Bob Shack has been a dear friend, advisor, confidant for some time and has recently been supplying Rad Grapes with some great wines. Bob has more wine business experience than either he or I would care to mention. He has used his knowledge and vast wine industry contacts to source some incredible wines through his import company, HB Wine Merchants. We have been fortunate enough at Rad Grapes to be able to represent and sell some of those wines in NY.

Bob Shack with some of his wines that we represent...

We just added a few new wines and just last week I had the opportunity to sit down with Bob and one of our new customers and taste through a few of the gems from HB Wine Merchants. Bob and I met for a drink and a quick bite at one of the authentic French bistros in town, Bar Breton, located at 254 5th Avenue. We met with Michael, who is the manager and tasted through three French wines that Bob imports and Rad Grapes distributes in NY: Chateau Lugagnac - Bordeaux Superieur 2006; Chateau Pech-Latt from Corbieres and the Alain Pautre Petite Chablis.  Bob has a knack for finding some incredible quality wines that are actually affordable.

The Alain Pautre Petite Chablis is a gem. It tastes better and has more structure and complexity than most regular AOC Chablis that I have tasted recently. The wine is made by Alain Pautre, who is now in his seventies and has been making wine in the Chablis region for decades…..between the great fruit and Alain’s experience it is no wonder the Petite Chablis is such a good wine for the money. Next we tasted the Chateau Lugagnac from Bordeaux. A blended wine consisting basically of 50% Cabernet and 50%  Merlot, has some incredible complexity and backbone for a Bordeaux retailing in the mid teens on the retail shelf. Bordeaux Superieur has the advantage of being able to come in at 12.5% alcohol by French law, which in turn makes the  darker, richer, more structured and complex that just a regular Bordeaux….pretty impressive once you taste it. Last, but certainly not least is an unbelievable organically grown 2008 Corbieres from Chateau Pech Latt, a blend of old vine Carignane, Grenache and some Mourvedre. Both Bob and I were taken back by how well such a young and complex wine was drinking. This Corbieres was just added to our portfolio last week and we have yet to take it out and show the wine to our customers, but I am picking up samples later in the week and will make sure to pick up samples on the Ch. Pech-Latt.

Except for the Lugagnac which is made in considerable quantities, the wines from HB Wine Merchants fall into the same category as the rest of the Rad Grapes portfolio; quality, hand-crafted, artisanal and small production wines….that is how we get to a wine portfolio based on quality first and foremost. If it ain’t in the bottle, why bother? Thanks Bob.

Cheers…

Between my high school reunion this past weekend and the fact that I finally joined Facebook and been very busy with tasting appointments….I have not had the time to post about the new wines we have added to the Rad Grapes portfolio in the last month or so. Stay tuned….we have a great new Pinot Grigio, an organically grown Corbieres and some new releases from Bergevin Lane - all fun….trust me.

Wow! What a weekend….The American School of Kuwait Class of 1984 had its 25th year graduation reunion in NYC this weekend. We had about 30 people in town. On Friday we had a blast at Shaffer City from about 3pm until 11pm. Jay Shaffer was a very gracious host and a good friend. When you are in Manhattan and looking for great seafood and oysters, look no further than Shaffer City - awesome food and a great host in Jay…

On Saturday the ASK crew was bused to my house from NYC and we were supposed to have a pool party, but it rained yet again, so we had a great time anyway. Much wine was consumed…..we drank La Source de Fees Pouilly Fuisse 2006, Livingston-Moffett Cabernet Stanley Selection 2004 and J. Wilkes Pinot Noir Solomon Hills 2005. I had beer available, but most of it was left over…..I guess folks know really good wine when they taste it. What a blast to catch up with high school friends you have not seen in decades. We all agreed that the next get together needs to be much sooner…

Very cool article I found today from U.S. News and World Report…great news for wine drinkers…read on:

Health Secrets of Red Wine Uncovered

But for maximum benefits, sip don’t gulp, research shows

THURSDAY, June 11 (HealthDay News) — Scientists already knew that drinking red wine in moderation is good for your health; now they are figuring out why.

