Wine Club Offer Spring 2024

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Our friend Ken Kelly at Woodbury Wines has found an importer who is bringing in terrific values from a couple of long-time Bordeaux makers. I think there are two specific considerations when finding honest value in this category of French Vins: consistency over the years and balance. This wine hits both point well.

I’m tasting balance in all three pillars of the meaning of that word. The fruit, the tannins* and the alcohol which is perceived here as a little pepper. The wine is fresh with plenty of zip and naturally low in alcohol. Aromas of violet & tea open to blackberry and tart plums. Tons of acid and dark black fruits with a nice crunchy mouth feel. Light oak treatment.

 

Chateau des Moulins, Médoc Bordeaux

  • The Château des Moulins has belonged to the Prevosteau family for 6 generations. They succeeded the monks of the Abbey of Vertheuil who had started cultivating vines in the 11th Century.

  • The current owner, Jean Charles Prevosteau took over the operation in 1992 with just 8.5 acres of vines in the Médoc (the left bank of the river Gironde). He expanded the property to nearly 35 acres today: 22 in Médoc with Château des Moulins (the original estate) and around 12 in Haut Médoc w/ Château Moulin des Moines Cru Bourgeois, which is his new/newer vineyard in the hills.

  • Château des Moulins has been Certified in High Environmental Value level 3 since 2019 for the preservation and respect of the environment.

  • Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot blend

 

Many of you may know how much I admire & love drinking good Bordeaux wines. If I could swing it, my wife and I would happily drink more of them. At one time I had a nice little cellar full of good to great vintages of sorta medium-priced Bordeaux but they went into the belly & bloodstream largely during the great recession of ’08 & ’09. Finished the rest of them off during pandemic ’19 thru ’21 and they really seemed to help a lot!

Seriously, wines that I used to buy for $11 to $30 each now cost around $25 to $90 for the same exact producers/bottles. I know you’ve heard that before in maybe forty four other categories of consumer products but the French really take it to the next level. There are only so many acres grown there and made into decent quality Bordeaux, and real $ demand has increased in the last decade, especially at the top end. For example, Chateau Mouton Rothschild goes for over $700 per. Just ask Jane if you want to go there & she’ll find you a bottle or two : = )

2019 was a solid year for Bordeaux on the 100 pt scale at 92 to 95 depending on who’s tasted them critically.
https://www.winespectator.com/vintage-charts/region/bordeaux-left-bank-reds-medoc-pessac-leognan

This wine is balanced for near-term serious drinking but also able to lay down for another 5 to 10yrs easy.

 $14.99 a bottle retail, minus your club price: $13.50 each & 3 for $40.

Cheers,
Eric

 

* I found this explanation of tannins and think it explains it better than I ever could. The last line is what I think of re: tannins – the mouth feel.

Tannins In 60 Seconds:

  • Tannins are naturally occurring phenolic compounds found in many kinds of plants, including a grape’s skins, stems, and seeds.

  • Tannins help provide texture, balance, and structure to wine.

  • Both red and white grapes have tannins, but the intensity and characteristics vary.

  • Tannins are found in foods and beverages, like coffee and chocolate, as well as in the wood used in wine barrels.

  • Wines with high levels of tannins can age for decades.

What are Tannins?

Tannins are naturally occurring chemical compounds, known as polyphenols, found in many plants. In grapes, these compounds are found in the skin, seeds, and stems, and act as a defense mechanism against animals and insects. When it comes to aging wines, tannins can be imparted by wood barrels. Foods and beverages such as tea, dark chocolate, nuts, and coffee also contain tannins.

What Do Tannins Taste and Feel Like?

Tannins have more of a texture and feel than a specific flavor. Depending on how intense the tannins are, you may experience a temporary puckering or drying sensation that some liken to the astringent sensation of eating an unripe piece of fruit or drinking a cup of strong black tea. Tannins can also differ in texture and mouthfeel — from soft and silky to aggressive and grainy.

What is a Natural Wine?

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Last week a customer asked about “Natural Wines” and I wanted to give a more nuanced take on the subject. It’s a thing now, wines labeled as natural or organic. What exactly does that mean? I think it means several things but I need to point out that all wines bottled and on the shelves at D. Schuler’s are naturally made. No one adds chemicals, preservatives or coloring to good winemaking. Remember that there are a lot of words that have been perhaps invented by some marketing department. Wine is grape juice, a little yeast and a controlled container. It’s been done this way for centuries. Beer is also very simply-made in a similarly natural fashion. It’s possible that large, industrial-sized wineries (looking at you Gallo) use some chemicals in their productions but I seriously doubt it. It’s too easy to make wine the old-fashioned way.

