Essex County Wine Society

Essex County Wine Society

December 26, 2011

Dear Fellow Wine Society Members and Friends,

In the general scheme of things Oregon produces a fairly small amount of wine but as Larry Kramer aptly demonstrated at this month's tasting Oregon can be mighty proud of what they do produce. Larry gave us a tour through the 5 main AVA's in the Willamette Valley and brought us some of the best pinot noir that was produced in the spectacular 2008 vintage. A few of you said afterwards that it wasn't Burgundy. OK but does it need to be? The 2008 vintage is said to be the best ever from Oregon and these wines will surely benefit from  bottle age. They are getting harder to find now so if you want to put some in your cellar you don't want to delay. The clear winner for Wine of the Night was the 2008 Ken Wright Canary Hill Vineyard pinot noir from the Eola- Amity Hill AVA. Second place went to the 2008 Domaine Serene Jerusalem Hill Vineyard pinot noir, also from Eola-Amity Hill. I should mention that the third place favorite was another Ken Wright pinot noir from his Carter Vineyard in Eola-Amity Hill. Eola-Amity Hill definitely scored well on this night! Many thanks to Larry Kramer for providing us with an excellent opportunity to taste the 2008 Oregon vintage and doing a great job with his first ECWS tasting presentation.

On Thursday, January 12th, we plan to start 2012 with a real wine treat for you. Nuris Portuondo will be presenting the fabulous red wines of Priorat. As you probably know Spain is the third largest wine producing country in the world with over 2.7 million acres of vineyards. However there are only two wine areas with Spain's highest rating of DOC. One is Rioja with over 150,000 acres of vineyards (remember those terrific wines from Lopez de Heredia last year?) and the other  is Priorat with just about 4500 acres in vineyards.  This tiny area has been producing wines since the middle ages mostly by monks. With an infusion of capital and talent Priorat has undergone a major renaissance over the last 30 years however and the wines being produced have moved to the top shelf of the wine world and can often be quite expensive. What is the key to producing these high quality and unique wines? Sure the wine making technology has improved and the farming has improved but do you know about llicorella? Come and learn about these wines as Nuris guides us through ten top level wines featuring varying levels of the primary grape varietals, Grenache and Cariñena. She has chosen wines from 9 different wineries including Mas Doix, Marco Abella, Bodegas Mas Alta,

and Closa Batllet. I know I don't own enough of these superb wines so I am looking forward to identifying some new favorites. Please join us and enjoy these wines.

The cost for the tasting is $62 for members and $74 for guests. Please be sure to get your reservation form and payment to our Treasurer, Peter Ballance no later than Friday, January 6, 2012.

Last month's tasting was a sellout and included many new guests. Remember your guest are always welcome.

When: Thursday, January 12, 2012

Place: Montclair Women's Club, 82 Union St., Montclair, NJ 07042

Time: 7:30pm Aperitif,  8:00pm tasting

Hope to see you all there!

Dennis Roland   

"Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water"               W.C Fields

 ______________