New research is uncovering the disease-prevention secrets of a polyphenol called resveratrol, one of compounds in red wine that seems to improve health. Although the benefits have been touted for years, researchers weren’t sure how polyphenols, and resveratrol in particular, worked in the body.

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“The breadth of benefits is remarkable — cancer prevention, protection of the heart and brain from damage, reducing age-related diseases, such as inflammation, reversing diabetes

and obesity, and many more,” said Lindsay Brown, an associate professor of the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Queensland in Australia and co-author of a study that will appear in the September issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

Brown said scientists are beginning to understand how resveratrol does its work. Possible mechanisms include:

• High doses of the compound may prevent cancer by increasing the process of apoptosis (programmed cell death).
• Low doses improve cardiac health by increasing cellular protection and reducing damage.
• Resveratrol may help remove very reactive oxidants in the body and improve blood supply to cells.

Scientists are also studying how the body absorbs resveratrol into the blood stream, since the compound is largely inactivated in the gut and liver.

“Most of the resveratrol in imbibed red wine does not reach the circulation,” Stephen Taylor, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Queensland, said in a journal news release. “Interestingly, absorption via the mucous membranes in the mouth can result in up to around 100 times the blood levels, if done slowly rather than simply gulping it down.”

So the benefits of “tasting” wine and spitting, like we professionally do in the business is actually even more beneficial for the system than even drinking the stuff, but it is still tons of fun to drink wine - I certainly would rather drink than just taste…Cheers.

I am curious about peoples wine buying habits. I’ve been in the wine busines for 20 years and still have a hard time figuring out what’s next. What is the new trend? What is going to be the next hot grape varietal? Maybe Syrah in my opinion…No really folks: What goes into deciding what wine you buy? What has been your experience? What is it that makes you buy one wine over another or try something new?

Being in the wine business, we taste and rink so many different wines that I cannot use my experience as a benchmark and that is why I’m wondering what your wine buying habits are? So?

One of my long time passions - among the top three - is fly fishing for trout, but I seldom get the chance to wet a line lately. Tonight was the exception. There is a nice stretch of the Ramapo River about 7 miles Northwest of my house that is float stocked by the local chapter of Trout Unlimited and the state. I caught my first trout on a fly rod in the pool above the Glen Grey bridge, so it is my home water…it is just awesome to have such great trout water so close to home! It is also maybe about 30 miles Northwest of Manhattan. I fish the Catskills and out West, but having good trout water 15 minutes away is priceless and should be cherished and protected. I hit the Glen Grey stretch a few nights ago on a gut feeling, because it just felt like such a beautiful evening that I knew there would be a hatch…and there was, along with quite a few rising Brook and Brown trout. I landed and released about 7 or 8 fish that night…

Tonight there was an awesome White Cahill hatch, which I match with killer precision with my CDC (cul de canard) thorax tied Cahills. I hit the water at 6:30 below the bridge and never looked back, until it got so dark that I couldn’t see my fly anymore.Fish were rising all over the place and even jumping out of the water on aggressive takes. Catching trout on dry flies during a prolific mayfly hatch is what every fly fisherman dreams about. Tonight was no exception, given the beautiful weather. I landed and released (using barbless hooks), about 2 dozen mostly brown trout, with a few approaching 14-15 inches; nice, fat, healthy looking browns….man what a feeling!I am so relaxed now…

Now I’m uncorking a new Malbec Reserva from Bodega Uno. The regular bottling is very good, so the Reserve should be even better. Stay tuned. Have a great weekend. Cheers!

The Rad Grapes portfolio and our wines are relatively unknown to most wine drinkers, but when  are consumers are able to taste our wines, they are very impressed and tend to buy the wines.  In order to give fans of our more chances to try new wines, I am going to do my best to let everyone know where I will be pouring more “Rad Grapes” in town….that being said…

This Thursday, May 28th, I will be pouring several wines at Bacchus Wines, located at Broadway and 71st, from 7PM to 8:30PM and next Tuesday, June 2nd, I will be pouring some of our Mediterranean selections at the Vinoversity event at Divine Bar, located on West 54th between Broadway and 8th Avenue. If you love wine and are looking to educate your palate and expand your wine knowledge, come join me - I am always willing to por my wines, share what I know and willing to learn new things myself. The world of wine alows me to learn new things every day and I realize the more I learn the more I realize how little I really know when it comes to the world of wine and I am considered a professional and an expert…..

