Author: Christy

Sparkling Wine Month: Sparkling Sampler Case

Originally published on July 24, 2009.

Sparkling Month will be wrapping up soon (we would say it’s going out with a bang, but that would be far too cheesy even for us.) We’ve had sparkling tastings twice each week, two different sparkling 3-Packs, and in true better-late-than-never fashion, we’ve finally managed to post our Sparkling Wine Sampler Case.

You’ll get 12 bottles of bubbly for just $200, including one bottle of actual Champagne from Champagne. In the realm of bubbles, this is a tremendous deal – about 15% off the individual bottle costs. It’s a great way to expand your sparkling wine horizones. Gather up some friends, split the case cost, pop the works – and drink…we mean taste, taste!

Here’s what you get:

2 BOTTLES EACH OF:

Althea Prosecco di Valdobbiadene NV (Veneto, Italy): Produced in the tank method, most Proseccos are lighter and fresher than their Champagne cousins. This was is our favorite – it’s elegant, fresh, and has the tiniest bubbles we’ve yet to come across in a Prosecco. (Regular Price: $15.99)

Lucien Albrecht Cremant d’Alsace Blanc de Blancs NV (Alsace, France): An excellent value in sparkling wine. A touch rounder than Champagne, with notes of pears and apples and just a hint of yeastiness. (Regular price: $17.99)

Cantina Del Taburno Falanghina Spumante NV (Campanga, Italy): Falanghina is a white grape indigenous to southern Italy, usually used in the production of non-bubbly wine. A sparkling version is a rare treat. A bit more full-bodied than Prosecco, it has a lemon-zesty finish and the tell-tale smoky notes of a good Falanghina. (Regular Price: $18.99)

1 BOTTLE EACH OF:

Medici Ermete Solo Lambrusco NV (Reggiano, Italy): Sparkling red…don’t be scared! Jammy, inky, with dark berry fruits and just a bit of fizz. It finishes dry and isn’t at all cloying or heavy. Perfect with cured meats, salty cheeses and it makes a pizza dinner something special. (Regular Price: $14.99)

Jean-Marc Villemaine Touraine Sparkling NV Rosé (Touraine, Loire Valley, France): It’s rare to see Pineau d’Aunis in a starring role – it’s generally used as a blending grape and rarely mentioned on a label. But this dry rosé, with its subtle berry fruit and hint of spice on the finish, is a nice exception to the rule. (Regular Price: $15.99)

Francois Pinon Vouvray NV Brut (Vouvray, Loire, France): A gorgeous sparkler from the Vouvray sub-region of the Loire Valley. It’s dry, but has just a touch of the honey notes you’ll sometimes get from Chenin Blanc. It’s a bottle of yeasty, creamy, honey-ed goodness. (Regular Price: $18.99)

Lingot Martin Cerdon-Bugey NV Rosé: Lightly pink, slightly sweet, but not at all cloying, this Cerdon is the definition of charming. It’s from a region of France that sits near the base of the Alps, it shows off delicate berry flavors and a hint of Alpine freshness. Excellent with cupcakes. (Regular Price: $19.99)

J Vineyards Cuveé 20 NV (Russian River, California): About as close to Champagne as you can get…without actually buying Champagne. Same grapes. Same production method. But from California, so overall it’s rounder and softer, but it has a similar mix of citrus and apple fruits combined with a rich toasty, yeasty note. Regular Price: $25.99)

Philippe Prie Brut NV (Champagne, France): Real Champagne is never cheap. It’s never even “inexpensive.” But there are good values out there and Philippe Prié is one of them. Stone fruits, citrus, minerals and a biscuit-y note combine with crisp acidity – it fits nicely into the “elegant” style of Champagne. (Regular Price: $35.99)

Wine Warning Labels….Don’t Say I Didn’t Tell You So

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Alas, Amy Atwood’s mydailywine.com blog is no longer up and running. But she’s importing wine, so that’s probably a better use of her time. And at this point, ten years on, you can easily google ‘natural wine’ and a heap of articles will pop up. Or you could buy Alice’s book, Natural Wine for the People. Or subscribe to her newsletter, The Feiring Line, which I edit. Surprise!!

Originally published on July 23, 2009.

A recent post by Alice Feiring’s on her blog, In Vino Veritas, set off a small firestorm of a discussion on taste…good taste, bad taste, elitist taste, Devil Dog taste. The initial post was about Daniel Boulud’s “lowdown downtown place”, DBGB Kitchen and Bar. The bar is located on the Bowery, in the East Village, not far from the site of former punk-haven CBGB. For those not familiar with the intricacies of the New York restaurant scene or its gentrification geography, there’s a definite irony to a major multi-starred chef setting up shop on a street that was until only recently, best known for its many halfway houses.

