I know summer is when people usually take it easy, but even so it's important to exercise your tongue. Otherwise it'll get all flabby for necking season. I'm doing my part to help all of you by making this week's tasting the second of our Guess the Grape challenges. Come by and see if all this drinking you've been doing has educated you or if you need to up your regimen.

You may remember a few months back that our first challenge was based around the syrah grape. We sampled an Italian syrah, a Californian syrah, an Australian shiraz and... some other one that I can't remember. We had lots of fun guessing, and a lot of people learned about syrah's characteristics and styles. This week we're giving you even more incentive to bring your A game. You could actually win something if you're on point.

This time, if you guess the correct grape on the first try, we'll give you a $20 punch on your punch card. Guess correctly on the second try & we'll give you a $15 punch. Third prize is you're fired! No, no, no... of course you don't lose anything if it takes more than two tries... the tasting will be a quiet, pressure-free environment. Really though, how cool would it be to get free credits on your punch card without having to do all the hard work of actually drinking a bottle of $20 wine?

Seriously. If you enjoy wine and want to know more about what you're drinking without reading some weirdo's book or some loud weirdo's video blog, this is the best way to do it. Tasting and analyzing a wine before you know anything about its price, style or winemaking methods is truly the fastest route to getting knowledgeable.

Why exercise at a yoga studio when you could exercise at a wine store?

Wednesday, July 16th, 5:30p-8:30p

Labels: events, stuff, tasting, wine culture

Is it yours?

The winning number from the Champagne Tasting on Saturday is;
9322002

Stop by to claim your bottle of Vilmart & Cie Champagne!

Labels: events

Our Holiday hours at last;

Thanksgiving Day 10am - 4pm
Christmas Eve 12pm - 8pm
Christmas Day closed
New Years Eve 12pm - 9pm
New Years Day closed

Just a subtle reminder that we are here for all of your holiday wine needs.

Labels: events, hours

At last Eric Asimov has started really speaking my language. For those of you who didn't get a chance to read the paper yesterday here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/dining/11pour.html

The basic premise of his article was that if you really want to learn about wine you should go to your neighborhood wine store and ask one of the salespeople to pick out a case of wine, both red and white, and then go home and drink the wine. I was just talking to a friend of mine about how difficult it is to taste wine and really understand it, at formal tastings. Your house, a friends house, anywhere you can comfortably relax and eat and drink is the best place to taste and learn about wine. The real deep dark secret to wine is that it is ABSOLUTELY SUBJECTIVE. Before all two of you readers get angry and start emailing me look at what I said.

Wine is absolutely subjective.

This doesn't mean that all wine is good, should be drunk or for that matter should ever been made. Rather, that I truly believe that every wine will find a fan. Yes the more you know about wine the more you will acquire the necessary tasting skills to appreciate intensely aged Barolos and bizarre whites from the Loire, however one of my fondest wine drinking memories involves a 5 liter box of Beringer Blush and I think that I loved that wine. So there, wine is subjective and not just a little contextual. But back to the original point.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be posting the cases that we would choose for you were you to decide to attend the Asimov Dining room tasting school. If you are so inclined let us know and we will throw one together for you. However since we are so tag happy here at Vine we will also tag each wine with the name of the wine, where it is from and what grape(s) are in it. Take some notes and let us know.

Labels: events, wine culture

Our Holiday Hours are

December 24th 12 - 8pm
Closed December 25th
December 26th 4 - 10pm

December 31st 12 - 9pm
January 1st 4 - 10pm

Labels: events, holidays, hours

Here is the skinny on the weekend of Turkey.
We will be open:
11am - 10pm Wednesday November 22nd
10am - 2pm Thursday November 23rd
and normal hours on Friday and onwards.

That Wednesday we will be pouring and tasting wine all day - or at least from 2pm on so stop by and perhaps we will be pouring the perfect thing for your Thanksgiving day feast. And yes in case you were wondering this is one of my favorite holidays, the whole idea of eating wonderful food and drinking fantastic wine. How can you go wrong?

