Take a Look at What We Just Got!

Our buyers have been pretty active lately. We know that people are out and about more, and with Memorial Day, Graduations and Father's Day coming up, we have plenty of reasons to add new items to our shelves.

We covered craft beer in yesterday's blog post (click here to read it), so we'll cover wine and spirits today.

The Balvenie

The Balvenie is one of our most popular single malt Scotch whisky's, and it's also a brand that offers several line extensions. The latest addition to our stores is the 12 year old Single Barrel.

First released in 2013, this Single Barrel expression from The Balvenie has been aged for 12 years in a first fill Bourbon cask of a single distillation. While each cask is subtly different, The Balvenie Malt Master hand selects only those casks characterized by sweetness and subtle vanilla oak to be bottled as The Balvenie Single Barrel. Each bottling forms a limited edition of no more than 300 hand-numbered bottles drawn from a single cask, making each bottle unique and unrepeatable.  The Balvenie Single Barrel 12 Year old is bottled at the higher strength of 47.8%.

On the nose, honey notes are overlaid with sweet fruits and subtle spices, while the taste is rich and complex with a deep vanilla oakiness. The finish is lingeringly sweet. And, befitting a superior dram like this, the availability is limited. Priced at $79.99.

Domaine de la Colombe Rosé Coteaux Varois en Provence 2013

Warmer weather always means Rosé season. This outstanding wine is Syrah 30%, Grenache 50%, Cabernet Sauvignon 20%.  The vinification of rosés is a mix of both traditional and modern techniques: stripping, pressing and cool-steeping of the grapes, followed by bleeding the must that is fermented under controlled temperatures of 18°-20°C in order to extract the maximum aroma.

The wine is a light pink with an expressive nose. The palate offers a fresh and clean fruit with a lot of finesse. Domaine de la Colombe Rosé is a great pairing for seafood, fresh fishes and grilled meat. It stand very well by itself as an aperitif. Only $9.96 in the Bottle Club®.

Taylor Fladgate 1964 Single Harvest

Taylor's holds one of the most extensive reserves of very old cask aged Port of any producer. They include a collection of rare Single Harvest Ports. These are Ports from a single year which age to full maturity in seasoned oak casks and display the year of harvest on the label.

Taylor’s has decided to make a limited release, each year, of a Single Harvest Port made 50 years previously. 

The first in the series is a 1964 Single Harvest of exceptional character.The 1964 Single Harvest release will be followed a year later by the launch of an equally rare and exceptional 1965. Further annual releases of 50 year old Single Harvest Ports will follow.

During its five decades of aging in oak casks, this wine has taken on an attractive pale mahogany color, with olive amber highlights. On the nose, the wine displays fine oaky aromas and complex spicy, nutty, cigar box notes against a warm mellow background of butterscotch and molasses. The smooth, velvety palate is lifted by a crisp acidity which gives the wine an attractive freshness in spite of its age. The finish is immensely long with rich, spicy, black pepper flavors lingering on the palate.

Our allocation was three bottles, at our Woodbridge store only. $244.99 in the Bottle Club®.

It's a difficult transition, but next up is an everyday red wine.

Portillo Malbec

Portillo Malbec 2011 is the FIRST Malbec in Argentina to achieve a Zero Carbon Footprint certification from The Carbon Trust-- a world-leading organization helping businesses, governments and the public sector to accelerate the move to a low-carbon economy through carbon reduction, energy-saving strategies and commercializing low-carbon technologies.

The grapes are hand-harvested at optimal ripeness. After destemming, the grapes are transferred to stainless steel tanks, where cold maceration takes place at a temperature of 45 -50°F. Fermentation lasts for 10 to 15 days. After fermentation, the wine is racked by gravity, with no pumping, and is aged in stainless steel tanks.

The wine is a deep ruby red. Rich with fruit, the nose is reminiscent of plums and blackberries. Fresh flavors of red currant and black cherry supported by sweet, round tannins ending in a long finish with notes of cinnamon and cloves. Only $8.99 in the Bottle Club®.

As with our craft beer deliveries, we simply can't list every wine and spirit product that we receive. Next time you're in the store, however, don't hesitate to ask one of our team members about our new items.