Pruning Vines w/Willi Brundlmayer

William’s Corner Wine & Beer Run present an evening with Elisabeth Saladin, biodynamic vigneronne of Domaine Saladin -Saint Marcel d’Ardeche (Rhone) France

February 13th 2012, Bang: 6:30 p.m. with Dinner to follow at The Space. $45 per person includes Dinner & 5 wines. (plus tax and gratuity)

First come first serve reservations, limited spots, R.S.V.P to jefflatchum@gmail.com

Williams Corner Wine owes its very existence to our friend and occasional thorn-in-the-side Joe Dressner. Thanks Joe, you’ll be missed. Our condolences to the entire LDM family.

We’re pleased to announce that Williams Corner Wine can now be called Williams Corner Wine & Beer as we’ve received our Beer Import and Wholesale license from the VA-ABC. And what better way to celebrate than with a 500mL of our first beer: Birra Morgana, an unfiltered, unpasteurized ale from Morgana, Italy, in the Veneto. Wonderful stuff. www.birramorgana.com/

This is a joint event. There will be a delicious four course dinner with wine tastings of Michael Shaps’ famous Virginia and Burgundy wines, followed by the guest of honor himself speaking about his wine-making. The cost for dinner is $75 dollars. Jeff Latchum will be hosting the event at the renowned Clifton Inn.

Charles Gendrot and rock star wine-maker Michael Shaps will be hosting a wine dinner at La Bergerie Restaurant, Alexandria, on Thursday 26th May. They’ll be tasting some of Michael Shaps renowned wine as well as Domaine de la Bergerie Cremant de Loire! We look forward to seeing you there! Call the restaurant for more information: (703) 683-1007

Tuesday, March 8, 7:15 pm. Dino, 3435 Connecticut Avenue NW, Cleveland Park, Washington DC, 20008. Tel : (202) 686 2966. Please reserve your seats with Dean (dean@dino-dc.com) $65/per person

Luckily the Dive Bouteille was situated in the caves emanating from the moat of an old castle, otherwise a week and a half in France would have progressed without a single visit to a significant cultural attraction.

Anyway, my (Andrew’s) initial ramblings on our visits on and off wine tastings (La Remise, Millesime Bio, Valaire, Renaissance, Salon des Vins de Loire, and the aforementioned Dive).

1. Wines in tank, whites in particular, are uniformly delicious. It’s amazing that winemakers actually get around to bottling. Nicolas and I both are convinced that we’d drink it dry first. To reiterate this point, I’ll make it #2 as well.
3. 2010 wines, most still in tank, are uniformly delicious.
4. Once in bottle, the balance of appropriate ripeness and good acidity should make many of the 2010 wines delicious, if never uniformly, once they’re in bottles. This comment applies particularly to Loire wines, where we did much of our tasting.
5. In 2010 in the Touraine, gamay is very pretty. Even in blends, the gamay shines through.
6. In 2009 in the Touraine, gamay is meaty. Even in blends, the gamay powers through.
7. Bernard Baudry’s 2009 wines are stunning. This is no doubt to the talent of this author in picking such ripe, high quality fruit. I’ll take all the credit, and your checks as well.
8. Although I only picked for 1 morning, all of Baudry’s wines are stunning. This is no doubt due to the quality of the grapes I harvested migrating from one tank to all the other tanks in the cellar, kinda like Brettanomyces does.
9. There isn’t Brettanomyces in Baudry’s wines, please don’t misinterpret #8.
10. On the topic of Brettanomyces, it appears our car caught a nasty case of brett at the Dive. This led to a brainstorm of t-shirt slogans for next year’s Dive. The winner: “I got Volatile at the Dive Bouteille.”