Exploration Tastings Friday and Saturday!

It’ll be an exciting wine exploration both days. Wine education has never been this delicious and fun! Same Grapes, Same Vintage, Wildly Different Wines! You’ll kick-off the tasting with a pair of white wines from Lugana, right at the southern end of Lake Garda and both made by Alessandro Cutolo at Marangona. Both are 100% Turbiana from the same three vineyard plots, picked on the same day. For Marangona Lugana TreCampane 2024 , Alessandro pressed the grapes as soon as they arrived at the winery. Then the clear juice fermented in steel and aged 10 months in raw cement tanks on the fine lees. The grapes for Marangona Lugana Cemento 2024 took a different path, being knocked off the stems, crushed and then the juice and grape skins left to ferment in steel before spending 10 months together in cement. You’d expect the TreCampane to be the lighter, fresher, more crisp, wine. And the Cemento to be weightier and probably darker in color and flavor, too. Come try them – what you taste will surprise and delight you! Two Wildly Different Takes on “The Rhone ” If you know the southern Rhone village of Beaumes de Venise at all, it’s probably for their sweet white wine from Muscat. But sitting just down the ridge from Gigondas, this is great red wine country. And Dom des Bernardins Beaumes de Venise Rouge 2024 is a great red going beyond plump fruit to deliver layer upon layer of what the French call garrigue – a mélange of wild herbs, cracked black pepper and black olive savoriness. Taking the Mourvedre that helps the Bernardins taste so good and transporting it to California’s Central Coast might leave you expecting something fruity and fat. But when Daniel Callan is working with 100 year-old Mataro – the local name for Mourvedre? What you get in Slamdance Kooperatieve Wines Mataro 2023 is full of fruit but also feels fresh, bright, even mouthwatering. Come taste the contrast! And Just for Fun To round out the tasting Friday you’ll enjoy Manuel Quintano Rioja Alavesa 1786 Labastida 2021 , a tribute to the man who tried hard to introduce oak aging to Rioja in the late 1700s (it needed until the mid-1800s to catch on). And Saturday we’ll sneak in Zorzal Pinot Noir Tupungato Valley Terroir Unico 2024 , proof that Argentina does more than Malbec – at least if you head all the way south to Patagonia! It’ll be an exciting wine exploration both days. Education has never been this delicious!