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One of the most important elections in American history is over (finally) and it's time to get back to buying wine, despite the economic uncertainties and the roller-coaster markets... Life goes on, and we have a great selection of new arrivals and featured wines at very affordable prices plus some great Champagnes, Bordeaux, Burgundies and Barolos for those special occasions. Thanksgiving's just around the corner so give this fabulous list a scroll, we're sure you'll find something of interest. The staff at CSW promises a bipartisan effort to offer great values to our customers in the months ahead - no spin, no spoof, just great Natural Wines!

On my recent visit to Burgundy the highlight of the tastings was the wine of Roland Rapet. Roland Rapet is the name of the estate but Vincent is the winemaker and proprietor. The 2005's were stupendous, and in many cases his 2006's are not as showy, but they express more terroir while being extremely attractive and very pretty wines to drink in the short to medium term. Drinkability is something that is underrated these days. Sounds ridiculous I know but so many people buy wines to put away and drink lesser wines on a regular basis. These wines can be put away but are just so slurpable today.

This is an unique opportunity to taste some of the finest cheeses available in New York along with the amazing Champagnes of Larmandier-Bernier, imported by Louis-Dressner Selections. Larmandier-Bernier farms Biodynamically, they have low-yielding old vines and ferment with wild yeasts. Their Champagnes are now among the very finest, a testament to their great work in the vineyard giving true wines of terroir. Artisanal Cheese is the finest "affineur" in the country, choosing from only the finest farms and maturing the cheeses in their own cellars. Their own Affineur, Waldemar Albrecht, will also be here to personally pair the delectable cheeses with the Champagne and along with other great Louis-Dressner Selections. Don't miss this extraordinary event!

Last winter we accompanied importer Joe Dressner on a ramble through Normandy and discovered the wonderfully delicious cidres of Julien Frémont. Monsieur Frémont works on a breathtakingly beautiful farm in the Pays d’Auge, Calvados, a place where cows and apple trees have defined the landscape for more time than can be remembered. Frémont says that he would gladly do without his cows, about 80 when you count the youngsters born each year, and just deal with apple trees and apples, and the cider he makes from them. But he knows that cows and trees take care of each another, that his trees would not grow and age the way they do, or his apples taste the same, without the cows. These are extraordinary "artisanal" ciders that have never been in the US before - we urge you to try them!

A listing in the new environmentally-friendly website Greenopia got us to thinking about which wines are called "organic" and what that really means. We noticed that many wine stores list a very high percentage of organic wines, but upon closer examination, most of the wines listed as organic on their websites are not. Many appear to be estates practicing "sustainable" agriculture, without any type of certification, which allows them to apply treatments as needed. We're not condemning that type of farming but we feel that consumers seeking organic products should get accurate information. At CSW we list as Organic or Biodynamic those wines made with organically grown grapes which have received certification from an appropriate government or private agency (Demeter is the sole certifying body for Biodynamic). That certification refers only to the agricultural methods, however, and not to chaptalization (adding sugar, permitted in many wine regions) or to adding sulfur dioxide, an anti-oxidant, found natually in grapes that retards spoilage. The US Department of Agriculture confuses the issue by stating that "Organic Wine" must be made without added sulfites (even though naturally occuring levels of SO2 are sometimes higher than the 20 parts per million the USDA allows). While winemaking without sulfur can sometimes yield brilliant results, we feel that the sulfur question is really a separate issue, so we'll stay with "wine made from organically grown grapes" for our Organic and Biodynamic classifications.
Here are a few of our favorite wines, certified to be made from organically grown grapes...

The Friday 10/30 Wall Street Journal ran an article entitled The Lamb Chop Test: 10 Wine Shops and 10 Wine Pairings. Which Paired Best? We had two wines mentioned in the article. At the top of the list was the Doniene Gorrondona Tinto. Here's a link to the article and what we had to say most recently about this unique and delicious terroir expression from the Basque region in Spain:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122540883734286131.html

The 2007 vintage of the Doniene Gorrondona Tinto has arrived. We have had the good fortune to acquire a large portion of the production of this rare wine (only 140 cases made) from the Basque region of Spain. Last year at about this time we sent out an article concerning the 2006 vintage entitled A terroir-rific wine from Spain in which we expounded upon our excitement for this un-adulterated and emminently drinkable wine made from 100% pre-phylloxera vines of Hondarribi Beltza grapes, grown un-certified organically.