Busy Weekends

With so many people being so busy over the next few days, we wanted to make sure you knew about our tasting events this weekend, so you can better plan your schedule. Our stores will be open regular hours tomorrow, Good Friday, and we will be open 9am-4pm on Sunday.

Before we list the upcoming events, click here for our staff Easter wine recommendations. Some of the wines on the list will be available for sampling at our Woodbridge store. The links for the tasting menus will follow as well.

Events in Lawrenceville

Per our usual protocol, there will be no official wine tastings in Lawrenceville this weekend. If time permits, we'll have something unofficial at the Customer Service desk. Our regular wine tasting schedule will resume after Easter.

In addition to our weekend wine tastings, our Event Calendar includes a dozen other upcoming events. We just added a Cream Liqueur tasting for April 8, among other fun events. Click here for the full event calendar in Lawrenceville.

Events in Woodbridge

We will maintain our regular wine tasting schedule this weekend. The hours are Friday, 4-6pm, and 1-3pm on Saturday. Click here for the tasting menu.

Also on Saturday, we have a Captain Morgan custom labeling event, 3-5pm. We're approaching gift-giving season, so this is a great opportunity to cross a few off of your list.

For some time, we've been claiming the title of Best Events in New Jersey. With well over a dozen events on our schedule, in addition to our wine tastings, we have again proven that claim. Our newest event is a Bronx Brewery tasting on April 16. Click here for the full event calendar in Woodbridge.

Part 2, What to Drink for Easter

Let Joe Canal's help you make your Easter preparations a little less stressful (Easter is this Sunday, after all). Our wine team has offered some additional recommendations for you, so you can worry about other details instead. If you missed it, click here for our earlier suggestions.

Rack of Lamb is one popular choice for Easter dinner. Any of the following wines will pair perfectly with lamb.

Acre 21 Cabernet Sauvignon. Medium-bodied and round on the palate, with ripe currant and black cherry flavors framed with toasty oak and silky tannins. Aged for 8 months in French and American oak. This a great companion for other red meats, sharp cheeses and even dark chocolate. This smooth and fruity Cabernet Sauvignon is accessible to both the daily wine connoisseur or the occasional wine drinker. Only $9.97 in the Bottle Club®.

Infinity Cabernet Sauvignon. A favorite of Kevin Saunders, Wine Manager in Lawrenceville. His tasting notes: "Aromas of black cherry, chocolate, plum and

leather pop from the glass. Soft flavors of blueberry, espresso and black currant roll across the palate. A nice Cab with rounded tannins and sweet oak on the finish." Only $17.96 in the Bottle Club®.

Twelve Barrel Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon. Made in a fruit forward style with structure and balance, Twelve Barrel Ranch Cabernet is a crowd pleasing red wine that is perfect to pair with a host of meals from beef, to game, to grilled vegetables. Ruby red in color with an inviting bouquet of black cherry, plum and cedar box notes. Medium-bodied with a smooth palate boasting ripe dark fruits with hints of vanilla, balanced with firm tannins and a long finish. Only $9.97 in the Bottle Club®.

We understand that it's likely more of you will be enjoying ham than any other dinner

choice this Sunday. And we happen to have several recommendations that will be natural pairings with any style of ham.

Lazy Creek Pinot Noir. One of your blogger's favorites as well. "Lazy Day" Pinot Noir comes from Anderson Valley in Mendocino County where warm, sunny days and cool, foggy mornings and nights create the ideal microclimate for producing this wine. This sustainably-farmed Pinot Noir has attractive aromas of plum, raspberry, a hint of licorice and toast. Lush flavors of bright red cherry and plum, with a nice touch of spice on the finish are perfect complements to round out this medium-bodied, easy-drinking wine. $24.96 in the Bottle Club®.

District 7 Chardonnay. Each vintage, we strive to craft a Chardonnay that strikes a perfect balance between rich and refreshing. Through the judicious use of oak, we seek to complement the gorgeous tropical fruit flavors that are the hallmark of District 7. Our 2012 vintage has aromas of tropical fruit and butterscotch that lead into a lively blend of pear, pineapple and citrus flavors. It is a versatile wine, pairing particularly well with grilled seafood, roast chicken, or your favorite salad. Kevin Saunders adds, "I love this wine and its beautiful aromas of mango, melon and pineapple. These transfer to the palate, along with pear, citrus and hints of butterscotch." Only $10.96 in the Bottle Club®.

Our store team members will be happy to help you find these wines, the ones we recommended in that earlier post, or anything else you'd like.

