wine book club

2000 Cline Vineyards

2000 Cline “Oakley”
California Vin Gris
If your gonna drink pink, then you may want to think “Vin Gris”. A rose made in the fresh and dry style of the Rhone Valley’s famous pink wines. A nice strawberry brightness that is balanced with some dusty earth and a dryness that will work rather well with summer time appetizers. This is for the folks who want to finally drop the white Zin and step up to a more sophisticated style. Count me in for a couple bottles next to the pool this summer.
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2001 Cline Vineyards

2001 Cline Sonoma County
Pinot Gris/Chardonnay
Pleasant and lively medium-bodied mouth feel with bright pear and smooth melon on the finish. Has a balanced roundness that shows the Pinot Gris’s ability to present its fuller side. A bit of vanilla from the oak aged Chardonnay makes for a perfect $11 bottle that never lets you down. The blend is 64% Pinot Gris and 36% Chardonnay. All southern Sonoma County fruit produced 5,752 cases.
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2000 Seven Devils Red

Hells Canyon
2000 “Seven Devils Red” Table Wine
Profoundly juicy concentrated fruit showing lots of deep blackberry and loganberry flavors, with medium tannins and a chewy, robust thickness that proves this blend is serious.

Dark purple with nice traces of tobacco and a leathery grip that balances out the fruit and ads some complexity into a really great blend. A lighter cherry brightness starts to creep in while I let this wine sit in my glass for a good 15 minutes, and a gentle black olive taste starts to get all over the roof of my mouth.
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All about the cork

It may well be the least exciting and uninteresting part of learning about wine, but come on, if that little piece of tree bark wasn’t shoved in the bottle what do you think would hold in all that juice you inevitably want to get at? Screwcaps? They are out there. Pieces of leather covered with a wax seal? It’s been done before (150 years ago). So realize, it’s all about the cork my friend.

Corks have hundreds of years of history behind them as bottle stopping devices. They have the ability to compress and expand, they transmit no flavor into the liquid (unless tainted), and with it’s elasticity can (while moist) keep an air tight seal for decades in a bottle. The cork is made from the bark off a type of oak tree found in Spain and Portugal known as Quercus suber.
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Restaurant Wine Service

Restaurant Servers’ Damn Guide to Serving Wine
Yea, this is for the readers who work in a restaurant and have had a question about proper wine service. It is definitely one of the service issues that can be pushed aside when a manager or trainer does not have a complete grasp on it themselves, or might concentrate the training mostly on food service and forget about beverage service.

The worst case scenario is a new server with out much wine training or knowledge, just getting the bottle that was ordered and giving it the old college try at the table. The bottle could go between the legs for leverage, no taste is poured for the host, and the cork ends up split in half and quickly hid in the servers’ pocket out of embarrassment. This could go unnoticed by the restaurant manager at a busy establishment, and the server just crosses their fingers that no more smucks order wine by the bottle. Hell, not presenting the wine list can take care of that sometimes.
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Opening the Thing Correctly

Openin’ Some Bottles

It is nice to select a special bottle from a good wine list and have the waiter or waitress open it and successfully pour it for you, but when it’s your turn to open the bottle for your girl or guy, you better be ready. Now don’t be afraid and run the other way, just do it a couple of times and you will be confident enough to do it a hundred more times.

We will talk about opening a regular bottle of still wine and leave the sparkling wine, with the cork that shoots out, for later.
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Bordeaux Wines

Well, the consensus is in from all of the powerhouse wine critics/writers and industry insiders who were able to attend tastings of barrel samples from some of the best Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot/Cabernet Franc producers on the planet. I happened to miss out on the fun because the DamnGoodWine executives decided to spend my airfare on some recent excursions to Morton’s and Ruth’s Chris Steak House, but enough about us, lets get into some wine.
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Oregon Wines

You might not have had the chance, or even thought about looking to the beautiful Pacific Northwest for your last purchase of wine. Well it is understandable. If you are not from the area you might not know that there are 153 wineries in Oregon producing quality wine, and trying to get the word out to you and the rest of the world. Many wine writers have talked about “Discovering the wines of Oregon”. Well maybe we are still busy discovering the wines of Australia, Chile, New Zealand, Spain, New York and South Africa. That’s all fine and well, just drop all of them for now and lets look at Pinot Noir country. (o.k. Chard country too)
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Shiraz Wines

Shiraz is Happenin

It is a happenin’ wine varietal now and it has been for the last five years in the retail sector (it has won over many California Cabernet, Zin, and Merlot drinkers) and on fine wine lists nation wide. Shiraz is the most widely planted red grape in Australia and the selection offered to the world market has been growing over the last few years. Shiraz is a great wine grape. Get to know it if you enjoy red wine, and get used to talking about Australia when you are talking wine with your wine-appreciating friends. If you have any; wine drinking friends that is.

Shiraz is a nice blackberryish, plummy, full-to-medium bodied, peppery, dark purple mouth filling, intensely interesting red wine. It is age-worthy in many cases but mostly ready to drink on arrival. Shiraz gets a lot of coverage now and I think it will keep emerging as one of the main players fighting for shelf space in the next ten years.
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St. Clement wine clubs

St. Clement Vineyards offers three Wines Clubs to provide the selection and shipment schedule right for you. See the links below for more details on each club.

Member Benefits

• Wine Club shipments are conveniently delivered to your home or work at 10% off list prices, plus shipping and tax where applicable.
• A complimentary 6-month subscription to Wine Spectator magazine.
• A 20% discount on all orders of current release wines.
• A 10% discount on all merchandise orders.
• Complimentary tastings in the beautiful and historic Rosenbaum House.
• Private winery tours with barrel sampling, available by reservation only.
• Newsletters with notes from the winery, as well as recipes for food pairing ideas.
• Invitations to all open houses, pre-releases parties, and Member-Only events.
• Use of our stone terrace picnic area overlooking the Napa Valley, availability upon request.

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