Come & Get It!

As the wintery weather makes getting around New Jersey even more challenging than usual, we thought we'd give you a good reason to venture out to Joe Canal's by offering some great new wines.

First up is the 2009 Mauro Molino Barolo Gallinotto. We've carried Mauro Molino wines for some time, so this label should be somewhat familiar:

The 2009 vintage received 91 points from Robert Parker/Wine Advocate. From their review: "The 2009 Barolo Gallinotto shows a...personality that is rare to find in this warmer vintage. Underbrush, bramble, wild berry, mint, licorice and wet tobacco play supporting roles. The wine does an excellent job of showing the more delicate and nuanced side of Nebbiolo with a compact, streamlined feel in the mouth. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2022." Regularly priced at $41.99, it's on sale at $36.99 in the Bottle Club®.

Another acclaimed international wine is the Glenelly Grand Vin de Glenelly. This is a South African version of a Bordeaux blend, featuring Shiraz, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. And it also received 91 points from Robert Parker/Wine Advocate.

The wine has a deep, dark and rich color. The wine offers an elegant complex bouquet developing aromas of cassis and spicy plums with notes of toast in the background. The palate has a great intensity and concentration with fantastic freshness and fine elegant, but well structured tannins. This carries a regular price of $21.99, but it's only $18.99 in the Bottle Club®.

Of course, gift sets are always popular at this time of year. Our newest wine gift set is from Frescobaldi and it includes one bottle each of Remole, Castiglioni Chianit DOCG, and Nippozzano Riserva Chianti DOCG, Separately, these wines would cost about $50.00. The gift set is in the Bottle Club® for only $40.00.

Wines from Australia can show a depth and range that compare favorably to what's being produced anywhere. Wynns "Black Label" Cabernet Sauvignon proves that. The 2010 vintage ranked as #85 in the 2013 Wine Spectator Top 100, with 91 points, and also earned 90 points from Wine Advocate. 

First produced in 1954, and widely known as ‘Black Label’, Wynns Coonawarra Estate Cabernet Sauvignon has established a reputation for displaying excellent varietal and regional characteristics. A wine of style and stature, and a perennial favorite in auction circles, the ‘Black Label’ is one of Australia’s most collectable wines and Australia’s benchmark Cabernet Sauvignon. This is regularly priced at $38.99, but it's $32.99 in the Bottle Club®.  

There's another familiar label returning to our shelves. Buoncristiani's OPC Napa 2009 received 91 points from Wine Advocate, and we have a very limited quantity available.

Cheese, breads, olives, olive oil, glasses, sunshine and scenery not included with your purchase

"Old Pa's Cuvee" includes Napa Cabernet Sauvignon with Syrah, while also folding in further complexity of texture and flavor with Napa Malbec and Merlot blenders. Lush aromas of black cherry, chocolate, and blueberry lead to a fleshy mid palate of juicy blackberry and exotic spices with a velvety smooth finish. You can find it on their web site for $50, but we have it on sale in the Bottle Club® for only $41.99. 

Some of the staff at Joe Canal's prefer Rhone wines to any other region. In terms of high quality wines, there are some great values in Cotes-du-Rhone Villages, such as the Pierre Henri-Morel Signargues. The 2011 vintage received 91 points from Wine Spectator, and was rated as a Top 100 Best Value wine. This is a classic Grenache, Syrah, Mouvedre blend, offering ripe red cherries, blueberries and cranberries mixing with hints of garrigue flavors. The fresh fruit flavors continue in the mouth with fine tannins and very enjoyable structure making the wine a true pleasure to drink. We said it's a value: only $13.96 in the Bottle Club®. 

The winemaker is a protégé of the renowned Michel Chapoutier.  

One more? Ok, how about the 2009 Chateau de France Passac Leognan? Called the Vintage of a Lifetime, the 2009 Bordeaux wines sell quickly and score well; this one received 93 points from Wine Spectator!

There's a very deep garnet red color; delicate nose of light wood, toasted bread and berry jam ; on the palate, the aromas are reproduced with a perfect balance and freshness. Lovely long finish. The classic style of this elegant wine make it the perfect accompaniment of rich meats: red meats, lamb and roasted game meat. This will greatly enhance any holiday meal, priced at only $27.99 in the Bottle Club®.

So we had a very red wine day today. And while your mileage may vary, Red does out-sell White overall. We also post holiday specials on our Facebook pages and Twitter feeds, so please Friend us on FB and Follow us on Twitter. And if you have any questions or need assistance, any one of our friendly team members will be happy to help. 