I haven’t been to DBGB yet, but the post points out that the DBGB wine list is heavy on natural wines. Rather than lay out yet another definition of what makes a wine “natural”, I’ll just point you to another blog (mydailywine) which recently interviewed Alice. Since she is one of the leading voices discussing natural wine, her words should do just fine.

Now, back to the DBGB wine list. Lots of natural wines, which as Alice says in that post I pointed you to (go ahead, you know you want to read it now,) can be quite shocking. They don’t taste like other wines. Or to be more specific, they don’t taste like wines with big ratings from the big wine rating gurus. Which to generalize just a bit, is what many of the customers at a “lowdown downtown place” fronted by a big time fancy chef are going to expect.

Alice brought up the concept of warning labels. Since these wines can be a little, well, odd when not given a bit of context, why not put a warning label on the menu? Proceed with Caution. Or a skull and cross bones?

I had to laugh at the thought….because we tagged our first bottle with a warning label about a year ago: the Lopez de Heredia Rosado 1997 (now we’re into the 1998.) Fino sherry notes, exotic spices, very little fruit. Not so popular with someone looking for a lovely little Provincial rose. Generally, we were able to give verbal warnings, but sometimes if it was really busy, a bottle would manage to escape without getting its proper due. And often, that bottle would get returned because its new owner thought it was “off.” It wasn’t, it was just odd. So we would swap it for something else and drink it ourselves. A nice treat, but not so fiscally responsible.

The logical next step….a warning label:

The Perks

Originally published on July 16, 2009.

I spend a lot of time on this blog pulling back the magic curtain on the “dream” of owning a wine store. You may think owning a wine store is all about wine. But no – it’s really about hand trucks, electric bills, the perils of wooden wine boxes….

O.K…sometimes it is about wine. There are some very good wine perks. Like tonight, when I was the last stop on one of my sales rep’s daily road show. Being last is good – it means you get to take home the half-empty bottles. And tonight, they were some very nice half-empty bottles.

Tonight, I took home 2 different wine from Lopez de Heredia, the standard-bearing for old-school Rioja.

First up was the Cubillo Crianza 2003. It’s the first time I’ve had the Cubillo, which comes from the estate’s Cubillas vineyard, and it was quite yummy, even juicy. Now I’m never at a loss for words to decribe Lopez wines (elegant, haunting, exotic – pick your favorite semi-pretentious wine geek phrase) but “juicy” and “yummy” usually don’t spring to mind. It’s probably the combination of a very warm vintage (a.k.a. the heat wave of 2003) combined with the higher percentage of juicy, yummy Grenache in the Cubillo vineyard site. In any case, it was delicious and definitely a nice entry point to these very lovely wines.

Next up was the 2001 Bosconia Reserva from the El Bosque vineyard. I’ve had some older examples of Bosconia bottles, from the 1970’s and 1980’s and they evoke all the usual Lopez phrases (see above for elegant, haunting, exotic). But this is the first time I’ve had a chance to sit with an younger bottle and I liked it very much. Longer time spent aging in the big oak barrels, a better vintage, and a higher percentage of Tempranillo vs. Grenache all result in a wine with a darker tone (I apparently taste in colors) and firmer structure than the Cubillo. It was one of those wines I wanted to run out and buy a case in order to taste it as it evolves over many, many years. And at around $30-something on the shelf, it’s highly possible that I just might.

Ah, perks. Sometimes it’s pretty nice behind the magic curtain!

What We Drank the Other Night at Frankly Wines: Chateau Petit Roubie Picpoul de Pinet

Originally published on July 15, 2009.

July may be Sparkling Wine month, but we still reserve Saturday afternoon to open whatever strikes our fancy. And last Saturday, our fancy was struck by a the Chateau Petit Roubie Picpoul de Pinet 2007.

Picpoul has been a bit of an obsession since we brought one in about six months ago. The Chateau Petit Roubie combines what may be our three favorite factors.

The Frankly Wines Favorite Factors:

  1. High level of obscurity
  2. High level of tastiness
  3. High level of affordability

Let’s break it down.

Obscurity factor: Most wine geeks, let alone regular civilians, haven’t heard of the Picpoul grape. It’s generally only grown in the south of France, and primarily used for blending. But in this sub-region of the Langeudoc (I suppose it’s the “de Pinet” region) it stands on its own.

