Sent: Saturday, April 06, 2002 7:05 AM
Subject: Wine at Orangewood Consulting - 16

 

To our Wine Aficionados,

 

It has been a while since the last news letter.  We have been busy skiing, doing software consulting work and waiting for the arrival of a baby horse (which is now 12 days late).

 

So the pickings have been thin for activities in the wine business.  The bad news is that “Phoenix” has decided that summer has arrived and has moved solidly to white wine.  The good news is that Vino Noceto just released its 2001 vintage Frivolo.  It’s a Moscato Bianco, a light, not too sweet, not at all dry, slightly Frizzante wine with a floral nose and subtle fruit taste.  It’s very similar to the 2000 vintage and goes just great on the patio in the afternoon.  AJ’s and Duck and Decanter have some in stock already so what are you waiting for?

 

The remaining content of this newsletter is as follows:

Sales

                        Event

                                    Scottsdale Culinary Festival

Wine Bars

Duck and Decanter

Retail Outlets

Epicurean Wines

AJ’s on Central

Wine Supply

Portfolio

Marinda Park

Vino Noceto

Feedback

 

Sales

Event

Scottsdale Culinary Festival

This year’s festival is only a week away.  Both Vino Noceto and RustRidge are participating in the Wine Country Brunch and the Best of the Fest Dinner events.  Jim Gullett, the owner of Vino Noceto, and Susan Meyer, the Winemaker at RustRidge, will be here.  Check out the details at https://www.scottsdaleculinaryfestival.org/ .  For the Best of the Fest the Vino Noceto and RustRidge wines will be paired with food prepared by Chef Patrick Poblete from Lon's at the Hermosa Inn. 

Wine Bars

Duck and Decanter - 1651 E Camelback

We’ll be starting the Frivolo (See Vino Noceto below) campaign here.  They have a great outdoor eating/drinking area.  It should be perfect! 

Retail Outlets

Epicurean Wine Service - 7101 East Thunderbird

Now has the Frivolo

AJ’s at Central – 5017 North Central Avenue

Continues to have the Frivolo, last time I looked they had one bottle of 2000 left – but you can reach behind it to the 2001!

Wine Supply

Finally, some of you (thanks) called Tom Hamilton at (602) 672-9808 and ordered some wine.  The feedback I got was that the prices and service were excellent

Portfolio

     Vino Noceto

Vino Noceto makes a Moscato Bianco called Frivolo.  It’s a white, light, slightly effervescent, summer sipper.  They did not make much last year and we took only 4 cases.  This year they produced nearly 500 cases and we hope to get a few more than 4.

     Marinda Park

Things are picking up here.  We have received the written label approval from ATF and successfully applied for an out of state producers license that Arizona insists on.  Now the winery is thinking about how much to charge for the wine and worry about getting a container to put it in.  It should ship around the end of the month.  Planned shipment will contain Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.  The Merlot is being judged not ready.  Following is an email sent to participants in a Singapore wine tasting.

 

 Here are the correct answers to the questions:-

1. It is a single varietal wine. (5 correct answers out of 8 entries)

2. The varietal is PINOT NOIR. ( 3 correctly identified the varietal)

3. The vintage is 2001 (4 entries picked the correct vintage)

4. The grapes are from Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia & the wine made there. (I think there was some second guessing, only ONE correct answer)

5. The bottle price in Singapore would be about $40.00. ($22.00 US)

 

Unfortunately, there was no ALL correct entry. Let's try again.

 

This 2001 Pinot Noir is the first release by Marinda Park Vineyard, located in the Mornington Peninsula. Only THREE varietals are grown in their 22 acre plot - Pinot Noir, Chardonnay & Merlot. The Mornington Peninsula has a cool Mediterranean climate & is particularly known for its Pinot Noir.

 

One could feel the weight of this wine despite coming from young vines partly because they have kept yields at below 3 tonnes per acre & just 2 tonnes for this Pinot Noir. I thought it was an extremely good effort by a young vineyard & feel that there is good potential for more complex & interesting Pinot Noirs, in the future. French oak are used for ageing, of which 1/3 is new oak.

 

I had the opportunity to taste the Chardonnay, as well. This wine showed better developed characteristics. This is usually the case for young vines, where white grapevines seem to develop sooner than red grapevines, where wine drinkers expect that much more complexity in flavours.

 

 

 

Feedback

I continue to enjoy your emails. One question I received was about the next event.  We are hoping that something can be arranged once the Marinda Park wines arrive but in the meantime we are wondering about doing a private tasting of a few of our wines at our house.  We would invite you all as well as Tom Hamilton.   Tom would be able to take and perhaps deliver orders right there.  If this would be of interest to you, please let us know.

 

Richard and Laurie