When it comes to creating natural wine there are perhaps more challenges posed than when making conventional wine. Without the protection of fungicides, herbicides or pesticides the farm is subject to that often cruel matriarch, Mother Nature. This means that if it is unusually hot, cold, dry or wet that year (and it usually is at least one of those things) or if the grapes fall prey to any disease this will enormously affect that year’s vintage.

This begs the question, why bother? The answer is two-fold; firstly because natural winemakers all hold the same belief that farming should leave the land in the same or better condition than it was found in. Secondly, all this work goes to create a wine that truly reflects the berries it comes from and the region it is grown in. This intangible and mysterious quality is lost when grapes are subject to heavy manipulation. A natural wine tastes a certain way because that how nature decided it should.

In the vineyard itself are several obvious candidates for some form of chemical interaction. However, here in the 21st century are the younger generations of vineyard managers & small farmers who wouldn’t even think about adding herbicides or pesticide chemicals to their farms. I don’t think that’s an issue with 90+% of the wines in the market.

The other, smaller issue is in the use of tractors inside the rows. You don’t want to have to have them going up & down row after row spewing diesel fumes & dust on my precious grapeskins. We really don’t want that. Keep the farm clean, clean, clean. Even if it means a few weeds growing inside the rows, we’re not gonna poison them or mow them. As mentioned above, for the vast majority of wineries would not have the gall to allow sloppy vineyard practices for their wines. Their long-term reputation depends on absolute integrity of their products. You can’t sell junk in the competitive marketplace and besides, Jane would never buy junk for the store shelves.

Organic practices – once the juice is converted into wine it has to settle any solid material left in the tank. Wine is pumped off the top of the tank and the settled material is shoveled & washed out. The wine at this point is slightly cloudy and is sometimes filtered with organic material such as egg whites. Not exactly vegan, is it? Are they organic eggs?

You’ll see the word “organic” on any given label but unless it’s also labeled as “Unfined and Unfiltered,” I find myself suspicious of what else that might mean for the juice in the bottle. Could it be that the winery doesn’t use soap & cleaning agents to sanitize itself? That might not be a great idea… Could it be that the use of sulfur is not allowed before the fermentation starts as you do not want to disrupt the natural yeast? This can be quite difficult as if you have any bad yeasts airborne in the cellar, many problems of fermentation can occur. There are some producers who will use sulfur in very small amounts and others who chose to use 0. If you are not able to follow the whole wine making process very closely the chances of having some kind of problem in the fermentation or even with the aging is quite possible.

Could it be one of the biggest challenges for this winemaking style, are the uncertainty of indigenous yeasts? Yeasts colonize and breed in any environment. You have hundreds if not thousands of types of Saccharomyces yeasts. These yeasts breed and create many different types of offspring, some of them good and many of them problematic. The ideal strain best suited for winemaking is Saccharomyces Cerevisiae. The problem in working with wild yeasts is that they, as the name suggests, wild and cannot be controlled. In a wild environment when you have many of these problematic yeasts the amount of uncontrollable flaws can easily get out of hand. Some of those typical flaws are volatile acidity, mouse, brettanomyces, as well as stopped fermentation due to tired yeasts. If any of these flaws appear in the finished wine your entire business model for the year is totally dead.

Finally, if the harvest is super weak in either sugar-content or lacking a nice solid acid content, the juice can be manipulated by acidifying or added sugar for the yeasts to eat and turn into alcoholic molecules. This is more common in the manufacturing of mass quantities and typically only used in poor vintages as a means for the manufacturer to keep the mega business model rolling along. The winery’s chemistry team would have to balance the sugar / acid proportions in order to keep the wine balanced & steady this year’s budget for the corporation. I can think of supermarkets and big-box stores that would carry these manipulated wines but again, you really won’t find these science-projects in our store. 

Unlike products with the certified organic label, which must adhere to a clear and regulated set of federal requirements, natural wine is at best the result of a set of well-intentioned, voluntary production principles: use organically farmed grapes; don’t add anything (like cultured yeast) or modify anything (like acidity levels) during the fermentation process; don’t filter the final product (so as to retain its funky natural flavors and microbes); and add few to no sulfites (chemicals naturally produced during the fermentation process or added to preserve freshness or minimize oxidation).

