AleSmith, the #1 brewer in the world, according to RateBeer.com's latest June rankings, is now available at the Dilly Deli for the very first time! We have in stock: Speedway Stout, Old Numbskull Barleywine, Horny Devil, Wee Heavy, and Grand Cru! All are in heavy 750ml champagne style bottles and retail for, I'll admit, a hefty $12.99. But considering they are all 9% to 12% abv, think like you're buying a reasonably priced bottle of wine, when in reality you're getting one of the very best beers in the world!
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Reverie Dinner a Big Success!
Tuesday Sept 21st: We welcomed Reverie Winery to the state of Ohio for the first time with a fantastic four course dinner prepared by Chef Richard Hargy and his staff! Joining us was Andrew Kiken, whose parents founded and own the winery, who entertained us with stories from the winery and the history!
Reception
Sjoeblum Chauvignon Crystal Sparkling
Daydream Sauvignon Blanc
Gourmet Cheese and Canape Assortment
First Course
Daydream Chardonnay
Sauted Sea Scallops in Normandy Sea Salt Butter
Second Course
Reverie Cabernet Franc
Reverie Cabernet Sauvignon
Maple Glazed Pork Tenderloin with Pecans and Wild Rice Blend
Third Course
A.S. Kiken Diamond Mountain Red
Reverie Special Reserve
Petite Fillet with Caramelized Onion Sauce;
Garlic Mashed Poatatoes, and Carrots with Fig Syrup
Dessert
JC Cellars Late Harvest Viognier
Apricot Almond Bread Pudding
This was the last event of an incredibly busy three week period, but what a capper! Reverie Winery is on Diamond Mountain, with some very good (and expensive) neighbors, such as Von Strasser, Diamond Creek, and the famous Three Palms Vineyard. They are getting great 90+ point reviews from Parker, and getting better! Ohio is only the tenth state to receive distribution of Reverie wines (thanks to us, but that's another story), and we are one of the only outlets in Ohio for Reverie wines!
Daydream is the label for their white wines (Reverie is French for fantasy daydream - get it?), and the whites are made from purchased fruit. Both are excellent, with a balanced forward style and vivid varietal flavors. They're also well priced at $17.99!
Reverie reds are all estate wines, meaning they are grown, made and bottled at the Reverie Winery on Diamond Mountain. The 2001 Cabernet Franc (~$43) is a star in the line-up, beautifully aromatic, wonderful with food (it matched the maple glazed pork perfectly), and we put it in the top three of Napa Cab Francs, along with Pride and Lang & Reed. The 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon (~$54) is more muscular, with a deeper, earthier frame, but great fruit concentration and balance for so big a wine.
The sleeper star is the 2000 A.S. Kiken Diamond Mountain Red! Named after Andrew, this is truly an ass kicken' (get it?) full bodied bordelais blend, again with seductive aromatics you can sniff for hours and concentration you can stir with a spoon. And at $33, it's the bargain of the red line-up! Which brings us to the 2000 Special Reserve - rarely do we taste a wine that combines strength and brawn with such elegance and balance. At $70, it's certainly not cheap, but we like it better than it's neighbor at Diamond Creek, and they sell for over $200!
Keep in mind that these very special wines are (except for the Franc) from the oft-maligned 2000 vintage, but we keep finding excellent wines from that year. If they're this good now, we can hardly wait for next year!
Reverie wines are in very short supply - it's a small operation and we're the new guys on the block! If you want some (and I humbly suggest that you do), get with us and order them up! To the swift go the spoils!
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Great Australian Wines!
Last night we hosted an Australian Winemaker's Tasting! With us was Dean Hewitson, owner/winemaker of Hewitson Winery; and Sandro Mosele, winemaker for Kooyong Winery on the Mornington Peninsula of Victoria.
Oh man, the wines were great! Nine wines were poured, and there wasn't a single one that I wouldn't put on my table anytime!