I’ve got to tell ya…our property is about 2/3 of an acre and I spent all weekend doing yard work: mowing the lawn; trimming branches and bushes; raking out mulch beds; running to the recycling center to dump the stuff off….and I’m bushed. Yeah there are many suburbanites like myself that maintain their own piece of the American Dream (most pay Juan, Pepe and the crew to do it) and we do yard work and property maintenance on a regular basis and can see it is back breaking work, but do most of us have any clue what a real farmer, the guy who works the earth every day, goes through on a daily basis? How bushed is a farmer at the end of his day? It does not matter if you grow grapes, strawberries, corn or have a dairy farm.I just know hoe tired I am after two days of intense spring clean up and yard work, so I can only imagine what life is like for the real farmers - not easy for sure….I’ve been to a few wineries during harvest time and let me tell you…everyone at the winery works 18 hour days during harvest time.

So when you open your next bottle of wine and enjoy it, take a second and appreciate how much hard work went into what you are enjoying from the bottle. Now its time to marinate the Arctic Char and look for a bottle to open. Cheers…Oh yeah and Happy Memorial Day to everyone and don’t forget to toast our brave men and women in uniform.

Let me start of  by saying that Rose can be rather bland and boring. The most popular Roses in the world are from the Provence and even though there are some very good Roses from Provence, my experience has been that the majority of them are very light and seem to last on the palate a very short while….not my cup of tea. I like a long finish no matter waht wine I am drinking.  Since I basically grew up in Spain and Portugal, I am used to somewhat more hearty Roses, with more fruit, structure and yes; even a little tannin. Enter my friend Louisa Lindquist and her Verdad Rose. Louisa makes only Spanish varietal wines from grapes grown organically in Santa Barbara. The Rose “Granacha”, the Albarino and Tempranillo are all very authentic in varietal character, well made and just plain old great wines - just like if they had come from Spain. Verdad means “Truth” in Spanish and the Verdad wines will speak the true language of Spain.

Verdad Rose 2008 - my favorite Rose!

The Verdad Rose, which is the motivation behind this post is just and incredible wine. It is the ultimate substitute for the red wine driker on a hot summer afternoon. Trust me, you do not want to be drinking rd wine while out in the summer sun…sooner or later you will feel like somone hit you in the head with a brick. Ask anyone who grew up on the Iberian peninsula, why even in Spain and Portugal, most people switch to white or rose in summer. Louisa harvests the Granache (90%) and Tempranillo (10%)  for the Rose early, as real Rose producers do so as to attain ripe fruit, good acidity and lower alcohol (12%). The wine is aged 2/3 in stainless steel and 1/3 in neutral, 3+ year old French oak barrels…an the wine in barrel undergoes malolactic fermentation to boot, adding an incredible creamy and viscous mid-palate and giving the Rose incredible length and depth on the palate.  I absolutely love this wine! A Rose that real men can enjoy - yes you! It can pair with grilled tuna, steak, pasta, salads - whatever you want.The beauty of a balanced Rose is that is light enough for anything and has enough body to go with anything. So try to hunt down some Verdad Rose in NYC at Manhattan Wine Exchange located at 1035 3rd Avenue or California Wine Merchants down on Bridge Street downtown and a few other spots….like Zoe on Prince Street that is pouring it by the glass.

I have not been blogging for long, but I have noticed that I was getting more spam comments than real comments. Up until now, anyone who wanted to post a comment on Stoned Wino had to register, because I thought that would eliminate spam. It hasn’t eliminated spam and I feel it has detracted people from posting…..so, I have added a new plug in to the blog, allowing anyone to post, as long as they list their name and e-mail and fill the CAPTCHA caption phrase. It is a new security measure that should allow anyone to post a comment without registering, while eliminating spam comments….let’s see if I get the intended result… Comments anyone? I would honestly love some feedback.