At worst, natural wine is a marketing buzzword, capitalizing on a hugely popular cultural trend. However, the term “natural” is not regulated, so if a company tells you they’re selling natural wine, it’s impossible to know what they’re actually claiming

Cheers,
Eric

French Wine Regions/Loire Valley

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French wine is a riddle that requires patience and some basic understanding of geography to begin to get a handle on. Currently trending with a wide variety of consumers, one might wonder if its popularity is due to it being an ancient wine-growing region steeped in tradition. Or is it the unpronounceable names and higher prices that have made them so popular? Perhaps it is a little of both =)

I’ll take it slow with one region at a time to try and explain what’s going on there, but there’s no way can I fully cover this huge subject in a blog so feel free to hit me with questions while in the store. Jane has found some amazing bottles at very reasonable prices and we’re excited to share them with you.

One of the first things to understand is that many European wines are named after the region or nearby town that the grapes were grown in. For example, Alsace and Burgundy are each regions of the country. These 17 wine-growing regions are similar to our 50 states. If we named bottles like that here the label might simply read “Michigan” or “Rockford.” Many times the grapes that are grown in that particular region are listed on the back label. In other instances you’re just supposed to know what grapes are traditionally in a red bottle of Burgundy (Pinot Noir).

Many of the largest French producers buy their grapes from farmers scattered around the region. Sometimes they’ve worked with these producers for several generations of growers. If the winery grows their own grapes, the bottle is labeled either:

  • Mis en Bouteille au Château

  • Mis en Bouteille a la Propriete

  • Mis en Bouteille au Domaine

Generally this is an indicator of a better bottle of wine

The first region we’ll cover here is the Loire Valley. This big wine growing region surrounds the Loire River as in meanders across the middle of France. The primary white grapes here are either Chenin Blanc or Sauvignon Blanc.

The “county” inside the Loire Valley named Vouvray continuously bottles Chenin Blanc. The Champalou Winery bottle it using sustainable farming practice, and the Champalou family are masters of Loire Chenin Blanc. This off-dry wine, aged in stainless steel, represents their flagship cuvée. Gentle and refreshing on the palate, it boasts a delightful balance of stony minerality with luscious, almost honeyed fruit and flowery notes, making for easy pairing with all sorts of summer dishes.

The Sancerre sub-region is most famous for its Sauvignon Blanc. Comte LaFond Sancerre is an amazing example of Sauvignon Blanc. Expect flavors of green apple and tart pear with herbal and floral undertones that stand well against its sometimes slightly flinty and smoky minerality.

Sancerre also grows a few acres of Pinot Noir. Gitton Peres “les Heres” is from a single vineyard planted in 1965. A perfect, lighter summer red with fresh raspberries and violets and a crunchy texture. For your grilled burgers with sharp cheddar melted over grilled onions.

Cheers,
Eric

Masculine and Feminine Wines

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One of my favorite descriptors for a bottle of wine is masculine vs feminine. Is the wine “strong” or is it “softer”? Is this glass of wine “heavy” or is it perceived as “light”? Another way of thinking is to ask yourself while tasting, is this wine BIG (masculine) or is this a just little girl of a glass?

Both styles of wine have their place: at the bar, at the table with dinner, or at your campground/patio/poolside/boat this summer. Do I want a big, massive masculine wine on the patio @4:30 in the afternoon? No, I want a soft, feminine wine to get me to the next phase of the day. I don’t want to blast my palate so early. Do I want a soft, delicate white wine with my big-ass steak? Hell no. I guess my point is that BOTH styles work perfectly within their own space. It’s important when, where or how you are using them.

Are we sitting around cocktailing? I want a lighter, perhaps lower-alcohol wine to just chill with. The beer guys call this effect a “session-able” beer. Are we having a big grilled steak a little later that night? Bring on the bad-boy Cabernet Sauvignon! The reverse is also true: I don’t want the big red wine at 4:30 because everything I drink after that will taste super wimpy. You will be disappointed because your mouth just can’t go backwards. Conversely, if I’m sitting down to dinner with a slice of beautiful lasagna with meat sauce, I do not fricking want a little Pinot Grigio. The masculine qualities of the lasagna will totally overwhelm the softness of PG. We seek in all things balance. Balance within wine/ food pairings is the subject of another blog, another time - but the next time you’re tasting, ask yourself, “is this masculine wine or is it feminine on the palate?” The answer should determine that wine’s space.