 

The Wine Spectator Top 10: #1 Is In Stock (For Now)

Wine Spectator magazine has been rolling out their Top 10 wines throughout this past week, with the announcement of their #1 wine earlier today. This Top 10 is part of the hype for their Top 100 list, which they've been announcing annually since 1988. Wine Spectator selects their Top 100 from the wines that they review throughout the year. Their top wines could have been reviewed 10 or 11 months ago, and that presents a challenge for you, in finding the wine, and it's also a challenge to us, as we don't have any advance notice, so we don't necessarily have any stock on hand.

The #1 wine for 2013, according to Wine Spectator, is the CVNE Rioja Imperial Gran Reserva 2004.

It scored 95 points from WS, and got a 92+ from WA. We have limited amounts of this wine in stock in Lawrenceville and Woodbridge, and our supplies will not last long.

The write-up from Wine Spectator: "Firm and a bit austere, this red shows depth and drive, with chewy tannins supporting plum, tobacco, licorice and mineral flavors. The structure is solid but the wine remains fresh. Maturing now, this has a long life ahead. Drink now through 2024." Here are the notes from the distributor: "85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano, 5% Mazeuelo - all a selection of the best grapes from vineyards surrounding the village of Villalba, in the heart of the ‘Rioja Alta’ zone, grown on iron-rich clay and limestone soils.  Extended aging takes place in French and American oak casks, followed by further aging in bottle."

Last year's #1 wine was the 2008 vintage of Shafer Relentless. We sold out of that wine months before the list came out. Not that we received all that much of it in the first place. The same thing happened with this year's Top 10. We sold out of #9, Lewis Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, in October, #5, the Kongsgaard 2010 Napa Chardonnay, in June, and #2, the Chateau Canon-La Gaffeliere 2010, in September. And we never carried #10, #6, #4 or #3, although we do have an earlier vintage of Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve Pinot Noir, that third-place wine.

The good news is that we still have two more of this year's Wine Spectator Top 10 in stock. Wine #8 is the Chateau de Beaucastel 2010 Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It scored 96 points from WS, as well as 95 points from WA.

Here is the write-up from Wine Spectator: "Dark, dense and very closed now, this has a tremendous core of crushed plum, linzer torte and blackberry confiture waiting in reserve. Ample singed cedar and mesquite, warm paving stone and black tea notes lurk in the background and glide through the finish. Features serious grip, but wonderful integration. Should cruise in the cellar."

And, for balance, here's the write-up from Wine Advocate: "This is a gorgeous wine, a classic blend of 30% Grenache, 30% Mourvedre, 10% Syrah, 10% Counoise and the balance the other permitted varietals in the appellation. Deep purple, with loads of bouquet garni, beef blood, blackberry, kirsch, smoke and truffle, this wine is full-bodied, rich and showing even better than it did last year. I still think it needs 3-5 years of cellaring, and it should last for 25-30 years, as most of the top vintages of Beaucastel do."

We have limited quantities of the Chateau de Beaucastel 2010 Chateauneuf-du-Pape in stock in Lawrenceville and Woodbridge, for the Bottle Club® price of $88.99.

Wine #7 is the Domaine du Pegau  Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee Reservee 2010. 97 points from WS, and 96-98+ from WA.

The Wine Spectator notes: "Intense, with the tarry, bittersweet cocoa-fueled grip of the vintage running through a well-endowed core of crushed plum, blackberry paste and braised fig. The muscular finish picks up notes of brick dust, pepper, warm chestnut leaf and smoldering charcoal. A throwback profile, with a hyperripe core of fruit—and it works. Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and others. Best from 2015 through 2035."

Wine Spectator ratings remain a benchmark for evaluating wines. With 3 of this year's Top 10 still available, serious and casual wine people alike should hurry in for the very limited supplies. 

The Three Biggest Health Myths in Wine

This article by Jennifer Fielder from Wine Spectator, originally posted here, debunks three of the most prevalent wine myths.

Of all the health-related questions that end up in the Wine Spectator electronic mailbag, some get asked with a you-can-set-your-watch-by-it type of regularity. We've answered them before, and we'll answer them again, but I thought I'd address these topics here with the help of Dr. Andrew Waterhouse, professor of enology at the University of California at Davis, to weigh in on the three most enduring topics.

Health Myth No. 1: Wine contains a lot of sugar

It's easy to see where this theory may have started. Grapes have sugar. Wine is made from grapes. Therefore, all wine has sugar? Not so. "If a wine is considered dry, the amount of sugar consumed is quite small," said Waterhouse. The fermentation process for dry wines eliminates almost all the sugar and converts it to alcohol.

