15% off Cases

15% off Mixed and Full Cases
4 Days Only

Thursday March 26th - Sunday March 29th

Thursday through Sunday of this week we are going to offer you 15% off both mixed and full cases as well as some special deals (available in store only!). We figured we'd just turn the Evodia arrival into a celebration / sale just for the heck of it! Every little bit helps and we want you to know not only are we trying to bring you the best wine at the best price - we are looking out for your pocketbook as well!

Deals run Thursday - Sunday so stop in and pick some up!

FREE Evodia Tasting Thursday!

FREE Tasting Thursday!


March 26th, 2009
6pm-8pm

For all of you who pre-ordered Evodia, the new project from Charlotte based Importer Eric Solomon, your ship arrives on Thursday! The wine will be here on Thursday, March 26th and to celebrate we are going to taste it again, along with some other gems new to the store, and the best part is that it is absolutely FREE!

The wines we will be pouring are:

2007 Evodia Garnacha
2005 Tres Bagos
2005 Calvet Thunevin
2004 Evans & Tate Chardonnay

So come on in on Thursday and enjoy some great wine with friends!

2007 EVODIA

Who: A custom cuvee for Eric Solomon

What: 100% Garnacha (Grenache)

When: From vineyards planted up 100 years ago

Where: High altitude vineyards in the mountainous village of Atea, planted on pure slate soils

Why: Grenache this great usually goes for twice the price!

Taste 24 Wines Blind This Saturday!

Blind Tasting!

March 21st - 11am-8pm

Our blind tastings have been a huge hit recently but we have been asked over and over again to do a blind tasting focusing on multiple grape varietals but with affordable wines. Soooo - this weekend we will be tasting 24 wines blind all arranged by grape varietal. There will be the following wines available:

4 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon
4 bottles of Pinot Noir
4 bottles of a Red Blends
4 bottles of $25-$50 Reds
4 bottles of Chardonnay
4 bottles of Light / Medium Whites

There is nothing more exciting than tasting a $6 wine in a blind tasting and absolutely loving it! All wines on the machine will cost just $0.90 to try.

Take a break from the March Madness this weekend and swing in with some friends to try some wine blind. See what you really like!

FREE Tasting This Thursday!

FREE Tasting Thursday

March 19th, 6-8pm

10% off all wines being poured

Woody French from Dionysus is going to be here on Thursday tasting some great new wines from his portfolio as well as some old Favorites. Best part about all of this - it's FREE! Some of the wines we will be pouring include:

2006 Wall Cabernet
2007 Hope Chardonnay
2007 Gemtree "tadpole" Shiraz
2007 Independent Producers Chardonnay

So, come on in with friends and try some great new wines! We'll see you Thursday!

Winestore Spring Case of Wine - 22% Off

“Price is what you pay; value is what you get.” Whether we’re talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down.

- Warren Buffett

It's getting warm and that means it's time for the Winestore Spring Case of Wine. Four of our favorite wines brought to you at a 22% discount and an average price of just $10 a bottle. Buy now or forever hold your peace - you may never see some of these wines this cheap again!

Order yours by clicking here!

Or call us at (704) 442-4024 or (866) 749-WINE

Winestore Spring Case of Wine

Was: $152.88
Now: $120.00 (SAVE 22%!)

3 x 2004 Domaine Bott-Geyl Pinot Gris
Looks German, hunh? It's not; it's from Alsace, which is very French (in a Germanic way). This is a grape people associate with Italy (they call it Pinot Grigio there), but instead of Italy's crisp, neutral style, Alsace Pinot Gris is unctuous, earthy and filled with honey.

3 x 2007 Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay
Wente's way with Chardonnay has always gotten to me. There's something about their style of fat and rich fruit, combined with clean and fresh tartness. Whether in a blind setting or when I know what I'm drinking, I keep finding myself preferring Wente over other, bigger names.

3 x 2005 Altos de Luzon
This is a rich and powerful Spanish wine (a blend of Monastrell, Tempranillo and Cabernet) that over-delivers for the price.