Naturally, the question becomes which are the masculine & the feminine wines at D. Schulers? How do you tell the difference ? Largely, bottles are pretty consistent in this way because of their grape varietal. For example, every Pinot Grigio is pretty light. Every Rose, every Chenin Blanc, every Pinot Blanc. These are pretty soft and delicate wines. Most Sauvignon Blancs and Rieslings are also soft but some have such high alcohol levels (looking at you, New Zealand) they bleed into a slightly more “masculine”-feel. Lighter reds generally are Gamay Beaujolais, most Grenache, most Barbaresco, Cabernet Franc from central France. Most Chianti. Some Riojas from Spain are perceived as lighter; here look for Crianzas (younger, low oak wines). Pinot Noir is a minx in that it can be either masculine or feminine but generally lighter than most red grapes.

Any other red grapes are generally masculine. The whole family of Cabernet: Merlot, Malbec & Sauvignon are always bigger. Syrah, Zinfandel, Malbec, and Barolo are always monsters. Whites that are more masculine in style are primarily Chardonnay – it really is its own mixed-up self in that winemakers all over the world can’t make up their damn minds whether it is a masculine or feminine grape. Most of the French or Italian imports are softer and lighter and for many years, California made these big, blow-you-away Chardonnays with huge alcohol and layer upon layer of sweet oak. You can’t tell from the California label if this bottle is big or small. If the Chard says un-oaked on it, that’s the feminine one. Otherwise, there’s no telling if the Cali Chard is one way or the other.

Cheers,
Eric

Wine of the Month Club @ D.Schuler’s

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We have had a soft roll-out of the Wine Club over the last couple of weeks; now we’re full-go starting in May. It goes like this – sign up with your email, phone number and name. Every time you buy either a single bottle of the wines of the month (WoM) or min. 3 bottles you get 10% off the marked price. Give us your name at the register and we’ll discount the wine. Simple huh?

We’re offering 3 very nice wines for May WoM:

Chardonnay
Harken 2020 Barrel-Fermented CA 2020 |
Shelf 12.99/11.69 Club Cost
Barrel fermentation makes this a very rich, creamy Chard with surprising balance between all the oak and the big orange & tangerine sweet fruits. Not for the faint of heart, you either love big fat Chardonnay or you don’t - this one is a cocktailing bottle, not so much with dinner. 

Pinot Grigio
Ornella Molon – Venetia, IT 2021
13.79/12.41       
Crispy mouthwatering acids & a light, feminine mouthfeel, tasting green apple, lemons with minerality. Grown in ancient vineyards near Venice

Red Blend
Jax Vineyards Y3 “Taureau” – Napa 2020
28.99 / 26.09       
Red Flowers on the nose. Bright and lively up front with a nice freshness, this blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Franc has some serious stamina in its tense floral notes over the sweetness of its light to medium oak. The tannins are soft and polished beneath the blackberry and black cherries. Your grilled beef should be so lucky to be paired with this Taurus of a bull wine – burgers work just as well as ribeyes!

May is also Michigan Wine Month – you’ll probably see it advertised everywhere in restaurants, all sponsored by the Michigan Wine Council. They really do a great job of promoting our fine state’s grape farmers. Check out some new offerings in the store from 2 Lads, Aurora, Verterra or others. We also bought most of our annual allocation of Brys Estate wines. All fresh vintage bottles - the excellent Dry Riesling is 100% estate-grown fruit from their 8.3 acres on the Old Mission Peninsula. 

Cheers,
Eric

Cocktail Class 201: New York Bars

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The Mrs and I recently got back from a weekend in New York. It was a boozy weekend and I wanted to share with you some cocktail ideas that I saw there.

The bars are spilling into the streets since Covid, making the sidewalks even more slim and the streets super narrow, all squeezed between the tall buildings. No way I could drive there, let alone park my vehicle. Crazy.

The intimacy inside these makeshift street bars makes for terrific intoxicated conversation! One of my take-aways was that every bar had your classic cocktails. There were a couple interesting things other than the classics but everyone had a variation of a Margarita, of a Manhattan, or a riff on the Aviation with a slightly different twist and a clever name.

Basics, right ?

Two things set off these drinks from one another, beyond the cool names: syrup.

Simple syrup is just that : 1 cup of water boiling, add 1 cup of sugar, stir till dissolved, put into an empty bottle and refrigerate. Stays nice, clear and sweet for a couple of months in the fridge.

