We are so happy, so very pleased indeed, that we'll be opening special treats for you this Saturday, October 12, from 2pm to 6pm. Every year we'll show our appreciation for you, our dear customers and friends, with a special tasting, one might say a "grand" tasting, where we'll pour a few wines from our personal stocks next to a smorgasbord of exciting current releases. Everything will not be open at once, so you may not get to taste everything, but we will try to spread the gems around. Check out the spectacular lineup below.
Rives Blanques Blanquette de Limoux 2016 - We recently got an interesting question about pressure in a bottle of sparkling wine, which led us to the discovery that this bottle may have the most pressure (6.89 bars!) out of all the sparkling wines on our shelves. It's also just plain delicious and a history lesson (evidence indicates that Limoux made sparkling wine before Champagne).
Jean Vesselle Champagne Brut Reserve NV - Classic: notes of toast and brioche, pears, citrus and apples, touch of flowers and honey... it's everything you could ask for in a fine Champagne and it's incredibly reasonably priced for the region. One of Champagne's best under the radar growers, the Vesselle family deserves far more recognition.
Jerome Prevost Champagne Les Beguines 2009 - This 2009 Champagne is not for sale, just to taste, but we have a very small amount of 2016 Les Beguines to sell you. We pulled this mature example from our personal stocks just to share with you.
Falkenstein Saar Riesling Sekt Brut 2016 - You guys might know we love Falkenstein. No tasting would feel grand without them. We were pretty bummed when we didn't see a 2017 Falkenstein Sekt offered this year, but then we noticed that the local importer had plenty of 2016 left, so we stocked up. One of our favorite bottles from anywhere, this is not to be missed.
Trere Pignoletto 2018 - The wines above are heavy hitters, serious stuff. This lil' sweetheart is just a fun quaff, something easy. Light and slightly fizzy, it's hard to resist gulping.
Brokenwood Hunter Valley Semillon 2013 - We've got the 2018 on the shelf for, but this 2013 was pulled from our stocks. Hunter Valley Semillon is known to improve for decades. The last time I had this 2013 was a few years ago, and it had barely budged. I expect a fresh and lively wine that barely shows its age.
Verget Chablis 'Cuvee de la Butte' 2018 - A relatively powerful example of Chablis. The 2018 vintage was warm and this wine shows the season in its rich fruitiness without losing the classic minerality and acid cut that defines the regional style of Chablis. Simply delish, the kind of Chardonnay you want to serve blind to your Chard hating friends.
Foreau Vouvray Clos Naudin Sec 2016 - Contemporary Vouvray is well represented by a bevy of excellent growers and wineries, but many of them are relatively young. Foreau has been the source of some of the region's greatest wines since at least the mid-20th century, and to this day they continue to lead the pack next to a couple other notable names. Foreau's Sec (their dry, very dry, cuvee) is always worthwhile, but the 2016 vintage is simply phenomenal. This wine will last 20 years easily (how many dry white wines can you say that about?) and we'll open it up the day before to give it lots of air before you taste it (we could open it 3 days before and it would not suffer).
Perticaia Trebbiano Spoletino 2015 - One of Italy's most interesting white grapes, Trebbiano Spoletino is genetically distinct from all the other Trebbianos of Italy (they're everywhere), and along with Trebbiano Abruzzese (which, counterintuitively, does not figure into the composition of the majority of Trebbiano d'Abruzzo), is probably the best that go by this common name. In any case, we think that Perticaia's Trebbiano ages quite gracefully and we're looking forward to checking in on the progress of this 2015 (we've got the 2017 in stock).
Remoissenet Santenay 1er cru Les Gravieres 1969 - It's been a few years since I've had this wine, but it was a delicate and earthy old Pinot the last time. How often to do taste a 50 year old premier cru Burgundy? Don't have any of this to sell. It's just for YOU.
Thymiopoulos Xinomavro Young Vines 2017 - I've been wanting to bring this wine to Craft and Cru for some time. We love Xinomavro (one of Greece's most celebrated red grapes) and we sell a lot of the regular, more expensive, Thymiopoulos Xinomavro, so we're really looking forward to introducing this fresh and fruity version.
Castello la Leccia Toscana 'Vivaio del Cavaliere' 2018 - Everyone should buy a case of this wine to have around for guilt-free pizza and pasta guzzling. From some of Chianti Classico's finest certifed organic vines, we would choose this blend of Sangiovese and Malvasia Nera over many a classy Chianti Classico Riserva. It's made to be a fresh and juicy style for early consumption, but it will be worth keeping for at least a few more years. Unbelievable value here. Maybe you should get two cases?
Luis Pato Baga-Touriga Nacional 2015 - A bold and strident red for those who like dark fruit flavors and some tannic grip, this is one of our favorites right now. You guys may recognize the Pato name; we're big fans of father, Luis, and daughter, Filipa, who make some of Portugal's most compelling wines.
Ampeleia Ampeleia 2015 - Elisabetta Foradori is an immense talent; one of Italy's greatest growers and winemakers, responsible for international recognition of Teroldego, the signature red grape of her native Campo Rotaliano, in northern Trentino. She made her name at her family estate in Trentino, but today her most visible wines may be from Tuscany, where she works with friends at Ampeleia, on the sunny Tuscan coast. The flagship wine of Ampeleia has always been a blend of Cabernet Franc and Sangiovese, but with the 2015 vintage the Sangiovese is gone. Next to Domaine du Collier's fabulous Saumurs, the 2015 Ampeleia is the finest pure Cabernet Franc I've tasted in 2019. At some point, I expect a notable critic or two to publish a big review, and this wine will evaporate into thin air. You can taste the wine for yourself with us and be your own judge. Is this a wine to covet and hoard? We think so.
Floral Terranes - Today we got 12 of the hottest bottles in the biz: six of cider and six of Teroldego from Floral Terranes. In this topsy turvy 2019 world we live in, Long Island cider and Teroldego are highly allocated and our little haul represents half of the Floral Terranes coming to MA this year! What?! Yea. Darlings of the NY natural wine scene, this stuff has a rabid following and we're very curious to see what they're all about.