Welcome to the Cork’s weekly e-mail.  Please pardon the recent construction as we add on our outdoor skating ring to the side of the building. We have a just few new beers and wines that have just arrived in the store. For the Thursday night beer tasting I don’t have anything booked so I’ll pour some of the new stuff myself.  The 1^st two were special orders for customers and sounded interesting so we brought in an extra case to try in the store.  Cooper’s Sparkling Ale is from Australia and actually goes through a fermentation in the bottle. Next up is Svyturys Ekstra from Lithuania, and I can’t tell you a darn thing about it but it looks interesting. Hobgoblin is not new but we have the Holiday gift tin that comes with a free pint glass.  Rounding out the tasting from Rock Art Brewery in Vermont is their limited 06 release of Rich Creamy Bock Lager.  I think this an interesting lineup and hope to see some of you tonight.

We have 2 wine tastings scheduled for this weekend.  Friday from 4 to 7 we have Kurt from Horizon Beverage.  He will kick of the Christmas tasting season with the outstanding Taittinger Brut Champagne.  He will then have a few zinfandels that are also great holiday wines.  Renwood Zinfandel, from the Sierra foothills will kick it off.  Next is their Old Vine Zin from Amador County, a big, rich, spicy Zin.  Mariah Zinfandel is a fruit bomb type Zin. It’s loaded with blackberry, plum, and blueberry flavors with just a hint of spice. 

On Saturday from 2 to 5 PM we have Tom from Baystate tasting the inimitable wines from Oriel.  But before we getto those he will have the biggest selling wine from our big fall tasting.  Pearly Bay Celebration sold over 10 cases that day and is a perfect start or ending to any Holiday get together.  John Hunt started Oriel in 2000.  He would go to some of the great wine producing areas of the world, and would seek out the best winemakers in that region, and give them one simple instruction. ”Make something you’re proud of.”  These wines have produced consistent 90+ point ratings and our reasonably priced since he has no vineyards, wineries, and little overhead.  We have a good selection of these wines here at Cork’s and Tom will sample us on a few of them.  For those of you who get the Wine Spectator there is a nice piece on the Oriel story in the Dec. 15^th issue.  I hope you can make it down for 1 or all of these great tastings.

Thanks!

Robert