These bartenders make their syrups daily. For example, they might be using fresh mint & a steeped mint tea bag for a mint syrup; squeezing fresh lemons & limes and putting that juice in a boil with sugar; pineapple syrup; fresh raspberry syrup. Endless variations of this syrup thing. Remember; you’re measuring this out carefully and tasting the drink until it’s just barely sweetened. For balance.

The other commonality among these drink menus is high quality ingredients. No cheap-out bottles of gin to be found. Lesser brands are not used and the bartenders are very aware of what brand of vodka the bar down the street is using. What is the competitive bar pouring for bourbon? I asked for a marg with Correllejo tequila and was told to go down the street  if that’s what I had to have. “We pour Patron.” Well, OK then…

Less is more and if you’re going to pour your guests at home a drink, you might as well pour them a dang good one. You just need fresh fruit, a fun syrup or two, a classic recipe and one or two bad ass bottles of liquor to share. Don’t forget the ice =)

Cheers,
Eric

Fear of Wine

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There are many reasons to shy away from buying a bottle of wine in a shop like D. Schulers. The 10 thousand bottles in the market to try to choose from is just one of them – it’s simply overwhelming. Cost, unpronounceable words, obscure regions of foreign countries are also parts of the anxiety of picking the WRONG bottle to buy. Just opening a bottle with a corkscrew can be scary AF the first dozen times you use one.

What often happens is that you fall in love with a glass of wine at a restaurant. Another time you might be touring the Leelanau peninsula, stop in to a local winery on a lark and taste something spectacular. Maybe you’re at a party at a friend’s house and they pour a glass for you and the heavens part, the angels sing, etc. You fall in love with a wine and just have to find that exact bottle to try to recreate that experience. It’s gotta be that particular bottle because that’s the first and only wine that you really flipped out over. We see this behavior almost every day and even though you took a picture of the label and know exactly what you’re looking for, you might leave the store unsatisfied because that wine is not available or not in stock on the shelves. We can always order something special for you if it’s available to our distributors in Michigan. But understand that the human response of the “angels singing” while tasting something is heavily influenced by where you are in that moment and who you’re with. Maybe you just got a raise or had a hot date. Leelanau is freaking beautiful. The French call this effect “en place.” Your joyful human sensory experience is strongly correlated to your place in the moment.

There is another way of almost finding that same wonderful wine experience. You should know that every Cabernet Sauvignon tastes perhaps 90% like any other bottle of Cabernet. Sancerre tastes like Sancerre. Riesling is Riesling. A bottle of Chianti from one producer tastes very similar to any other good producer provided the wine is made correctly. If you have a picture of the label we can see the wine that you fell in love with is from X part of the world, made from Y grape and in the Z price range. I’m not stating that a $10 bottle tastes exactly like a $100 bottle but the similarities of apples to apples might surprise you. There’s only one way to find out though. Taste it!

The other complicating factor in tasting new wines is the shock of alcohol on your tongue. Maybe you just brushed your teeth with Colgate before you drank that Chardonnay. Maybe you still have peanut butter on your breath. Maybe you just had a Manhattan and then switched to wine at dinner. That first sip is always a shock to your sensory system - it’s not ready to switch gears all of a sudden. The second sip starts to make sense to your monkey brain. You can’t really judge on the first sip as you’re not ready to make that assessment. The second mouthful of wine is when your senses start to catch up with what’s happening on your tongue. Again, this applies to any beer or cocktail as you first taste - don’t jump to conclusions until after the second taste. 

To take a chance on a bottle of wine when there is no guarantee that you’ll enjoy takes a leap of faith. You should try regardless as practice makes perfect! Rome wasn’t built in a day. It takes several bottles of trial and error to really hone-in on what you do like to drink. If it were genuinely a lousy wine or poorly made it would not be on the shelves at Schulers, period. This is the same advice (keep trying) I would give to someone just starting out with beer or Tequila (or coffee for that matter). No two people have the same taste preferences which is why there are 10 thousand bottles. This bottle or that bottle is maybe not right for you but someone else will totally flip out while tasting it. I know many people who have found their wine groove with just a little patience and persistence. 

Cheers,
Eric

Sparkling Wines Are Good For You

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, “I don’t like champagne, it always gives me a headache.” Well sure it does – all alcoholic beverages will give you one if you drink too much, right? Perhaps your most recent memory of drinking “champagne” was at a wedding reception or New Year’s Eve and you did drink too much. Be honest here = ) 

Sparkling wine makes up only 6% of US wine consumption. That tiny number hasn’t changed much in 50 years. We just don’t drink much of it, and I swear at least half of that figure must be from weddings. The Euros drink slightly more as a percentage of the market. Also keep in mind that due to the bubbles you can’t drink as much in one sitting as you might another wine. 

