The Century Club

Have you heard of this before? This is something I learned about a few years ago. Basically, it is a non-official group of people who have sampled at least 100 different varietals. Now, I’m not sure if they count varietals that are part of blends or not. Perhaps if the component is more than 51%? Who knows!? THEY probably don’t even know! As long as they feel justified in “ticking the box”, they’re happy. Can’t you just hear them now, pontificating at some party? “Oh, this Nero d’Avola is ok, I suppose, but it just doesn’t compare to Sagrantino. I mean, Nero d’Avola? That’s so 2004! Well, at least they aren’t serving me a Sciava… Blech!”

This is the sort of thing that could only originate in America. It’s like people who memorize the batting averages of every player in a league. What’s the use, except to showcase their superiority over other, lesser spectators? The Europeans (at least the ones I’ve met) don’t share our fixation on what type of grape goes into a wine. They are far more concerned about a wine’s origin than its varietal composition… at least they were until the US market became so important to their industry.

This is like the new “wine educator license” enacted by the State of Minnesota. What’s that all about? Do we really need the state to license someone who wants to talk about wine? What about people who talk about books? Where’s the license for that? Or cars? Or Bernese Mountain dogs? What about restaurant chefs? Wouldn’t it be more important to certify someone who is preparing our food than to ensure that we are given the correct information about the differences between Bordeaux and Bordeaux Superior? It’s this sort of nonsense that furthers the separation of people from the enjoyment of wine.

There is a lot about wine that is worthy of celebration and study. I have nothing but the deepest respect for those who dive head-first into learning everything they can about a particular region or varietal… or even undertake the daunting Master of Wine course. However, what I truly dislike is this strange desire of some people who get bitten by the “wine bug” to flaunt it in the faces of others. They try to dazzle anyone around them, unbidden of course, by pulling out a few esoterica and flaunting them like cudgels to cow those around them into submission. This accomplishes two things: It makes “mere mortals” shy away from their own exploration of wine; and, it makes the perpetrator look like a pompous nit. It’s enough to make anyone want to take that fancy silver tasting spoon and bop them over the head with it.

Wine is about enjoyment. It is art that can literally be drunk in. What’s more, there is a wine for everyone, no matter what their tastes may be. That is the marvel of it. So take their blathering as a cry for help, not a sign of strength. True keepers of the faith are all about the experience, not the words. And experiences are best when left unlabeled.

This is madness….fun, fun madness

Here’s a list of the new beers we’ve received over the last 10 days;

Avery Salvation Golden Ale

Avery Out of Bounds Stout

Mikkeller USAlive

Mikkeller Black Buffalo Stout

Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Calvados Stout

Nogne Sunturnbrew Smoked Barleywine

Nogne 2 Captains Double IPA

De Molen Hemel + Aarde Peated Stout

Dieu du Ciel Equinoxe Printemps Scotch Ale

Dieu du Ciel Rigor Mortis Abbey Brown Ale

Dieu du Ciel Rosee Hibiscus Ale

Dieu du Ciel Route des Epices Spiced Rye Ale

Stone Russian Imperial Stout

Stone Russian Imperial Stout Belgo Anise

Widmer Raspberry Russian Imperial Stout

Widmer Nelson Imperial IPA

Flying Dog Horn Dog Barleywine

New Belgium Lips of Faith Tart Lychee

New Belgium Somersault Ale

Crispin Stagger Lee Cider

Pyramid Thunderhead IPA

Kiss Pear Cider

Brau Brothers Rye Wyne Ale

Pretty crazy right?  But this is normal in today’s beer world.  The amazing thing isn’t that we got in 23 new beers last week, it’s all the beers we passed on in that period.  Dozens & dozens of beers.  Some good, some bad, some really bad.  I passed on a hoppy coffee flavored IPA.  Sounds fun right?  It might have been great, I’ll never know.  I also decided not to buy a margarita in a can and a cider that looks like it’s marketed to 4th graders.  We sampled 5 different Mexican beers and passed on all of them.  We tried one French beer that tasted like hot dog water.  It goes on and on.  We can’t have everything, so we try to pick the beers we think our customers would want.  Most of the time, we choose well, some of the time we don’t. I bought 10 cases of a beer awhile ago and didn’t sell a single one the entire first month it was in the store. Not good. 

Things need to sell.  When they don’t sell, they’re gone. That’s the way it goes (you should always check out our close out section).

The beer selection is always rotating. Seasonal beers come and go.

Limited beers sell out.  New beers come in every week and slow moving beers get closed out.  This is what’s fun about the beer market.  It’s constantly in motion.  Always changing.  Always something different.  The wine and liquor side of the business moves at a slower pace.  The beer side is crazy, but I love it.  If you stand still, the beer world passes you by. 

I think we have one of the best selections of beer in town.  And I’m proud to say none of our beers taste like hot dogs.  I’ll try to keep it that way.

