Petite Sirah!!

Petite Sirah Tasting!
This Saturday!
January 30th, 2010

11am-8pm

Featuring:
2007 Robert Foley Petite Sirah
2006 Seghesio "Home Ranch" Petite Sirah
2006 Stag's Leap Winery Petite Sirah
2007 Lucky Star Petite Sirah
2007 Jeff Runquist Petite Sirah
2008 McManis Petite Sirah
2007 Stanton Petite Sirah
2007 Petite Petit (Petite Sirah & Petit Verdot)

Petite Sirah has been getting a lot of love over the last few years - and while we have some favorites that never seem to disappoint (Runquist, Foley, McManis) we are constantly finding new Petite Sirah out there that is AMAZING (just wait until you taste the Seghesio Home Ranch Petite Sirah which used to be sold at the winery only!).

PS has a lot of what people have been looking for in wine - it is big wine, and in some cases it is BIG to the nth power. It has a beautiful dark color and usually is bursting with all sorts of beautiful black cherry and berry flavors. It's basically the perfect wine to drink as it begins to turn cold again - it will warm you right back up!

We're pulling out all the best Petite Sirah we could find this weekend - the killer 2007 Robert Foley, the best Petite you've never had in the 2007 Stanton, the blockbuster Petite from Seghesio, and then plenty of great ones for your everday consumption - McManis, Lucky Star, Petite Petit and so on.

So stop on in this weekend, try some wonderful Petite Sirah (as well as some other fun goodies on the machine!) and enjoy the end of January in style. You might also just find that crowd pleaser you've been looking to serve at your Superbowl Party next weekend!

Save 27% on amazing 2004 Muga!

2004 Muga Rioja Reserva

Selección Especial

Release Price: $48.00
Winestore Price: $34.99 (net)
Save 27% or $13 per bottle

Release Magnum (1.5L) Price: $95.00
Winestore Magnum (1.5L) Price: $65.00 (net)
Save 31% or $30

Muga is one of the most consistent and multi-faceted of all the Rioja producers and we absolutely love their wines. Match that with the fact we just found some of their Seleccion Especial from 2004 (one of the best Rioja vintages in the last 25 years) and we've got a winner.

We're pleased to be able to offer you this great wine in both 750ml bottles and magnums (1.5L bottles) at discounted prices. We have the wine on the tasting machine right now if you have time to try before you buy!

Care to read more about Muga? Visit their website by clicking here!

To order you can:

Order the 750ml online by clicking here!

Order the Magnum online by clicking here!

Call Southpark @ 704-442-4024

Call Blakeney @ 704-443-2944

35 Beautiful E-commerce websites from Smashing Magazine

Featuring Winestore!!

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/22/35-beautiful-and-effective-ecommerce-websites/

Winestore
Everything here is about elegance, style and creativity. Vibrant pink against a white background makes for a vivid yet clean website. Beautiful typography and the “bar code” header complement the company’s image well. Pictograms with information about the wines’ color, body and flavor are a smart addition.

Charlotte Magazine - 10 Great Date Spots

And winestore. was one of them!!

http://www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/February-2010/10-Great-Dates/

Toast for Two

Whether you're a wine-tasting amateur or a sommelier, comparing the flavors of different vinos can be a fun and romantic way to spend an evening. The best place to taste wine here in Charlotte is not a wine bar, but actually a wine shop. At Winestore the two of you can taste up to twenty-four wines from stainless steel dispensers called Enorounds. Push the button over your selection and it dispenses a one-ounce sample of one of the choice wines from around the world. Discover whether your date is a fan of California cabs or South American pinots as you sip your way through the evening. It's a special chance to taste wines you might not otherwise -- there are expensive premium wines that go for more than $60 a bottle. At the end of the night you can compare notes, get to know each other's palates, and then buy a special bottle to take home together.

Two locations: 720 Governor Morrison St., 704-442-4024 and 9831 Rea Rd., 704-443-2944

Pinot Noir Battle Royale!

Pinot Noir Battle Royale!

Merry Edwards vs. Domaine Serene vs. Caymus "Belle Glos" Taste off!

