PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Vineyard work takes place all year long and these Winter days, when northern hemisphere vines are dormant, the vines are being pruned to prepare them for the 2022 growing season.

This snapshot comes to us from Isi Vaira of Piemonte's famous GD Vajra winery in the Barolo region.

In late January the temperature range is small, dropping to the 30s at night while hitting the high 40s during the day.

It's not easy work and there's great skill and some artistry in properly pruning a grapevine.

Here you can see this crew is doing the work entirely by hand.

But there are some vineyards where a machine is driven down the rows to "pre-prune" the vines.

 
This is said to make it easier for the vineyard crew to have less work in their task of precisely determining where to trim the vines.

Pruning helps keep the vines healthy and it can partly determine the crop size for the next harvest.

Some vineyard workers use a simple pruning device but others have a mechanical gizmo to make the job a bit easier.


We tip our cap to the vineyard crews who are working in cold temps to prepare the vines for the start of the 2022 season.




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Lots of good wines available this week for sampling.

A few hot tips:

Our "old favorite" New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from winemaker Kevin Judd just arrived this week...the 2021 vintage displays more yellow fruit notes than the typical citrusy/grapefruity character.  In that sense, it's a shade less typical of New Zealand than in past vintages. 
No oak...crisp and dry.  $21.99

Elena Walch and her two daughters are making some remarkably good wines in the Alto Adige of Italy.
This Lagrein is gorgeous and has the charm of a good Pinot Noir and can be paired with a variety of foods from pasta and pizza to chicken, salmon and red meats.
$19.99.  
It's open for tasting, too, by the way.  $2/pour.

We have been offering the 2014 Brunello di Montalcino from Siro Pacenti at a special price.
It's a remarkably good wine (people buy a single bottle to taste and then call back for a 6-pack!).
It's $49.99, a price from the good old days...
Available for sampling today in our Tasting Room.

Who says there's no affordable Burgundy?
Sale-priced at $19.99, this Givry from Danjean-Berthoux is remarkably good.
Your dinner guests will be impressed to see a French Burgundy and surely when they taste this, they'll suspect you paid a small fortune for the wine.

An especially good French White Burgundy is worthy of calling to your attention.
It's made by a young winemaker, Justin Girardin, from vines in the village of Santenay, an area neighboring the famed Chassagne-Montrachet.
Happily the wine, while of top quality, commands a more modest price than its famous neighbor.
This is just $29.99/bottle and displays appley, stony notes and a hint of oak.

Craggy Range is a vineyard on New Zealand's north island, so its Sauvignon Blanc a bit different than those from the south island's Marlborough region.
It's crisp, dry and mildly citrusy with a hint of nectarine, perhaps.
$21.99 (and less by the case or as part of a case purchase)


We've been looking for good, well-priced Chardonnay as one of our favorite sources did not produce a wine with the 2020 vintage due to wildfires.
The 2018 Buehler is a solid choice, though...Russian River Valley fruit.  Lightly oaked and it undergoes a malolactic fermentation, contributing a faintly creamy note to pair with the appley Chardonnay fruit.
Sale priced at $14.99.

We tasted a "pink" Prosecco this week which was of good quality and well-priced.
It's from a branch of the Anselmi family in Friuli and the wine predominantly is made of the Glera grape with 15% Pinot Noir in the blend.
It's dry and mildly berryish on the nose and palate.
$15.99.

We've tasted some good bottles from the Courbet estate in France's mountainous Jura region.
They're maybe an hour, by car, from Burgundy, so it should not be surprising this wine shares many elements of expensive wines from its western neighbors.
Their 2018 "Les Rondos" is a small parcel of slightly more than an acre and it's a Chardonnay vinified in small French oak.
You'll find a mildly toasty element and some hazelnut character on the nose.  There is just a tiny note of oxidation along the lines of a fresh Fino Sherry from Spain on the finish.
Burgundian winemakers typically ask serious money for a similar quality wine.
$29.99.

From Italy's Valtellina region in Lombardia we have a stellar white blend which includes Incrocio Manzoni and Nebbiolo that's vinified as a white wine.  The backbone of this are Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
$39.99

As long as we are suggesting Italian white blends, the Alto Adige white called "Stoan" is a grand wine, as well.
Chardonnay, Sauvignon, Pinot Bianco and a drop of Traminer...$35.99

Our blind-tasting last week featured a flight of dry German Rieslings and the two least costly wines fared well.
The bargain of the tasting was this entry-level dry Riesling made by Schloss Vollrads in the Rheingau.
It's called Volratz and we have some bottles in the shop (and more coming during the week) at $21.99!

The 2019 Saddleback Zinfandel is a delicious, gentle red from old vineyards in Napa.
And Saddleback has an old winemaker, too: our friend Nils Venge!
$48 at the winery...Sale priced at $39.99.
Berries and spice and everything nice...gentle enough to pair with Roasted Turkey.
OPEN FOR TASTING PRESENTLY

From Italy's Umbria, we brought in a remarkable dry white made of a particular type of Trebbiano which is quite different from the bland versions one encounters in Tuscany and Abruzzo.  It's called Trebbiano Spoletino and this one, made by Giampaolo Tabarrini.
The nose is a bit quiet or shy, but the flavors are exuberantly exotic with notes of mango and papaya.
This goes for $21.99...worthy of accompanying a seafood risotto or crab dishes.

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Monday through Saturday until 5:45pm.


Elena Walch made a splendid 2020 vintage Lagrein...Deliciously cherryish and gentle like a Pinot Noir.

We have a terrific dry Riesling from Germany's Von Winning winery in Deidesheim along with a Benovia winery Russian River Pinot Noir.
There's a 2018 Merlot from Peju that's surprisingly good and specially priced.