Part of what makes beer so fun and potent is the carbonation. Carbon dioxide acts as a booster and causes alcohol to enter the bloodstream faster. The bubbles bring on the buzz, which is why drinking beer with just 5% abv can have a strong buzz effect. If you drank wine with 5-8% alcohol it would taste weak and have very little effect. Still wine is typically 11-14% and has a similar buzz as a beer per drink – because of the CO2.  You find the same booster effect from sparkling wines as they are typically 10-11.5% alcohol. It can go right to your head in a hurry. 

Everyone has heard that in order to call wine champagne it has to be made in the Champagne region of France. The reason for this rule is solely the French chauvinists needing to be validated. The idea that their bottles are authentic and any other sparkling wine from elsewhere is inferior to theirs is simply wrong. Remember, we’re Americans and have a 1st amendment right to call it whatever the heck we want to call it! The Italians call it Prosecco. In Spain it’s called Cava. Elsewhere in France they produce a sparkling wine called Vin Mousseux. All of these delicious wines go through a second fermentation inside each heavily reinforced glass bottle. Each bottle is then re-corked before being shipped to the store. All of that time and labor (making the wine & then re-fermenting it) is primarily why they cost a few bucks more as well.

As far as what glass to serve sparkling wine in, there are also some misconceptions. Hollywood in the black & white era gave us the forever image of Cary Grant pouring champagne into a coupe glass.

The shallow bowl here is really terrific for fancy cocktails but allows the CO2 bubbles to dissipate quickly. The shallowness also makes the champagne warm a little faster. A flute or tear-drop shape is better at holding the gas in the wine longer and keeping it slightly colder, provided you’re holding it in your hand the correct way by the handle on that glass (otherwise known as the stem). This keeps the warmth of your touch away from the cold beverage.

Cheers,
Eric

Cocktails 101: Balance

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I used to challenge my bartenders to create cocktails that we could feature at restaurants I was running as GM at the time. I encouraged them to come up with their own creations, experimenting with whatever ingredients and ideas they may have had. We would then taste them as a team, tweaking various elements of the drink until it was just right. 

Here are some elements to be considered when seeking a balance in any cocktail:

  1. Heat (often from the alcohol, sometimes thought of as a spiciness)

  2. Sweetness (sugar typically coming from either a liqueur, syrup or fruit juice)

  3. Acidity (often from the fruit, juices, and some liqueurs)

  4. Savory and herbal qualities

Each of these elements have to be blended and balanced with one another to reach a perfect harmony. Otherwise the sour overwhelms the sweet, the heat overwhelms more delicate floral notes, the smokiness clouds other subtleties, etc., and the drink becomes one-dimensional. Some primary liquors used in cocktails are more neutral (vodka, silver tequila, or white rums) and benefit from adding a savory element. Other liquor (whiskey, gins, aged tequila and mezcal) are more savory and not as easily influenced by more delicate additions. That said, often a little goes a long way in these cocktails.

A good customer came into the store the other day to buy some Crème de Violet to make a classic Aviation. Here’s a good recipe from punchdrink.com:

AVIATION COCKTAIL, COURTESY OF PUNCHDRINK.COM

INGREDIENTS
Serving: 1

  • 2 ounces gin

  • 1/4 ounce maraschino liqueur (preferably Luxardo)

  • 1/2 ounce lemon juice

  • 1/4 ounce crème de violette (or 1/4 ounce simple syrup)

Garnish: brandied cherry (preferably Luxardo)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker.

  2. Fill shaker with ice and shake until chilled.

  3. Strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass.

  4. Garnish with a brandied cherry.

EDITOR'S NOTE
The Aviation can be a tricky cocktail to balance depending on the type of gin, quality of citrus and sweetness of the crème de violette. PUNCH prefers a mild, full-bodied gin like Plymouth. Don't be shy—test the cocktail before straining and serving to ensure a balanced drink. Adjust with a dash of simple syrup or citrus accordingly.

