February 11 Newsletter

This Sunday is Valentine's Day, and despite what he or she may have told you, they really do want you to make a fuss!! (Trust me on this one.)

♥♥♥To make it easier for you, we've brought in a good supply of Heart Shaped Cheeses for Valentine's Day! First off, there's Cœur de Gariottes, a creamy goat's cheese served up with a small jar of Rose Petal jam, then there's Cœur de Bray, a creamy cow's milk cheese from Neufchatel, and finally Cœur Cendrée, an ashed goat milk cheese. They're all priced at $12 each, and would go quite well with a bottle of great Champagne or sparkling wine.♥♥♥

♥♥♥Bubbly Speaking of Sparkling Wine, we love our new go-to Champagne - Monthuys et Fils, brought in by our friends at Planet Wines.

Monthuys is an organic grower-producer Champagne that is primarily Pinot Meuniere-based. The Brut is $33/btl ($29.70 case price) and the Rosé is $43.50 ($39.15 case price). We have lots of different sparkling wines to choose from in the shop, including new arrival Gruet Rosé and Brut $18 each/$16.20 case price.♥♥♥

Lorca! We've been selling Lorca Red for several years now (in fact we're the only folks around to have it!). It's been wildly popular - and why not ? Made by Caymus' white wine winemaker, this well balanced, full throttled red reportedly has a good amount of declassified Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon in the mix, along with some Syrah, Merlot and Zinfandel.

Sadly, Lorca went out of business a while back, and we thought we had purchased the last of it. I received a call from my distributor last week who told me that they found an additional 80 cases of the stuff. We bought it all, at a good price, and are passing our savings onto you.

We've lowered the price from $15/btl to $13.50/btl (or $12.15/btl by the case)!! And this is a wine you should buy by the case, because it's so danged versatile, yummy, and reasonably priced! - A Farmstead exclusive, until it's all gone!

Tastings - This Friday at 5:30 p.m. in Montclair, and this Saturday at 2:30 in Alameda, we'll be pouring the Lorca, as well as some great sparkling wines and a Rosé or two for Valentine's Day:

Gruet Brut and Rosé - Methode Champenoise sparklers from New Mexico
Monthuys Brut and Monthuys Rosé - organic grower producer Champagne
Pampelonne Rosé - Cinsault based saignée with a perfect light Salmon color. Great acidity and length!
Lorca Red - Cab, Merlot, Syrah and Zin

Bo-Poisses and Devil's Gulch - There's a good amount of both cheeses in the cases arriving today and tomorrow. I snagged my second Bo-Poisses last weekend, and man, it's quickly become my favorite cheese!

Alameda and Oakland Magazines are having their annual "Best Of" reader's polls of your favorites in Oakland and Alameda. This year, you can vote online, with winners to be announced in their July issues.

Click here to vote for your favorite Alameda hotspots; and click here to vote for your favorites in Oakland/East Bay, including your favorite local wine merchant (hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge). (Yes, you can vote in both polls if you wish.)

Wine Clubs We release our monthly wine club allocations on Friday, and this month, we've got a great lineup.

Club members receive significant discounts on all wines in the store, advance notice and discounts for our frequent wine dinners, free pours at our weekly tastings, recipes, and our unflagging gratitude and devotion. (We ask for at least a four month commitment to any of our clubs. )

Bargain Club: a bright and lightly sparkling Italian white, an organic blend of Ugni and Colombard from southern France, a nice Pinot from Chile, an Aussie Shiraz-Viognier and two killer Spanish reds.
Chateauneuf: Clos des Brusquieres Chateauneuf
Classic Club: Sparkling wines from New Mexico, a Torrontés from Argentina, an elegant red blend from Washington, and a Central Coast Pinot
High End Red: A choice of Cabs - Ghost Block or Oakville Winery from Bonded Winery Number Nine
High End White: Red Shoulder Chardonnay from Shafer
Italian: Two organic wines from Alois Lageder (Alto Adige)
Pinot Noir: a selection from Radio-Coteau
Spanish: two amazing reds - a Ribera del Duero and a Tempranillo/Cab/Merlot blend

Check out the Wine Club page on the Website for further info, or send us an email if you'd like to join one of our clubs.

White and Bargain Wine Clubs Like what you've read about? Well, join one of our wine clubs!

The White Wine Club is our latest club, and features a monthly selection of one or two bottles of great white wines - regularly priced from $35-70 per bottle. We focus on well-made wines from mostly cool climates, with a bit of an emphasis on great, world class and hard-to-find Chardonnays.

The Bargain Wine Club is our fastest growing, and over seventy of you have joined since we launched in 2009. The club features a monthly selection of six wines - four red and two white - regularly priced from $9-15 per bottle, hand selected for you for high QPR (quality/price ratio). Many of the Bargain Club selections are store favorites, over-performing, well-made wines that you may already be buying, others will be new discoveries.

We ask for at least a four month commitment to any of our clubs. Please click here to send us an email asking to join.

Traffic Alert! Alamedans - Union Pacific railroad will be working on their tracks for the next two weekends (2/13-14 and 2/20-21 from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m.) just on the other side of the Park St Bridge, reducing traffic lanes on the bridge to Oakland to just one lane. Last weekend, this caused a big backup on Park St, so plan accordingly.

Charity Event On Fat Tuesday, February 16th, Immanuel Lutheran Church is hosting a "Fat Tuesday Family Fun Spaghetti Dinner". Full event details are available on the event page, http://pasta2010.eventbrite.com/. Tickets are very modestly priced, $10/adult, $5/youth (age 11-17), and Free for children 10 and under. Dinner will be served from 6:00-7:30pm.

If you have non-profit events that you'd like us to send to our 11,000 member mailing list of great Alamedans. Oaklanders, Piedmonters, San Leandrans and from elsewhere, please forward the details to me. We'll print it, edited and space permitting.

Fun Event Teresa from Touch Salon in Montclair Village would like you to stop by her salon this Friday frm 7-9 p.m. for an Art Reception Mingle. Touch is located @ 2068 Antioch Court (next to Peet's) in Montclair Village. Tell 'em the Cheesemonger sent ya!