Lyrarakis, Crete, Greece

100% Vilana



Delicious White wine with nice floral, upon tasting blissful fruit and mineral which leads to white flowers and a happy finish

Saint Cosme, Cotes du Rhone, France

100% Syrah



First off, hard to imagine a 100% syrah from a an area known for blends! Much less the quality to price that this wines provides!

A violet aroma leads and are followed by dark berries,  your fathers pipe tobacco pouch and fresh tilled earth, delightful grip on the finish. Solid!

Chateau Roudier, Montagne-Saint-Emillion

80% Merlot / 10% Cabernet Franc / 10% Malbec

Great lively garnet color, strong bouquet and good balance, a bit of fruit leading into a long finish.

Engine Room Sparkling Red NV, Australia

50% Shiraz / 25% Cabernet Sauvignon / 25% Malbec



Sourced predominantly from McLaren Vale

Dark red fruits with a soft but vibrant feel with  long "chocolately" tannins. Fruity but dry!

Sirius Blanc, Bordeaux France

50% Semillion / 50% Sauvignon Blanc



Pale yellow color, with a nose of white blossom and citrus fruit. Vibrant and fresh fruit notes leads into a rich fleshy fruit. Mineral notes linger on the long finish. Perfect for patio, seafood, such as shellfish.

Kaiken "Ultra," Mendoza Argentina

97% Malbec / 3% Cabernet Sauvignon

100% Silk! A "cream in your coffe lovers dream!
Ruby red color with violet hues. On the nose, flowery and mineral notes are evident, with spice. On the mouth it’s a wine of great structure and power, with tannins that are both soft and present. It has an outstanding balance and a very long finish, where red fruits and flower notes are evident.

Wine Cocktails Wines big word of the Week!

Mixing with wine! Wine offers a great way to add dimension to cocktails. Also, if you were not “profiled” at Hop City, a great way to “adjust” a wine that is not to your liking!
Bishop Cocktail- red wine, rum, simple syrup, lime juice / Bloody Rum Punch- red wine, rum, lime juice, triple sec, simple syrup / Candy Corn- moscato wine, kettle-corn infused gin, citrus peel grenadine / Cardinal Cocktail- red wine, creme de cassis / Champagne Bowler- white wine, sparkling wine, cognac, simple syrup, strawberries / Cobb's Cognac Dream- Rose wine, Cognac, rum, fruits / Endless Possibilities- Covey Run Semillon Ice Wine, vanilla-ginger simple syrup, club soda / English Christmas Punch- dry red wine, dark rum, tea, orange juice, lemon juice / Falling Leaf Fizz- sparkling wine, pear vodka, pumpkin butter, pumpkin pie spice / Ice-tini- Covey Run Semillon Ice Wine, vodka / Kir- dry white wine, crème de cassis / Liquid Lust- white wine, Rosangel tequila, orange juice, cranberry juice, club soda, fruits / Miranda Cocktail- pinot noir, Lillet Blanc, Bluecoat Gin, simple syrup, lemon puree / Mulled Wine- red wine, brandy, orange, cloves, honey or sugar, cinnamon sticks, ginger / Pink Elephant- merlot, Amarula Cream, chocolate liqueur, raspberry puree, heavy cream / Rosé Berry Bliss- Rosé, pink lemonade, blueberries, lemon-lime soda / Sangria- red wine, brandy, curaçao, ginger ale, sugar syrup, club soda, fresh lemon or lime juice, fresh orange juice / Brazilian Sangria- red wine, Spanish brandy, absinthe, orange liqueur, fresh fruits / Dutch Appel Sangria- white wine, Van Gogh Dutch Appel Vodka, orange liqueur, pineapple juice / White Peach Sangria- Pinot Grigio, mango rum, white peach schnapps, lemon, lime, orange, lemon-lime soda / Something Blue- white wine, Hpnotiq, ginger ale / Viscusi Cocktail- dessert wine, Prosseco, Canadian whisky, orange bitters / Wine Spritzer- white wine, club soda or mineral water / Xalapa Punch- dry red wine, apple brandy, amber rum, black tea, honey, oranges / Ziaza- Dubonnet, gin

Tamari Torrontés

100% Torrentes



Very elegant and delicate varietal aromas. Notes of white grapefruit are highlighted, white flowers like jasmine, rose notes, damascus, and some hints of tropical fruits such as chirimoya. Its mouth is fruity, floral, spicy and enjoyable! Patio Pounder!

