This Week’s Schedule:
- Wine Dinner Tuesday, 7p:Â Wine Dinner with Alphonse Mellot at Del Ray Cafe
- Beer Thursday, 5-7p:Â Belgium Beer Tasting with Jonathan
- Wine Friday, 5-7p: Wines for Spring with Rocky
- Staff Pick Saturday, 2-6p:Â Staff Pick Tasting
Upcoming Producer Events:
Tomorrow we have another great wine dinner at Del Ray Cafe, this time with Alphonse Mellot from Sancerre. Sancerre has a controversial history. Some say that it was founded by Julius Cesar, others say that it was a Saxon settlement established during the reign of Charlemagne, but it is certain that the history of the town goes back to the beginning of the Middle Ages, before 1000 ACE and the first Count of Sancerre (who was the third son of Count Theobald II of Champagne) built a castle on the hill and strengthened the towns fortifications. But, why discuss this early history of the town? Because as far back as 1513, local records mention the Mellot family and their pursuit of quality wine production. Their names keep popping up in the records of the town of the France: during the Siege of Sancerre, as Wine Advisor to Louis XIV in 1698, as tavern keepers in the early 19th Century, and wine shippers in the late 19th Century. Today, the 18th and 19th generations, both Alphonse Mellot, guard their winemaking tradition. They have a duty and a passion to maintain over 500 years of wine growing knowledge and are in town to share some of that with us!
A week from tomorrow, we are going to have a special producer tasting with Castillo de MonjardÃn. Tucke
d in the foothills of the Pyrenées along the French Border in Navarra, the estate was originally a way station along the famous pilgrimage route from Paris to Santiago de Campostella. Its proximity and historic cultural links to France provide a winemaking tradition based on Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, distinct from the rest of Spain. MonjardÃn does, however, make good use of the Garnacha that has made Navarra famous for its fresh, fruity rosés and lush, fruit-forward reds. They sit in the northwest corner of Navarra in the foothills of the Pyrenées, not far from the French border. MonjardÃn’s 300+ acres of vineyard lie on sunny slopes at an average altitude of 1,800 feet and are cooled by the Cierzo wind from the mountains. MonjardÃn’s unique microclimate and the winemaking skills of proprietor-winemaker Victor Villar yield wines of singularly intense aroma, full flavor and firm structure. All wines are single-vineyard bottlings, fermented in stainless steel and aged in French oak.