Saturday January 23rd, 2010
11am-8pm



Featuring:

2007 Merry Edwards Russian River Pinot Noir
2006 Merry Edwards "Olivet Lane" Pinot Noir
vs.
2008 Belle Glos "Meomi" Pinot Noir
2007 Belle Glos "Clark and Telephone Vineyard" Pinot Noir
vs.
2006 Domaine Serene "Yamhill Cuvee" Pinot Noir
2006 Domaine Serene "Evenstad Reserve" Pinot Noir

and just for fun 2007 Domaine Serene Coeur Blanc Pinot Noir (White Pinot Noir!!)

Calling all Pinotfiles!!! This weekend you will finally have the chance to taste some of the best Pinot Noir being produced in the United States. We've decided to go ahead and put together some of the most sought after and delicious Pinot Noirs in the United States and we're calling it the Pinot Noir Battle Royale!

You'll be able to compare California blockbusters from Caymus (producer of Belle Glos) and Merry Edwards against one of the titans of Oregon (and US) Pinot Noir - Domaine Serene. We always love putting great wines up against each other - it not only gives you the ability to really taste and see what type of styles you like, but you are also given the chance to compare and contrast notes with other fellow customers who are just as excited as you are about these great wines.

The tasting is simple. Show up on Saturday, grab your tasting card and sample each of these fantastic Pinots to decide which producer is the winner. We'll have paper and pens for you to make notes and great pricing should you feel the urge to bring home a few of these phenomenal wines.

This tasting should prove to be one of our best so far and we look forward to seeing each of you on Saturday!

Cheers,

The winestore. team

2005 Le Bon Pasteur @ 50% off!

2005 Le Bon Pasteur

Avg US Retail Price: $133.00

Winestore Price: $67.50

Save 49% or $65.50 a bottle!!

To Order online Click

To Order at SouthPark call 704-442-4024

To Order at Blakeney call 704-443-2944

There are aspects to my job that sound wonderful; but it can be more of a slog than a celebration.

Each year, if my time and money allows it, I arrange to attend one of the annual Bordeaux tastings, organized by the Bordeaux Wine Bureau and held in a faraway city. My reward is an expensive hotel room the size of a hall closet, along with the unending joys of airplane travel. The tasting is in a banquet room filled with one hundred something Bordeaux estates and a human press of distributors, salesmen, posers and pontificators.

At past tastings, certain legendary vintages have proved more myth than legend. 2000 was heralded as “the greatest ever”. More like tannic, bitter, overripe and hot; that’s my take.

2003 was, what’s the phrase? Oh, yes, “the greatest ever”. So the pundits cried again, forgetting the 2000’s. I recall the 2003 tasting as one unhappy trudge through a room of near drunks, bellowing about the greatness of each wine. My response was similar to the 2000’s: these were wines that tasted overripe, green and bitter, and today most will seem rather un-Bordeaux-like. The 2003’s had their bright moments, I’ll admit, not least of which were the Sauternes: dessert wines of power, sweetness and downright deliciousness.

So what about the 2005’s, which some called “the greatest ever”. Could it be so? 2005 is more or less everything it has been gim-cracked up to be. These are wines of power and richness, but without the green and bitter astringency that the other high temperature vintages (2001 and 2003) have offered.

With Le Bon Pasteur and many of the other 2005's you can still find, there is a lot of fruit and plenty of structure. So you can save it, drink it, or heck, you can just brag about it. I've already got my bottles...

Cheers,

Doug Frost, MS MW
Master Sommelier & Master of Wine

Taste Amazing Malbec

Taste Amazing Malbec this Saturday!
January 9th, 2010
11am-8pm



Featuring:
2007 Paul Hobbs Bramare Lujon de Cuyo Malbec
2006 Laurel Glen Vale la Pena Malbec
2006 Luca Beso de Dante Malbec
2007 Susana Balbo Malbec
2008 Terra Rosa Malbec
2008 Urban Uco Malbec
2006 Ben Marco Expressivo Malbec
2007 Tikal Amorio Malbec

Malbec is proof that wine is local.

Terroir, we are often reminded, is wine's raison d'etre and we wine writers and enthusiasts eagerly sip at the cup of wine's particularity. We are excited by the idea that wine is of a place, and that no other place can speak the same dialect as can certain grapes in certain places. But then wine writers blather about Burgundian vineyards, without explaining what differentiates one vineyard from another, other than name and reputation. Some of us writers will go on about Riesling vines on steep Mittel Mosel slopes and though the vineyards are photogenic and frighteningly precipitous, we aren't told much more. And the earthiness of Barolo and Barbaresco is much heralded but unexplained. Is it that the winemakers are rustic peasants and slop a bit of pig crap into their wines, or is it that the differing components in the Helvetian and Tortonian soils under these vines actually makes a difference in the flavors of the wines?

