Early November Grab Bag

We're going to be handling many different topics during this holiday season, which means the blog topic schedule will vary. We've always considered it required reading, so check in with us every weekday for important news and updated.

Events in Lawrenceville

It's a big weekend of events in our Lawrenceville store. It kicks off at 4pm today, with a special tasting of Laird's Applejack. Your blogger like to cook on occasion, and there are both cocktail and food recipes on the Laird's website. We recently made a Chutney Chicken, using Laird's Applejack, that could not have been easier, or more delicious.

Tonight is also Canvas Paint Night in Lawrenceville, where you can release your inner artist. We teamed up with Paint a Treasure to offer you a relaxing fun night out with friends and family! Come join us as we take you step by step through our Glass of Red Wine painting! No Experience Necessary! And you'll LOVE the painting you take home! Click here for details.

On Saturday, we'll have our regular wine tasting, from 2-4pm. Click here for the tasting menu. If you want to sample wines that might work their way onto your Thanksgiving table, you should definitely stop in.

The hectic weekend of events wraps up Saturday night with our Weyerbacher Small Plates Dinner. Five courses are expertly paired with different Weyerbacher beers. Click here for more information. Only a few places remain.

Events in Woodbridge

If you haven't been paying close attention, we have been ramping up the quality of wines that we offer in our weekly tastings. This week, we include the 95-point 2012 O'Shaughnessy Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon. Click here for the full tasting menu.

New Products

Dom Perignon Brut, Vintage 2006, Bjork & Cunningham Limited Edition. The Icelandic singer, Bjork, created the limited edition bottle and coffret with her longtime collaborator, the video artist Chris Cunningham.

Bjork and Cunningham have named their Dom Pérignon creation ‘From Earth to Heart’, have worked together on several projects over the years, most famously the video for Bjork’s All Is Full of Love single. Their design on the ‘From Earth to Heart’ limited edition 2006 Blanc coffret shows a laser-like ray of green light that appears to shine down on the bottle and pierce the glass. The shield on the bottle then reflects this light as it infuses into the wine.

Very limited availability. $174.99 in the Bottle Club®.

Ridgemount 1792 Bourbon, Port Finish. The marriage of expertly crafted Bourbon and port wine barrels join together to create this distinct whiskey. This Bourbon was aged for many eyars in new white oak barrels before spending another two years extracting the subtle, yet sweet flavors from port wine barrels.

Tasting Notes: A rich aroma of apple and fruit mingling with noticeable vanilla. The taste is soft, yet balanced. Filled with toasted caramel, jam-like fruit, and a touch of licorice. A clean, somewhat lingering finish completes the taste.

We're scheduled to receive a total of six bottles of this amazing whiskey, priced at $39.99. Please inquire at Customer Service.

Dogfish Head Pennsylvania Tuxedo. A spruce-infused pale ale, Pennsylvania Tuxedo pays homage to the flannel-suited hunters and gatherers who dwell deep in the backcountry of north-central PA.

Brewed in collaboration with family-run outdoor clothing company Woolrich, Pennsylvania Tuxedo is a sessionable concoction with a grassy citrus kick complemented by the resinous conifer notes of fresh green spruce tips. We went into the forests of north-central Pennsylvania and Georgetown, Del., to pick these fresh tips ourselves.

A dry yet doughy malt backbone lets the hops and spruce shine while still balancing out the bitterness, making this one an easy sipper. 8.5% ABV, 50 IBU's.

Domaine de la Pirolette Saint-Amour. A lovely ruby robe with flashes of cherry, very luminous and brilliant, with nice legs. The nose is crisp and delicious with red fruits (Gariguette strawberries, raspberries, cherries) followed by hints of black fruits (blueberries) with licorice and violets. Once opened, hints of white pepper appear.

The attack is luxuriously round and fragrant, reveling in the sinfully juicy taste of fresh fruit. The feel is harmonious and supple, well-balanced between richness and freshness, ending gracefully over a long finish. The ensemble is convincing, smooth and almost sensual with perfectly integrated, velvety
tannins.

Look for gamay Noir this in our Burgundy section, priced at only $14.96 in the Bottle Club®.

Ripped from the Headlines

In France, four tons of Comte cheese were stolen. And if you come in to buy 5000 cases of wine, we might have to alert the French authorities. Click here for the story.

Survey Says

In yesterday's blog post, we featured some comments, with our responses, from our recent customer survey. Here's a bit more:

Q. I specifically look for specialty and hard to find beers. Joe Canal's is one of my first destinations but sometimes I have to go to multiple places to find what I want.
A. As we illustrated above, we get extremely limited amounts of certain products. Often, like with the Pappy van Winkle bourbon family, there is significantly more demand than supply.

Q. I like that I can order and pay for my wine, beer or spirits online and it pick up in the store.
A. This great new service is currently available exclusively in our Woodbridge store. Click here to see how it works.

Have a great weekend!

Survey Says...

We recently surveyed our Bottle Club® members (that probably includes you), and there were many comments that we would like to address here in a Q and A format. The full range of comments are all reviewed by management, so know that you are heard.

Q. I would like to see a better selection of boxed items for sale at the Christmas Holiday season.
A. We can only bring in what our suppliers have available to us. The gift sets will begin to arrive in quantity next week.

Q. Do not move stuff around all the time. This wastes my time having to look for stuff.
A. We know that those kinds of changes can be upsetting. However, when we change the store layout, it's typically done to account for new and interesting products, as well as to keep the store looking fresh and clean.

Q. Wish you were located in Pennsylvania!!
A. We appreciate the fact that so many people travel a distance over crowded roads and bridges to shop in our stores. The law in Pennsylvania, unfortunately, does not allow for us to have a store there.

Q. I appreciate that you post weekly coupons on your website. It draws my attention to different craft beers or wines that I normally wouldn't seek out.
A. We hope that every shopper is aware of the coupon page on our website. You don't need to print them; you get the discount as long as we can read the coupon code on your mobile device. We also do a Twitter-exclusive coupon every Thursday, so follow us on Twitter for even more savings!

Q. Would appreciate your sale items be grouped together for convenience, don't always have the time to walk the store (even though I enjoy doing it)!
A. Because we have so many items on sale at any given time, that would simply be impossible. Sale items are easily identified by orange tags, like this:

Q. Would be helpful if you published more Wine Spectator ratings in your e-mail notices.

A. We also had similar comments about ratings being posted in the stores. Part one: the wines (or other products) don't always have ratings from a respected source (Wine Spectator, Wine Advocate, etc.). And with the thousands of products that we carry, our staff simply can't taste everything. On occasion, our shelf talkers will be posted for a vintage that's different than what's on sale. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes, as we strive for complete accuracy. Please point this out to a manager, and we will take corrective action.

We also received a number of comments regarding specific products. If you are looking for a certain item that is not on the shelf, please stop at Customer Service to to see if that is available to us. Not every product on the market is available in New Jersey (we're looking at you, Fat Tire), but we're happy to place a special order for you.

Finally, we also noted a few comments about our ID policy. Our policy is clearly posted at the entrance to our stores, as well as at the cash registers, to eliminate any confusion. We encourage everyone to become familiar with our policy, which conforms to the laws of the State of New Jersey.

We thank everyone who participated in this survey. We believe that the answers you provide will help us improve our service. As always, please let us know how we might better serve you in the future.