Joe Canal's Presents CIROC Peach!

CIROC Ultra-Premium celebrates the uncommon on every level; from the uniqueness of its grape composition, to the innovative cold fermentation and maceration techniques, CIROC has subtle aromatics and a smooth, naturally refined taste.

The name CIROC comes from the combination of two French words: Cime, meaning peak or summit-top and Roche, meaning rock. Its name references the high-altitude vineyards where the Mauzac Blanc grapes are grown, and the stony village walls of the famous medieval Cordes-sur-Ciel, which look onto the vineyards.

CIROC Ultra-Premium Vodka releases the true flavors of every cocktail. The complexity of the distilled grapes draws out and complements the flavors of whatever CIROC is mixed with. Add to that the distinctly clean finish of CÎROC and absence of alcohol burn, and you have the most celebrated vodka cocktail experience.

Joe Canal's is excited to announce the arrival of CIROC PEACH! Announced in early September by P. Diddy on Twitter, CIROC Peach is the fourth flavor in the CIROC lineup.

CIROC Peach will be priced at $29.99 in our BottleClub!

Fork and Gobble It: Wineberserkers Part 1 “The Pre-Fest”

A few years ago, the common passion for good wine and good food led a spirited but very unorthodox group of people to come together. They, like many others who shared the same interests, posted their experiences on the internet on bulletin boards created for this subject. This group however turned out to be a little too free spirited, and maybe just a little too crazy for the rest of the internet wine community. They needed to find a place where they could be themselves as lovers and enthusiasts of good wine, good food, and like minded company. Out of this need Wineberserkers.com was born. Now nearly three years later we continue to post, blog, and gather. Each year for the last three years we have held Berserkerfest NYC with a weekend dinner at Manhattan's Peking Duck House. It is an event of sufficient draw to pull attendees in from all over the country. Texas, California, Washington, Massachusetts, and any other state you can think of; we come forth to party. Of course when folks travel this far it can't just be for a weekend. So the festivities begin mid-week with small gatherings at local restaurants or homes of friends and revelers. I am one such reveler and host. So this past Wednesday ten crazies gathered at my home for a night of eating and drinking to warm up our consumption muscles for the weekend.

I planned a menu that would hopefully keep me at the dinner table for most of the meal.

-Cocktail Hour
-Chicken Liver Mousse w/Burgundy Truffle
-House Made Cheddar Cheese Crackers
-Pizza by Pobega (a selection of pies made to order by my fellow Berserker Mike Pobega)
-Escarole and Bean Soup w/Chorizo Picante
-Osso Bucco Milanese (Braised Veal Shanks over Saffron Risotto)
-Salad of Mixed Greens
-Vanilla Gelato w/Fresh Strawberries and Chocolate Shortbread

I would make the veal shanks on Monday, the chicken liver mousse and soup on Tuesday, and the rest would just fall into place on Wednesday afternoon. For a cook like myself, source is everything, so I ordered the shanks from John's Meat Market in Scotch Plains. They are an old school family butcher shop, repeatedly honored as one of the best in the state. When I picked the meat up Monday morning it was as impeccable as I expected it to be.


These would get seared off and then cooked slow in stock and a little red wine.


After two hours in a slow oven they were falling apart tender. The shanks would cool and remain in their cooking broth until Wednesday and the flavors would just get better.

Tuesday I picked up what I would need for the chicken liver mousse and escarole soup. I had already ordered the truffle I needed. Truffles, those prized fungus of legendary status, are seasonal. Summer truffle season was over, and the potent winter truffles from France's Perigord region were a few weeks away. In the interim there is a truffle that comes from Burgundy. It is not quite as potent as the other two, but it was all that I needed for this dish and is about one tenth the price. Chicken livers can be raised to rock star status when they are given the right treatment. Sauteed in a little butter and olive oil with shallots, then doused with good brandy, they get pureed with hard boiled egg yolk and heavy cream. I push the puree' through a sieve to make it smooth and add grated truffle to it. It never fails to get raves.


Used as a filling for deviled eggs, it is a killer hors d'oeuvres. I simply put the mousse into a crock and served it with crackers and warm toasted bread.

