Cool Springs Wines & Spirits

Many of our team members at Cool Springs Wines & Spirits come from an, hmm, era when commercials had a great sense of play and fun.  One of my most favorite TV commercials was the cereal commercial featuring three boys at the breakfast table.  One was a little redheaded boy named Mikey.  He won’t eat it, he hates everything.  His brother got him to try a new cereal AND he liked it, Mikey likes it!  Remember?  If you are from an age after Xerox and fax machines, the point is getting wine drinkers to drink wine.  Huh?!  Read on.

Not too old to remember good wine

CSWS is having a great time pouring wines to taste in-store.  What?  In-store wine tastings, since when?  For some time now, but the issue is regulation and enforcement regs. are not out.  However, after judicious conversations with the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Commission) CSWS began pouring in-store early this fall.  When?!  Where!?  How?!   We post our tasting events on our Facebook page and our customers are loving it.

Imagine coming in to CSWS on a lazy Saturday afternoon.  You know you want a couple bottles of wine and it pretty much stops there.  You plan on wandering around for a while.  Low and behold, you are greeted by a smiling CSWS team member who politely asks if you would like to try some wine.  Your first look conveys your satiric contempt, “why do you think I am in a wine store?  Of course I want to try some wine, I’m in a wine store after all!”  Oh sorry, we meant, would you like to actually taste some wine in-store at our wine bar.  Ohhh!  Mumble, mumble, why yes, thank you.

You can taste wine in a wine shop? Yeah, I knew that.

The revelations from our in-store tastings continue unabated.  One of the leading candidates for home runs out of left field has been our Vina Carles Priorat.  Vina What?  Exactly.  Our in-store tastings have given us the wonderful opportunity to help our great customers turn themselves on to great wines they would not have allowed us to sell them.  Note to self – read previous blog post about great wines not being expensive.  Please explain. 

On several occasions our Fine Wine Manager Mark Luna or myself have greeted customers and attempted to help them find a great bottle of red wine for under twenty dollars.  Easily done in our shop.  If we suggest a nice Spanish Red we get all  too often, “Spanish, oh I hate Spanish wine.”  Ugh!  Now we are changing this mindset with the tastings.  So many of our very clever customers has gone to the wine bar and tried various wines we are pouring that day and when the Vina Carles Priorat is poured, we sell a bunch.  Customers leave with bottles and a smile.  Imagine this – the wine sells itself.

Two reasons for the smiles.  First reason, they are very happy with their purchasing decision based upon a simple sip of wine from a plastic cup.  That is all that it takes to convince customers on the quality of a wine.  Amazing really.  Second, a new wine was discovered without exploring the web or taking a geography class.  We also poured a Bordeaux Red this past weekend.  CSWS staffers have had the same reactions to the offer of exploring Bordeaux Reds as Spanish Reds.  But…!  Decant, show the benefits of decanting, also the teaching the fact that decanters can be had for $15-20 and viola!  Cabernet Sauvingnon and Merlot lovers unite and buy their first Bordeaux Red.  No changing of the polar ice caps or the Sun burning out causing the Apocalypse,  just simply changing attitudes one sip at a time.

Tasting wine is both subjective and objective - almost always fun!

So next time you are planning on swinging by Cool Springs Wines & Spirits plan on taking an extra few minutes to check if we are tasting wines.  Again, we post dates and times for tastings on our Facebook page.  Come in and get ready to have your notions about wine rocked!  Yes, we are changing attitudes about wine one sip at a time and it works.  Just ask Mikey.

Every week, virtually every day, one of my Cool Springs Wines & Spirits colleagues comes to me with a story.  These stories invariably relate to a wonderful conversation about wine.  These related stories follow a similar track.  Customer comes in not sure what they want but know they want something different, but do not know what wine to buy.  One of our CSWS sales team members spends the time with the customer and sells them a really cool wine to try.  Said customer comes back to the shop and shares their experience with our team member.  The result normally follows the track of great wine, never would have found it, thank you and show me (customer) something else to try.

This is what we do and what we really enjoy doing every day.  We are professionals who love learning about wine and sharing our knowledge and most critically, passion, about wine with others.   In 2010, the United States become the largest wine market in the world, huh?  Correct, the US bought more wine in 2010 than France or Italy, a stagering 330 million cases of wine beating out second place France’s 321 million cases.   While US per capita consumption of 2.6 gallons is low when compared to France or Italy, there are far more US consumers purchasing wine now than ever before.   California leads the home front charge producing 241.8 million cases, 199.6 millon cases sold within the US.   Meaning California exported roughly 28% of their production.  Considering that so much of California’s wine production is seated in bulk production in boxed wines and mass market jug wines, what was really exported?