Just don’t tell your wine snob friends how much it cost

3 x 2007 Borsao
Back by popular demand - A ridiculous value in red wine, that's all, just ridiculous, like a clown made of Garnacha.

Taste 1971 Chateau D'Yquem

Taste the Best in the World!
Saturday March 14th, 2009
11am-8pm

We like to taste crazy wines sometimes, as Winestore customers know, and some tastings are crazier than others. This time we're going to open a pristine bottle of 1971 Chateau D’Yquem – it's been a long time since I tasted this wine. Somebody at the Spectator tasted one a few years ago and predicted that it needs to age till 2010. I'm not sure that makes much sense; the last one I had seemed like it was as good as an Yquem needs to be and that was about eight years ago.

Yquem is unquestionably the greatest winery in Sauternes and for many that means it's the greatest dessert in the world. Maybe those people need to taste more dessert wines, but I'm going to say that Yquem is at least one of a handful of greatest dessert wines in the world.

Indeed, a brief anecdote might suffice to explain Yquem's incredible reputation: in 1974, the season was tough. Yquem's pickers went out and picked the grapes only a portion at a time in a vain attempt to produce the best wine possible. Indeed, they picked grapes thirteen times, which is pretty much a ridiculous number of times for anybody to employ if profit is your purpose. You've got to pay (if not house and feed) the pickers for weeks, instead of days and, well, you get the idea.

Here's the best part: after picking thirteen times in 1974, they tasted the wine they made and then they threw it away. Like down the drain. Cuz it wasn't good enough for Yquem. That's craaaazy.

A postscript should note that the 1975 Yquem was delicious and fantastic but roundly criticized for being too expensive. Well, duh. Somebody had to pay for the wine they made in 1974 and forgot to sell. Moreover, they had also refused to sell the 1972 for the same reasons.

The 1971 was, to the contrary, "very concentrated -exceptional - even better than the 1975. The best Yquem of the 1970's." So says the estimable Clive Coates MW in his wonderful book Grands Vins. He also says the 1971 will last till 2023. Au contraire. Our bottle will only last till we open it at the big tasting next week.

Oh, yeah, we always open way too many great wines. So just to get your imagination going, consider the following as included in our tasting: 2004 Shafer Hillside Select, 2006 Caymus Special Select, 2005 Clos L'Oratoire Les Chorgies Chateauneuf-du-Pape, 2005 Domaine Giraud Chateauneuf-du-Pape Gallimardes, 2006 Clos Saint Jean Chateauneuf-du-Pape Vieille Vignes (that's old vines to you), 2002 Mt Veeder Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Tony Soter's 2006 Beacon Hill Pinot Noir, 2005 Ramey Cabernet Napa Valley, and four amazing Spanish wines: 2006 Dominio de Atauta , 2004 Artazu Santa Cruz, 2004 Merum Ardilles Priorat , and 2006 Flor de Pingus. All of them are pretty special but let's linger for one moment on Flor de Pingus, the second wine of Pingus, arguably one of the greatest wines in the world.

Pingus is a remarkable wine and with enough time in the cellar, it is likely to be able to best famed First Growth Bordeaux, brilliant Brunello and the best that California and Australia can create. I find the wines virtually mind-blowing but I choose the conditional language above ("likely to") because nobody knows how these wines will age. The oldest Pingus is from the 1995 vintage. It's too early to tell.

And I'll be honest: I can't really tell much of a difference between Pingus and Flor de Pingus, at least in most vintages. I can believe that Pingus is going to age more successfully than Flor de Pingus (though I might be imagining that difference as the product of knowing which is which when I have tasted the two next to each other). But again, longevity is not the point of this particular bottle; 2006 Flor de Pingus is going to get opened at our big tasting. You should be there to taste it.

Happy Tasting and we will see you on Saturday!

Doug Frost, MS MW
Master Sommelier & Master of Wine

Taste from Jorge's Portfolio!