Tastiness factor: An ideal summer wine for those willing to stray beyond Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc. It’s crisp and refreshing, but still manages to have a bit of body to it. When we first tried it, it reminded us of a Muscadet, but from a warmer climate. Both have a serious minerality, citrus notes, and an almost salty/saline quality. Both pair perfectly with the shellfish found in their respective regions. But Muscadet, coming from the northern reaches of France, where the Loire empties into the Atlantic, is racier, leaner, more on the stoney side. Picpoul de Pinet, however, shows off its location near the sunny shores of the Mediterranean with more a tropical feel. We don’t want to suggest overripe pineapples, but rather a sense of the warmth of the region that you can feel in the wine, balanced by citrus notes, minerals, and that pleasant saltiness.

Affordability factor: $13.99. Works well for both the “Under $20” crowd and the “Under $15” crowd.

Obviously, we like it. But last Saturday, on one of the first really nice, sunny days of the summer, lots of customers decided they liked it as well.

Another 3-Pack: Method Champenoise….without the Champenoise Prices

Originally published on July 14, 2009.

Our self-declared Sparkling Month continues with another 3-Pack featuring three different sparkling wines make using the traditional method, a.k.a. Method Champenoise, a.k.a. the same way Champange is made.

Get three bottles for $55.99 – the price of 1 mid-priced bottle of Champagne:

  • Lucien Albrecht Cremant d’Alsace Blanc de Blancs NV (Alsace, France)
  • Francois Pinon Vouvray NV Brut (Vouvray, Loire, France)
  • J Vineyards Cuveé 20 NV (Russian River, California)

Read all about them on the store site.

And here, you can read all about Method Champenoise. We’re going to get a little technical, so don’t be scared.

Method Champenoise is one method by which those bubbles get into the bottle. There are other ways to make this happen, but Method Champenoise is the most time consuming and adds the most complexity to the final juice. But before getting into that, we need to understand the basics of fermentation.

In science speak: C6H12O6 → 2C2H5OH + 2CO2

In normal speak: sugar (which you find in ripe grapes) + yeast (which isn’t noted in the fancy equation) = alcohol + carbon dioxide (a gas, or if trapped, bubbles!)

Now, on to Method Champenoise, step by step:

  1. Make the base wine: In simplest terms, take ripe grapes, crush, add yeast (or use what’s already on the grape skins and floating about the winery), ferment, bottle. Just like that.
  2. Blend: Many many sparkling wines are labeled NV (Non-Vintage). This means base wines from previous years can be blended with wines from this year. This helps even out the vagaries of the vintage since many sparkling wines come from places that aren’t always so sunny. Some producers blend more than others.
  3. Bottle the base wine
  4. Add sugar and yeast (a.k.a triage) to kick off the secondary fermentation: Remember sugar + yeast = alcohol and CO2. If you trap CO2 in a bottle, you’ll get…. BUBBLES!
  5. Commence with riddling: This is the tricky part. The bubbles are trapped in the bottle, but so are the dead yeast cells. This is not gross. This is good. The wine’s contact with these dead yeast cells gives sparkling wine made in this way an extra note of biscuity, creamy goodness. But….most people don’t want to drink dead yeast cells. Riddling (remuage in fancy French) is the way to get them out of the bottle. The individual bottles are rotated, little by little, day by day, until all the dead yeast cells are clumped in the neck of the bottle. (There are machines that can do this. Not as romantic as riddling by hand, but it works.)
  6. Disgorgement and Dosage: To get that clump out, the neck of the bottle is frozen, the bottle is opened, the clump is disgorged (fancy speak for “flies out”) and the remaining wine is topped off with the dosage, a mixture of wine and sugar. The dosage differs depending on the final style desired. Some sparklers are sweetened quite a bit, some just enough so that they’re not mouth-puckeringly, painfully dry. A little bit of red wine may be added as one method of creating rosé sparkler.
  7. Insert cork: The fancy cork is inserted and the cage that keeps it in place is clamped on. Prior to that point, the bubbles have been kept in place with a plain old crown cap – the same sort of cap you would find on a lowly beer bottle. Not so sexy, but it gets the job done.

Don’t Be “That” Customer – A New Recurring Feature

Originally published on July 11, 2009.

It’s a very rare day that we complain about our customers. After all, without customers, Frankly Wines would just be a very expensive wine closet. But occasionally, a customer walks in that just rubs us the wrong way.

Now I can hear you out there, thinking “those wine snobs, making fun of poor, unsuspecting customers that come in and ask innocently silly questions. That’s why wine has such a bad rap as an elitist’s drink. That’s why I just stick to beer!”

