Ball Square Fine Wines

A Kamiak Conundrum

A fair to midland Tuesday at The Tasting Station for the Ball Square wine buying crew. The pace was easy to take with our vendors evenly spread and overall not a ton to taste.  This was a good thing as I was feeling significantly under the weather (sorry Asa those sparkling sakes just didn't hit me right AT ALL!).  Check out the score card below.

We did learn a few interesting factoids:

-Sebastiano de Corato of the Rivera winery in Puglia reminded us that the name of the Primitivo grape refers to its early ripening nature (thus first to be picked).

- A representative from the Graziano winery reported that the 2008 vintage in Mendocino County was a veritable disaster. Frost, Fire and Rain combined to make the crop virtually unusable. Much was left on the vines as "bird food". If you have a favorite Mendo wine stock up on the '07's!

We also encountered this rather sticky wicket:

Arik, our tall, dark and (humorously) sarcastic representative from Charles River Wine Company presented us with the new vintage (2007) of Kamiak red from Washington State. This had been eagerly anticipated as the 2006 was a huge hit at Ball Square Fine Wines. Kamiak is the second label of the Gordon Brothers winery and the '06 was a smooth and complex red that sold like hot cakes at $9.99 per bottle. The good news was that the '07 was the spitting image of its predecessor; cheery red fruits, light brushy earth and a hint of luxury that comes from aging in high quality oak barrels. The bad news was that the price would have to be $14.99, a full fiver over the '06. In reality it wasn't that the '07 had taken such a huge jump but that, for unknown reasons, the '06 had been priced unusually low by the winery....

The quandary for us is whether to put the new vintage of Kamiak (which also has a new, more minimal label and the name "Rock Lake" added) on the shelf and risk the perception that we jacked up the price, or choose not to stock it and deny our customers a perfectly good Washington state wine at a decent, if significantly higher, price.

Do you think we should go for it and stock the new Kamiak or hold out for another Washington wine to fill the $9.99 slot?

If a wine takes a price increase do you blame the store you bought it from or assume it was initiated further up the supply chain?

Total wines tasted: 47
Wines that made “the short list”: 4
One new addition you can look for: 04 Grazziano Carignane Mendocino

 

Mar 7, 2010 at 11:00 AM

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Special Tuesday with Leitz wines at Ball Square

Rebecca and I took our places at the Tasting Station this past Tuesday to do what it is we do every second day of the week: meet with our vendors and evaluate the wines they have in tow. The pace was like the weather, mostly calm with bursts of activity. (Check out our Score Card below.)

Tom “the Professor” Welch got things started at 10:30am sharp with a line-up that looked promising. Sanford Chardonnay had me reminiscing in “old man Dan” mode about how this wine used to be a “real player” before the world was inundated with a million similar wines; unfortunately it didn’t live up to the memory. The 2008 Brancott Pinot Noir from New Zealand earned points for being varietally correct and affordable (would be $11.99 on the shelf) while the Wyndam Estates Show Reserve Shiraz 2004 and the Marques de Murrieta Rioja Riserva 2005 didn’t succeed in floating our boats. We told Tom we’d look to add the Brancott when we had room on the shelf. The day continued with similar batting averages from Asa at Horizon, Dan from Café Europa and Kurt from Masciarelli Wine Company.

The predictable highlight of the day was (drumroll...) our 1:30pm appointment with Brian Lamb from Atlantic Imports and his special guest Johannes Leitz from Weingut Josef Leitz of the Rheingau region of Germany. Mr. Leitz was a classic European farmer/ artisan winemaker with mitts for hands, broad shoulders and an obvious passion for his life’s work. He brought a huge, three-panel, panoramic photograph of the vineyards he farms on the banks of the Mosel river and used it to explain how this uniquely situated hillside was ideal for growing Riesling. We tasted six of his wines which ranged from bone-dry (Eine Zwei Dry Trocken 2008 $15.99 retail) to full fruited (Rudesheimer Berg Schlossberg Spatlese 2007 $37.99 retail). All of his wines showed great purity, balance and finesse with varying degrees of minerallity, richness and vibrancy. I thought the Dragonstone (Rudesheimer Drachenstein) Riesling QBA 2008 at a suggested retail of $15.99 would be the best addition as it was affordable, easy drinking and had a cool, recognizable name. Rebecca preferred the Rudesheimer Klosterlay Kabinett 2008 $17.99 for it’s slatey minerallity and layered fruit. Truth be told, we would both have been happy to buy all six wines, but that wouldn’t be a good use of the wine budget!

You can check out our experience with Johannes (our first attempt at videotaping…) and then tell us:

1. Do you think we should go with my choice, Rebecca’s or both?

2. In a relatively small section like Germany (27 facings) do you think having multiple wines from a single producer is OK or would you prefer more diversity?

Score Card
Total wines tasted: 54
Wines that made “the short list”: 7
One addition you can look for this weekend: 07 Telegramme Chateneuf du Pape

 

Feb 26, 2010 at 11:16 AM

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Tuesday's at the Tasting Station

Most every Tuesday at 10:30 AM Rebecca Rethore and I take our place behind the tasting bar at Ball Square Fine Wines and hold court to a steady stream of wholesale wine vendors. The purpose is to catch up on the latest industry news, hear about new offers, resolve issues, place orders and of course, sample wine. We reckon we sample an average of 50-70 wines from 10-15 vendors on any given Tuesday....

Through this blog we now invite you to join us vicariously as we exalt in an exciting new find, weed out the insipid and debate the merits of wines that fall in between those extremes!

Check in regularly to meet the cast of characters (and characters they are!) who visit us on a regular basis to present their wares. We hope you will also enjoy learning how we make decisions regarding our wine selection. We encourage you to effect the outcome by commenting on the process and results!

Feb 18, 2010 at 7:50 AM

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Valentine's Day Wine Picks

Did you know our very own Rebecca writes the Wicked Local wine column? Every Monday she muses about this and that - and every second Monday of the month she picks a few wines that really catch her attention, or "Wicked Wines". This week she couldn't help herself, selecting several wines perfect to woo the object of your affection! (And yes, you can find them all on our shelves.) Check them out here.

Will wine be part of your Valentine's Day repertoire this year? What do you have in mind?

Feb 8, 2010 at 1:15 PM

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