, March
5, 4 - 6:30 &
Saturday, March 6, 1 - 6:30: Wines from the Loire Valley
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Ladies Night Out: March 1
Our next Ladies Night Out event features Excellent Wines with Unusual
Names. Join us for a fun evening of wine tasting, enhanced by the
creativity of the winemakers in naming their productions.
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, February 27.
Order now - the event is half sold out already!
Ladies Night Out: Excellent Wines with Unusual Names
Monday, March 1, 7:30 pm
$20 per person
Call for Reservations: 630.435.9463
or toll-free 1.888.656.9463
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Email Address Changes
Be
sure to send us an email when your address changes, so that our records
stay current and you keep receiving our newsletter!
Use
this link to send us your updated email address.
Lisle Golf Club
Outing
We're
pleased to be presenting a series of wine tasting events at the Lisle Golf
Club. Join us on Tuesday, February 24 to taste Wines from Southern
California, paired to food samplings. Flights will begin at 5, 6,
and 7 pm. Cost
is $25 per person. Call the Lisle River Run Golf Course to register, at
630-968-1920.
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