US wine drinkers - tops in the world

Here is where we get into the nitty gritty of this post.  How much good to high quality California wine was exported instead of being consumed domestically?  It is not a secret that, as a whole, US consumers are nearly addicted to foods containing High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) and research such as a 2010 Princeton University research team demonstrated that this sweetener is not like table sugar and other sweeteners.  HFCS causes long term weight gain, increased body fat especially around the abdomen.  What does this have to do with wine?  The report releasing the information about US wine consumption and California wine production also showed trends in California wine varietals.  Growing notably in production were Muscat, Riesling and Zinfandel.  While Zin by itself is not sweet, when it is used to produce White Zinfandel it is.  By liquid measure, more Zin is used to produce White Zinfandel than normal Zin (red wine).  Even with US consumption trends, Americans are beginning to consume more and more sweet wines.

HFCS food product chart

At a recent wine tasting CSWS hosted, we proudly and enthusiastically presented the fabulous Riesling wines of Weingut St. Urbanshof from Germany.  Several of our customers who attended the wine tasting commented that they had never had Riesling wine that tasted like the St. Urbanshof beauties.  Further discussions revealed that most making these comments had consumed very sweet, lower quality Riesling that also was lower priced.  Several attendees did not understand how the delightful St. Urbanshof Riesling could be so expensive considering they were Rieslings.  Here we go, now we are on to something!

Nik Weis wine maker for St Urbanshof - guest at CSWS tasting

Many of the US wine drinkers have had their pallets and wine impressions skewed and dumbed down by products and producers working along the least common denominator that so much of US processed foods contain High Fructose Corn Syrup and thus unnaturally sweet for the product, that we all more or less addicted to the stuff and expect the same inexpensive, sweet stuff in our wines.  No, no, no.  Good wine - good, cheap sweet wine – um, well, not as good.  Again, the impression is that Riesling is inexpensive and sweet wine.  It is true that most, by liquid measure, Riesling consumed in the US is inexpensive and cheap, good Riesling is fabulous, not necessarily HFCS sweet and priced at fair market value.  Some Rieslings are off-dry, some more acidic than others and far more interesting that the mass market stuff.

The point is that our staff at CSWS spends a lot of time speaking with our wonderful wine customers about choice and quality.  A very small few have said we are being wine snobs because we prefer fancy wines.  Not all cool, high quality wines are fancy let alone expensive.  None of us at CSWS are rich or getting rich selling wine.  However, what we have is knowledge that we are ready and willing to share with our customers.  Good wine, forget that, great wine doesn’t have to be fancy or expensive.  You just need access to the product and knowledge about the product.  At CSWS we provide both.  On Saturday January 21, 2012 we hosted an in-store wine tasting.  We poured red wines from the Languedoc, Marselan and Priorat regions as well as Cream Sherry from Spain.  People were amazed at the wonderful quality and uniqueness of the wines.  Tasters were also amazed at the relative low price for these great wines.  When given the opportunity to try good to great wines for free and learn about the grape varietals and wine regions many people have the light bulb go off over their heads.  Ah hah! or Eureka moments do also happen in wine shops.

Eureka moment - great wine not expensive

No, there is no snobbery to sharing knowledge and educating US wine drinkers when it comes to great wines.  What is fascinating is that wine drinkers do not have the money for a twenty dollar bottle of Spanish wine, but when they taste the wine and the unbelievable quality is revealed, all of a sudden money can be found for two bottles of twenty dollar wine.

Cool Springs Wines & Spirits is all about education and revelation of great wines.  Come in a find out why.

In asking for feedback from our customers did we open up a Pandora’s box of questions!  Great, now that we have blog fodder for the next three years, we can proceed.  We at Cool Springs Wines & Spirits stock and sell a wide variety of wines, spirits and beers.  However, many do not know or better yet, understand the real impact of barrel ageing these products has on the flavor and thus enjoyment of the adult beverage.

At CSWS, we are hobbyist as well as fans of history.  It is in this historical vein that we will begin looking at the use of wooden barrels and their association with wine and spirits.  Historians cite the Balkans as the part of the world from where wooden barrels originated.  The Celts are credited with this invention.  The ancient Greeks and Romans used earthen vessels (from clay and other materials) to store their wine, olives, and olive oil.  Once expansion took the Romans beyond the Po valley and to Central Europe, north of the Italian Alps and west of modern day Liguria , the Roman exchanges with the Celts introduced them to wooden barrels and wines stored in them.  Eventually, the popularity of Celtic or Gaillic (Gaulois) wines became so popular in parts of the Roman empire that a barrel of wine was worth one or more slaves.

Old wooden wine barrels in stone cellar

Whiskies for centuries have also been stored and aged in wooden barrels.  Less than fifty years ago, beer was also stored and aged in wooden barrels.   Balsamic vinegar, Tabasco hot sauce and other specialty food items are also stored and aged in wooden barrels.  Okay, what is so special about wooden barrels and can any wood be used to make the barrels?

Not all wood can successfully be used to make wooden barrels to store liquids.  For centuries hard woods, especially wood from oak trees has been used to make wooden barrels.  We will focus on this wood as it is the preferred and almost exclusive wood used for making wine, whisky and beer barrels. 