 -Bill

Rosé is for (wine) lovers.

Even several years into the explosion of rosé wines, we still seem to be fighting an uphill battle. So many people still seem to fear pink wine. Now, don’t get me wrong. I completely understand the hesitation. After all, who hasn’t had the full-on-sweet experience of a white zinfandel? It’s how many people got into wine in the first place. But just like your first bike, as soon as you taste the freedom only two wheels can offer, you drop the training wheels and never look back.

That being said, it is important to realize that rosé is not the same as blush. Blush is sweet. Period. End of story. Quite straightforward and one-dimensional. Rosé is (and always should be) dry. It offers delicate but complex layers and surprisingly lengthy finishes. Often times it is bone dry. But the flavors are pure, unadulterated fruit. The wine is naked, uninhibited. Drinking it is like taking a skinny-dip on a deserted beach. Perhaps a bit daunting at first, but once you get your feet wet for the first time, you understand.

We’ve got so many great options available right now, and have so many more coming in, you really need to try them. They are great as a cocktail or a surprisingly versatile food wine. Try them with fresh fruit, summer salads, grilled seafood, or even rare roast beef tenderloin (served cold… genius!) They are also really nice with mild washed-rind or other soft cheeses.

Oh how things have changed

Remember 20 years ago when our choices for beer were pretty limited?  I guess if we looked hard enough, we could find some good imports and a few craft beers out there, but not many.   Most domestic specialty beers were based off of lagers from the big two brewers, Miller & Bud.  They gave us stuff like Miller Clear, Miller Reserve, Bud Dry and Red Dog.   We were told these beers are special.  But when you actually tasted them, they didn’t taste special.  They tasted the same as everything else.  Good or bad, that’s what specialty beer was.  Special seemed to just mean it had a different name or color.  It had very little to do with taste.

When I did find something different, it actually tasted different.  I remember drinking Pete’s Wicked Ale and Rhino Chaser for the first time back than.  These beers tasted different.  These were revolutionary.  Never had I tried any beer that tasted like them (remember, I was in Leinenkugels country back than…Honey Weiss was a big deal).    

Oh how things change.

The other day I went to the Founders Brewery tasting held at a the Happy Gnome in St. Paul.  My friend and I arrived early and we started drinking.  My first two glasses before the event started were Southern Tiers Unearthly and Southern Tier Jahva Coffee Stout.  We than headed upstairs for the Founders Tasting.  Here’s the line up;

• Double Trouble
• Dirty Bastard
• Backwoods Bastard
• Curmudgeon’s Better Half
• Breakfast Stout
• Imperial Stout
• Kentucky Breakfast Stout
• Canadian Breakfast Stout

So here’s what I think.  These 10 beers I had over the span of a few hours outperformed all the beers I had in the entire decade of the 90’s.  Think about that.  I’m not kidding about this.   What we have now is unbelievable.  Here’s a little bit of my background.  I spent 7 years in college in the 90’s.  I drank a lot of beer.  I drank a lot of beer I thought was good.  The World of beer has changed so much, it makes my head spin (actually, all that Founders made my head spin).  The selection of beer has never been bigger.  The quality has never been better.  The alcohol has never been higher.  The names have never been cooler. 

I’ll ask one thing of you.  Try something new.  Try something different.  We have a lot of beer in our store.  We get new beers in every week.  Grab something you’re never tried.  Find something special.

Bill

Opportunity knocks twice

We brought in the Skalli Cotes du Rhone 2009 months ago because it offered a good value on a wine from a stellar vintage in the Rhone Valley. We were so excited about it, we used it as one of our featured wines in our Insiders Club selection last September. People loved it, we sold out and that was that… or so we thought. Our story takes an expected twist with the entry of the new power couple of the wine world:  Jean-Charles Boisset and Gina Gallo.

Two of the biggest families in wine joined together in the oenological version of Game of Thrones. And what do they do next? Why, they start buying things of course!  And by “things”, what I really mean is land. Vineyards and wineries are what they covet, and Skalli becomes one of their quarry.

Just like that, our second chance comes along. You see, the wine had been sold through one of our distributors. But this particuar distributor does not handle the wines of either Boisset or Gallo. So, they now need to get rid of whatever wine they had left from the Skalli book. And when the decision is made to cut bait, they don’t fool around! The price offered to us dropped by 25%, and so we jumped. Thank you Jean-Charles and Gina!

The wine is as beautiful as ever, in fact, it may even be better now that it has had some time to age in the bottle. It is a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre showing a deep garnet color with violet notes. Aromas of strawberry, black currant and raspberry dominate with a streak of peppermint to add some interest. The palate offers supple flavors of ripe fruits with sweet spices like vanilla and toast. At 14.5% alcohol, you can see just how well the fruit ripened this year. You can also enjoy it for 25% less than the original (already discounted) price. It was $15.99 and now is $11.99. Don’t miss it!

