Friday, May 17
5:00 to 7:30
MSWS Downtown

Sablenay Touraine Sauvignon Blanc 2011 - $10.99

Wine of the Week on sale for $7.96

(100% Sauvignon Blanc; Touraine, France)

Mouzillon is located just outside Nantes, France near the mouth of the Loire River. This is Sauvignon Blanc country, and the appellation of Touraine produces oceans of fresh, delectable Sauvignons. Jean Sablenay may be just a minnow in that vast ocean, but we love his gluggable, vibrant white. With its aromas of snow peas and pink grapefruit followed by soft palate of lime and honeydew melon, it's summer in a glass.

Vina Reboreda Ribeiro 2011 - $12.99

Tasting price $11.69

(40% Treixadura, 20% Godello, 20% Torrontes, 20% Palomino; Galicia, Spain)

“The Mendez family founded Bodegas Campante — maker of “Vina Reboreda” — in 1940, and lived through the years when many neighbors made as much wine as possible in order to satisfy the thirsty Galician marketplace. The wine wasn’t very good... but there was a lot of it. But thanks to the leadership of Jose Luis Mendez and his daughters Ana and Laura, growers in the area have refocused on quality over the past decade, cutting back on each vine’s production in order to acquire grapes with more concentrated aromas and flavors. You can taste that quality in the 2011 “Vina Reboreda,” a Treixadura-based cuvee that also includes Godello, Torrontes and Palomino in the blend. The mouthfeel and flavors are reminiscent of Sauvignon Blanc, which means the wine is a perfect pairing partner for shellfish or grilled chicken. It’s a crisp, clean, refreshing and delicious tribute to the Mendez family’s winemaking philosophy.” - Vinesse.com

Markus Huber “Hugo” Gruner Veltliner 2011 - $12.99

Tasting price $11.69

(100% Gruner Veltliner; Niederösterreich, Austria)

“Hugo bounds from the glass with all the anxious enthusiasm of a child receiving unexpected May Day candy.  Delicate pear and persimmon fruits intermix with an almost Chablis-like minerality drawing across the breath of the palate.  It is a precious little papoose of a Veltliner, pure energy and dimpled baby-faced smiles.  It drinks quickly and easily, brushing away Spring’s potential showers.  The finish is with Veltliner’s classic spicy Romaine note – a lingering touch of the wild.” - Waterford Wine Company

Raffault Chinon Rose 2012 - $14.99

Tasting price $13.49

(100% Cabernet Franc; Loire, France)

Chinon Rose is considered the finest rose of the Loire Valley. J-M Raffault’s Chinon Rose comes from Cabernet Franc grapes planted across 10 hectares of sand and gravel soils. To enhance the wine’s freshness, it is vinified using mostly pressed juice. Fermentation is carried out at low temperature with native yeasts, and the wine is bottled in March following the harvest to preserve the bright and spicy red berry fruit. It is a very versatile wine that drinks well on its own, or with charcuterie, goat cheese, fish, and fowl dishes.

Domaine Baron Touraine Cot 2009 - $11.99

Tasting price $10.79

(100% Cot [Malbec]; Touraine, France)

The Barons cultivate one hectare of 35 year-old Cot (the local name for Malbec) vines planted on a south facing gentle slope with a well drained, limestone-clay soil. This vineyard was planted to Cot before phylloxera. It was later replanted with other varieties and then re-converted to Cot by Jean-Pierre Baron in an effort to revive the cultivation of Malbec that was very common in the Touraine region in times past. Baron farms in a sustainable way, according to the standards of the Terra Vitis protocol. Grass is planted between the rows and plowed under below the vines. Baron adds less than 20% of press-wine to the final blend since the “jus de goutte” already has excellent color and richness. Aging continues in large tanks and Baron bottles his Cot in early July so as to preserve the primary fruit and aromas. The wine is aged another 6 months in bottle before release. Baron’s Cot is a deeply saturated, dark purple wine with juicy and spicy black cherry and kirsch flavors and characteristic Loire freshness and succulence.

Domaine Guintrandy Saint-Léger 2010 - $9.99

Wine of the Week on sale for $7.96

(50% Syrah, 50% Grenache; Rhone Valley, France)

Marie Claude and Olivier Cuilleras' winery, Domaine la Guintrandy, sits near the hamlet of Saint-Leger in the northern hills of the Rhone Valley. This Vin de Pays is a delectable 50/50 blend of Syrah and Grenache that’s smooth and round with dusty black currant and cherry fruit and lingering tannins. It’s an old school French wine, aged without oak and made bio-dynamically with low sulfur. Open it next time you’re grilling out, or whenever you need an excuse to wear a beret and argue about Sartre.

Bonny Doon Contra 2010 - $15.99

Tasting Price $14.39

(67.5% Carignane, 32.2% Syrah, 0.19% Grenache, 0.05% Roussanne, 0.04% Grenache Blanc, 0.02% Mourvèdre; Central Coast, CA)

“Contra is a wine that reflects the opposite of modern winemaking sensibilities, meaning wines overworked and amped up, pushed and prodded into Procrustean palate-numbing sameness. À rebours, this wine is a contrarian blend of the most old-fangled grape variety, carignane, from several extremely old (100 year+), nongrafted, dry-farmed head-trained vineyards, located in Contra Costa County, and the puer aeternus syrah, young, vibrant, racy and peppery. Contra is a somewhat contradictory flashblack/forward to the straightforward, frank wines of yester- and future-year. A field blend that contravenes contraindicated convention, with aromas of cherries and licorice, flavorful cassis, blackberries, and silky tannins. A wine (hardly) contraindicated for gastronomy, it is above all, contrapuntal.” - Bonny Doon Winery