Oak wooden barrels are coopered by a cooper.  The place where the barrels are coopered is at a cooperage.  Confused?  Hope not.  Basically, a trained artisan, a cooper, hand cuts and shapes wooden staves and uses metal rings to contain the staves to form a conically shaped vessel.  The cooper maintains fires in his cooperage at different temperatures to heat and thus bend the wooden staves into shape and place.  The cooper strategically adds and places a number of metal rings over the staves to permanently keep the fired and shaped staves in place.  Note to reader – this is a very difficult process and requires years of training and practice.  Do not try at home.

An oak barrel taking shape

The art in coopering barrels is to obtain the best quality wood, cut and shape it and fire it to both bend and imbue the inside of the staves with a slight charred surface.  Oak, in particular, will slowly leach out phenols containing tannins that will mix with the wine, whisky or beer and add character and flavor to the liquid.

French and American oak are the preferred woods for the global wine making industry.  French Oak is more subtle than American Oak in terms of its positive and desired ability to enhance wine.  Different types of whiskies use different type of oak depending on the type of spirit and its geographic location.  US law requires that all straight whiskies be aged in new White Oak barrels for two years.  Bourbon, by US law must be aged in new, charred, White Oak barrels.

So what does this mean?  Well, for the Chardonnay drinker the possible use of barrel ageing and barrel fermentation will result in wines that have flavors as a result of the mixing of the wood phenols (tannin) to produce what is identified as vanilla, caramel and toffee.  Balancing the amount of barrel time, the size of the barrel (think surface area to wine contact with wood) and a winemaker can produce wines ranging in taste and dryness.

For red wine drinker, the tannins in the oak help red wine to evolve in a very magical way.  The charring of an oak barrel renders flavors and aromas of spice (such as clove or cinnamon) cedar, pencil lead, toffee, mocha, and cream.

As wines and whiskies age in wooden barrels the wood expands and contracts due to temperature and humidity flucuations.  These times of expansion and contraction produce what is referred to as the Angel’s Share.  This is the term associated with the evaporation of water and/ or alcohol from the barrel.  This adds dimension and character to the liquid sleeping inside and requires great skill from the wine maker or distiller to balance the effects on the final product.

The influence an oak wooden barrel has on wine can only be realized in the first 1-3 uses.  As a result, wine makers age wines in both new and used barrels.  US laws require the use of new barrels for certain spirits noted above.  The sum of this is a global demand for new oak every year.  Oak is a notoriously slow growing tree to get to a harvestable size.  This has forced major replanting and forest management practices to ensure that the whisky, beer and wine industries have sufficient supply of new oak for barreling projects.

A gnarled old oak tree

At Cool Springs Wines & Spirits, we offer thousands of oak influence wines and spirits to our customers.  Come in an see what all the fuss is about.

For months now we have been exploring many regions and styles of wines and spirits.  We have collectively gone around the world because the wines and spirits in the posts are basically and fundamentally, cool.  Cool in the sense that these are all styles and types of products curious people should know about.

With the dawn of a New Year, the staff at Cool Springs Wines & Spirits wants to know what you think about where we’ve been digitally in our blogs and more importantly, where you our dear customer would like to go in the future.  Do you want to go back to one of the styles or regions and get really in depth about a topic or use a blindfold and throw darts are the world wine making map?

Either way, we have so much more to explore and at the end of the day, we all can try some really interesting wines and spirits.  Our staff pro-actively searches for neat products to stock for our customers, but having input directly from customers is even more fun.

After reading this post, if you care to send us an email at – events@coolspringswines.com – and open a dialog with us.  How are we doing with the blog?  How are we doing with bringing in cool new wines, spirits and high gravity beers?  What did we miss?  What we your favorite home runs?

Do you want to explore the Loire Valley, or the Willamette Valley?  Want to learn the difference between corn and Korn?  What to try how to make the transition from sweet wines to traditional wines?  How about finding a vodka that really suits your taste?  What are the differences between rye, wheat, barley and potato vodkas?  Huh?  Exactly!

So many cool wines and spirits in the world

Not all sparkling wine is Champagne, but all Champagne is sparkling or is it?  What is Tequila, really?  Not just your frat party guarantee for a morning after hang over.  What makes a distilled spirit a quality spirit over another product?

Yes, so many things to talk about and to try.  Speaking of trying, CSWS will be offering a number of in-store tastings this year.  Check out our Facebook page for dates and times.  Like us on Facebook and get updates.

In this new year, all of our staff at Cool Springs Wines & Spirits are somewhat like Lifestyle Coaches.  We will help you get the most enjoyment and quality experiences out of the products you purchase from us.  This is our commitment to you.  Did you know that most of the staff spends spare and personal time researching and learning about all the products we sell and learn about new products we want to bring in to CSWS?  With over 6,000 products in our store you can imagine how much we have to read daily, weekly and monthly.

Learning about new products can be fun

We do what we do at Cool Springs Wines & Spirits for our customers, bottom line.  You may not see it or feel it, but there are already so many cool and interesting wines and spirits in our shop that it could take a life time to try them all.  We also work very hard to get you the very best prices and deals in the state of Tennessee. 

After reading through the comments above, one last question – where in the world do you want to go?