The customer asked me what else he could use the crème for violette for. I suggested that he create his own using these elements of balance with whatever neutral vodka or white rum he had at home… or just put a half an ounce into a glass of champagne or prosecco, a lemon twist and have a nice day!
Cheers,
Eric

The Heartbreak Grape aka “Sideways”

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Jancis Robinson says, “Pinot Noir is a minx of a vine. Inarguably feminine, if not female. This is a completely exasperating variety for grower, wine makers and wine drinker alike. It leads us to a terrible dance, tantalizing with an occasional glimpse of the riches in store for those who persevere, yet obstinately refusing to be tamed.” In other words: difficult to grow, difficult to turn into wine and let’s face it, difficult to find a good bottle of it in a wine store.

Pinot Noir literally means “little black.” The berries are tiny, maybe 1/3rd or 1/4th the size of any local green grocery-store grape you might see. This means a smaller ratio of liquid to skin and a larger proportion of skin mass to pulp. This is important to wine makers as the skin is where all the (black) color comes from and where all the crispy tannin lives. The pulp inside of the berry is over 90% water and sugar. Concentration – the balance of which is a two-
sided sword for the winemaker.

Cardwell Hill PN Estate 2021 “Fenders Blue” Willamette Oregon
The Fenders Blue butterfly is a protected species found in specific areas of Benton County, Oregon, about an hour south of Portland. Cardwell Hill Cellars has one of these dedicated sites. It’s a family-owned, hippie-ish winery (it’s Oregon, after all) producing over 8,000 cases per year. Sustainable agriculture practices are used to achieve very nice fruit that’s hand harvested - no machines! Their practices are certified sustainable by LIVE (Low Impact Viticulture and Enology).

Diora “la Petite Grace” PN 2019 Monterey County Cali
Unfolds with big layers of chocolate-covered cherries and just a hint of crunchy sage spice. These grapes were cropped from a single vineyard site called San Bernarbe with several unique Pinot vineyards: warmer sites inside giving bigger, more fat fruit and several cooler sites giving more acid to perfectly balance the blend.

Finding the tradeoff for value Pinot vs. true bougie Pinot is the real challenge for the consumer (and Jane, owner & wine buyer). What is the balancing point? Sure you can spend considerably more money to perhaps get better-tasting wine, but at what trade off ($$)? Everyone has a different answer to that question certainly but we tend to think value first. The more sustainably grown and produced, the better. Be assured, D.Schulers will NOT sleep until we find the perfect bottle of Pinot Noir =)

Cheers,
Eric

Argentina’s Gift to the World

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Argentina specializes in red wine made from the Malbec grape. If you’re not familiar with this varietal, you’re not alone. It’s primarily grown in a small corner of France called Cahors. The Argentine version just shines - inky black with a nose of crushed roses and flavors of plum and big blackberry.

The primary growing region here is called Mendoza with several sub-regions within. Mendoza is at the foothills of the Andes mountains with vineyards sitting between 2000-4000 ft above sea level, some of the highest in the world. These vines are generally growing above the cloud line meaning they get full sun every day with minimal hydration for the vines coming only from irrigation provided by mountaintop snow melt. Above the clouds means no rainfall. It’s this very dry condition and unlimited sunshine that Malbec grooves on. We have two gems of Malbec on the shelves that I’ll share with you:

Riccitelli “The Party” Malbec 2020 – Uco Valley, Mendoza $25.59
This micro-producer has recently come into the US with freaking sensational bottles. This one uses the hipster techniques of whole cluster fermentation (crushed by human feet!) and inert concrete egg-shaped vessels instead of oak barrels to age the finished wine. The result is a freshness and vibrancy in the fruit notes. Think bing cherry, black plums and a little licorice. 

Dona Paula Estate Malbec 2021 – Uco Valley, Mendoza $18.59
Harvested from two vineyards the winery owns and manages at 4000 ft over sea level; certified sustainable using the latest international standards of sustainability. The Malbec clusters are cold-soaked prior to fermentation and aged 12 months largely in neutral oak barrels. Black fruits and violets on the nose followed by good concentration with a slight mineral-quality spiciness on the tongue - great freshness & elegant balance. This bottle scores 90 points with wine publications and wine critics year after year. 

Some of you in the store have heard me talk about consistency for any wine maker and how important I think that is. If the wine maker makes only one wine, it’s kind of slam dunk easy to make one good wine. Making several different bottlings of consistent quality, year after year after year requires real skill. There are so many excellent and consistent wines on the shelves at D. Schuler’s – just ask. 