Let's go to the data: The USDA Nutrition Database lists the amount of sugar in a 5-ounce serving of red table wine at just 0.91 grams. Not to pick on orange juice, but an average 8-ounce serving of the stuff contains 20.9 grams of sugar, so 5 ounces of orange juice contains nearly 14 times as much sugar as the same amount of dry red wine.

However, if you're a diabetic looking to understand how alcohol affects your blood sugar levels, that's an entirely different question complicated by the rest of your diet, activity levels and insulin therapy. Even medical practitioners have divided outlooks here: Waterhouse pointed out that in the United States, the convention has been to discourage diabetic patients from drinking, but not so in the United Kingdom. (Recent research suggests that moderate alcohol consumption, which can temporarily lower blood sugar levels, is associated with a lower risk of developing diabetes.) If you're concerned about how wine affects your blood sugar levels, you should talk to your doctor to find the best approach for you.

Health Myth No. 2: Sulfites in wine cause headaches

Headaches caused by wine consumption are a real problem for some folks. Sulfites—which can occur naturally in wine and are also often added as a preservative to wine and foods such as dried fruits—incorrectly often bear the brunt of the blame. "There is no medical evidence that sulfites cause headaches," said Waterhouse.

Only a very small percentage of the population has a true allergic reaction to sulfites, and that allergic reaction ranges from rashes to breathing problems—not headaches. Wine-triggered headache research has identified many possible culprits other than sulfites, including histamines, daily stress, any number of compounds in wine or the alcohol itself.

But as Waterhouse noted, "Everyone is very ready to draw conclusions [about sulfites and headaches] from their own experience." For the true believers in a link between the two, he concedes no study has been done to address this query. Don't hold your breath, he said: "As far as we know yet, no one has died yet from 'sulfite headaches,' so the NIH [National Institutes of Health] is not rushing to study this."

Health Myth No. 3: We know what component of wine promotes health

Studies on the correlation between the consumption of wine (or a substance in wine) and disease X or disease Y seem to come out every other week  (See this round-up for examples.) As such, we get many questions that ask, "Which wine is the healthiest for my particular condition?"

But Waterhouse said, "These studies can't prove that a particular substance in a wine is the causal factor." The reason is that "the best data is epidemiological data"—from studying large populations of individuals over time and determining patterns of disease. You can imagine the number of variables involved with this type of study: how much a person exercises, what they eat, what else they drink, and how all those factors interact. So pinpointing whether health benefits are due to alcoholic beverages in general or wine in particular, much less a particular substance in wine, is a challenge.

So it's something of a moot point to try to determine what type of wine is "healthier" because it's rich in substance A or B. The amount of any compound in an individual wine can vary not only by grape or region, but by growing-season conditions, viticultural techniques or winemaking practices. And different compounds could have different benefits.

One relationship that the data shows? "Most experts are willing to say that non-drinking is a risk factor for dying from cardiovascular disease," Waterhouse said. "The effect is quite substantial. … If you look at 10,000 people, a mix of [moderate] drinkers and non-drinkers, half as many people will die in the drinking group. That is really clear."

Wine Spectator's Top 100

Every year since 1988, Wine Spectator has compiled a list of the most exciting wines they’ve reviewed over the past 12 months. These 100 wines reflect significant trends, recognize outstanding producers and spotlight successful regions and vintages around the world.

Many of the wines on the list are not available for a number of regions: The wine had a limited release or the vintage sold out long ago, or sell out soon after the list is released. We do have some of the wines on the list still available for purchase, and below is a little about 3 of them.

#23: Bodegas Resalte de Pinafiel
Founded by businessman Juan Tapias in 2000, Resalte de Penafiel has quickly earned an outstanding reputation. Located in the heart of Ribiera, the winery sources Tempranillo grapes from 200 acres of vineyards, some owned and others leased. Its unusual to see a seven-year-old Crianza released on the market, but the grapes come from selected parcels and the wine delivers great quality for the price.

#36: Terrabianca Toscana Campaccio
The flagship wine of Roberto Guldener's Terrabianca, Campaccio combines 70% Sangiovese and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. The Cabernet hails from Terrabianca's never Il Tesoro estate in Maremma, while the Sangiovese comes from the home estate, near Siena. Campaccio is aged 12 months in oak and then another year in bottle before being released.

#43: Gruet Blanc de Noirs Mew Mexico NV
Truth or Consequences, N.M., is an unlikely place to make sparkling wine, but this blanc de noirs proves the Gruet family knew what they were doing when the planted their vineyards 4,300 feet above sea level. Among the highest in the country, they benefit from sunny days and chilly evenings. A blend of 75% Pinot Noir with the rest Chardonnay, the wine is aged a minimum of two years.