Saunier de Longchamps Pineau des Charentes Cognac, France

Cabernet Franc / Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot


It is a result of a mistake of a wine maker in the town of Burie in 1589. He had put new grape juice into a barrel containing a small quantity of Cognac. And forgot about it. Sometime later, the wine maker tasted it, liked it and that is how Pineau des Charentes was born. Cognac is blended with the new grape juice within hours of grapes pressing to produce Pineau des Charentes. Grapes must be very ripe in order to obtain grape juice that is rich in natural sugars. Pineau des Charentes is the result of stopping the fermentation of the grape juice by adding Cognac which must be at least one year old. Ripe intense and clean in the finish! 14 months, including a minimum of 8 months in oak barrels

Choya Umeshu

Ume Wine

 

Sweet, tart and eminently sip-able, it is exactly the kind of beverage to break out when you wish to try something new and flavorful. Produced from alcohol distilled from sugar cane, umeshu is at its heart a form of fruit infusion. Imagine the processes that produce white rum, combined with the subsequent steps to result in gin, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of umeshu. But, with balance. Not cloying, the ume fruit itself is one to four times more acidic than other varieties of plum. The flavor comes across as smooth right to the finish. Even Choya’s bottle itself contains real ume fruit floating around in the bottom and neat screw-top lid that allows you to actually pour them out and EAT THEM. Little sour plums soaked in cane sugar. You can play with this versatile wine! With sparkling white wine, in a Japanese Kir Royale. With two parts mixed into a lager, as a fun twist on a Snakebite. In a cup of mulled, warm red wine with cinnamon.

Domaine des Cassagnoles, Gascongne, France

100% Gros Manseng

Janine & Gilles Baumann farm about 76 hectares in the region of Gascogne, in southwestern France. Their main focus is on the white grapes that are also used to make Cognac and Armagnac. This one is 100% Gros Manseng from old, low yielding vines harvested a bit late. It is one of those wines that any white wine lover would revel in drinking. White flowers and spicy pit fruits on the nose make you think that this one is going to be sweet, but it’s not. The palate is medium bodied with great texture and intense flavors of ripe apricot with a touch of honey. Enjoy this with spicy Asian cuisine or friends.

Wines "Big Word" of the Week! What the Heck is Ullage?

Ullage is the word used to describe the air space above the wine and under the cork or cap. The word comes from the Latin word oculus, by the Romans for the bung hole of a barrel. This was taken into French and the verb ouiller was created, to fill a barrel up to the bung hole. (When wine ferments in the barrel, evaporation through the wood can create unwanted bacteria causing off fermentation.) English, ullage came to refer to any amount by which a barrel is unfilled and it is also applied to the unfilled air space at the top of a bottle of wine, which in this case is essential to allow for expansion of the contents as the temperature changes.

High fill or Normal fill - Level of young wines. Exceptionally good in wines over 10 years.

Into neck - Perfectly good for any age of wine. Awesome for a wine of 10 years.

Mid neck fill - In bottles over 10 years of age, indicates good storage conditions.

Base neck fill - The fill is at about the bottom of the neck. Indicates excellent storage for any wine. For wines over 25 years of age, indicates exceptional storage conditions.

Top shoulder - Not unusual for wines over 40 years of age, but most older wines should be refilled, with the same wine from other bottles, and re-corked before the wine gets to this point! High-risk-undrinkable!

Aviod Sunburn by Drinking More Wine!

What to avoid sunburn? Drink more wine!

A compound found in grapes or grape derivatives may protect skin cells from skin-damaging ultraviolet radiation, report researchers from the University of Barcelona and the Spanish National Research Council. The flavonoids found in grapes work to halt the chemical reaction that kills skin cells and causes sun damage. Here's what happens: When UV rays hit your skin, they activate "reactive oxygen species," or ROS, which then oxidize big molecules like lipids and DNA. This activates particular enzymes that kill skin cells.

But grapes' flavonoids work to decrease the formation of the ROS's in skin cells that were exposed to UVA and UVB rays. The researchers, led by Marta Cascante, a biochemist at the University of Barcelona, Spain and director of the research project, note that this finding may lead to better sun-shielding drugs and cosmetics.

The study was published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Eponymous, Napa Valley, CA 2004

100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Pleases with aromas hinting of cassis, spicy oak notes, and raspberries. It has excellent body and structure, with the fruit flavors coming through, especially at this young stage of the wines development. There area also added nuances of chocolate in the crazy long finish!

I have a limited number at a greatly reduced price

Morse Code, Padthaway, Australia

100% Shiraz

Deep garnet-purple in color, it is intensely scented of warm black-blueberry, and a touch of forest floor. High acid and plenty of juicy berry fruit with soft tannins are all in harmony leads to a long and pleasing dark-berry finish. Intensely beautiful!