Perhaps those questions are best left to another newsletter. Suffice it to say that the wines of the New World (the Americas, Australasia and South Africa) are often described as having little or no earthiness, while Old World wines (Europe and bits of northern Africa and the Middle East) tend to show lots of earthiness. So terroir (that notion of place as being preeminent) is not important in New World wines, right?

Not so fast, mister smarty-pants. For each person who dismisses New World wines as soulless expressions of money and simple varietal character, devoid of vineyard, region and, yes, terroir, I say to that person: think upon Malbec.

Malbec is one of Bordeaux's lesser grapes. Indeed, it is the least among lessers. In Bordeaux, it's employed to add color to a wine, and that's about it. Nobody promotes the grape there, though you can find arch defenders of grapes like Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and even a few Saint Macaire and Carmenere stalwarts.

Malbec's tribe is farther to the southeast, in places like Cahors, where the grape has been grown for centuries or longer. But, any Cahorienne reading this, turn the page, I beg you, because I'm gonna say it: Malbec in France sucks.

There: I've said it. Sure, there are some good producers; heck, I've got ten and twelve year old bottles of Clos du Coutale Cahors in my cellar and I love those wines. But one good apple doesn't right the apple cart, or some such saying that I should work on inventing. Most Malbec in France is tart, astringent, charmless and, what's that word, oh, yes, it sucks.

Now transplant the grape to California and it has color, lots of deep, rich color and, well, yeah, the flavors and aromas? Hmm, what should I say? It doesn't suck. Not like French Malbec sucks. That's not really the right word. It doesn't suck but - it's, oh, I know! It's boring! That's the word! It's really booooorrring.

So, here's the point. In Argentina, you plant Malbec up in the foothills of the Andes, in an area called Mendoza, where soils can be quite depleted, where moisture comes only from mountain runoff, and if rain arrives, it can be in the form of destructive hail and the growing season goes on and on and the elevated vineyards give the vines something between sunburn and a steroid dose of photosynthesis and here Malbec is - home.

At least, so it would seem, because Malbec shows its expression in the elevated vineyards of Mendoza: two thousand to three thousand feet up or more, with powdery, desiccated soils. Here in Mendoza, Malbec has something to say; quite a lot to say, in fact.

Fifteen years ago, Malbec was Malbec. If it was drinkable, it was from Argentina. Ten years ago, we discovered that Mendoza Malbec was very interesting and even occasionally delicious wine. In the last five years, we have seen that each vineyard within Mendoza has a slightly different set of flavors and aromas to add to the character of Malbec.

And even more tantalizingly, when we think we have figured out that Lujan de Cujo (for instance) is a vineyard that gives a certain melon rind note to the rich and seductive Malbec grown there, the climate moves on. Global warming, global weirding, call it what you will, but cool, mountainous valleys like the Uco Valley were off limits twenty years ago for Malbec. Today their cool and shorter growing season offers to Malbec mercurial character a place where it can be less lush and more balanced. The Uco Valley doesn't make Argentina's best Malbecs, but there's no one I have talked to in Argentina who doesn't want to have some sweet property in the Uco Valley, just in case it turns into the country's sweet Malbec spot.

Malbec is proof that where you plant a grape matters and that is the best way to explain terroir.

Cheers,

Doug Frost, MS MW
Master Sommelier & Master of Wine

Clos du Val Chardonnay - 37% off!

2006 Clos Du Val Chardonnay

37% off! 10 Cases Only!



Winery Price:$24.00 (See by clickinghere!)

Winestore Price: $17.99

Case Price $14.99 per bottle! (Save 37% or $9 a bottle!)

Wineries, just like every other business, sometimes need to hold sales in order to move some product. That is why back in November we were able to offer you an amazing deal on the Clos Du Val Chardonnay (actually this exact same deal). Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end - but in this case not just yet! As a thank you for moving so much product we are able to sell you 10 more cases of the 2006 Clos du Val Chardonnay at this price. If you're a California Chardonnay fan we challenge you to find a chardonnay for $14.99 that tastes this great!!

Only 120 bottles at this price so be sure to order yours today!

To order you can:

Call SouthPark @ 704-442-4024

Call Blakeney @ 704-443-2944

Enjoy!