New Cabernet and new Sauvignon Blanc

Late last week I re-tasted some wines from Hall Winery. This is a Napa, CA winery founded by Craig and Kathryn Hall opened several years ago after Mrs. Hall's successful career as the US Ambassador to Austria. We brought in the 2006 Sauvignon Blanc and the 2004 Napa Cabernet, both of which "out-perform" in relation to their prices (the Sauvignon Blanc is $15.99 and the Cabernet is $24.99). I'm sure you won't be disappointed if you give these wine a chance...and in fact you'll have a chance to try the Sauvignon Blanc because it's one of the featured wines on our tasting bar for Labor Day weekend (August 31st and September 1st).

Guilt-free wine tasting

Even though we don't have a written mission statement for Anytime Wines, Jennifer and I always feel that finding the wine that makes you happy is our mission. In the process of that mission we also open up and share with you some of our favorite wines.

We had a young lady come in the other day during our tasting. She seemed interested in trying the wines, but at the same time she was hesitant and declined to taste. She then came out with this distressing statement: "I've been told that I have an uneducated palate." My first reaction was that I hoped no one at Anytime Wines had ever said that to her. I then encouraged her to enjoy some of our wines by quoting our friend Chef Randy Wilder who says, "the best bottle of wine in the world is the one that you're enjoying right now."

As I mentioned earlier, we enjoy sharing some of our favorite wines during our tastings; however, we never want to give you the impression that these are wines you should enjoy...just wines we hope you will enjoy.

df

Tasting wine for charity

Friends,
Just a reminder that we'll be co-hosting a wine tasting fundraiser with our friend Charlie Fortune for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The event will be Thursday evening, September 23rd from 7 to 9pm. They'll be collecting $20 at the door in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, we'll be opening 6 or 7 wines, and Anytime Wines will give a portion of our sales proceeds to the Society.
Join us!
david

Our community

We all know that wine brings people together; we share a bottle of wine, we share a meal, we share a lot of fun. Well, since its inception Anytime Wines has shared its services, its shop, its wine with several charities in the area. The original owner of Anytime Wines, Bill O'Neal, was quite active in helping to raise money for different charitable organizations. Jennifer and I have tried to carry on that service by allowing a few needy charities to hold fund-raising events in the shop. We are happy to help out in any way we can, but these events are only successful if all of us participate...if all of us pull ourselves away from our television sets to come to the shop to support these charities and to have a good time meeting some fun people and drinking fine wine. Some of the charities we've helped are the Duke Brain Tumor Center, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Meals on Wheels, Wake County Women's Shelter, and Pawfect Match Dog Adoption/Rescue.
We have a couple of upcoming fund-raisers which I'll post in tomorrow's blog, so please keep your eyes open for these fun wine-tasting opportunities to help folks in our community.
david

a big bottle of Bob

Jennifer and I were walking through an un-named grocery store the other day when I spotted a 1.5Litre bottle of Woodbridge Cabernet Sauvignon and immediately flashed back to our early days together...what some call the "salad days," but what we called the "pasta days"...when we'd pick up one of these mass-produced marvels of viticulture to last us over several days. Because it was part of the massive Robert Mondavi corporation we called it "a big bottle of Bob." It was sturdy, it was red, and for the most part it was varietally correct.
While standing around the tasting bar I hear a lot of people talk about their first experiences with wine, the changes in their palates, and the new wine discoveries they've made. I know that my palate has changed, not because there's something wrong with "a big bottle of Bob," but because I'm always eager to try new wines, and I've come to realize that just because something is popular, that doesn't mean it's always the best.
So, I raise a glass to toast the path of wine discovery that Jennifer and I have been on for close to 20 years, all because of "a big bottle of Bob."
David
david@anytimewines.com

A great tasting bar

Friends,
Tonight's (Wed 8/15) Flight Night tasting reminded me what a great tasting bar we have at Anytime Wines. We've got to give a big thanks to Bill and Paula O'Neill (the original owners of Anytime Wines) for their imaginative and welcoming design of the tasting bar. It's a lot of fun to see folks saddle up to the bar for one of our tastings, then they meet a fellow oenophile, strike up a conversation, and all of a sudden new friendships are made over a glass of wine.
It's a great tasting bar and we truly look forward to sharing with you, our friends, a lot of great wines.
David
david@anytimewines.com

A bone to pick with the N&O

Friends,
I was perusing the Raleigh News and Observer this morning (8/13/07) and the "Life, etc." featured article was on men's summer fashions. The writer of the article made a few suggestions of garments men should consider wearing to be more fashionable. Now, let me explain that I have no problems with anyone trying to look their best, or trying to be fashionable, or enjoying the finer things in life. My problem with the N&O article is that for every garment the writer suggested, she only suggested on-line shopping possibilities as places to purchase those garments (landsend.com, jcrew.com, bananarepublic.com, gap.com, etc.). The writer and her editor seem to forget that there are retail clothing businesses both small and large in the Triangle area that employ people who would be very happy to help you find the correct size, help you choose the right color for you, allow you to try on garments before you purchase...in other words, offer a service that a shopper can't get by going on line.
What, you may ask, does this have to do with wine?
Well, it's the overall trend that many of us would much rather deal with our computer than deal with a human being.
Can a computer allow you to taste a wine before you buy it? Can a computer talk with you about your dinner party to determine the best wine to pair with your foods? Can a computer discuss your holiday party and suggest some inexpensive options for a large crowd? Can a computer remember the types of wines you like and steer you toward similar wines? Can a computer allow you to return a "corked," or tainted, bottle of wine? Can a computer open its portals to local charities to help raise money for needy causes?
Anytime Wines is proud to be part of the Triangle community, and we're proud of the many other merchants (large and small) who employ people in our community, who pay taxes to our local government, and who support the needs of the community.
In response to the News & Observer, maybe I'd suggest that members of this community can get their local news, national news, sports news, etc. at outlets such as USAToday.com, WashingtonPost.com, NYTimes.com....you get the point.
If you're a customer of Anytime Wines, thank you for your patronage. If we haven't yet had the opportunity to serve your wine needs, we'd love to hear from you.
David Faircloth
david@anytimewines.com

It's in the bag...

So we're thinking about switching from the brown paper bags we've been using since early last year to plastic "frosted" bags with cardboard reinforcement in the bottom. Main reason? The plastic bags cost less and are more easily re-used (for our many customers who like to return them for recycling).



Anyone out there have a preference?

Wine Dinner anyone?

Hey Friends
Yesterday I had a good meeting and tasting with Chef Michael Lustig of the Capital City Club in downtown Raleigh. He's excited about some wines we've chosen for an upcoming wine dinner and he's come up with some great ideas for a menu. We'll have a finalized menu and cost for the wine dinner on the web site soon, but in the meantime let me just mention one wine we plan on using: Domaine Serene "Evenstad" Pinot Noir. It's silky, lush, multi-layered and almost chocolatey after it has been open for a while. Chef Lustig's first idea to pair with this wine was a parmesan encrusted lamb with smoked tomato coulis and white truffle. If that sounds as good to you as it does to me, then keep an eye on our e-mails and on the web site for information about the wine dinner in September.
David

The Anytime Wines Blog Begins!

We are hatching a blog here at Anytime Wines as a way to talk to our customers and get their feedback...what do you think? Good idea? Lousy idea? Any bets on how long we can keep this up?