Labels: events, holidays, hours

No, actually this is not a pop quiz. Now that we are over one year old I started thinking about my original goal of opening a store with 100 wines under $20. Is this still possible? Have I surpassed myself or has my love of the incredible whites led me astray. Then I had a customer mention that he was sick of paying more than $15 dollars for a good bottle of wine at other stores. This made me wonder how many wines do we have at Vine that are actually under $15? So I started counting, and guess what......

we have an astounding 117 different bottles of wine under $15.00! Including a couple dessert wines and sparkling wines. As well as 40 under $10. I find this to be astounding and I challenge you to drink every single one of the wines under ten dollars before the end of the year.

Labels: events

I never win anything. This goes without saying in my life, even the things I should win like second grade spelling bees and attendance badges. Usually some unforseen, weather related catastrophe occurs to foil my winning. Besides I was never any good at sports so I never won any of those categories either. This weekend however I won big time, you could even say I won twice.

Firstly I won in being invited along to an heirloom tomato festival in lovely New Paltz. Everything that I ever imagined the life of the former-chef-turned-upstate-farmer to be was in evidence. A big beautiful barn, dogs, a band, a few barbecues, pigs, chicken, lavender, strawberries and piles upon piles of tomatoes, all there. So I ate and ate and then ate just a little more, all in the snacking farm way. After a few dusty hours of eating and talking we decided to head back but not before we all humored ourselves by losing at the raffle. I stood around and thought what I would do if I were to win my weight in tomatoes, imagining sauces and salads galore. And wouldn't you know it I won, not first place - since nobody needs 200 pounds of tomatoes (okay I don't weigh quite that much) but I won second place; half my weight in tomatoes. Now I sit here staring at half a crate of tomatoes wondering what to do with them all. Which is where this entire post comes in to play, as a public service I will be pairing wines and tomatoes all week until I have firmly established the right pairings and I will post them here on Friday, so get ready.

It feels nice to win especially when it is something as easy to share as a crate of organic heirloom tomatoes.

Labels: events, food

For those of you who were unable to attend Wednesday's Wine Tasting Wine Cocktails Extravaganza
due to the overwhelming heat or lack of energy, don't fret. The fabulously tasty recipes follow. Tailored by Talitha, specifically for our diverse neighborhood stores' selections. She scoured the local delis and specialty shops for the ingredients. The result: four delicious twists on classic cocktail recipes, personalized for our microclimate.


Vine Cola
4 ounces Bandit Cabernet
2 ounces white grape juice
1 ounce lemon juice
splash soda
Serve in a collins glass



Pomegranate Mimosa
4 ounces Paul Cheneau Cava
2 ounces Pomegranate juice
Pour ingredients into champagne glass
you may substitute mango juice for a tropical twist



Elderberry Spritzer
4 ounces Le Mazet Blanc
1 ounce elderberry or blueberry syrup
2 ounces seltzer water
start with the berry syrup, then wine, and finish with seltzer



Vine Wine
3 ounces Bandit Cabernet
2 ounces lemon juice
2 teaspoon simple syrup
shake well and serve strained into a wine glass

Labels: events, french, reds, whites, wine culture

Who wants to play?

June 28th is Vine Wine's one year anniversary!

Can you believe it?!! Has it really been a year? Have I really had that much wine to drink, you might ask yourself. But the real question is: what wines do you want to taste? Yep, it is all about you!
You've got the power and here's how you use it; for the next few weeks when you pop into Vine to pick up your everyday favorites or your spontaneous selections, think about which wine you would love to taste. Then the next time you're on on-line, post your vote. Tell us what wines you want to taste! On that anniversary Wednesday, We'll taste the top three requested wines. (The fourth will be a parlor trick from T-trick-E, aka Talitha.)
And as an added bonus, just to share the love, everybody gets 10% off * any bottle of wine purchased on June 28th!!!!

* Sorry not to be combined with any other discount, Sadie needs to be fed.
Fun and games for all, or at least wine and cheese for all!

Labels: events