We’re buzzing around Gilt Taste headquarters.
Today, we’re launching wine with more than 50 terrific food-friendly bottles – classics, cult wines, new discoveries and some really fun table wines. Many are wines you’d never be able to gain access to without being on a long waiting list. Price points range from a $12 per bottle drink-it-now-while-it's-still-summer rosé to the nearly-$500 Bryant Family 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon, a coveted limited-release wine worthy of a wedding gift.
We're pairing each bottle with food and recipes we love, so you can discover wine in our favorite way – with a fork in one hand and a glass in the other. Some of these pairings are pretty traditional: a Margaux Grand Cru (a juicy cab-merlot blend in party-ready magnum) with roasted lamb or a grassy sauvignon blanc with goat cheese, and others are a bit more walk-on-the-wild-side, like a big fat California cab with spicy antelope jerky (snack food for your next safari) or a Roussanne with basil fed snails (because what grows together goes together).
To pick these wines, we hosted a massive blind tasting in the heart of industrial Williamsburg at the Brooklyn Winery (which you'll be able to watch in video on Friday), an exciting place at the front of the current wine movement, where anyone can learn how to make their own wine. The trusted palates included some our favorite young sommeliers, Laura Maniec (one of only 18 female Master Sommeliers in the world, and at 31, the youngest; even though she's familiar with all the wines in the world, she's the kind of girl who pairs Champagne with everything), Joe Campanale (the marathon-running wunderkind owner of New York's dell'anima, Anfora, and L'Artusi who specializes in orange wines and unusual Italian varietals) and Jordan Salcito (Beverage Director of the soon-to-open Crown restaurant, who spends her summers stomping grapes in Burgundy). They did the heavy lifting for us – after tasting 80 wines (two groups of five worked through 40 wines each), you'll be able to browse through their favorites, read their tasting notes, and try out their food and wine pairings.
There were some pretty big surprises at the tasting: the $47.95 Freeman's Keefer Ranch pinot noir (a Russian River Valley stunner – it’s smoky, and a bit dusty) was one of our highest-scored wines and was mistaken by our panel as a classic European wine.
Over the coming weeks, we'll unleash unusual varietals and wines from regions you may not have yet tried. As the holidays approach, we'll be thinking about the best wines to celebrate with and give as gifts. We'll bring you solutions to some classic quandries: how to entertain with wine, host a blind tasting of your own, travel with wine, and start a cellar in a teeny apartment. We'd love to hear which wines you'd like to see on Taste, and we invite you to email us at feedback@gilttaste.com.
Cheers, and thanks for joining us for the party!
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