Page 52 - Blog

For me, the concept of "on sale" rarely makes sense.

Any business that includes frequent or recurring "sale times" in their strategy by definition must include times when things are more expensive. Like it or not, it's the reality of what a sale is. 

THE DRAMA OF SALE
Most companies use sales to create drama, and in reality I've found that many of them are hype. At Sokolin, we have an actual department dedicated to keeping our prices competitive and we usually find that our competition's "sales" tend to have exaggerated "was" prices so the new NOW price looks cheap by comparison. A real sale is one thing, but my team keeps re-discovering that this is usually not the case.

IT MIGHT BE LESS EXCITING, BUT IT'S ACTUALLY IN YOUR BEST INTEREST
My preference is to maintain the lowest possible prices everyday so that clients

Wine: 2007 Marcarini Barolo Brunate
Region: Piedmont
Sokolin Price: $46.99/btl
Rating: 94 RP

Last week, we brought your attention to 2009 Red Burgundies. Right now in the wine business, what's just as hot as '09 Red Burgs are 2007 Barolos. This region is receiving quite the coverage from industry experts. Robert Parker has really praised this Barolo vintage! "The 2007 Barolo are some of the most viscerally thrilling young wines I have ever tasted. The 2007s are similar to the 2004s, but with more substance. The wines are radiant, intensely perfumed and totally seductive, yet not at all heavy, in a style that offers the textural richness of a warm vintage with the aromatics of a cool year. In 2006 and 2007, readers will find the finest back to back Barolo vintages since 1989 and 1990?" Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

And so, we decided to share a bottle of 2007 Marcarini Barolo Brunate over a simple,

Recently I celebrated my 30th birthday with a retrospective look at the 1981 vintage.  I wanted this to be a special tasting and so the planning began about a year before the date.  I stole the idea from an old boss of mine at a restaurant called Fatheads in Pittsburgh, PA and modified it to be my own.  Instead of 40 bottles of 40oz beers we were going to drink 30 bottles of 1981 vintage wines from around the globe. 

It was a good thing I started planning early as it took up until the very last moment to secure the 30th bottle.  I wanted to have a nice mix of wines; Bordeaux, Italian, Burgundy, Rhone, California, Spanish, Australia, sweet, red, and white.  I wanted to throw some ringers in as well as some of the top wines for the vintage.  Little did I know the task would be daunting and often times I wondered why I was putting myself through this. 

The day of the party, July 2, was a beautiful sunny day.  I ran down

We are not IT guys trying to make a quick buck by cashing in on the recent wine boom.  Our website was born as an extension of a store that was opened in 1934.  We know wine because we drink it and thoroughly enjoy it too.

Every day, we strive to know more, learn more and bring you the best that the wine world has to offer.  We LOVE finding a great wine at a great price because we're taking a few cases home too.

You can be rest assured that everything on our website is recommended by someone; either by a knowledgeable wine reviewer or us.  And just because a wine gets a great review doesn't mean we'll automatically carry that wine.  It has to meet certain standards, and first and foremost, it has to be good.

Case in point: At a company wine dinner, we blind tasted a handful of wines.  All of which we carry here.  All were great in their own way, but the stunner of the night was a beautifully drinking Pinot Noir. 

Wine: 2008 Sassicaia
Region: Tuscany
Sokolin Price: $169/btl
Rating: 97 JS

Ever since James Suckling released his score on the 2008 Sassicaia in June, we have been waiting to try this wine! This Sassicaia scored big - 97 points from Suckling with a rave review matching its score.

James Suckling said, "this is the best young Sassicaia in years. It's the new 1988, which was great, and sometimes better than the legendary 1985." While Burgundy wines always seem to be great in years ending in nine, all forces of nature come together to create magic for Sassicaia in years ending in eight. James Suckling pointed out that the owner of Sassicaia said that his wine is always great in years ending in eight...1958, 1968, 1978, 1988, 1998 & now, 2008. That's incredible when you think about it.

We

Though the likes of Matt Kramer and Allen Meadows have mentioned their appreciation of Westrey's consistency in creating quality pinots at reasonable prices, it is difficult to actually find recent reviews of their wines.  So when recently I had the opportunity to taste one of Westrey's wines, I was extremely interested to see what it was all about.

