Our first ‘domaine547 selection’ is a deep, brooding and delicious Syrah, made by the fine folks at Stolpman Vineyards. It’s due to arrive very soon, and is on special at a mere $20 a bottle. Get some, open it up and drink it in. We’re super-excited to share it with you. What’s that? Whatsit!
Quick tasting note for Wine Blogging Wednesday #47, hosted by Grape Juice, a Canadian wine blog extraordinaire. We tasted the 2004 l’Aventure Estate Syrah from Paso Robles at a dinner party on Saturday night, so the “S” in this case comes from the grape variety.
Sorry we couldn’t get a whole lot more creative than that and also encompass the producer, region, or fantasy wine name. If we weren’t being all economical and whatnot, perhaps we would have cracked open a Super-Tuscan from Sassicaia. Oh well, next time this theme comes around, perhaps we won’t be in penny-pinching mode (brought to us by the economic downturn not to be referred to as a recession).
In any case, back to the wine…the 2004 l’Aventure Syrah was a bit of a disappointment. Too big, too bold, too everything. But mostly, it smelled and tasted of Dimetapp which was a big flaw for us, though we’re pretty sure there was nothing “off” about the bottle. Just too grapey and medicinal for us. We couldn’t get past it. Apparently Dimetapp is now some sort of controlled substance, though our parents didn’t have an issue plying us with it when we had the sniffles in the 1970s and 80s. Ah, those were the days…
There’s a silver lining, though. Considering we used to guzzle Dimetapp proper when we were more regular viewers of Sesame Street, the originator of the “brought to you by the letter…” theme, we think this is the perfect wine for this particular Wine Blogging Wednesday. Even if we plan to never drink it again.
Cheers!
Just wanted to give you a heads up that there are two bloggerpacks to be released imminently. They are:
Same grape/different place featuring Syrah, from Wine-Scamp
and
Summer Sippers from Sonoma, from Wannabewino, Sonadora herself
We look forward to revealing the details of these once they’re in stock. Though we’ve had a small hiccup regarding the availability of the Shiraz that Scamp had her eye on, we expect it to be resolved be soon.
Our first ‘domaine547 selection’ is a deep, brooding and delicious Syrah, made by the fine folks at Stolpman Vineyards. It’s due to arrive very soon, and is on special at a mere $20 a bottle. Get some, open it up and drink it in. We’re super-excited to share it with you. What’s that? Whatsit!
Gary Vaynerchuk called this one of the best Moscatos he’s tasted on today’s show. You know where to go to see his videos. But it you’re looking for a west coast source of the wine, look no further than us. We love it too and have had it in stock since the day we opened. On sale while supplies (11 bottles left) last$17 bucks in honor of Vaynerchuk
We have a knack for picking Italian wines that score really horribly in the press. This one gets an 82 from the Wine Spectator — but we love it nonetheless. It’s a blend of Sangiovese, Merlot and Syrah that hails from a biodynamic estate outside of Lucca. It couldn’t be from anywhere else, unlike the 98 point yielding Super Tuscan blends that we’ve on occsasion mistaken for California iterations of Bordeaux varieties. This will probably end up in our six-pack prize of wines that will not make the Spectator top 100…$37 for 82 points (how’s that for transparency?)
The week of September 7th will be “Corkage Week” at domaine547! What does this mean? We’re going to devote the week to issues surrounding bringing your own wine to restaurants. Yay!
In the meantime, it would be nifty if any of you could email us (info at domaine547 dot com) with any BYO stories of your own, and maybe you’ll wind up on the front page of d547. In fact, if you go out in the next few days and decide to give corkage a try, send us a picture of the bottle you brought, the receipt with the corkage charge, and any stories you care to share. If your story is selected to appear in our hallowed pages, we’ll send you a gift certificate to d547 for the amount you paid for corkage (within reason).
And now, a quick tip for corkage etiquette: avoid bringing a bottle that is already on the wine list of the restaurant you’re going to. This can mean downloading a restaurant’s wine list online, or calling in advance to check for duplication.
See you in a couple of weeks for lots more on corkage!
Frizzante
From Wikipedia: Frizzante is an Italian wine term term for semi-sparkling wine (as opposed to Spumante, which is generally used for fully sparkling wines). Frizzante wines generally owe their bubbles to a partial secondary fermentation in tank. You might notice a light fizz or tingly sensation on the tongue with a Frizzante wine, compared to the more carbonated sensation that more fully sparkling wines yield.
Scorekage
Okay, so we made up this word yesterday after a great restaurant experience. We brought a bottle of wine with us, expecting to pay a corkage fee. But the restaurant either forgot to charge us the $15, or decided to be nice to us. We scored! Hence, “scorekage” has entered our lexicon. This can also refer to BYO friendly restaurants that don’t charge for corkage under any circumstances.
The 89 Project
We’ve joined a group of bloggers (wannabe critics, some have said!) as part of “The 89 Project,” an effort to explore the complicated matter of the 100 point system of evaluating wine. Go take a peek at the 89 Project blog, which has apparently already started a bit of controversy (and we’ve yet to make a post!). It’s interesting stuff.
d547 In the News! Pasadena Star
Just a quick link to another article about our little biz. This one is small scale but sweet. Thanks Pasadena Star!
