Ladies Night Out March 7: Name that Fruit or Vegetable!!
We're
continuing our enhanced education topics as part of our monthly
Ladies Night Out program. Next
Monday, March 7th, starting at 7:30 pm, we'll have fun tasting "Excellent
Wines with Unusual Names," complimented by an educational presentation
that highlights flavors found in common varietals.
The evening
includes tasting of seven wines, paired with gourmet hors d'oeuvres, and
the educational presentation. Cost is $25. Hurry and reserve
your space at this event; reservations are due by Thursday March 3rd.
Call us at 630-435-9463.
Springtime Harvest Celebration: April 21
Plan now to
attend our next in-store party, on Thursday, April 21. We'll be
enjoying Spring (always a time for celebration), while our winemaking
friends in the Southern Hemisphere will be wrapping up their harvest.
Given the circumstances, we thought it was a great time to have a party
highlighting wines of the Southern Hemisphere.
Our event will
start at 6:30 pm. Cost is $20 per person and includes tasting of
several wines, gourmet appetizers and a chance for some nice door prizes.
We'll have different tasting stations highlighting wines from Chile,
Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Advance
registration is requested, so call us and plan to attend! 630-435-9463.
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In this issue:
Feature: Chilean Wine
Upcoming Events:
The View: S. California
Weekend Tastings
Ladies Night Out, April
4
Store Hours
Legal Notice on Ordering Wine
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Feature Article
The
Wine World of Chile
Since it seems like the
wine world is obsessed with all things “Sideways” these days, we thought
we’d take a contrarian tack and continue our discussion of the “upside
down” world of the Southern Hemisphere’s wine industry. Last month we
revisited Argentina. A quick peek at Santiago’s weather forecast for late
February (77˚, sunny skies, 47% humidity) convinced us that now is the
perfect time to check in on Chile, even if it’s only a virtual visit.
You
might remember Chile from your high school geography: 6 inches long and
3/8 of an inch wide on the South American map, 4000 miles of Pacific
coastline separated from Argentina to the east by the formidable Andes
Mountains. Chile’s climate and terrain is a lot like America’s west coast
flipped upside down. Its lower third is cold, wet and largely unspoiled,
an eco-tourist’s paradise not unlike our own far northwest and Alaska.
Chile’s northern third, on the other hand, starts out hot and dry and
finishes up an outright desert.
At the
center of this extraordinary set of natural borders is a stretch of real
estate about 870 miles in length that seems ordained for agriculture. The
soil is rich and deep, nourished by eons of alluvial deposits from the
rivers cascading from the Andean glaciers. Sunshine is plentiful during
the growing season (October-March), but cool air creeps down from the
mountains after sunset, and the Pacific’s Humboldt Current mitigates the
heat as well. The vineyards are dry and healthy, and the Chilean vintners
make much of the fact that phylloxera has never breached their defenses.
The process of planting a vineyard here involves sticking cuttings
straight into the ground and waiting three years for them to bear fruit.
It’s almost too easy.
Central Chile’s fertile soils and benign climate have nurtured
grapevines since the missionaries planted the first vineyards in the
mid-sixteenth century. Until the late 20th century, the
majority of the country’s viniculture was limited to the flatlands
surrounding her river basins. The rich soil and easy access to water
produced bountiful crops and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of jug wine
for Chiles’ uncritical domestic market. The dominant grape variety was
Pais (identical to California’s Mission or Argentina’s Criolla). But
Chilean winemakers in 1851 had experienced a fortuitous coincidence of
vision and extraordinary good luck when they arranged to import a quantity
of vine cuttings from Bordeaux just before phylloxera overtook Europe. It
is those vines, and the adoption of some very modern ideas about their
propagation, that are shaping Chile’s wine industry in the 21st
century.
Chile’s
quality wines come from three main zones. The valleys of Aconcagua and
Casablanca (source of Chile’s best white wines) lie north of Santiago.