What?  The title above is a double edged sword.  Firstly, has the fog from your New Year’s Eve celebrations lifted and secondly are you ready for a change?  Why change?  Two comments, time marches on and change is inevitable.  If you are reading this posting you are not getting any younger.  As we get older, hopefully our ability to mature with grace affords us the insight to realize that change is constant and that it is far more prudent to embrace change than to stand in the storm against it.

Standing in the face of a storm

For the better part of 2011, we at Cool Springs Wines & Spirits have engaged our dear blog readers to step outside their proverbial drink boxes and try something new, something different.  Why?  Change is good; change is inevitable, change brings discovery and new pleasures.  Because staying inside the norm of Sonoma and Nappa AVA boxes will only continue to render the same, thus no change except for a price point or label variance.

What does change really mean to the average person?  For the wine drinker, stepping outside the box means taking a dart and throwing it blindly on the wine world map and trying something new, dare we say, something dif – different.  Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus and there are other wines out in the world other than Blah Blah brand from California made by some giant conglomerate that needs you to consume 11.785641923 liters of their wines per year to send the marketing department to Hawaii for their annual meeting.

Map of southwest France and Madiran AOC

If you need some direction in the New Year, take some time and closely read or re-read the last dozen postings of this blog.  Okay, you are vested in this process and want to step off the edge of the precipice (love that word) into something completely new and off the chart.  Very good my wine exploring Vespucci.  Here you go – Madrian and Tannat.  Oops, I said it or better yet wrote it.  What the heck is a Madiran and is Tannat an Italian motor bike or a grape?  Firstly, Madiran is a French wine region with AOC status in the southwestern part of the country.  Tannat is a wine grape that is big, brooding, tannic and beautiful.  Don’t be afraid, this is fun, remember?  Okay, obscure wine region and obscure wine varietal equals what?  Try a bottle of Madiran with a nice wintry beef pot roast to start and learn why we take the time to write about these things and stock the wines.  The light bulb will go off!

Sure, great for wine drinkers but what about we spirit folks?  Not to worry, you also have so much to look forward to in the New Year.  Take the average brown spirits drinker, especially if you buy a certain brand named after a four foot tall Tennessee distiller whose label is black and white.  For years you have consumed, in quantity, volumes of said brown spirit with an equally noxious brown soft drink.  Note – most of us stopped this habit upon leaving college, a few of us stopped this practice after leaving high school. 

Pot stills used to distill magical brown spirits

We joke and tease with our spirits customers that brown spirits are for medicinal purposes, especially this time of year.  In part there is truth and fact to this as many who grew up in the South had a parent or grandparent prepare a curing remedy based on a brown spirit.  However, there are sooooooo many wonderful brown spirits that should never meet up with sickly sweet soft drinks in the same glass.  Yes, there are brown spirits that are meant to be enjoyed like the first soft, lingering kiss of a new lover.  Ooh, that sounds great!  Good, we’ve got your attention.  Okay, step away from the giant display of Mr. Spaniels’ spirit and try bourbon from a small distillery or a brand you have never heard of that makes a crafted, ethereal pallet pleaser.  Yes, there are many and we can help guide you.  Bourbons like Angel’s Envy or Willett, maybe Rock Hill or Basil Hayden will bring you in from the darkness and into the light.  Even better, step away from your real comfort zone and step into the exotic world of Single Malt Scotch from Scotland.

Tis true, this is confusing and bewildering, but we assure you that we are constantly doing our research, both in print and within the glass to decipher this riddle for you.  Here lies in wait very real hedonistic pleasure for our brown spirts drinker.  Bottled fairy dust like Glenmorangie 10 year old, Glenfiddich 15 year old, Maccallan 10 year old, Ardbeg 10 year old and Springbank 10 year old offer you exotic destinations such as the Scottish Highlands, Speyside, the island of Islay and the Campbeltown.  Cool isn’t it?!

Single Malt Scotch map of Scotland

The management team at Cool Springs Wines & Spirits spends considerable personal time, off the clock, continuing their own repsective educational journeys and willingly shares this knowledge with our customers every day.  Please, step outside of the box with us and discover the gifts within.

This time of year brings on many thoughts for all of us at Cool Springs Wines & Spirits.  Thoughts of our loved ones and families, desires for a happier and safer world, and the knowledge of long, challenging hours at work.  We do what we do because we enjoy it.  We do what we do because of you, our wonderful customers.  We do what we do because we enjoy sharing our passion for wines & spirits with all of you who cross the threshold and shop in our playground.

Those of us who earn our living in retail feel at times like Sisyphus, at the least part about moving the boulder up and down the hill each day.  But what most of our customers don’t know is how often we share with each other the wonderful exchanges we have with our customers.  The popular consumer impression is that retail workers only share complaints about customers with each other.  This is far from the truth.  We work in the wine & spirits industry because we want to and we all have our own passions for various aspects of the industry.  When we have interesting, enriching and sometimes fulfilling exchanges with customers we want to share these with our colleagues.