Escarole and Bean soup is one of those peasant soups my Mom served us as kids and is still my favorite winter soup. It can't be simpler. Sauteed onion and garlic, some kind of spicy dried sausage, Canellini beans, and escarole are all cooked in good chicken stock until the beans are tender. Each component stands out and is essential to the dish. It is delicious and satisfying all at once and with some good crusty bread is a meal in itself.


The big pieces of the menu were now done leaving only the items that could not be done in advance. The soup and shanks would benefit from a day or two in the refrigerator and being practically complete, would free me up to enjoy the company of my guests.

Osso Bucco usually conjours up the notion of a Barolo, the famous Piemontese wine, for pairing. I had picked up one from Domenico Clerico, the 2003 Pajana. 2003 was a terrible year for Barolo because it was such a horribly hot summer and Nebbiolo, the grape from which the wine is made, really does best with moderate ripeness. The upshot was that Clerico being such a fabulous winemaker, was able to read and adjust to the conditions. While this is not a great Barolo, it is a very good one. I looked forward to the wines my guests would bring and the excellent time we would have the following evening.

Joe Canal's Lawrenceville Celebrates Their 10 Year Anniversary!

Stop by Joe Canal's in Lawrenceville this weekend!! We're celebrating our 10-year Anniversary with some super fun events, giveaways and tastings! Check it out!

Thursday, October 20th - 2pm-4pm:
Winemaker appearance - Jerry Benziger, Bengizer Family Wines!
Over the last decade, Benziger has invested in the best equipment to ensure that they're doing everything they can to protect the delicate juices and tease out the best possible wines. From a vibrating sorting table, to half-ton bins, to gravity flow fermentation tanks, our approach is a careful balance of art and science, much like winemaking itself. Our special guest on Thursday afternoon is Jerry Benziger, who will be answering your questions, signing bottles, and sampling some amazing Benziger wines.

Thursday, October 20th - 6pm-8pm:
Weyerbacher Tasting and Tap Takeover
featuring their seasonal favorites as well as their anniversary brews!
Friday, October 21st - 2pm-4pm:
Free scotch tasting with "Master of Whiskey" Kevin Loser
Friday, October 21st - 6pm-8pm:
Hot dogs, giveaways, and free beer samples sponsored by Shock Top
Saturday, October 22nd - 12pm-3pm:
Special appearance by winemaking legend Michael Mondavi!
Four generations of passion and experience have come together to create the winery and the wines. It started in 1919 when Michael Mondavi’s grandfather, Cesare, was elected to find grapes and winemaking supplies for families to make wine legally during Prohibition. Thus, in Lodi, California, the Mondavi family began their foray into California winemaking.

Today, with son Rob at the winemaking helm, Michael and the family craft a collection of world-class wines at the Michael Mondavi Family Estate.

We are honored to welcome Michael Mondavi to our Lawrenceville location to top off a great week of Anniversary events. Join us and taste some Mondavi wines, buy a few bottles to have signed, and ask Michael all your winemaking questions!

Don't forget to print out the featured coupons at jcanals.com (click here!) for additional savings on Mondavi wines!

Saturday, October 22nd - 5pm-7pm:
Free tasting - Skinny Girl Sangria and Margaritas

Brick by Brix

Last week, I was lucky enough to be treated to a fabulous "business trip" to California wine country: Sonoma and Napa. The experience was amazing and my colleagues and I are working on our travelogues now - We'll be sharing pictures and stories with you very shortly.

Still being a relative newbie in the world of wine, I have a lot to learn, and last week I learned a LOT. We were fortunate that our trip to California happened to occur during the harvest season, so we not only got to witness the "picking," but also some crushing, destemming, and other grape preparations.

One thing I learned about was how the vintners know when the grapes are ready to be picked. There is an instrument called a refractometer that measures the sugar content in the grapes. Below is our tour guide, Leo, from Rodney Strong Winery, holding a refractometer.