But most of the country’s wineries are in the Central Valley region south
of Santiago, which includes the valleys of (north to south) Maipo, Rapel,
Curicň and Maule. Even further south is the still-developing “Sur”
region, with cooler and wetter conditions that favor such non-Bordeaux
varietals as Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. As
Chilean growers become more sophisticated, they continue to delineate more
specific sub-regions possessing unique terroirs. Colchagua and Apalta,
within the Rapel valley, are prime examples.
In
sharp contrast to many of her South American neighbors, Chile’s economic
and political climate is remarkably stable. The end of the Pinochet
regime in 1988 spurred an influx of international talent and resources.
The result is that many of Chile’s modern wineries are collaborative
efforts between Chilean winemakers and European or American partners. A
case in point is Casa Lapostolle, in the Colchagua Valley, a joint venture
between the Rabat and Marnier (as in Grand Marnier)-Lapostolle
families. Oenologist Michel Rolland, of Pomerol, France, and winemaker
Michel Friou released their first vintage in 1994, an elegant (and pricey)
Bordelais-style Merlot. Fellow winemaker Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle
gets the credit for their more accessibly-priced 2003 Casablanca Valley
Chardonnay, a deeply-colored, tropically-tinged Chardonnay with 8 months
in French oak to round out its vibrant flavors.
Santa Ema Winery in the Maipo Valley,
on the other hand, traces its European connection back to 1917, when winemaker
Pedro Pavone Voglino arrived from Piedmont, Italy. His son, Felix, earns
consistent accolades for his “Reserve” series wines, many of which combine
classic Bordelaise varietals with Carmenčre, which is fast becoming
Chile’s signature grape. Originally one of Bordeaux’s lesser varieties,
Carmenčre essentially died out in Europe during the phylloxera plague.
But Carmenčre cuttings traveled to Chile in that 1851 shipment from
Bordeaux, where they were planted and subsequently mislabeled as Merlot
for more than a century. Only recently, with the advent of DNA research,
has the varietal reclaimed its heritage.
Vińa
Carmen, in the Maipo Valley, is the oldest winery brand in Chile, but the
mindset at Carmen is anything but traditional. While Alvaro
Espinoza was winemaker there, he pioneered the field of organic viticulture and
was a champion
of the philosophy of “vineyard first, winery second.” He was also one of
the first to take the newly rediscovered Carmenčre grape seriously. His
successor, Maria del Pilár González, continues his legacy. Her
estate-grown 2002 “Reserve” Sauvignon Blanc, made from grapes grown in the
Valle de Casablanca, spends two months fermenting on its lees before being
bottled young to preserve its fruity bouquet and flavors.
Espinoza, meanwhile, has emigrated southward to Rapel’s Apaltagua winery,
seemingly without breaking stride. His 2001 “Envero”, a 91/9 Carmenere/Cabernet
blend from 60-year-old vineyards in the Colchagua Valley, earned 88 points
from Wine Spectator and many compliments at our recent Chilean wine
tasting.
The
standout favorite at that tasting, however, was the 2003 “Colchagua Apalta”
Cabernet/Carmenčre blend from Vińa Montes, Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s 2002
New World Winery of the Year. Since the winery’s debut in 1988, winemaker
Aurelio Montes has devoted his considerable talent to production of
premium wines, mainly for export. Montes’ “Alpha” series 2001 Cabernet
was a Wine Expressions Wine Club selection as well as a Wine Spectator
“Top 100” wine in 2003. Not surprisingly, construction is currently
underway on a second winery at Montes. It’s proof of the vision and
optimism that pervade this winery and the Chilean wine industry as a
whole. Big things are happening here. There’s never been a better time
to visit, even if your only mode of transport is your corkscrew.
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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 10 am - 8 pm
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Legal Notice
on Ordering Wine
You must be 21 years of age or older to order any alcoholic beverage.
By law, we are allowed to ship wine to the following
states: Arkansas, District of Columbia,
California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana,
Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, North
Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, West Virginia,
Wisconsin and Wyoming.
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