January 2009
Tres Bon Club $64.00 Tax and shipping not included.
Our Tres Bon Wine Club brings you 3 outstanding, premium wines from around the world. And the wines are exclusive to you, our valued Club member. Each month we send you an international selection of hard to find wines we feel are of exceptional quality and value. And, during the period of your monthly selection, you can purchase your favorites at the discounted Club member price, while supplies last. We look forward to sharing these wonderful, delicious and fun wines with you.
Wine club wines are available only for club members. They are not available in our regular inventory.
Stift Gottweig Gruner Veltliner 'Messwein’ Austria 2008 Stift Gottweig is a monastery founded in 1083 by Bishop Saint Altmann, and was given to the Benedictines in 1094. Perched in Austria’s Wachau region, it is high above sea level on the eastern edge of the Danube River Valley. In the monastary’s many incarnations and numerous changes in ownership, harvesting and vinifying grapes has been firmly settled in the monastery’s culture. True to the rigors of monastery life, the winemaking and growing methods have been meticulously controlled and documented. This includes work deadlines, number of vines planted in a given area of the vineyards, fertilization times, dates of pruning, weeding the soils and digging ditches to avoid the run off of melted snow. This strictness is in effect today. To our benefit, this includes organic practices in the field and shunning the use of all chemical products in the cellar as well. Long maceration times and spontaneous fermentation with natural, ambient yeasts are always employed as an expression of reverence. For the same reasons, the wine is never chaptalized to increase alcoholic strength. This bottle of Gruner Veltliner ‘Messwein’ has been blessed. It is medium bodied and zesty with notes of juicy pear and mineral. Gruner Veltliners have the ability to pair with lots of cuisines. Try it with schnitzel. list price$20.00 | arlequin regular price$18.00 | club member re-order price$17.00
Guiseppe Cortese 'Trifolera' Dolcetto d'Alba DOC Italy 2007 The town of Alba is known for many things: medieval palaces, towers, castles and churches. During the winter seasons, it is celebrated for red wine and the white truffles that come from the Langhe hills. The Dolcetto grape is almost exclusively planted in this region that is marked by small family estates. Guiseppe and his son Gioancarlo Cortese are part of three generations of devotion to the vineyards of Piedmonte. This bottling is from Trifolera vineyard within the Barbaresco zone and esteemed for its limestone and clay soils. With their traditional approach to winemaking, they are producing a fresh, fruited and beautifully aromatic 100% Dolcetto wine. While the Dolcetto translates to ‘little sweet one’, it has significant tannins that come through as a rich, velvety texture in this wine. Try it with the cheeses and egg pastas with truffles if you can. list price$25.00 | arlequin regular price$22.00 | club member re-order price $18.00
Francois Villard VDP L'Appel des Serienes VDP des Collines Rhodannienes France 2007 Francois Villard is known for producing wines of pure pleasure. He is part of a new generation that includes George Vernay and Yves Cuilleron who pick their grapes very ripe to get rich, dense and generous wines. While working as a chef, he started making wine in 1989 with an attitude of independence and mischief at 20 years old. Instead of holding to the restricting codes of a controlled appellation system, with this wine he chooses to use the Vin de Pays category, making it a ‘country wine.’ This stamp of regional identity is Collines Rhodannienes, an area within the right bank of the Rhone Valley. Twenty years later, he is still making great wines in the Norhern Rhone from his own vineyards and from growers he has worked with from the start. This is a big, but accessible wine that exhibits the spiciness that exudes the character of Syrah. It is a wine to complement gamier meats like lamb and squab. Drink now or over the next five years. list price$22.00 | arlequin regular price$21.00 | club member re-order price $20.00