What To Drink For Easter

Is it just us, or does it feel like Easter is a little early this year? If you're not watching the calendar, Easter is March 27, a mere 11 days away. And anytime there's a traditional family dinner, we're happy to offer some wine recommendations that will make the meal even more enjoyable. Our staff has weighed in with a number of suggestions.

Please note that our Easter Sunday store hours will be 9am-4pm.

Twelve Barrel Ranch Pinot Noir. We've always thought that a well-made Pinot Noir was hard to beat as a holiday wine. It pairs beautifully with so many different dishes, and helps bring together the different flavors that are found on a holiday table.

This California Pinot is fresh and fruity, with a warming bouquet of red berries, cherry cola, cloves and dark chocolate. The medium-bodied palate is smooth and balanced with fine acidity and soft tannins. Pinot Noir often appeals to both red and white wine drinkers, which makes it the perfect suggestion for special occasions. Only $9.97 in the Bottle Club®.

Twelve Barrel Ranch Chardonnay. We understand that some people will only drink white wine. We offer that option, as you know. Chardonnay is the best selling white varietal, and it's a choice that pairs perfectly with any ham or pork dish you might serve.

This bright Chardonnay displays aromas of buttercups, pineapple with touches of brown sugar scents. On the palate flavors are clean and balanced, with elegant notes of pear, Meyer lemon, citrus, and just a hint of honey. Also only $9.97 in the Bottle Club®.

You can serve this delicious and balanced pair of wines for under $20!

Dolciando. Maybe a little something different is on your agenda for this year. One of the wine industry podcasts that we listen to always talks about how Americans talk dry, but

drink sweet. Dolciando is a sweeter style, lightly sparkling red wine that is loved by many. This easy drinking wine is lower in alcohol with soft bubbles and pleasing flavors of sweet-dried fruit with a faint prickle on the tongue. Enjoy chilled on it's own, or pair with spicy foods or desserts.

Perfect for any newer wine drinker, it is sweet without being cloying. Only $7.97 in the Bottle Club®.

Moonbeam Sweet Riesling. This wine shows that Columbia Valley in Washington can produce amazing Rieslings. It's refreshingly sweet, with stone fruit aromas and layers of honeyed peach, ripe tangerine and hints of jasmine. The wine's natural acidity adds balance and structure with a

refreshing finish. Best of all for this discussion: it's a versatile food wine.

The wines natural acidity and stelvin enclosure help to keep the wine fresh. Only $9.97 in the Bottle Club®.

This is a nice start to our Easter recommendations. We'll have additional staff suggestions in the coming days.

Beer Recommendations for Easter

We know there are many of you who prefer craft beer over wine most days, and Easter is certainly no exception. We've discussed among ourselves, and we can recommend these craft brews as perfect pairings for your Easter ham, turkey or lamb.

Weyerbacher Verboten

Weyerbacher Verboten would pair perfectly with roast turkey, especially one that has a lot of herb seasonings on it!  The herbal character from the selection of hops and Belgian yeast-derived esters in Verboten complements the natural flavors of Turkey. The caramel malts sync up with the crispy skin and the brisk carbonation zips away the fattiness of the dark meat.

Verboten, at 5.9% ABV, is a Belgian-style Pale Ale with an American twist. It’s brewed with Pale, Carahell and Wheat malts, and generously hopped with Cascade to give it a distinctly American character. This medium bodied beer has a crisp palate and moderate bitterness coupled with the fruity esters from Weyerbacher's Abbey yeast strain. Verboten is bottle and keg conditioned, so expect a tall fluffy head and a small amount of yeast.

Originally released as “Alpha”, Verboten was the first Brewers’ Select beer. It was later seasonally released as the word for “fools” in Dutch. THAT name was “forbidden”, so they elected to go with Verboten (German for forbidden)!

Carton Brunch. Dinner. Grub.

Assuming a sugared ham, look for steam beers. The sugar and salt will pull fruit from the common yeast quite nicely.

Matching the right beer to the right food is a wonderful assignment. The contemplation of point and counter-point can often be as much fun as the reward of good pairing. Sadly, in a life well lived there is not always time to contemplate what dinner will be, let alone what beverage will play best with it. Here Carton has selected malts to evoke the crusty breads that sit well next to every meal and seasoned it with the lemony, tarragon/thyme notes of Aramis hops. A go-to, food friendly ale for the table. Drink B.D.G because you are what you eat... and drink.

B.D.G. is a Country Ale that comes in at 6% ABV.

River Horse Lager

River Horse Unfiltered American Lager is a crisp, refreshing Lager. Bready notes and a subtle maltiness are balanced with just enough hops. It comes in at 5% ABV, and is brewed with Chinook, Hallertau and Saaz hops, plus Pilsen, Munich and Carapils malt.

Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale

What if dinner is a glazed ham, with all the brown-sugar sweetness? Look for something that will play well with the sweetness and also interact with the salt.

Old Brown Dog has been cited as a classic example of the “American Brown Ale” style of beer. Compared to a typical English Brown Ale, Old Brown Dog is fuller-bodied and more strongly hopped.

Rogue Dead Guy Ale

Made in the style of a German Maibock, brewed using Rogue's proprietary Pacman yeast, Dead Guy Ale is deep honey in color with a malty aroma, rich hearty flavor and a well balanced finish. Will pair with spicy food, as well as anything pork.

"Deep reddish amber hue. Generous toasty malt aromas and earthy hops follow through on a moderately full-bodied palate with fruity accents and a long spicy hop finish. A delicious hybrid style with bock-like maltiness but ale-like hopping." –World Beer Championship Judges

If you're inclined toward lamb for Easter, we have suggestions for you as well. Not really craft beers, but niche producers.

Trappist ales or Abbey ales work well with the more delicate and lean flavor of lamb (Abbey-style means the ale was not brewed by an authorized monastery.) Try your lamb with an Orval Trappist Ale.

The gustative sensations will gain in nuance depending on the age of the beer. Young beer is characterized by a bouquet of fresh hops, with a fruity note and pronounced bitterness, light on the palate and a less firm collar than a beer of six months. The latter will feature a bouquet consisting of a blend of fragrances of yeast and old-fashioned hop. The bitterness is more diffuse and the taste has moved to a slight touch of acidity accompanying yeast and caramel flavors. Served without its sediments, a beer of six months or more, has a particularly bright appearance. It will be less so, if it is served at a temperature below 44° - 45°F.

The brewery indicates the bottling and best-by dates directly on the label. Every consumer can thus easily know the age of an Orval beer, and whether it should be consumed rapidly or less so, depending on whether one likes this beer young, or after a few months or years in the cellar.

Orval is one of only 10 Trappist breweries in the world, and Orval brews within the monastery walls.  At this writing, Orval is only in stock in Woodbridge, but we can transfer some to Lawrenceville upon request.

Chimay Red Cap is another Trappist ale worth inviting to your easter dinner. The Red Cap, or "Première", is the oldest of the Chimays. This Trappist beer possesses a beautiful coppery color that makes it particularly attractive. Topped with a creamy head, it gives off a slight fruity apricot smell from the fermentation. The aroma felt in the mouth is a balance confirming the fruit nuances revealed to the sense of smell.

Easter Wine, Part 2

Earlier this week, we started our What to Drink for Easter recommendations with a Pinot post. If you're looking for a red wine to go with ham or turkey, you just can't beat a Pinot Noir. Click here to read those recommendations. Today, we'll consider some white wine pairings for Easter.

At Joe Canal's, we believe in the concept of "drink what you like." If you prefer a Chardonnay or anything else to what we're recommending today, our wine team in the stores will be happy to help. These suggestions are based on our experience with pairings, as well as our own palates.

We have found that a lightly sweet Riesling or a spicy-sweet Gewurztraminer to be the optimal white wines for pairing with a ham or turkey. They are not too light in body, so they hold up against the nuanced flavors of an Easter dinner, with the sweetness and spiciness playing nicely opposite the various traditional dishes.

Gewurztraminer might be tricky to pronounce, but its complex character is why it's a great pairing at Easter. We suggest the Trimbach Gewurztraminer, from the Alsace region of France.

Gewurztraminer is at once the fruitiest and the spiciest of the white varietals; it's a unique wine. It reaches the height of perfection at Trimbach in Alsace.

Trimbach's dry personality makes it ideal as an aperitif and it pairs extremely well with specialty cuisine with pronounced flavors like you find on a holiday table. It's also a fine accompaniment for fish or seasoned meats, spicy and exotic dishes, soft cheeses (think Munster), and an assortment of desserts.

Available for only $16.99 in the Bottle Club®.

When it comes to Rieslings, we're very partial to wines produced by Josef Leitz. Generally, their vineyards face 100% south. The steeply sloped vineyards have very good drainage and are perfectly adapted for complexly structured, mineral driven wines. The more vigorous vineyards are those with high loess and loam. These vineyards bring forth the juicy, fruit backed Riesling. You'll find these to be nicely balanced wines that have a light, fruit-driven sweetness.

One great choice is the Leitz Dragonstone. Dragonstone is translated from "Dracheinstein". The name goes back to the rock with this mythological name and also possibly to the form of a dragon. The soil consists of loess-loam sand stone and quartzite and in some parts also of chalk. The wines are amazingly elegant with a delicately spicy note.

