March 01, 2012
Courtesy TastingRoom.com
Buying a new bottle of wine can be risky: for the occasional oenophile, there’s the danger that bottle of Bordeaux might oxidize weeks after the first glass. Or maybe the gleaming reviews forgot to mention a slight vanilla undertone that turns your Sauvignon Blanc into Sauvignon blech. In restaurants, curious diners can try a glass before committing themselves to the bottle, but home connoisseurs often make decisions taste-untested. Starting March 1, TastingRoom.com’s wine-by-the-glass service will deliver high-end wines straight to the doorstep in convenient 100 ml servings. The company uses a patented, zero-oxygen chamber to transfer the wine, guaranteeing samplers the same full-bodied taste they’d get directly from the bottle. Solar-powered Napa winery Silver Oak is the first brand to offer up their vintages for trial-by-glass; their 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon will be available for $19 per glass ($70 for a set of four). TastingRoom.com
March 08, 2012
Courtesy Clos du Bois Wines
Warmer weather brings flowers, picnic baskets and fruity Chardonnays—sometimes all in one tidy package. Chic Picnique, the product of a new collaboration between fashion designer Tracy Reese and boutique Sonoma winery Clos du Bois, arrives just in time for a springtime outing. The stylish wicker picnic hamper, lined with Reese’s iconic floral-patterned fabric, is filled with two Clos du Bois wines, reusable travel glasses, a corkscrew, a bottle stopper and two fabric napkins in a matching print. It’s perfect for making toasts alfresco. $135;
closduboiswinestore.com
January 19, 2012
Courtesy Naples Wine Festival
Oenophiles and philanthropists alike will gather January 27–29 in Naples, Florida, for a seasonal highlight: the 2012 Naples Winter Wine Festival. Attendees will sip rare vintages, feast in style at intimate dinners prepared by world-class chefs (Wolfgang Puck and the festival’s chef de cuisine, Tony Mantuano, are among the 17 participants) and bid at the festival’s live auction, which last year raised $12 million for the Naples Children & Education Foundation. On the auction block this year: a carved 75th-anniversary Chateau Haut-Brion wooden console filled with eight bottles of the vintner’s rarest wines (including a 1935 vintage that has never left the estate’s cellar), a private around-the-world jet tour and the first 2012 Mercedes SLS AG Roadster to be made available in the U.S.
Those in the know will vie for tickets to a special wine tasting and lunch hosted on January 26, before the regular events begin, by the festival’s honored vintner, Prince Robert of Luxembourg. Guests will take part in a side-by-side tasting of five of the finest vintages from France’s Chateau Haut-Brion and Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion, followed by a lunch accompanied by two more extremely rare wines. Which, you ask? It’s a surprise—you’ll have to be there to find out.