Now I can’t speak for other stores, but at Frankly Wines, we like to talk about wine. What you may think of as a silly question, we think of as an opportunity to talk about wine. And it’s a very rare customer who can annoy us by talking about wine.

No, the rubbing the wrong way usually has very little to do with the specifics of wine retail. That Customer would likely annoy anyone working in any retail establishment, regardless of what they’re selling. That Customer would likely annoy anyone, period.

You really don’t want to be That Customer. It’s just not polite.With that background in place, the Frankly Wines blog will kick off a recurring feature about That Customer. It will do nothing to increase your wine knowledge or increase our sales. But it could help make the world a kinder, better place.

Here we go:

That Customer #1Customer #1 walks into the store. It’s a small store and there’s only one person manning (or in this case, wommaing) the shop. I greet the customer, asks if he needs any help. He doesn’t. The phone rings. It’s a customer checking on a delivery for later that afternoon. Our conversation takes less than a minute during which the word “delivery” is probably stated 10 times.

During this less-than-a-minute conversation, That Customer comes to the counter to ask a question. I try to give the universal “be right with you” sign, which he doesn’t notice. He doesn’t really seem to notice I’m on the phone. Clearly talking to another customer about a delivery. Not talking to my mother. Not talking to a friend. Not yapping away for an extended period of time, like, oh, more than 45 seconds. Not talking on a phantom blue tooth ear piece in which case I could just be crazy and not actually, clearly, obviously talking on the phone about a delivery.
Nope, he asks his question loudly. Then asks it again. Loudly. Sort of like my 5 year-old, who is, well, 5 years old. I smile, wrap up the last 5 seconds of my delivery conversation and answer his question, smiling, smiling, smiling.

Now I get it. It’s annoying if you’re in a store being ignored while the person behind the counter yaps away on the phone. But there’s perhaps a shade of difference between that situation and someone who greets you, asks if you need any help, and then has to take a 45-second phone call from another customer with a question.

Most customers notice the difference. Most customers have the patience to wait out a quick phone call. That Customer, not so much.

Please, don’t be That Customer.

The Land Where Post-it Notes Roam Free

Originally published on July 11, 2009.

I love Post-it Notes.

It’s a habit acquired in my corporate years, when I had extremely easy access to free office supplies. The supply closet was stocked with an endless array of Post-it Notes: big ones, little ones, pop-up versions, multicolored cubes, yellow ones, neon ones, pastel ones, lined or unlined. In theory, I could have used a different style of note for every mood or presentation format….but I really wasn’t that organized.

When I opened the store, I tried to replicate this Post-it Note extravaganza. But this is one of the shockers of running your own business.

Post-it Notes cost money. A LOT of money! But you need them. You really, really do.

It doesn’t work to use whatever’s just laying around. Like scotch tap and merchandising bags. For one thing, you can never find the scotch tape when you need it. And perhaps more importantly, merchandising bags are first a foremost, merchandising bags. They look like bags, and act like bags, and in a rush, you wind up bagging a bottle of wine with your phone messages, or delivery address, or daily stocking list. This may add a charming bit of authenticity to your packaging, but it’s not so funny when you have no idea where you’re supposed to deliver those two cases of wine because the address just left the store wrapped around a bottle of Pinot Gris. Hypothetically.

At Frankly Wines, we use the Post-it 4″ x 6″ Line-Ruled Ultra Colors Notes. (That’s the official name. And the size and color matter because they’re big enough and bright enough to stand out from the usual counter clutter.) They cost $10.29/3-pack at Staples. We go through one pad a week, which works out to about $200/year including New York sales tax. For POST-IT NOTES!!!

I’m considering switching to Staples Stickies 4″ x 6″ Line-Ruled Recycled Yellow Notes. At $11.99/pack, I could whittle my annual sticky-paper outlay to $135. But the notes are really more white than yellow, which means they’ll just disappear among the clutter. So they’re nearly as useless as the merchandising bag approach.

So looks like we’ll be sticking to Post-it Notes for now. But I’m certainly not above accepting donations from those who still work in places where Post-it Notes roam free. Hypothetically.

Another 3-Pack: Mediterranean Sparklers

Originally published on July 7, 2009.

Call us crazy, but we think nothing says summertime like a cold bottle of something sparkling. And since sparklers (the firecracker kind) are all the rage for Independence Day, we’re proudly declaring July Sparkling Wine Month at Frankly Wines. At the store, we’ll be doing sparkling-oriented tastings every Wednesday and Friday from 5.30pm – 7.30pm.