Cheers,
Eric

Best Buy Bordeaux

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What is an affordable Bordeaux and who the heck cares? To start with, the history surrounding the Bordeaux region is intense. Vineyards were originally planted between 43-71ad by Roman Soldiers (according to Pliny the Elder) and within 500 years became France’s #1 agricultural export. This crazy-rich farmland consists of two river valleys converging into one, the Gironde which becomes a river estuary & a massive natural port onto the Atlantic. After the marriage of Henry Plantagenet & Alienor of Aquitaine in the 12th century, commercial production of red & white wines blew up.

Red vineyards make up 90% of the plantings in Bordeaux with a few sneaky good whites also being produced there. The wines are generally more light-bodied than you’d expect but as you dive a little deeper into the glass they start to really shine. The sexy balance of fruit, acid and texture (mouth-feel) is a hallmark of these bottles. That lightness on the palate makes for super food-friendly bottles; perhaps better with dinner than as a cocktail. This region can also have legit lousy-growing vintages due to early season frost killing the buds or heavy rainfall, but global warming is having a beneficial effect as of late. Warmer growing seasons lead to more consistent harvests and bigger fruit profiles in the juice.

Chateau de Bernadon 2017 ($21.99)
Tightly wound core of blackberry and bramble, surprising length. Gold medal 2019 Concours de Bordeaux. This one could sit in the cellar for a couple of years and only improve.

Chateau Haut Tornezy 2019 ($11.99)
Nice dry simple red for that burger on a random Tuesday night. Jane found a steal of a deal at this price!

Bio-dynamic and organic vineyard practices are being implemented in Bordeaux more slowly than elsewhere in France. They have way too much invested in the hundreds of years of tradition to disregard what has been working for this new hippie winemaking “trend.” I think they’ll eventually find a way to adopt their own buzzword for whatever sustainable farming standards the very conservative governors there all end up agreeing to. 

Cheers,
Eric

Michigan Riesling

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Editor’s Note: This is the first in a new series of blog posts we will be sharing, primarily focused on wine and written by our very own Eric Teasley, a sommelier and Certified Wine Educator. - Allan

In any given year Michigan produces some killer Rieslings. We can visit these romantic, beautiful wineries when we’re “up-north,” but tend to forget them when shopping for a bottle at home. Are they serious wines or not?

They are more well-known outside of the state than you might guess. Bowers Harbor 2020 Riesling Medium-Dry just took Double Gold at the San Francisco Chronicle’s 2023 Wine Competition; the Arcturos 2021 Dry Riesling by Black Star Farms just took a Gold Medal – arguably the most respected and fought-over competition for American wines.

What I love about a good Riesling and these two bottles in particular is their balance. What’s critical in winemaking is to evenly weigh the quality of the fruit component in the mouth with the zippy acid component while also having a sense of texture or body. The ideal balance can be found in the union of these three points of a perfect triangle.

Many years in Michigan we get too much rain in the vineyard, diluting the juice. Any sense of body or mouth-feel imparted to the wine is literally watered-down by the rainfall. Both 2020 and 21 were dryer seasons, enabling the fruit to concentrate more flavors with less water in the berries. The  Black Star Farms Arcturos in particular, because it was made completely dry, has a lip-smacking acidic backbone that makes it super friendly to pair with food. The Bowers Harbor has slightly more residual sugar (lower alcohol) that just screams lemons and tangerines in the glass. Perfect for cocktailing but both are very fresh and fruity.

The other thing I love about these Michigan wines is the massively smaller carbon footprint that they represent. They weren’t shipped across the country from the West Coast or from across a vast ocean, burning a thousand gallons of diesel to get to D. Schuler’s store shelves. The beer guys talk all the time about “drinking local.” Wine people (aka winos) get that too! It can be slightly more challenging to find a great Michigan bottle but that’s what I’m here for – to steer you in the right direction around the overwhelming variety of the world of wines - and all the weird French words! Feel free to send us a message or ask me any questions while shopping, I’m happy to translate the complexities to common English.

Cheers,
Eric

"I Don't Trust Air I Can't See"

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Captain Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman)

One of our favorite Smoky Quotes comes from "Crimson Tide" character Commanding Officer Captain Frank Ramsey (Gene Hackman) aboard the U.S. nuclear submarine USS Alabama. 

 
“I don’t trust air I can’t see.”
— Capt. Frank Ramsey (Smoking a cigar aboard the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine USS Alabama)

Abraham Lincoln on Vices and Virtues

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Abraham Lincoln is one of the most beloved presidents in history and politics.

Known as "the boy who could not tell a lie" but man, could he give soaring speeches. Abe Lincoln remains one of the most venerated heroes in American history to this day. 

 
“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues”
— Abraham Lincoln