November 20
Here’s what I’m bringing to Aunt Liz’s house on Thursday:
Greg’s own Thanksgiving Sixer:
Vin Mousseux de Table Vinsansricard Domaine Ricard (1 bottle)
This sparkling Gamay from my friend Vincent Ricard makes me laugh. I’m having a big glass before I carve the turkey.
Nahe Riesling Lenz Weingut Emrich-Schönleber 2007 (2 bottles)
Is this predictable? Off-dry German Riesling from a great grower in a great vintage? This one is impossibly beautiful.
Chénas Domaine Georges Trichard 2007 (2 bottles)
I know it’s disorderly, but I’ll be going back and forth between this and my glass of Lenz.
Vin Santo Isole e Olena 2000 (1 bottle 375 ml)
And here’s a sweet luxury. A wine for sharing. After the mincemeat pie. When I taste this I can’t help thinking of Paolo DiMarchi’s generosity.
$135 * Special pricing on this package only.
* Regular price $164. (these four wines also available à la carte).
Thanksgiving…
…with the Moores probably isn’t very different from Thanksgiving at your house, except for the details. And it’s the details that become traditions and expectations. They are what make it special.
Some require real effort and genuine expertise. Like Sue’s sweet potato and carrot purée. Not least of what’s required to make this ambrosian dish are perfect sweet potatoes with just the right amount of natural moisture. They have to be selected carefully. And of course, the crème fraîche that marries all the ingredients together has to be made exactly two days before, I’m told.
My modest contribution requires no such effort and only a little expertise. I bring the wine. If you’re doing the same, I invite you to take advantage of this special offer. And I hope your Thanksgiving gathering is as warm and nourishing as I anticipate ours will be.
Thank you again for your continued support of family farms and meaningful traditions.
Greg’s Thanksgiving Six Pack in Delaware
Greg’s Thanksgiving Six Pack in New Jersey
Greg’s Thanksgiving Six Pack in New York
Greg Moore
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November 17
Champagne Cuvée Tradition Domaine Delavenne
SOLD OUT IN THREE HOURS!
If your celebrations call for Champagne with a capital “C,” here’s something special:
an elegant, estate-bottled, Grand Cru Champagne from an outstanding small grower - for twenty-nine dollars. This is a great wine - which I regularly poured at my University of Pennsylvania Special Programs wine classes as a benchmark example of fine grower Champagne. And it was never hard to convince my students how much finer it is than the one with the famous yellow label that we poured beside it. “Good and evil,” in fact, was one unsolicited observation.
But the big brands keep their share of distant markets - even if the wines aren’t very good - because they play a price game, on a huge scale. Growers like Delavenne don’t, because they sell almost all of their production to private customers who visit their wineries.
But young Jean-Christophe Delavenne was so impressed on his first visit to Moore Brothers this past year that he wanted to know how we could get a bottle of Cuvée Tradition into every interested customer’s hands. I told him tongue-in-cheek that all we’d have to do is get the price under $30, never expecting that it would be possible. So I was surprised when he called last month to tell me that his father liked the idea, and agreed to make just forty cases available for an unprecedented export market promotion.
$29 per bottle until this beautiful Champagne is gone.
*(Conveniently packaged in sixes.)
*Regular price $45 per bottle. No further case discounts apply in this offer.
Domaine Delavenne:
Jean-Louis Delavenne and his son Jean-Christophe grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on 10 hectares of mid-slope vineyards that lie above the Grand Cru village of Bouzy, in the Montagne de Reims. They are committed to the idea that Champagne is fine wine, first and foremost, and are in the front rank of the more than 2000 small growers in Champagne who sell wine under their own label.
This Champagne:
Pale gold, with green apple, hazelnut, and grilled brioche in the nose; the wine is dry, but soft and elegant, with a long finish carried by lively acidity and a creamy, persistent mousse.
As always at Moore Brothers, this Champagne was shipped and delivered to us in refrigerated containers. (Last night in Philadelphia it was as delicious as when I drank it in March - at Restaurant le Theâtre in Épernay with a filet de sandre aux poireaux en sabayon.)
I hope you take advantage of this special offer, and thank you again for your continued support of family farms and the stewardship of these special traditions.
Greg Moore
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November 10
Fronton Domaine Le Roc Cuvée Classique 2006
SOLD OUT IN FIVE HOURS!
Here’s an unusual find: a great twelve-dollar red wine from the southwest of France that isn’t trying to be another ho-hum “Bordeaux, Jr.”
Négrette is the local grape in Fronton; it grows nowhere else in the world. Wine historians think it came to the region with Toulousain crusaders returning from Malta. It’s not easy to grow, but Jean-Luc, Frédéric, and Pierre Ribes of Domaine Le Roc seem to have no trouble growing sleek, highly aromatic wine, perfumed with soft, rich, black cherry and red licorice fruit.
“Négrette has low acidity,” Frédéric told me, “but if it’s well made, there’s a purity of fruit that makes it the Pinot Noir of the southwest.” So here’s a very well made Négrette –seasoned with a little Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, that’s the best Fronton I have ever tasted.
There are 70 cases available at Moore Brothers Wine Company.
$12 per bottle on orders received and paid for before November 21.* Once again, handcrafted wine of this distinction is a rarity at any price.
*Regular price $14 per bottle. No further case discounts apply in this offer.
The grower:
Domaine Le Roc is another example of a little known family estate that rose to the head of the class when a new generation took over - and decided to take its inheritance seriously. Frédéric is the middle brother, and seems to be the leader. “There are plenty of winemakers here who use too much Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, he says, “but we are convinced that Négrette gives Fronton its identity, and we need to concentrate on that.” How refreshing.
This wine:
Very dark red purple; almost black, with black raspberry, red cherries, and grilled bread in the nose. On the palate the wine is generous, with black fruit and red licorice seasoned with a little white pepper, and finishes with a fine-grained, modestly tannic grip.
As always at Moore Brothers, this small-production gem was shipped and delivered to us in refrigerated containers, so it tastes exactly the same as it tastes washing down a cassoulet aux haricots tarbais at La Cantine du Curé in Toulouse.
I invite you take advantage of this special offer, and thank you for your continued support of sustainable family farms, and responsible stewardship of worthwhile traditions.
Greg Moore
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