Windsor Wines

A traditional Bordeaux with medium weight and soft tannins, this is ready to drink now, no wait, no fuss.

A dessert wine? Yes, because I'm determined to show everyone the wonders of sweet wines. There's no reason to be scared, it's still wine and maybe not for every-night consumption but it's not just for dessert! Having a swanky get-together and want an apéritif that doesn't take a lot of work? Boom, done.

Yes, we do give discounts at 12 bottles of wine (including bubbly) of 15% off. Most of the time it’s almost 2 free bottles!

Oh, you noticed that? Many years ago, as our longtime local customers will fondly tell you, this location was a local soda shop called Wedder's. The signage was buried deep under other occupants' awnings and signs. We had the stained glass, the tiled floor, and the tin ceiling refurbished to it's original look.

No. Unfortunately, Pappy Van Winkle is nearly impossible for us to get. If we ever do manage to get our hands on it, it is guaranteed to be sold within hours.

Let’s start with sustainable wine making as it requires the least commitment, but may offer as many benefits as the other methods. Kendall-Jackson’s blog defines sustainable quite well stating that it, “usually take[s] into consideration the environmental, social and economic aspects of operations and management. Most sustainability programs have fewer absolute requirements than organic or biodynamic [ones].” While it’s true that sustainability has less strict requirements, it also allows growers to act accordingly when nature challenges the process. A more conscientious branch of sustainable farming has emerged known as lutte raisonée, literally translated as the “reasoned struggle”, which borrows from organics and biodynamics as well as a relying on a process known as integrated pest management (IPM) . The intricacies of IPM are beyond the scope of this simple post, but it is sufficient to say that it focuses on the idea that some “pests” are good for the vines and some not, and there is a balance that should be maintained.

Jaime Goode defines biodynamics well in his book, The Science of Wine; “key to biodynamics is considering the farm in its entirety as a living system, and seeing it in the context of the wider pattern of lunar and cosmic rhythms.” With even more stringent requirements, biodynamics requires the application of “special preparations to enhance the life of the soil” at key times in the lunar cycle. Some of the practices border on the mystical side of things causing biodynamics to be a polarizing practice in the wine world.

And remember, none of these processes are necessarily better than the others, but all offer a more honest process of wine making than is utilized in the big commercial wine industry. This is the case because all of these philosophies focus on the quality of the fruit to one degree or another instead of focusing solely on the economic side of wine and that can only equal a better product in your glass at the end of the night. Enjoy!

This is going to sweeten the deal. Don't know how to make simple syrup? It's just a 1:1 ratio sugar to water, shaken until it dissolves.

Woodford is the official whiskey of the race, so any substitutes will be cheating and the judges will subtract from your time.

Sometimes there is a nice forest floor, balsam or underbrush note, like a walk in the woods. There is a tremendous amount of wine that comes out of the region and it's hard to generalize. Some wines are light and simple seeing only stainless steel tanks and others are more serious with aging in oak barrels being common. The percentage of new oak varies a lot as well and that means you will find a big variety in the oakiness of the wines. Bottles labelled Riserva see a longer time in wood and bottles before being released.

I sometimes say that Italy isn't a nation, but really a collection of different regions. As for wine, you can think of Tuscany as it's own country, with it's own winemaking culture and traditions. Chianti is just a part of it.

" Not just values in a cheap wine sense, if you look for the more uncommon things you'll find more distinct expressions of regional personalities and the quality to price ratio will be better because excellent wines from these places are less expensive than mediocre wines from famous grapes and regions. I mean, who wants everything to taste the same? Oh, and you will find deals too.

Like a red from Austria, Croatia, or the Italian Alps. Maybe a wine from Uruguay?

How about a grolleau from the Loire Valley in France (or even a rare grolleau gris) , maybe a blaufrankisch grown in southern Spain, even a carignane from California or a malvasia frizzante from Italy?

"There are high-end courses on terroir, which I think are bunk. Someone has to prove that something about terroir makes it to the bottle, and no one has done that yet."

What's next? Will wine supply companies offer prefabricated wine additive kits where you can order Hermitage or Barolo microbes? I'm always disappointed when some winemakers feel that they have to control everything. Why do we have to measure everything in order to believe it? I can see that works by Picasso and Dali are different, I don't have to put a paint sample under an electron microscope.