What to say about this month’s shipment? I’d like to start out differently than usual, but then I’d have to say that the wines this month weren’t very good, and I’d be lying through my teeth! In fact, this month’s shipment is arguably the best yet.
This month brings wines from France, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Argentina for everyone. For the white and red folks, there is also a wine from Slovenia, for the red only folks, there is a killer Grenache from from Australia. Regardless of what you get, there’s lots of old vines, lots of low yields, and lots of very exciting and delicious wines.
Also, keep your eyes peeled on the website over the next couple of months, as we announce some great new events, and more than a couple of other fun things, including the opportunity to order additional wines from your shipment online.
That’s all for now!
Arriba, abajo, al centro, para adentro*
Jake
*a Spanish toast, literally translated: “it arrives, down, to the center, for the inside”
For details on this month’s shipment, click here
If you had ALL RED wine, click here
Aleš Kristancic, the iconic maker of the exceptional, and somewhat strange, wines his family’s estate, 
wine for their customers. The wine would be under their Quattro Mani label, but made from Movia grapes and at the Movia winery. The results are this delightful, and altogether satisfying light, aromatic white.
The grape chosen for this wine was Tocai (the spelling on the label is a phonetic one), the most commonly planted variety in Collio, and one that is capable of producing subtle wines of very high quality if it is cared for properly, and handled gently. It shouldn’t be confused with Tokaj (a type of wine) from Hungary, or Tokay (an old French name for Pinot Gris that is no longer legal). Grapes for this wine come entirely from Movia’s Exto Gredic vineyard, and the wine is fermented in large vats, then bottled immediately to preserve its delicacy. After bottling, it was aged for six months before release to let the flavors integrate and settle. 3,000 cases were made.
Sicily has always been a challenge for all but the hardest core lovers of Italian wines. Wine production on the island is prolific, but it often seems that wine is produced merely for the sake of producing wine, rather than for the sake of making anything that anyone would want to drink. There are of course a few exceptions, wines that point to the possibility of making really delicious wines in 
Sicily, and one has to think that there is some reason, besides that the locals like to drink, that Sicily has thousands of years of winemaking history.
Francesco Cambria, who bought the property and started Cottanera in the 1960’s, has passed the directorship to his sons, Guglielmo and Enzo, who’s children, Mariangela, Francesco and Emanuele also take an active role in the operations. The winemaker is Lorenzo Landi.
The sommelier community is really excited about Portuguese wines right now, and it’s wines like this one that provide the justification for their excitement. This is a super rich wine, with tons of wild fruit and a beguiling structure, just enough tannin to make you stand up and take notice, but not so much as to get in the way of a reasonable meal, or of drinking a lot of the wine.
Some wines are special because they are made with obsessive care and attention to detail. Other wines are just darned-tasty. Though Budini Malbec is definitely a well-made wine, I have to put it in the darned-tasty category. This is proof once again that Argentina leads the world in the production of delicious wines at reasonable prices.