Shot In The Dark #3

So keeping in mind that backyard BBQ’s and 80 degree days are just around the corner for all of us I decided it was time to discuss the perfect summer cocktail… the gin and tonic.  I know it’s simplistic but keep in mind that when it’s hot outside you typically want something refreshing that doesn’t require a lot of effort to make hence, gin and tonic.  The lightly floral notes from juniper and other botanicals along with a touch of lime and the fizz of the tonic all meld together to make what I feel is the ideal summer sipper.  This is why this week I’ve chosen to highlight my new favorite gin, The Botanist from Bruichladdich in Scotland.

Bruichladdich is one of the eight distilleries on the island of Islay (pronounced eye-luh) who are well known for their fantastic range of Scotch whiskies.  I’d been hearing their name and read about them on multiple occasions but the distillery was shut down in 1995 so finding anything from them was difficult.  Thankfully the doors were re-opened in 2002 after refurbishing the distillery to its original glory and now ten years later we’re finally starting to see some of the fruits of their labors.

The Botanist stands out from other gins specifically because of the fact that the distillery uses all the traditional aromatics that you would expect in gin, but then they add 22 wild botanicals all hand-picked from Islay.  Also adding to the interesting flavors of this gin is how it’s distilled (I’m gonna go a little nerdy on you here for a second).  Bruichladdich has a very special still they refer to as “Ugly Betty”, this still was built to combine the ideas of both a pot still for small batches and a column still for continuous production.  The plan being it would be a still capable of doing any job required.  What they ended up with is a mutant looking pot still with an adjustable neck that allows the lyne arm to be raised and lowered at the distillers preference to create either a heavier bodied or lighter bodied spirit depending on how many pieces of the neck they add or remove thereby raising or lowering the lyne arm.  What all this means about The Botanist gin is that Bruichladdich has a still they were able to dial in to exactly the right set up for creating the perfect gin.  This gin has beautiful aromatics and an almost indescribable flavor profile; I swear I taste something new in it every time I’ve tried this stuff.  If you don’t believe me come in to the store and try it for yourself.  We have a bottle open on our tasting bar!

So to wrap up, go get your lawn chairs ready and dust off your bocce ball set because summer’s just about here and I’m ready for my drink.  Who’s coming with me?

Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Cognac Edition

Cat Poop Coffee Beer.  Yup, I said it.   Don’t believe me, Google it.  It’s true.  We got it in last week and I tried it Wednesday night.  It’s an Imperial Stout made with Kopi Luwak coffee and aged in Cognac barrels (and Calvados barrels?)

So here’s the quick story.  This animal called the Cavit, which looks like a Cat/Weasel/Anteater, loves eating only the finest coffee berries.  Enzymes in it’s stomach strip away the bitterness and then, of course, the Cavit poops the beans out.  Now this is where it gets good.  Someone gathers up the cat poop and picks out the beans.  Should I repeat that?  Who was the first to do this?  Who thought about saving those beans?  They wash the beans (thank God), and sun dry them before roasting and brewing.  It’s basically the world’s most expensive coffee.  $30 a cup or up to $160 a pound.  I am not making any of this up.  It’s real.  And this beer is made with this coffee.

I’ll be honest, the coffee flavors in this beer is very smooth and subtle.  The Cognac oak is really the star of this.  Lots and lots of boozy, vanilla oak flavors.  Dark Chocolate and light coffee flavors mix in with the roasted malt.  It’s a huge, thick beer, coming in at 10.9%.  It’s not cheap.  It’s $13.99 for a 8.5oz bottle.  You should drink it basically at room temp.  Treat it more like a glass of port then a beer.  My Cat approved.  My Wife did not.

Here’s a list of what we have right now from Mikkeller along with the HUGE Ratebeer scores;

Mikkeller Black Hole Stout – 100points

Mikkeller Black Stout – 97points

Mikkeller/Brewdog I Hardcore You IPA – 99points

Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Cognac – 100points

Mikkeller Hop Burn High IPA – 98points

Mikkeller Amarillo IPA  – 98points

Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast Stout – 100points

Mikkeller Beer Hop Breakfast Stout – 99points

Mikkeller Nelson Sauvin IPA – 98points

Mikkeller Monk’s Brew (Elixir) Ale – 98points

They’re all very limited and all very cool.

-Bill

Shot in the dark #2.

Shot in the dark #2.

Hello again to my spirit seekers and cocktail mixologists!  This week while roaming the aisles for something new and exciting (I abandoned my blindfold approach after last week’s unfortunate mishap), I came across one of my old favorites which I feel has been horribly overlooked, the Rhum Clement Creole Curacao Orange Liqueur.  I know it’s a bit of a mouthful but I’ll help break it down for you, cause that’s what I’m here for.