For those not lucky enough to be in downtown Manhattan during the summer months (the garbage smells lovely when it finally heats up) you can still get in the fun with our latest 3-Pack featuring three nicely-priced sparkling wines from two Mediterranean-minded countries – Italy and Spain. All three are crisp and refreshing, but each is distinctly different. It’s a great way to explore the diversity that bottles of bubbles can offer.

AltheaProsecco di Valdobbiadene NV (Veneto, Italy): Produced in the tank method, most Proseccos are lighter and fresher than their Champagne cousins. The Althea is no exception – it shows notes of crisp, green apples, peaches, pears and hints of citrus. It’s great on it’s own or paired with Sunday brunch. Bellini’s anyone?

Cantina Del Taburno Falanghina Spumante NV (Campanga, Italy): Like nothing you’ve ever tasted – we promise. Falanghina is a white grape indigenous to southern Italy, usually used in the production of non-bubbly wine. A sparkling version is a rare treat – so rare we didn’t know it even existed until a few weeks ago. The nose offers up apples and honey, but the palate is dry and refreshing, with the tell-tale smoky notes of a good Falanghina. Bitter lemon zest on the finish will make your mouth pucker for more. A bit more full-bodied than Prosecco, it’s great on its own, with a nice seafood dish, or with an Italian cheese plate.

Bodegas 1+1=3 Cava Brut NV (Penedes, Spain): This delicious little gem from Spain is produced in the Methode Champenoise, the same method used to make Champagne. It boasts aromas of apple, grapefruit, lemon zest, minerals, nuts and honey. Very fresh, dry and brisk, with lively citrus flavors and a Prosecco-like frothiness (and who doesn’t like a little froth). It’s a light, refreshing style that’s meant to be drunk early and often.

And of course, you can buy one at the fancy Frankly Wines web site for just $44.99, more than a 10% discount off the regular combined prices.

Random 4th of July Musings from Behind the Counter

Originally published on July 3, 2009.

Fireworks are really hard to draw. Tried to make the chalkboard all festive with a few fireworks and they turned out looking like spiders….to the point where I felt compelled to note that they’re not spiders. Otherwise I’m sure we would have had more than one person come in and ask what spiders have to do with the 4th of July.

Not a big surprise, but everyone wants something inexpensive, white or rose. Or sparkling. To go with their 4th of July sparklers, perhaps?

More of a surprise…garbage services don’t pick up the night before the 4th of July. Apparently it’s a garbage holiday. They don’t tell you this, but it’s rather obvious when you come in the next day and all your carefully broken down boxes are still sitting there on the curb, still carefully broken down and waiting to come back inside.

There are a lot of tourists in town. This is good. We like tourists because they all seem to like wine!

Sparkling Wine Month at Frankly Wines

Originally published on July 3, 2009.

It’s Sparkling Wine month at Frankly Wines! If Hallmark can whip up a holiday whenever it feels like it, so can I. But it’s much more fun to get a bottle of something than a card – especially if you’re buying it for yourself.

Back in my corporate life, I spent a lot of time watching Champagne brand managers obsess over getting people beyond thinking that bubbles were only for New Years and a few other Special Occasions such as Weddings, Birthdays, and Anniversaries. And possibly Superbowl Victories. I think the statistic was average Champagne consumption in the US was barely a 1/2 bottle of Champagne per person per year. (The number could be wrong, but it was very very low.)

That statistic was for Champagne only – it didn’t take into consideration the many other sparkling wines that don’t come specifically from the (not so little) part of France called “Champagne”. To a Champagne brand manager, the distinction mattered. As a store owner, I could care less. I just like to have bubbles on hand for people who want to celebrate Holidays, Occasions, or simply enjoy a nice glass of something that happens to sparkle.

So back to Sparkling Wine Month. It’s July – it kicks off with sparklers of the fireworks kind. So we decided to just run with that theme and feature sparklers of the liquid kind. Everything from Prosecco, to Cava, to Lambrusco to Cremant d’This, Cremant d’That, Cerdon-Bugey, Sekt, Lambrusco, Asti spumante or frizzante – and even actual Champagne.

Check out our full schedule of tastings. These are all free, stop-in-for-a-sip-or-two sort of tastings. Nothing formal or fancy – we’ll get to that later. But if you’re in the neighborhood, or looking for an excuse to get to the neighborhood, we’re happy to provide one. And we’re happy to let you stand around, sip, and gab about sparkling wine as long as you like.

And just in case you can’t kick the habit of thinking of bubbles as a gift – we’ll even stuff some tissue paper into your bag to make it look festive.