Massive Jorge Ordonez Tasting (See Line-up Below!)
Friday March 6th - Sunday March 8th
All Weekend Long

Let's be honest: Jorge Ordonez' brilliant wine importing career is partially based upon timing, as the US market is just now emerging as the busiest place for wine commerce in the world. His choice of Spain has augured well, as Spain has only recently decided to create world-class wines throughout its landscape, and as the third most prolific maker of wines in the world, Spain can bring a lot of great wine to the table, when it finally decides to do so. But his many wines reflect his focus upon rich and structured reds, juicy and distinctive whites, even a brilliant dessert wine.

And Jorge's stratospheric growth in sales in the US (indeed the crazy quilt growth in his portfolio) is a reflection of his commitment and fervent belief in the great, recognized and still unacknowledged wines of Spain, and to his obvious love of the vibrant and new cultural wonderland that is his native Spain.

Jorge arrived to the US in 1987, not so long ago, but oh, so long ago in the marketplace of Spanish wines. Having worked as a distributor in Spain, he was more than prepared to skillfully negotiate the shark-invested waters of the US distribution system. And he's still got most of his limbs. There are too many wines and regions to name but for a lot of us, the grapes Hondarribi (that's the stuff of Txakoli), Verdejo, Godello, and Albarino wouldn't be what they are today without him. Even more importantly, the regions of Jumilla, Campo de Borja and Calatayud wouldn't be justly celebrated for value and incipient greatness.

We can argue that greater or more complex wines are available from other Spanish wine importers (say, Eric Solomon or Steven Metzler) but most folks accept that Jorge Ordonez has one of the most enviable track records for value wines in the world, not just in Spain.

Sure, some such as El Nido, Cenit and Atteca's Armas bottling are damned expensive. But Atalaya, Atteca, Vina Borgia, Protocolo, Borsao, Volver, Juan Gil, Termes and Altos de Luzon vary from merely very good values to simply ridiculous values. We plan to taste all of these this weekend; see if you don't agree. Oh, yes, one other value for you to try: Jorge's Argentine label Urban Uco and their tasty Mendoza Malbec. So - just to recap - here's some of what we'll have available to taste this weekend:

2006 El Nido
2006 Atteca Armas
2005 Cenit
2006 Atalaya
2006 Protocolo Tinto
2007 Atteca
2007 Vina Borgia
2006 Volver
2006 Juan Gil
2006 Termes
2006 Altos de Luzon
2007 Urban Uco Malbec
2007 Borsao

So, come on in with friends and try some great new wines!

Cheers,

Doug Frost, MS MW
Master Sommelier & Master of Wine

Winner(s) of the Opus One Blind Tasting - Save 18%

Winner(s) of the Opus One Blind Tasting

2004 AALTO Tempranillo

2007 Steak House Cabernet

2005 Laurel Glen "Counterpoint" Cabernet

Special Six Pack Offer

2 Bottles of Each

All for the price of just 1 bottle of Opus One!

Regular Price: $195.94

Six Pack (2 Bottles of Each): $159.96

Save 18% or $35.98

10 Six Packs Available

I wish we could tell you that only one wine won the Opus One Blind Tasting on Saturday but we had a three way tie for first place (Darioush "Caravan" Cabernet only missed the tie by one vote!). Therefore we are going to offer you a special six pack including two bottles each of the three winners! The three wines are:

2004 AALTO Tempranillo - From the near perfect 2004 vintage and made by Mariano Garcia, former winemaker at Vega Sicilia (think $300 a bottle prices).

2007 Steak House Cabernet - yes, the label looks a lot like "House Wine", which is a Zinfandel blend from this Washington State Producer. Steak House is 100% Cabernet and holds its own against wines three times its price!

2005 Laurel Glen "Counterpoint" Cabernet - Doug Frost has waxed poetic about Laurel Glen for years in this newsletter (he absolutely loves this stuff) and this entry level cab they offer from the beautiful 2005 California vintage is simply stunning.

I wish we could tell you that Opus one - with a price tag of $159 - came in first, but it came in second to last - OUCH! So save yourself the money and get six of these outstanding wines for the price of just 1 bottle of Opus One. You will thank us later!

Call us @ 704-442-4024 to order yours today!