Holiday shopping can be interesting

An example of this is something we at CSWS experience quite often.  A customer returns to the shop and requests to specifically speak with a particular team member.  Why?  We find out that our team member had recommended a spirit, high gravity beer or wine that the customer very much enjoyed and wanted to share their experience with us.  The customer also wants to get more recommendations.  Wow!  This is the kind of treasure our team looks to cultivate daily.

Why do we do what we do?  The answer is simple.  For people who are passionate about what they do for a living and for people who work well together as a team, taking care of our customers is our Holy Grail.

Although this post comes during the holiday season, we do what we do every day of the year for our customers.  The gift of serving our customers comes year round.  We have fulfilling exchanges and conversations with our customers every day we open our doors.

Our customers are the best - every day

Not often in retail do we have the opportunity to develop friendships with our customers, but many of us have and this is truly a wonderful thing indeed.  Sisyphus was condemned to an eternity of drudgery because of wrong doings.  However, all of our team are blessed with daily life and career fulfilling moments because of our customers.  Whether you are just visiting us for the first time or a seasoned customer of many years, you make this all possible for every one of us here.  From each and every one of the Cool Springs Wines & Spirits team members, thank you.  All of you help turn our passions into rewards.

May the God you worship bestow upon you and the ones you love mercy, hope, love and most of all peace.

Sometimes it simply takes a subtle reminder to jog the memory or in other cases a sledgehammer to the gut to clear the cobwebs.  I won’t go as far as calling it an epiphany, but I will say it was a gift.  By now, if you haven’t skipped to another web page, you are baffled at what direction this post is taking.  Don’t fret, all will be revealed, at least a little bit will.

At Cool Springs Wines & Spirits I am delighted, humbled and very privileged to work with a wonderful team of colleagues.  What?!  this post isn’t going to be about a cool subject like, well, like, any of our previous posts?  Yes it will, but not in the way most would think.  This post is a tribute to my colleagues who make it happen every day for our customers as well as for each other.

In this holiday season I spend a lot of time thinking about what I should be thankful for and who in my life I really care about.    Amongst many personal items I choose not to list here, there are many I will share.  This list of many is all of my colleagues at CSWS.  My colleagues come from many walks of life, different creeds, life experiences and professional backgrounds.

CSWS - a great place for customers and our staff

What collectively brings us all together is a coupling of passion and genuine friendship.  Firstly, the whole CSWS team is passionate about what they do.  Not only do we get to play with some really cool wines, spirits, high gravity beers and bubbly, we get to do all of this in an environment that lets us all excel.  Our ownership, as a part of our team, fosters this environment that benefits not only all of our wonderful customers but the team that cares to all of our customers’ needs.

Our customer service team takes care of more customers in one day than any other other wine and spirits store in the state.  This team delivers fantastic customer service with genuine smiles.  I have worked in several retail industries over the years and have yet to find a group of cashiers that really wants to make their customers feel at home, appreciated, and respected.  First tribute goes to our cashier supervisor, Tina, who sets the tone for how we all interact with our customers.  In the end, it doesn’t matter if it is Tina or James, Jeff,  John, Kelly, Scott or Wendy who rings up our customers, all of us know that the customers are taken care of in a manner that says “Thank you” and “You are always welcome.”

The sales team on our floor not only covers an enormous amount of square footage, approximately 18,000 square feet, but an astounding amount of information on all subject related to high gravity beers, spirits and wines.  What many customers don’t see is the incredible amount of time spent off the floor and off the clock conducting research on industry products and expanding their own personal databases.  With so many products in a large store, we could get over-whelmed with product information but just the opposite happens. 

Steve, our Senior Floor Manager, brings years of restaurant, bar and catering expertise to the floor.  No one is better at planning out all of the details for beverages for an event.  Then there is Mark, our Fine Wine Manager, who possesses his second level Wine Education certification.  Mark’s knowledge of all things wines is mind boggling and a joy to listen to every day.  Our Spirit Managers Ryan and Craig love coming to work after digging through hundreds of web pages looking for any and all unique as well as esoteric snippets that will help their customers make better and more informed purchasing decisions and ultimately get more enjoyment out of the products selected.  Shea, our floor wine and spirits salesman, brings a vast array of food and beverage experience to the floor as well as a Sommelier degree to top off his credentials.  Our sales floor team makes it happen in such a wonderful way for our customers.

There would not be any products if it wasn’t for the incredibe hard work of our Senior Manager and Buyer, Penny, or our Warehouse Manager, Monte.  No one else in this state can make the deals happen better than Penny.  She gets the right products at the right price for our customers.  Monte works incredibly hard, both mentally as well as physically every day organizing thousands of products in our warehouse and streams these out to our sales floor with the help of Mitchell, Pete and Wes.  These people have seriously hard days, every day, to help make it happen for our customers.

Lastly, there is the Godfather of CSWS, Frank, who brings a wealth of product knowledge to the floor, but most importantly, he brings and amazing joy of life and fondness for people.  Some know what he has gone through to be on our sales floor a few days each week, most customers don’t know.    Frank is somewhat of an institution at CSWS and he is what makes us tick.

