World renowned wine figure Jancis Robinson recently tasted several wines from one of our Spanish producers, Coto de Gomariz. She tasted both the 2008 Blanco and the 2008 “X” Albariño and seemed to enjoy them enough to feature them as her “wine of the week” picks on her website, www.jancisrobinson.com. While the region of Rias Baixas is still gaining popularity for it’s Albariño’s, Coto de Gomariz is located in nearby D.O. Ribeiro where treixadura is the grape of choice for producing crisp and complex white burgundy-esque wines. Wonderful acidity and mineralty due to the granite and schist soils make these wines a fantastic summer wine, especially when pairing alongside seafood and shellfish. I recently had a glass of the Blanco with the Bonito del Norte Salad from the Garces Trading Co. in Philadelphia and it was incredible. (Sorry Chef Garces, Cat Cora is still my favorite Iron Chef!)

While Jancis’ recent post mentioned that the Coto de Gomariz wines aren’t available in the US, I assure you they are, albeit in small quantities. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board carries both the 2008 Blanco and “X” Albariño, along with another one of their white wines, the 2007 Colleita Seleccionada.  They also carry three fascinating red wines from the same producer using other native varieties such as Mencia, Brancellao, Ferrol, Sousón and Caiño. The 2008 Coto de Gomariz Blanco will also be available very soon for order through Flickingerwines.com who is set up to ship to any state where direct shipping of alcohol is allowed. So, if you live in Pennsylvania or nearby bordering states, you shouldn’t have a hard time finding these amazing wines at your nearest PLCB wine store. If you’re not located near to any of these stores, I encourage you to visit Flickingerwines.com and see their entire listing of amazing wines from all over the world.

Cheers,

Michael

With the wonderful world of Google come amazing and extraordinary things that one is able to find. Sometimes I think we all take for granted the power that technology has allowed us to possess, and the massive amount of information at our fingertips. Whether you want to find a recipe for tapas, or where the best skiing on earth is , just type it in and presto- you have an answer!!! Why am I going off on this you might be asking yourself? It’s because  I often type in our business or family name to see what pops up on Google, and just to make sure I don’t have a convicted felon in the family (thankfully not yet!) somewhere out there that might try to contact me for bail money.

Today however, in a strange twist of fate, I stumbled across an interesting little nugget of information in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. It seems the stars aligned many years ago for my passion and ultimately my career in the wine world, as I discovered one of my ancestors was a wine merchant in Philadelphia in the 1750′s! I was shocked to read about this because the PLCB is one of our main clients, so apparently my relative Samuel planted that seed in Philadelphia many years ago.  I’ll have to do a bit of research on this but I’m almost positive we are Pennsylvania’s oldest “wine merchants.” I’m hoping someone will be able to verify this, but if not, I’ll definitely being raising my wine glass to Mister Samuel Grisley and thanking him for establishing our name in the wine business all those years ago!

Don’t you just love history?

Cheers,

Michael