2009 Westrey Pinot Noir Oracle Vineyard comes from their first estate vineyard, located in the Dundee Hills AVA of Oregon.  About 24% of the blend is from Pommard clones planted in 1977 on their own roots, and the remainder from various Dijon clones planted in 2001.

In the glass, aromas of wild raspberry and blackberry leap from the glass along with sensation of cream soda.  This then settles into notes of dried violets and a hint of minerality.  There is a juicy core of cherry, rhubarb and cola on the palate, with just the right touch of richness that is offset by a streak of acidity and subtle

Every time we open a bottle of Bordeaux from the Pauillac region, we feel like we are transported directly there. And again, we had that same experience last evening when we opened up a bottle of 1996 Grand Puy Lacoste with grilled Angus sirloin burgers and homemade French fries. Pauillac is the region that is home to three of the five first growth Bordeaux, including Lafite, Latour & Mouton. Upon first sip of the '96 Grand Puy Lacoste, what we tasted was ALL Pauillac - smoke, graphite, lead, saddle leather and subtle dark fruit. It's exactly what you'd expect a Pauillac wine to taste like.

A few months ago, we set aside a few bottles of the 1996 Grand Puy Lacoste for our own personal collection, but sadly, we are now completely SOLD OUT of this wine! At a tasting in DC, Robert Parker's Hedonist Gazette rated the 1996 Grand Puy Lacoste higher than the 1996 Mouton. The Grand Puy Lacoste represented an insane deal at $135/bottle with a score of 96+ points RP-HG versus the

Wine: 2002 Louis Jadot Chevalier Montrachet
Region: Burgundy
Sokolin Price: $299/btl
Rating: 95 points - our score

As summer is winding down, & cool weather is moving in, we find ourselves trying to taste & enjoy as many white wines as possible. Last evening, with our out of town guests in from Westchester, we pulled a bottle of Grand Cru White Burgundy from our cellar - a bottle of 2002 Louis Jadot Chevalier Montrachet. Grand Cru = the crème de le crème. These guests, in particular, know & appreciate great wine, so we wanted to serve a wine that we knew would make an impression. When entertaining, we all want to please our guests and make them feel comfortable, so gauging and understanding their palates is very important to us.

After deciding that we wanted to start off the night with a White Burgundy, we chose the 2002 Louis Jadot Chevalier Montrachet because we know that 2002 was an outstanding

This is an incredible dish that I made recently for people who like spicy seafood and great wine to complement it.  It's a Chili Garlic Shrimp with Zucchini over rice that I paired with a delicious Gruner Veltliner from an amazing sustainable-farming producer in Austria!

Start with some chopped zucchini and onions and sauté over medium heat in some olive oil.  Toss in some shelled raw shrimp and a touch of sesame oil for flavor.  Once the shrimp is almost cooked through, add a tablespoon of chili garlic sauce (from your Asian market) and thoroughly mix everything together in your sauté pan.  Serve this over jasmine rice, and you've got yourself a very simple, but very tasty and spicy shrimp dish - perfect for a week night!

The perfect wine complement to this dish is the 2007 Arndorfer Gruner Veltliner die Leidenschaft.  "Die Leidenschaft" means "the passion", and once you taste this wine, you will understand why they've named it as

Wine: 2009 Saint Prefert Chateauneuf du Pape Collecion Charles Giraud
Region: Rhone, France
Sokolin Price: $64.99/btl
Rating: 92-94 RP

When we had our first sip of the spectacular and mind-numbing 2007 Southern Rhone wines upon release, we were extremely impressed. Not only was there power and massive fruit, but a sense of balance and elegance that was not overbearing. So time rolls on, and we look forward, as we always do in the wine business, and hope for stellar repeats. Next, came the 2008 vintage, which in our opinion was rather average and seemed to be on target with a vintage score of only 86 points based on the Wine Advocate's vintage chart. 

Then enters the 2009 vintage, and we hear amazing things coming from the Southern Rhone. So we rummage through the inventory and find a wine that we tasted and loved in 2007 and found their new 2009 release, the Domaine Saint Prefert Chateauneuf