May is Bocce Month in Wine Country

This is an unofficial declaration that May is Bocce Month in Wine Country. Why choose May as Bocce month? May is the ideal month to plan an outdoor activity in wine country like Bocce. The weather is at its best for a little physical activity. Continue reading

Source: http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/napablog/may-is-bocce-month-in-wine-country/

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Best Summer Sangria

This is a guest post from my wife Deanna who serves as the CMO of the Wellesley Wine Press. She also blogs at Casa Dwyer and you can follow her on Twitter.

Let's be honest. Not every bottle of wine is worthy of drinking on its own. I believe it's why Sangria was invented. This Summer I found myself craving a cool red drink that was approachable and delicious. I used several recipes and came up with what I think is a flavorful rendition wine lovers and newbies will both adore. I haven't yet seen my partner drink it, but, really, what does he know? *giggle*

Best Summer Sangria
(makes enough for 4 glasses)
Use a glass wine carafe like this one.

3 oranges, 2 juiced, 1 halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
1 lemon, 1/2 juiced, half thinly sliced crosswise
a small handful of fresh raspberries
1/4 cup blue agave sweetener
1/3 cup Amaretto (I like Amaretto di Saronno)
1 bottle dry red wine, chilled
Ice cubes, for serving

Directions
In a large pitcher, combine fresh orange juice, blue agave, and amaretto; stir well. Add wine, orange slices, lemon slices and raspberries. Fill glasses with ice before serving.

Enjoy!

Editor's Note: Any red wine will do. I like to sacrifice pick an affordable juicy red like Grenache, Malbec or Monastrell, but really pretty much anything will work - even Two Buck Chuck. Like choosing your tequila when making a frozen margarita - it doesn't matter nearly as much when you're drinking it straight. Cheers.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/lPRAXxZZXqc/best-summer-sangria.html

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A Wine for Tonight: 2008 Peter Lehmann Barossa Shiraz

Would you like a quick suggestion for a good wine to drink tonight (or this weekend) that won?t break your budget and is widely available? Many of our readers have said this is something they would like, so here is this week?s selection, the 2008 Peter Lehmann Barossa Shiraz from the famed Barossa Valley of [...]

A Wine for Tonight: 2008 Peter Lehmann Barossa Shiraz was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WinePeeps/~3/WRlp7SmTIyk/

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Wine-derful

Judges completed the first day of tasting the finest vintages the wine world has to offer at the 70th Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition. Stepping into the Millard Sheets Center for the Arts, where judging is taking place, the aroma is musky, flowery, fruity, nutty. Pretty powerful! Judges gather around round tables comparing [...]

Source: http://blogs.fairplex.com/blog/wine/?p=62

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More Wine.com 50% Off Deals (this time excluding Masschusetts)

At least a couple more Wine.com 50% off vouchers are currently active.

One comes from the lesser-known site Bloomspot and offers $30 for $60
Another comes from BuyWithMe and offers $35 for $70

As with other offers Wine.com has run, shipping is not included so keep that in mind when considering the offer.

Also worth noting is the list of excluded states: OK, GA, IN, KY, MD, ME, TN, UT and MA. It appears Massachusetts has been newly added to the list of excluded states which is peculiar because Wine.com can ship to Massachusetts otherwise. They're one of the few (if not the only) national retailer who has secured a Massachusetts retailers license which enables them to ship to Massachusetts residents. All the wine they sell to Massachusetts must be purchased through Massachusetts wholesalers.

The fact that MA is excluded from these offers is therefore interesting and may be related to the Massachusetts ABCC cracking down on alcohol deals. The ABCC is of the opinion that retailers may not use coupons to sell alcohol:

(click to enlarge -or- see the Fines/Misc Information tab on the MA ABCC's site for more information)

Bottom Line: These deals may present an opportunity to snag a nice bottle of wine on the cheap, but make sure to read the fine print before proceeding.