Kooyong was fascinating. Their winery is on the Mornington Peninsula, way south in Victoria, literally looking over the strait to Tasmania. It's very cool there (relatively), so they don't do the big shiraz type wines - just Chardonnay and pinot noir! Available for the first time in Ohio, Sandro poured two single vineyard Chardonnays, the Mosaic and the Faultline. The vineyards are only 50 yards apart, but the soils are a bit different. Picked, fermented, barreled, made completely the same way, yet the differences were striking. Both reminded me of top-notch premier cru burgundy. The Mosaic was a little livelier, a little more forward, yet the acids were great and the flavors vibrant. The Faultline was a little fatter, with a little nuttiness and more sense of structure. Both wines are rich a creamy with complex long finishes. Here's the kicker - they both taste as if they have a good dose of malolactic fermentation on them, but no! Zero malolactic - which means the acids are fresh and stable and these wines will develop and improve for years, like a good white burgundy!
Ah, the Kooyong Pinot Noirs! Keep in mind that Pinot is not my favorite varietal, it's not what I pick to have at home unless my dinner just demands it! But this Kooyong 2000 - it is one of those wines you just sniff and sniff, it's just after ten minutes of sniffing that you realize that you haven't even sipped it yet because it smells so good and fascinating, why let it get out of your glass!?! The nose reminded me of some of the best Cotes de Beaune wines I've had - sensuous, floral, berries, earth. The palate was extremely complex and the finish smooth and long. As the evening went on, the wine developed some structure and fatness ('shoulders', one taster described) that just made it better. The other Pinot was the 2001 Haven, a single vineyard. If the 2000 Estate was a Beaune, then the Haven was a Cotes de Nuits. It too, had a beautiful nose but the spice and earth was a bigger part of it, the wine was more masculine, heavier in the mouth with a more angular tannic structure, yet not rough at all. Outstanding!
Tasters were evenly divided between the two Chards and the two Pinots. I myself liked the Mosaic Chard and the 2000 Estate Pinot!
On to the Hewitson table: Dean started us out with the new 2004 'Mermaids' Muscadelle, a lovely, delicate, DRY white wine great for lunch, before dinner, pool, deck, hot weather, before noon, brunch - we cme up with a bunch of times it would be good. Picked early to preserve the acids and then fermented dry, it only reaches 10% alcohol so it doesn't go straight to your head in that aforementioned hot weather! Get all ideas of what 'muscadelle' tastes like out of your head! This has hints of an Alsatian white to it, without, of course, the alcohol. Crisp, light, did we mention DRY?, altogether refreshing!
Hewitson's reds are what you might expect (or put another way, everything you'd wish for) from a top Aussie winery. The Miss Harry's, a Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvedre blend, was jammy and lively and exuberant, a great wine to slurp down with grilled stuff, at a party, and just plain great by itself! The Ned & Henry's Shiraz was focused, spicy, balanced, a top shiraz for the money by any standard. But the real stars of the table were the last two wines. 'Old Garden' Mourvedre is from a single vineyard which was planted in 1853 (not a typo - 1853) and is believed to be the oldest mourvedre vineyard in the world. The depth of flavor was incredible, the color, almost ebony, the concentration, well. it seemed you could taste all those years. Yet the wine was incredibly balanced, elegant almost. We had some Irish Kashel Blue cheese out and a new taste sensation was found! Like a good port or cream sherry, the acids and fruit concentration of the wine stood up to and matched the creamy blue cheese perfectly! And finally, the 'L'Oizeau' Shiraz. Dean's hallmark, at least from this tasting, is that he is able to get so much color and extract out of the grapes yet present a wine that is elegant and balanced and just tastes so darn good on it's own. And the balance, of course, makes it even better with food! So it is with the L'Oizeau Shiraz. Big fruit, tons of flavor, in the mouth the wine has a sense of being packed, and the longer you swirl or chew it, the more the different flavors unfold and reveal themselves!
All in all, a great tasting! But sad to say, these wines are not in great supply! We'll be getting as much as we can, but orders placed last night have priority and only some will able to be in stock for the holidays at the Dilly!
Oh man, the wines were great! Nine wines were poured, and there wasn't a single one that I wouldn't put on my table anytime!
