September is California Wine Month

Although you will have to wait until later in the month to revel in the opening of California Wine Merchants in Lower Manhattan, you can get a jump start on appreciating the good juice from the sunshine state at California Wine Rush.

In case you didn't know it, September is California Wine Month in New York. The Wine Institute is celebrating by throwing a tasting at Espace in NYC on September 10th. The tasting is open to the public for $40 from 5pm to 7pm.

Wines from every region in California will be represented and shown off in various categories including female winemakers (female is all the rage these days don't ya know), Organic & Biodynamic wines, family operations, classics, and unexpected surprises. Taste a little, learn a little, and catch the California wine bug!

Tickets can be reserved on the Local Wine Events Website. Espace is located on 42nd Street between 11th and 12th. Hope to see you there. Cheers!

Love for Cali Cabs

We’re happy to see that good old California Cab is getting some love these days – from the New York Times no less! This happens to be pretty good timing (Eric, you could have waited a month) for the opening of our wine store, California Wine Merchants, in Lower Manhattan.

The shop has been an all-consuming project for Winemonkey and myself; witness the absence of blog entries of late. Actually, we’re sorry to say that blog entries have diminished considerably for the last 8 months or so as we toiled away securing liquor licenses, engineer drawings, and building permits with the help of lawyers, architects, expeditors, and the like. We are now beginning our final approach and are set to land in the Financial District (FiDi as the cool kids call it) in late September 2008. Visit cawinemerchants.com to see the transformation of the space from a fiesta-colored empanada cafe (the former tenants) to a warm and welcoming boutique wine shop.

We hope to introduce NYC to amazing, small production juice we have discovered in California – and that previously did not make it out of California – as well as some brands that had been allocated to restaurants only. We will also pay homage to the famous faces that put California wine on the map, including big names like Beringer, the so-called CA cult wines, and fine and rare offerings. You’ll be sure to find some of the balanced, restrained Napa Cabs mentioned in Eric Asimov’s NY Times article such as Clark-Claudon, Continuum, Corison, HdV, Heitz, Seps, and Spottswoode to name a few. In short, THE GOOD STUFF. ;)

We’ll keep you posted and hope you will stop by when the doors open. Cheers!

The Prudish French?

The French are now putting 'wine on the internet' on the same level as 'pornography on the internet.' Since when are the French so prudish and, how shall I say this, so incredibly moronic?

By default, wine was not legally able to be sold via the internet in France. Proposed new laws put an explanation point on that notion and further specify that government approval must be sought from any sites marketing wine on the internet -- with the exception of winery websites. Even with government approval, these sites can only be frequented during certain hours of the day.

Hmmm, isn't that the idea of the Internet; that you can access information (or whatever it is you are looking for) anytime, anywhere? What is the point of "closing the door" on someone just because it is, say, 3am in France? I could go on but it feels ridiculous to give this mind-bending legislation more air time.

For more information, succinctly told, visit vinography.com and decanter.com.

Sante!