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/EVIJ2JNumuY/more-winecom-50-off-deals-this-time.html

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Value Alert: 2007 Ruffino Modus

Italian wine - Buy 6 or more bottles and get 50% off shipping with code "grape70"

A couple weeks ago we were discussing a $25 wine Spectator rated 97 points - the 2009 Carlisle Sonoma County Syrah. After appearing in a Wine Spectator Insider email, the wine evaporated from the market as quickly as any I've ever seen. Sometimes it's like that - where a rating comes out of nowhere and the wine has been on the market for a while. Other times the rating has been around for a long time before the wine comes to market. That's been the case with the 2007 Ruffino Modus Toscana.
The $35 Modus received a 96 point rating back in the fall of 2010. There was considerable speculation it might become Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year. (Interesting side note on our Scoop the Spectator contest - the winner recently had a piece of writing published by the magazine - very cool!). The metrics were all there - especially the production level. 7,000 cases of the wine were imported to the US.

The wine ended up with a respectable showing finishing in the Top 25. When a wine has favorable QPR metrics but then ends up not making their Top 100 list it makes me think it didn't show very well when tasted across a wider audience. I liked the 2007 BV Tapestry (93WS/$50) and thought for sure it would make the Top 10. No such luck - it didn't make the Top 100.

The point chasing wine deal hound market hasn't received the 2007 Modus with the kind of enthusiasm the Carlisle garnered. I have a few theories why:

  • The 96 point rating the Modus received kind of came out of nowhere. They've been making the wine since 1997 and the best Spectator rating a prior vintage received was 91. It makes one wonder whether the bottle Suckling tasted got lucky.
  • Speaking of Suckling the rating come out right around the time he was leaving the publication to start his own thing. There was also some conjecture Spectator wouldn't feature the wine favorably to bring attention to a wine he rated.
  • No other major publication rated the wine as highly as Spectator - if they rated it at all. This lack of a second rating reinforced the concerns Spectator's 96 was a fluke. By the way, if the idea of having 2 or more major publications favorably rate a wine appeals to you check out the Wine Blue Book.
  • The wine wasn't on the market when the rating dropped. After a while I kind of forgot about it and I think other deal hounds did too.
  • The Modus is a much higher production wine. Scarcity makes people go a little nutso sometimes and what's more readily available is less precious. Perhaps there's just as much demand for the Modus but there's less supply for the Carlisle so the Carlisle is the hotter wine.
Perhaps there was some intentional delay on the part of the distributor in Massachusetts to sell through the 2006 vintage before releasing the 2007? Of course that didn't stop Costco from trying to leverage the 96 point rating for the 2006 in the mean time. I enjoy shopping at Costco but beware of their shelf talkers - they can get rather shady with them. The rating was crossed out in this shelf talker but the tasting notes were still for the 2007 while Costco has been selling the 2006 the past few months:


A couple weeks ago I tried the 2007 for the first time at the Wine Spectator Grand Tour stop in Boston. I thought it was quite nice but the context of 200 other wines it was hard to say for sure what it would really be like to drink a glass with a meal.

I got a chance to do just that La Famiglia Giorgio in the North End last week. We were in a bit of a hurry so table-top signage was effective in making our decision:


They poured each bottle through an aerating funnel into a decanter. Pretty nice treatment for what the waiter called one of the more expensive bottles. $46 at a restaurant is a very nice price point. And I thought the wine was great.

The wine is 50% Sangiovese, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 25% Merlot. Ruffino positions Modus as "modern interpretations of historical territory". I'll go along with that. Tons of fruit. Not austere at all. Some acidity. Nicely balanced. Call it 90-93 points?

I spotted the 2007 Modus for the first time at Costco in Waltham, MA yesterday. $22.89 (and no tax in MA). There were only 6 bottles in the bin and the cashier said they didn't have any backup:

Update: As 10:00 am Saturday morning Waltham is out of Modus. I hear they have 100 bottles in Danvers.


If you're in the area and interested in buying some it might be worth giving them a call or stopping in. If not there are plenty of retailers in the country that have it for a little more.

Strictly from a numbers perspective - 96 points for a Tuscan red you can buy for $25 vs. 97 points for a California Syrah that's nearly impossible to find at this point makes this Modus a no brainer for the point chaser. And all kidding aside I think it's a really nice wine for around $25.

Related Links:
CellarTracker
Wine-Searcher

Question of the Day: Why do you think the market reacted so differently to the 2007 Modus compared to the 2009 Carlisle?


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/9AQ-Ax3XjMI/value-alert-2007-ruffino-toscana-modus.html

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