Kooyong was fascinating. Their winery is on the Mornington Peninsula, way south in Victoria, literally looking over the strait to Tasmania. It's very cool there (relatively), so they don't do the big shiraz type wines - just Chardonnay and pinot noir! Available for the first time in Ohio, Sandro poured two single vineyard Chardonnays, the Mosaic and the Faultline. The vineyards are only 50 yards apart, but the soils are a bit different. Picked, fermented, barreled, made completely the same way, yet the differences were striking. Both reminded me of top-notch premier cru burgundy. The Mosaic was a little livelier, a little more forward, yet the acids were great and the flavors vibrant. The Faultline was a little fatter, with a little nuttiness and more sense of structure. Both wines are rich a creamy with complex long finishes. Here's the kicker - they both taste as if they have a good dose of malolactic fermentation on them, but no! Zero malolactic - which means the acids are fresh and stable and these wines will develop and improve for years, like a good white burgundy!
Ah, the Kooyong Pinot Noirs! Keep in mind that Pinot is not my favorite varietal, it's not what I pick to have at home unless my dinner just demands it! But this Kooyong 2000 - it is one of those wines you just sniff and sniff, it's just after ten minutes of sniffing that you realize that you haven't even sipped it yet because it smells so good and fascinating, why let it get out of your glass!?! The nose reminded me of some of the best Cotes de Beaune wines I've had - sensuous, floral, berries, earth. The palate was extremely complex and the finish smooth and long. As the evening went on, the wine developed some structure and fatness ('shoulders', one taster described) that just made it better. The other Pinot was the 2001 Haven, a single vineyard. If the 2000 Estate was a Beaune, then the Haven was a Cotes de Nuits. It too, had a beautiful nose but the spice and earth was a bigger part of it, the wine was more masculine, heavier in the mouth with a more angular tannic structure, yet not rough at all. Outstanding!
Tasters were evenly divided between the two Chards and the two Pinots. I myself liked the Mosaic Chard and the 2000 Estate Pinot!
On to the Hewitson table: Dean started us out with the new 2004 'Mermaids' Muscadelle, a lovely, delicate, DRY white wine great for lunch, before dinner, pool, deck, hot weather, before noon, brunch - we cme up with a bunch of times it would be good. Picked early to preserve the acids and then fermented dry, it only reaches 10% alcohol so it doesn't go straight to your head in that aforementioned hot weather! Get all ideas of what 'muscadelle' tastes like out of your head! This has hints of an Alsatian white to it, without, of course, the alcohol. Crisp, light, did we mention DRY?, altogether refreshing!
Hewitson's reds are what you might expect (or put another way, everything you'd wish for) from a top Aussie winery. The Miss Harry's, a Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvedre blend, was jammy and lively and exuberant, a great wine to slurp down with grilled stuff, at a party, and just plain great by itself! The Ned & Henry's Shiraz was focused, spicy, balanced, a top shiraz for the money by any standard. But the real stars of the table were the last two wines. 'Old Garden' Mourvedre is from a single vineyard which was planted in 1853 (not a typo - 1853) and is believed to be the oldest mourvedre vineyard in the world. The depth of flavor was incredible, the color, almost ebony, the concentration, well. it seemed you could taste all those years. Yet the wine was incredibly balanced, elegant almost. We had some Irish Kashel Blue cheese out and a new taste sensation was found! Like a good port or cream sherry, the acids and fruit concentration of the wine stood up to and matched the creamy blue cheese perfectly! And finally, the 'L'Oizeau' Shiraz. Dean's hallmark, at least from this tasting, is that he is able to get so much color and extract out of the grapes yet present a wine that is elegant and balanced and just tastes so darn good on it's own. And the balance, of course, makes it even better with food! So it is with the L'Oizeau Shiraz. Big fruit, tons of flavor, in the mouth the wine has a sense of being packed, and the longer you swirl or chew it, the more the different flavors unfold and reveal themselves!
All in all, a great tasting! But sad to say, these wines are not in great supply! We'll be getting as much as we can, but orders placed last night have priority and only some will able to be in stock for the holidays at the Dilly!
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Hello!
Hello! This is the very beginning of what we hope will become an interactive dialog about the wines, beers and related events that go on at Dilly Deli Wines & Gourmet in Mariemont! Burke and I will be posting thoughts, tasting reviews, answering FAQ's - whatever and where ever this leads us! Our intent is to update it fequently - several times a week at least - so put it on your favorite places and check back often! CTW
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