Rhum Agricole (no that’s not a typo, I don’t know why they spell rum with an “h”) is a type of rum liqueur distilled in Martinique, one of the French West Indies islands. The primary thing that sets it apart from other rums is the fact that it is distilled from fresh sugar cane rather than molasses.  Now, why is this important do you ask?  Most rum is made from molasses which is just a by-product of sugar refining while fresh sugar cane juice can only be procured seasonally before it is fermented and distilled, in other words it has fresher more distinct flavors (yeah!).

The next important part of this magical beverages name is Caracao, which is a tiny island off the northern coast of Venezuela where they grow extraordinary oranges.  The distillery only  uses the sun bleached peels of the oranges which provides a very distinctive citrus quality.  To add complexity they also toss in all kinds of spices but the only ones anybody will admit to are cloves, vanilla and nutmeg.

After the distillation process the rum liqueur is aged in a complex mix of Limousin and American oak barrels to enhance and deepen the flavor characteristics.  The Rhum Clement Creole Shrubb Curacao Orange Liqueur (it’s even hard to type, let alone say aloud) is as interesting and refined as a good whiskey.  The depth of flavors from the light wood tannins to the zesty spices in addition to the phenomenal fresh orange notes is fantastic (that was a lot of adjectives, sorry, I get excited).

We do currently have a bottle of this open on our tasting bar if you’d like to come in and give it a try.  So until next week everyone just remember, if it looks good… drink it!  Again I apologize, I love that show but it’s a lot easier for me to get people to try things then Andrew Zimmern.

~Matt

KBS…Keeping Bill Stressed

Last week, the 2012 Founders KBS was released in Minnesota.  KBS is Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout.  It’s the mack daddy of Bourbon Barrel Stouts.  It’s simply an awesome bottle of beer.  It also creates a shopping frenzy much like Beanie Babies did or any new Apple product now does.  People go crazy.  They camp out at stores.  They follow around delivery trucks.  And it’s not just us.  Every beer store around experienced the same thing.  1000 people stood hours in line at the brewery 2 weeks ago and only 650 got to buy some. I’ve been in the liquor business for 14 years now, I have never seen the public go crazy for any other product like they do now for rare, craft beers.  

We received 1 case, 24 measly bottles of the 2012 KBS.   I love KBS, but it kills me also.  Here’s why; we get 100’s of phone calls from beer lovers looking for a beer we get 24 bottles of.  No kidding, 100’s of phone calls.   That’s not even counting the number of emails we get.  What are we supposed to do with this beer?  How do we even sell it?  Who gets it and who doesn’t?  I wake up in the middle of night thinking about this stuff.  I know..I get it…It’s beer…in the big picture, it’s not a big deal.  But it is a big deal to a lot of people.  I truly wish I could get enough for everyone to buy some.  I wish everyone could try this beer.  But that’s just not going to happen anymore.  It wasn’t always like this.  Just two years ago, it took us a few weeks to sell out (we got a lot more of it back then).  Now it takes about a minute.  A few bottles go into our cellar.  A few go to the lucky ones who happened to be in the right place at the right time.  And like that…poof..it’s gone like Keyser Söze.  

I love Founders.  I love KBS.  But KBS now stands for Killed Blocked and Shutdown.

~Bill

A Strappin’ Good Wine

Every so often, a wine comes along that so captivates us that we just can help ourselves… we buy everything we can get our hands on. Well, here is one of those examples. The Yalumba GSM called “The Strapper” is one of the finest examples of the genre I’ve had in a long, long time. The GSM is a great Aussie tradition of copying the classic Southern Rhone blend. Often times, it comes out a bit too brash. Either the Shiraz is an over-done chocolaty mess or the Grenache is akin to raspberry motor oil. Perhaps that is the real purpose of the GSM… to cover over a wine-making error? Or, I suppose it could be a shameless cash grab where a winery takes sub-standard grapes and tarts them up with a lot of over-ripe, high-sugar juice (just look at the current red blend craze coming out of California if you need some good examples).

Thankfully, the folks at Yalumba steered clear of this path. Instead, they crafted a wine of surprising gravitas, represented by the Mataro (another word for Mourvedre), softened by a most supple and elegant ribbon of Grenache. Holding it all together are the solid shoulders of the Shiraz, which make their notable appearance during the mid-palate. If I remember the story correctly, they named the wine “The Strapper” in homage to the Jockey’s assistant who does all the real work in preparing the horse but earns none of the glory. Apparently, it is the Mataro that plays the role of “Strapper” in this wine. It’s a fair comparison, though I would observe that without the jockey and the horse, the strapper would have precious little to do in the first place.

As I said, we bought up every case of this wine that was available in the Upper Midwest, so I encourage you to give it a try. If you like it, buy up! Who knows when we’ll see its kind again?