How does all of this relate to the title of this post?  Well, it works like this, what you might not know is that each one of these delightful, private persons chooses to come to Cool Springs Wines & Spirits each day instead of another job because they love what they do and who they do it for.  I feel incredibly privileged to call them colleagues and friends.  In this holiday season, it is my ardent desire that you take the time to thank them for their respective gifts and talents.  They do it all for you.

Österreich, doesn’t roll of the tongue very easily for non- German speaking people.  At once time an empire, fabled dynasty, once the defender of Christian Europe holding back the hordes of invading Turks.  Austria is now known, if at all for it civilized people and its capital, Wien, or Vienna.  Its trademark sausage the Wienerwurst became our Vienna sausage, Weiner or hot dog.  The country is known for its pastries and coffee shops, but what it really should be known for is its wines. 

Cool Springs Wines & Spirits has been quietly selling Austrian wines for many a years.  A number of our customers do not realize that the delicious white wine, Grüner Veltliner, and the rich and decadent red Carnuntum, are from Austria.  Tony Bourdain has done an episode on the country for God’s sake.  Wake up!  There are some really cool things about the country and the best part is the wine. 

Austrian wine estate

Let’s take some time together to explore what two of my Austrian friends have been bragging about for years.  Firstly, geography 101 – Austria is located between Germany and Hungary, south of the old Czechoslovakia and north of Slovenia, huh?  Celts, not the ancient Germans, are creditedwith first planting grape vines in what would become Austria sometime in the fourth century B.C. 

The leading grapes in Austria are, in whites, Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Weiβburgunder, and Welschriesling.  The primary reds grapes are Blaufränkisch, Blauburgunder and Zweigelt.  Don’t worry, translations are coming.  Grüner Veltliner is a fabulous dry white wine with a lot of character.  This grape can also be made into sweet wines.  Not only is the Austrian’s most important grape varietal, it is uniquely aromatic that supports the initial sensory experience with a delightful touch of something akin to vanilla dipped peaches and finishes with white pepper. Yes, please pour me one of those as well.  

Map of Austrian wine regions

Weiβburgunder is known in France as Pinot Blanc.  This is also a major grape in Austria.  It expresses itself in this land as a well-focused, dry white that can be either racy or wonderfully creamy.  In Burgenland, one of Austria’s wine regions, this grape is made into hedonistically delicious sweet wines.  For red wine drinkers, Austrian reds offer aficionados and hobbyists great surprises.  Blauburgunder is known in France as Pinot Noir.  This grape expresses itself as a light wine with a raspberry flavor.  Blaufränkish is the major red grape, known in Germany as Lemberger. This grape is predominately grown in Burgenland where it expresses itself as bold and spicy with great structure.  Zweigelt is a cross between Blaufränkisch and the grape St. Laurent.  Wines from this grape remind one of California’s Zinfandel.  

Okay, somewhat confusing but worth it.  On to the wine regions of Austria.  Austria as a country is only about the same size at the state of Maine, but is the eighteenth largest producer of wine in the world.  This means a lot of the country’s usable land is under vine.  The region of Lower Austria, actually in the eastern part of the country has several sub-regions – Kamptal-Donauland, Weinviertal, Wachau, Donauland-Carnuntum, Vienna, Burgenland, and Styria. 

History, incredible natural beauty and amazing wines - all in Austria

I had only known of the region of Styria for it fabled hops that went into classic pilsner type beers until I met Austrian pipe maker Peter Matzhold.   Living in the southern Austrian city of Graz, Peter has full access to Styria’s dazzling and bright wines.  Southern Styria is known as the Austrian Tuscany.  This region is also home to a large business of producing pumpkinseed oil.  Here Weiβburgunder and Sauvignon Blanc render superb wines of great character. 

Lower Austria with its many sub-regions is the largest and most important wine producing area.  This area is home to more than 50 percent of Austria’s vineyards.  Here, Grüner Veltliner is king.  Its understudy, Riesling, also produces excellent wines.  The Grüners from this region are outstanding.  One of the best producers, Weingut Brundlmayer, has a home on our racks in the Grüner section at CSWS.  What, CSWS has a Grüner Veltliner section, yes, we do.  Brundlmayer typifies the quality obsessed new generation of wine makers in Austria, their Grüner is one of the best. 

Austrian wine village on the Donau (Danube) River

 

Burgenland is Austria’s second largest wine region whose eastern areas border Hungary.  This region is primarily known for its sweet wines, yet one can find fuller bodied and beautiful red wines as well.  Burgenland’s sweet wines reflect its proximity to and old ties to Hungary as the Ausbruche wines are very similar to Hungary’s Tokay Aszú. 

Vienna is the only city in the world that is commercially significant as a wine region.  Wien is Austrian German (pronounced Veen), derives from an ancient Celtic word meaning white or wild river.  Vienna’s vineyards for centuries where under the care of monks or nobles who sold off their wines to quench the thirst of the town’s inhabitants.  In many old vineyards, different varietals where planted side by side and pressed and blended together.  This traditional wine, called Gemischter Satz - mixed planting - makes up roughly one third of Vienna’s wine today.  If you are ever in this incredibly beautiful city and can break away from their mind blowing pastries and coffee long enough to taste some of the local wine, you will be thankful you did. 