The usual kirsch and lime flavors are now in the finest conceivable form: barely perceptibly sweet. Pointed yet creamy, salty and minty; animated and seductive. Only $14.99 in the Bottle Club®.

You also can't go wrong with the Leitz Rudesheimer Riesling Kabinett. It has a ripe aroma leads into flavors of apple and ripe citrus, with notes of guava and sage honey. The well-spiced finish is long. And it's only $13.96 in the Bottle Club®.

Our next set of recommendations will probably be posted on Monday, and we'll discuss craft beer selections.

Easter Pinot

For those who celebrate Easter with a family dinner of ham, we have a few suggestions for your table. In addition, any of these wines will also go well with Turkey. We do coordinate with our store team to get the best recommendations for you. These are a great place to start. Additional recommendations will be posted later this week.

An Oregon Pinot Noir is one nice choice. Something a bit spicy and berry-rich to play against the saltiness/sweetness of, say, a glazed ham. We recommend the A To Z Wineworks Pinot Noir.

The A to Z Pinot Noir invites with vibrant aromas of juicy berries, cherries, lavender and violets, evolving to clove, game, smoke and cherry tobacco. A succulent, focused attack has flavors of blue and red fruits, flowers and earth, then deepens with hints of mocha, gingerbread, green tea and cacao. A very tannic structure is balanced by perfect acidity, giving shape and elegance to the concentration of lush fruit. A beautiful, complex, forward wine results, walking a tightrope between richness and elegance. Built for midterm aging, the captivating A to Z Pinot Noir once again sets the standard for  Pinot Noir in Oregon. $15.99 in the Bottle Club®.

Belle Glos Meiomi Pinot Noir. Meiomi comes from the Wagner Family of Wine, the producers of Caymus. It's classified as a California Pinot Noir, as the grapes used in Meiomi come from Santa Barbara, Sonoma and Monterey counties.

Meiomi is a high style Pinot Noir that is shaped, more than anything else, by the fruit sources that lay the foundation of the blend.  A purebred enjoyment wine, built to accommodate any pairing from food to friends.  Unifying California’s most noteworthy coastal areas opens the door for a dynamic and opulent wine that is ready to enjoy whenever you are.

From the winery: "From our first Pinot Noir vintage in 2002, we set out with a single goal for Meiomi:  To craft a vibrant, food-friendly wine that is approachable and ready to drink upon release.  Being grown and produced with all the bells and whistles available, Meiomi is known for its quality and consistency at a reasonable price.  By blending top-notch parcels of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from three great areas, Meiomi has become known as an approachable wine for any occasion – and at an affordable price it offers up the luxury of reliability year in and year out."

Meiomi Pinot Noir is available for only $19.99 in the Bottle Club®.

Here's another outstanding choice from the Wagner Family of Wines. They have already brought us Caymus, Conundrum and Meiomi, so we don't need to add anything to their well-deserved reputation for quality. Elouan Pinot Noir is their newest wine, as they grow from California into Oregon.

Elouan Pinot Noir emulates the successful sourcing philosophy introduced with Meiomi: blending the top Pinot Noir regions together for a richer, more complex style than what you could achieve by sourcing from one small area. In this instance, the grapes are grown in the great Oregon Valleys of Willamette, Umpqua and Rogue. The diversity of these cool climate areas elongates the growing season, developing intense structure, while maintaining a vibrant acidity to differentiate it from any California Pinot Noir.

Only $22.99 in the Bottle Club®.

If you prefer something of a rock & roll Easter, try the Dreaming Tree Pinot Noir. This is the newest wine from the partnership between Steve Reeder and Dave Matthews.

When Steve Reeder and Dave Matthews first met, they realized they had a few things in common, like a passion for making wine at least as strong as their passion for drinking it.

They set out into wine country, looking for a way to make quality wines accessible to everyone. Along the way, they found inspiration in the down-to-earth characters and unforgettable flavors that give the region its rare kind of charm.

"We think this wine hits all the right notes. No matter what your journey may be, this is the perfect wine to share along the way." - Sean McKenzie, Winemaker.

$13.99 in the Bottle Club®.

Mohua Pinot Noir. As we've been seeing, New Zealand winemakers made Sauvignon Blanc their own, and then started putting their unique approach to Pinot Noir, again, to great acclaim.

Capturing the essence and excitement of Central Otago in every glass, the hand-picked fruit of this dramatic Pinot Noir embody the character and purity of a major new wine region.

Mohua offers a floral scented, rich and juicy Pinot Noir. Layered with fine tannins, raspberry and blackcurrant, wild strawberry and spice flavors.

Only $13.99 in the Bottle Club®.