"TASTES" are roughly a two-ounce pour and priced 10% the retail price of the bottle, so that Gewurz is $3.70/taste and the Cabernet goes for a mere five bucks.  The Brunello is $5.00 for a pour.
And there's a terrific, fruity German wine made of the Scheurebe grape...$2.20 for that.

CLICK HERE to see what wines are offered for tasting presently.


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When you think of Moselle wine, you probably expect it to be German, no?
But here's a delightful French white from the Château de Vaux.
It's about 86 miles northwest of the wine roads of Alsace and 72 miles southwest of the German Mosel village of Bernkastel.
About half the blend is Auxerrois with Pinot Gris, Müller-Thurgau and a drop of Gewurztraminer.
Mildly floral, crisp, dry and light, yet flavorful...$19.99.

The French Moselle region comprised 6000 hectares in the early 1900s, but dwindled down to a mere 2 hectares in 1970!
Today there are some hectares of vineyards and the region is on the rebound thanks, in large part, to this estate in Vaux.



We've routinely been tasting new wines...looking for good value and wines which over-perform for their price.


This classic Spanish Albariño is crisply acidic and snappy...perfect as a cocktail white or pair it
with some seafood.
$19.99

We asked the winery rep from Peju if they hired a new winemaker as this 2018 Merlot does not resemble wines we've tasted from Peju over the past decade.  He laughed and explained the second generation of the Peju family is running the place and "dad" is retired.
The resulting wines are pretty darned good and this Merlot is a standout.
$60 at the winery.  We have it for far less.  Stop by and see.
It's also available in the Tasting Room for $3.50/pour.

Our monthly tasting group this past week surveyed 2017 and 2018 Chianti Classico wines.  
The first place wine was $45 and blended with Cabernet Sauvignon (we ranked it 6th out of 8, but these guys love Napa Cabernet and Bordeaux, so it is understandable they preferred that particular wine).
Finishing a mere one point behind the top wine was this 2018 Paneretta.  It is 85% Sangiovese and the rest is Canaiolo and Colorino, typical Tuscan varieties.
We brought some in as we're sale-tagging it for $19.99 and it's a good introduction to Tuscan Sangiovese.

If you missed the Croatian wine from the Toreta winery last year, we just received our second shipment of this year's terrific dry white made on the island of Korcula of the Posip grape.
Last year we had the entry level bottling but this vintage, 2020, we were more impressed by the fancier bottling (20% of the wine is matured in neutral cooperage for a few months to give it a shade more body.
The sales rep told us they have plenty to last well throughout the year and two weeks after getting our first order we asked for more and were told they are almost sold out!
$21.99

The most thrilling wine we tasted this past week was from Antonella Corda, a terrific vintner in Italy's Sardegna region.
It's made of the somewhat obscure Nuragus grape, a variety that's overshadowed to some degree by Vermentino.
But the 2020 vintage from Corda is a stellar, snappy dry white wine, showing some notes of citrus and lime with a stony, minerally note reminiscent of Chablis or Sancerre.
We noticed one web site offers this for $45 a bottle while another is more reasonably priced at $28.
Our price is a mere $19.99.
Don't miss it!

We were pleasantly surprised by the drinkability and charm of the Tre Monti Sangiovese called Campo di Mezzo.
It's from Emilia-Romagna, just a short drive southeast of Bologna.  No oak.  No Cabernet.  No Merlot.
Just pure, unadulterated Sangiovese.
Sale price is $14.99.



Two weeks ago we splurged on a bottle of the 2007 Terlan Pinot Bianco.  They call it "Rarity," as the wine is matured on the spent yeast for about ten years in stainless steel after its year, or so, in large wooden vats.  The wine retails for close to $200 a bottle and it was very good.
A few days later we opened a few bottles of Italian whites, including this "Terlaner" from the Terlan winery.  It's predominantly Pinot Bianco with a bit of Chardonnay and a drop of Sauvignon Blanc.  It was the best white of that tasting.  The apple and pear fruit of the Pinot Bianco takes center stage...no oak coming through here.
Damned good and it stood up to our Artichoke Risotto, too.
$26.99
OPEN FOR TASTING PRESENTLY

Ercole Barbera comes from Italy's Piemonte region.
It's an economical bottling intended for "by the glass" service in a restaurant where they can charge customers $8-$10 a pour.  It's in a liter sized bottle...just $15.99!  Smooth, medium bodied and easy to drink.
People who've purchased their first bottle are now returning for an encore.

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A Weimax shopper and parent of a Roosevelt Elementary School student sent us a screenshot of an online
"Teddy Talk" where a student was explaining the importance of supporting community businesses and "shopping local."

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From the local paper at the end of 2021...CLICK HERE to read that story.

Ellen had her picture on the front page of the New Year's weekend Daily Journal, a local newspaper here in San Mateo County.

They did a story about holiday sales of wines and liquors, so we were mentioned (and quoted) in that.


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The store is fully stocked...lots of good value bottlings and numerous "fancy" wines, too.

Stop by and we can give you a little tour...Socially Distant, of course...Don't forget a face mask!

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This car is "corked"!!!

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GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE...


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Had a nice mention in the Wall Street Journal's 2016 story about wine store signage:
CLICK HERE

The Most recent mention, September of 2017, is this one...Things Wine Shop Owners Detest...
CLICK HERE

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Australian Wine Writer Jim McMahon wrote a nice article published on the web site of the New South Wales Teachers Federation.
CLICK HERE

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Did you see the article in the local newspaper, by the way?
CLICK HERE.

It was printed just before New Year's Eve...

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Wine Tasting Today

TO INQUIRE ABOUT A WINE:  gerald@weimax.com

Copyright © 1999    WEIMAX    January 22, 2022