Leo took a grape off the vine, and squeezed a bit of the juice from the grape onto the lens of the refractometer. He passed the instrument around and we all got to hold it up to the sundlight and look inside. Inside contained numbers and lines, kind of like a ruler. The line where the dark and light meets is called the "Brix Reading." The Brix reading is named for A.F.W. Brix, a 19th century German inventor. Each degree Brix is equivalent to 1 gram of sugar per 100 grams of grape juice. About 55% to 60% of the sugar is converted into alcohol. The estimated alcohol that a wine will produce is calculated by multiplying the Brix reading by 0.55. Therefore, a 20 Brix reading will make a wine with about 11% alcohol. The grapes for most of the wines we discussed on our trip had readings of 20 - 25. One exception was our final winery, Mumm Napa, which specializes in sparkling wines. They pick their grapes at "low sugar, high acidity," which yields a lower-alcohol beverage.

Joe Canal's Presents Johnnie Walker Double Black!

Joe Canal's is excited to announce the arrival of Johnnie Walker Double Black!

Johnnie Walker Double Black is the newest addition to the Johnnie Walker family of Scotch whiskies. It was formerly only available in global duty-free shops, but it’s just been released, for a limited time, to the mass market.

Double Black starts with the Black Label template, and from there, it adds peatier malts and malts aged in heavily charred oak barrels – the result being a smokier dram than the original. On the nose, Double Black offers aromas of peat smoke, oak and dried fruits. Take a sip and notice more of that smoke, plus some pleasant tropical fruit notes, vanilla and spice. It’s drinkable, with an easy-going mouthfeel and a dry finish, with lots of char coming through.

Look for this very special limited edition Johnnie Walker on our shelves the first week of November, and be sure to pick some up as holiday gifts for the scotch lovers in your life!

Mixology Mondays: Cuarenta y Tres

Cuarenta y Tres is a sweet liqueur made in the Cartagena of eastern Spain, and based on a recipe that supposedly dates from classical times, when the Phoenecians founded Carthage, in North Africa, and introduced viticulture. Its name is Spanish for "forty-three" and is so named because that is the number of herbs and spices it contains.

Cuarenta y Tres is concocted from a brandy base, with infusions of the various herbs, but has a noticeably predominant flavor of vanilla, which rather torpedoes the Carthaginian theory since vanilla was only discovered in the 16th century by Spanish explorers in Mexico.

A bit of chilled Cuarenta y Tres is surprisingly good drizzled over hot desserts with fruit and cream. It also has fleeting hints of chocolate and honey in the flavor, making it an ideal accompaniment to a light, chocolately dessert.

In honor of Halloween, you can dress your Licor 43 up as a "Little Beer" by pouring a shot glass 2/3 full and floating a bit of Bailey's Irish Cream on top - adorable and delicious!

Preventing Breakage at Joe Canal's

If I had a nickel for every time a customer said "what a waste" or asked "do you have a straw?" when they saw a broken bottle pooling on the floor, I'd be a wealthy woman. It's a fact of life here at Joe Canal's. When you are surrounded by liquid in glass containers, broken bottles are going to happen.... a lot. It happens to some of us so often that we get nicknames from our colleagues such as Betty Breakage (ok, that's just my nickname).

Mostly we break inexpensive items like beer or wines around $10, but every once in a blue moon we break something expensive. One day I came back from a luncheon dressed in my best suit with my purse hanging on my shoulder. My purse strap grabbed hold of a $50 bottle of wine and threw it to the floor in such force that it exploded all over me and my suit. I even managed to get it in my hair. Another time I was filling the fine wine box and a bottle of Dom Perignon jumped right off the top shelf and crashed down on a $600 bottle of Leflave white Burgundy. There were a lot of tears that day. Some days like the one pictured here, our employees are just doing their job when one of these bottles of red decides to break. At least there was nothing to mop up.

Most commonly our shopping carts are the culprits. They were designed to have small children sit in the front and put their legs in the holes provided. But, when no child is there, those holes become our enemy. Customers place bottles in this area and the bottles like to slip quietly out the back smashing to the floor. This happens most near the check out registers when customers back up and the bottles back up with them. So, you'll often times see the staff putting their hands in your cart to arrange the bottles and flip up the flap in that top cart area to block the holes and protect the wine. We do it to protect the wine and keep you safe from the shattered glass.

So flip the flap when you grab a cart and help us avoid the spills. Or, we may have to invest in some really long straws!