The best part of stocking and selling such cool wines as those from Austria is that at Cool Springs Wines & Spirits we get to try them.  As a result, we get blown away by the smashing quality of these exotic gems.  The most delightful aspect of these wines is they are perfect without traditional holiday foods.  Grüner Veltliner is great with turkey so is Blaufränkisch.  Blaufränkisch is also smashing with smoked ham.  Hmmm!  New ideas just in time for Christmas or Weihnachten! 

We have blogged indirectly in previous posts about Crémants but have not gone into detail about them.  After having celebrated yet another holiday with a Crémant, it behoves us to share the inside scoop on the best sparkling wines outside of the champagne district.  At Cool Springs Wines & Spirits we are delighted to provide our customers with a wonderful selection of Crémants from several AOCs. 

Firstly, what is a Crémant?  Crémants are French sparkling wines made by the méthode champenoise, outside of the Champagne AOC.  Yes, there is more to Crémants than this, however, the fundamentals are here.  There are several AOCs (Appellation d’origine Contrôlée) in France that allow for sparkling wines made by the champagne methode.  Are all French sparkling wines, excluding true Champagne, Crémants?  No.  There are many French sparkling wines that are simply sparkling wines.  However, Crémants, are somewhat engimatic outside of France.

Soon to be sparkling wine

Many sparkling wine lovers have sipped an array of delightful French sparkling wines without straying into the heavenly realm of Crémants.  I enjoyed my first Crémant in Hungary in 1993.  The Hungarian family I was hunting with wanted to celebrate New Year’s Eve with something special, but real Champagne was too expensive and they settled on Crémant.  What a tremendous surprise this was!  Feeling no pain, on my feet signing patriotic Hungarian songs to the tune of a delightful Crémant from Burgundy, actually with more than one bottle!

In tasting Crémant from Burgundy, the Alsatian region, the Loire and more, it is clearly apparent that Crémants are not Champagne, they are something else, something special indeed.  Each AOC that has regulations for their respective Crémant allow for specific grapes to be used.  This affords our able bodied and intrepid wine enthusiast the opportunity to sample sparkling wines that include grapes other than the Champagne Holy Trinity (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Petit Meunier).  How about sparkling wines that have such grapes as Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Cabernet Franc?  Yum.

Cremants are so much fun to enjoy

In exploring Crémant we first must know where to look.  There are a total of seven AOCs in France that with term “Crémant” in their name.  These are in alphabetical order -

• Crémant d’Alsace
• Crémant de Bordeaux
• Crémant de Bourgogne
• Crémant de Die
• Crémant du Jura
• Crémant de Limoux
• Crémant de Loire

Grapes destined for Crémant production must be picked by hand and the yields by weight cannot exceed those set forth by their respective AOC regulations.  But again, the best part about Crémants are they allow for the use of different grapes that make each AOC’s offering different from one another.  Each Crémant AOC also has regulations for the production of Rosé Crémant.  Below are examples for the variety of grapes used in different Crémant AOC’s -

Many Cremant AOC regulations allow for Brut Rose sparklers

With all of this knowledge you need to do a little comparison shopping.  Firstly, Crémant wines are generally less expensive than real Champagne.  At CSWS, our selection of Crémants are all under $20.00, yes, under twenty.  We have beautiful Crémants hand selected by our staff from several AOCs.  Since introducing these sparkling gems to our customers, Crémants have literally been flying off of our shelves.

Come in to Cool Springs Wines & Spirits and discover the best kept secret in the sparkling wine world.  Not only will you be delightfully surprised, your wallet won’t take a big hit.  And remember, sparkling wines are not just for holidays and celebrations.  Any day that you drink a still wine, you can enjoy sparkling.

Enjoy Cremants year round

What makes the holidays so wonderful?  Family, friends, good food and a bit of tranquility.  The sound of childrens’s laughter coupled with the long distant sound of an old friend.  There are so many different sights and sounds of the holidays.  Yet, the sensory experience does not end there.  The smell of home cooked traditional treats as well as the aroma and taste of holiday wines, sparklers as well as spirits. 

All of us at Cool Springs Wines & Spirits are very thankful for many things as well, but we owe a lot to our wonderful customers who have made our 2011 a very good one indeed.  Our team wants to share our heart felt thank you to all of us who help us keep the lights on and make every day special.

Enjoying Thanksgiving with family and friends

Whether you are sitting down to Turkey, Ham or both on Thanksgiving Day, we want to share several of our favorite wines for your meal.  However, let’s start with a little bubbly before the meal.   Here are a few sparklers at different price points.  We’ll start with the classic, champagne.  Tattinger Brut, a classic and traditional champange.  Duval Leroy, a full bodied brut champagne.  Delicious to the point of hedonism.  Simonet- Febvre Brut Rose Crémant, a fabulous Crémant (made by the champagne methodé) from Burgundy.  Segura Aria Brut, the best Spanish Cava we have and an incredible value.  Insatiable California sparkling, a delightful fruit positive value oriented sparkler.  What to do to pair wines for dinner?  Firstly, drink what you like.  If you do want traditional pairing recommendations for the main course, read on.

