ADDRESS: Milwaukee Yacht Club, 1700 N. Lincoln Memorial Drive
COST: $30 per person
REGISTRATION: Please call 414-271-4455 or email kari.milwaukeeyc.com. Credit card number of people attending required at time of registration. On the night of the tasting, please check in at the club house main dining room bar to confirm your attendance.
Chardonnay is the most diverse, multifaceted and misunderstood wine in the world. It can be sublime or mundane, cultivated in the world’s greatest vineyards or its humblest regions, subjected to intensive manipulation or grown and vinified naturally. And every delicious bottling of Chardonnay has legions of avid fans and scores of fervent detractors.
What is it about Chardonnay? What qualities afford the grape its myriad expressions?
The proof is in the glass!
At this tasting, we’ll explore all of Chardonnay’s diversity as well as show you our very favorite Chardonnays. And just for fun, we’ll sample a couple of wines made from Chardonnay’s Burgundian soul mate, Pinot Noir!
Wines to be tasted:
2014 Kongsgaard Chardonnay, Napa $99.99
2015 Lewis Barcaglia Lane Chardonnay, Russian River Valley $89.99
2014 Matsut Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast $34.99
2014 Paul Hobbs Crossbarn Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast $24.99
2016 Pascal Clement Bourgogne Blanc, France $24.99
2014 Sandhi Chardonnay, Sta. Rita Hills $49.99
2014 Domaine Laroche Chablis Les Clos Grand Cru, France $149.99
2016 Paul Pernot Meursault Sous Le Blagny Premier Cru, France $119.99
2014 Domaine de La Cote Bloom fields Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills $89.99
& a bonus for those who arrive early!
For those who don’t know him, Aubert de Villaine is the world’s greatest Pinot Noir maker. After all, he’s the long-standing director and winemaker of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, the world’s most prized Pinot Noir estate. With the wines of Domaine A. & P. de Villaine, his own personal wines, Aubert is offering up a little taste of his profound magic. I’ll let Robert Parker explain:
“While Aubert de Villaine is synonymous with Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, there is no question that at least one ventricle of his heart is devoted to his personal estate in Bouzeron that he bought with his wife Pamela in the 1970s.
“I think it is partly responsible for Aubert remaining such a down-to-earth personality, when others might have succumbed to self-aggrandizement occupying such a position. As you might expect, these are well-crafted wines that are often understated, nuanced, and utterly beguiling.”
The world’s greatest Pinot Noir maker. Offering you wines he made from his own personal vineyard. For free. Why wouldn’t you experience this opportunity? We’ll see you here.
Wines to be tasted (limited to two selections per client):
2016 De Villaine Aligote Bouzeron $32.99
2016 de Villaine Bourgogne Blanc “Les Clous Aimé” $31.99
2016 de Villaine Bourgogne Rouge “Les Clous” $38.99
2016 de Villaine Bourgogne Rouge “La Digoine” $43.99
For many years, wine connoisseurs have thought of South America as a great place to find great bargains – wines that are inexpensive, quaffable, and easily distinguished by their varietal character. And while that’s still true, it doesn’t capture the highs or the soul of all that’s new in South American wine.
In both Chile and Argentina, vintners are striking out in new directions, exploring every facet of quality winemaking, pushing for the best of the best. High altitude Malbec, different and indigenous grape varieties for whites and reds, new viticultural and vinicultural methods and practices.
At this tasting, we explore a continent of New World wines made new yet again.
Wines to be tasted:
2014 Tapiz Cabernet $19.99 (96 points)
2013 Recuerdo Valle de Uco $16.99
2016 Casa Silva Sauvignon Gris $13.99
2016 Garage Wine Co. Pais Secano Interior DO Maule Valley $18.99
2012 Cuvelier Los Andes “EL” $129.99
2014 Catena White Bones Chardonnay $104.99
2015 Zuccardi Concreto Valle de Uco Mendoza $36.99
2013 Bodega Colome Altura Maxima Cafayate $89.99
2015 Tercos Torrontes $12.99
& a bonus wine for those who come early!
Their ubiquity in daily culinary life betrays their exotic origins—as well as their keys to an inner sanctum of the world of wine.
There are the those that are spices. Black, like white, is the dried fruit of a tropical vine native to India. Capsicum, also called chili or red, is the dried fruit of New World relatives of the tomato. And there are those that are vegetables. The sweet or bell is a mild variety of the mostly pungent species of Capsicum.
All of these are, of course, peppers. Whether spices or vegetables, the aromatic and flavor qualities of peppers are diagnostic and hypnotic characteristics of many fine wines. Most notably, those made with Syrah from the Rhone Valley, Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley and Grüner Veltliner from the Wachau Valley.
Why do peppers speak through these specific grapes? And why grapes from these specific terroirs? And what so they want to say to us?
Join us as we explore the wines of the Rhone and Loire Valleys of France, and of the Wachau Valley of Austria. And discover how Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Grüner Veltliner wines from these regions compare to wines made with these grapes from other wine regions of the world.
Wines to be tasted:
2016 Gobelsburg Steinsetz Grüner Veltliner $32.99
2016 Veyder Malberg Hochrain Grüner Veltiner $69.99
2016 Johann Grüner Veltliner Oregon $29.99
2015 Baudry Chinon Les Grézeaux $28.99
2013 Breton Bourgueil Les Perrières $42.99
2015 Batic Cabernet Franc Slovenia $36.99
2014 Becheras Saint-Joseph $29.99
2016 Saint Cosme Cote Rotie $74.99
2014 Vincent Paris Cornas la Geynalel $69.99
& a bonus wine for those who come early!
Twenty-seven hours by plane and almost 8,400 miles away — completely in every which way on the other side of the globe — exists an outstanding wine region for growing Pinot Noir: Martinborough, New Zealand.
While New Zealand may be famous for its Sauvignon Blancs, its cool climates produce Pinots of enchanting composition, texture, structure, fruit and delectability. But rarely do we ever get a chance to meet, talk and taste with a winemaker from New Zealand. It’s simply too far away.
On Friday night, October 26, we’re changing that. Join us as we welcome to Wisconsin the founding winemaker and vineyard director of Escarpment, Larry McKenna. Referred to by wine writers and authorities as everything from the “Prince of Pinot Noir” to its “Godfather,” as well as a Pinot Noir “legend” and “maestro,” Larry has built a reputation for understanding and getting the best out of this famously stubborn and capricious grape. And since Larry will have traveled so far to see us, he’ll be pouring us the best his vineyards have to offer — and all for free!
Wines to be tasted:
TBA