Beautiful Cremant Brut Rose from Burgundy

For Turkey you can go in a few directions including whites and reds.  For whites, two classic pairing stand out.  First something close to my heart, Riesling.  We have so many fabulous Rieslings that you should try all of them.  Start with St. Urbans-hof QbA Riesling from the Mosel region of Germany.  Their is a delightful nose and fruit presentation on this wine without buying a fruit bomb.  Need we mention that St. Urbans-hof is a top producer.  Next go for the tremendous Schloss Vollrads Kabinett.  The rounder and fuller classic from Germany’s Rheingau is memorable.  Finally, we go back to the Mosel and to St. Urbans-hof for their absolutely incredible and very limited Piesporter Gold Tröpchen Spätlese.  I have had many, many Rieslings in my life and this was one of the very best.

Fabulous German Riesling

If Riesling is not your tipple, if not it should be, there is another classic white wine pairing of Gewürztraminer.  We must go
straight to the classic soil of France’s Alsatian region for their ethereal Gewurztraminers.  These three can offer any wine fan a real experience.  The first two are from famous producers - Trimbach and Pierre Spaar.  Both are rich and packed with intense flavor and depth.  The third is a boutique producer, Cuvée Anne- Laure.  Sensual, deep and rich.

Fabulous Alsatian Gewurztraminer

How about the red component?  Yes, the classic red pairing partner with Turkey is Pinot Noir.  For us the combinations are limitless, but the best are Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve Pinot Noir.  In one word, amazing.  What about a  Burgundian classic that doesn’t require that you drop a car payment?  Nicolas Potel’s Côte de Nuits-Villages a real representation of the soil with all of the positive aspects of Pinot Noir.  Then there is the popular Gloria Ferrer offering from Carneros, CA.  Great price, great wine and tasty as all get out.  Lastly, a wine that has taken off like a rocket, Camas, from Vin du Pays D’Oc in southwestern France.  This incredible value wine delivers a lot for a small price.

Ham you say not Turkey?  The classic ham/ wine combinations are Beujolais Village wines or something from a particular spot in Beaujolais.  The top of the list in the Potel-Avrom evergreen classic from Côte du Brouilly.  The Gamay grape in this wine is very deep, rich and slighly spicy.  Coming from vineyard on one specific hillside that is an extinct volcano gives this wine everything you could ever want in Gamay.  A step down from this is the dynamite Henry Fessy Beaujolais Village offering.  This is a delightful, lighter cousin as that from Cote du Brouilly. 

Map of Beaujolais - home of the Gamay grape

Not a Gamay guy or gal?  How about wonderous Spanish reds with your Ham?  From Ribera Del Duero we have two platinum wines.  First, Cruz de Alba.  This 90+ point rated wine, has all the very best that Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) has to offer.  Lush, deep fruit, layers of flavor and a first class finish.  What about trying one of Spain’s cult wines - Tinto Pesquera.  Abelardo Fernandez’s masterpiece will rock your socks, overload your senses and leave you wanting more.

Another option from Spain to pair with Ham are wines from Rioja.  Tempranillo comes into its full glory here.  The classic triumvirate are Cune, Murrietta and Bodegas Muga.  Cune Reserva Rioja has bright fruit and a delightful finish.  The  Murrietta Reserva Rioja is deep, long and intense.  Bodegas Muga Reserva Rioja lies in between the former.  Muga is round, full and gorgeous.  I hand carried six of their Grand Reservas back from Pomplona.  For a little lighter and more positive fruit Rioja the Palacios La Vendima is superb.

Almost forgot Rosé and Rosado wines.  These wines can actually pair with either Turkey or Ham.  The Château D’Aqueria Tavel, the Rosé only AOC in the southern Rhône valley is a round and Rosé delight.  Another Rosé from the Rhône to enjoy is the E. Guigal Côte du Rhône Rosé.  From one of the Rhone valley’s most powerful players, this Rosé has everything you need for pairing a Rosé with Ham.  From Spain we have another offering from Bodegas Muga.  Their Rosado is fabulous with an impressive, long finish.

Spirits to finish?  Oh yes please.  Two choices, top notch Bourbon – neat – or an incredible Cognac.  For Bourbon the choices never end but a favorite to cleanse the Ham or Turkey pallet is Woodford Reserve - simply put – Nectar of the Gods.  If an Eau du vie is more to your liking you must try a little bit of heaven on earth.  The Petit Champagne Cognac from Maison Surrenne is without a doubt the very best buy in Cognac.  A Petite Champagne Cognac for under $50.00?  Yes, but don’t wait.

Only one last thing to say.  Again, from our team at Cool Springs Wines & Spirits we wish you, your family and friends a safe, happy and very enjoyable Happy Thansgiving.