Wannabe Wino

Friday Wine Down
Friday, September 21, 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Francisco "Friday Fran" Astudillo of Elite Wines Imports will be here to present a selection of wines from around the world. Among the selections will be the new vintage of Torbreck's "Woodcutter's" Shiraz, the Parker favorite that has scored between 91 and 93 points in the Wine Advocate for four years running and has been called a "knock-out" and "one of the great values in the marketplace". Take advantage of special discounts during the tasting.

Saturday Tasting
Saturday, September 22, 1-4 pm
Tom Kiszka of Potomac Selections will be here with new wines from France. Try lots of new wines and new vintages including the great new vintage of Crozes Hermitage wines from Domaine des Hauts Chassis. These reds have earned raves in the Wine Spectator and they're only at Arrowine. Try lots of great new wines and load up on your favorites; we'll have special discounts on all the wines in the tasting!

At Out of Site Wines in Vienna, two events will also be going down:

ON THE TASTING BAR THIS FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 5-8 PM: RIJCKAERT AND BOOKWALTER

• 2004 Rijckaert Macon-Montbellet - This Chardonnay has a lot of the characteristics you would expect from Burgundy: pronounced minerality, pleasing acidity and good barrel flavor integration. But Rijckaert has a style that is unmistakably unique and somewhat difficult to describe. The word that comes to mind is precision. But rather than reading our words, better that you come and taste it.
• Bookwalter Lot No. 21. Having been exposed to a lot of great wines from Washington State over the summer, we were pleased to find yet another. Bookwalter fits the classic image of a cult winery - small production of finely made wines that are snapped up immediately upon release. This wine is a delicious multi-vintage blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. We're told there is quite a celebration in Washington State when these wines are released; come join our celebration in Vienna as we introduce you to this wine. (We don't expect it to last long. We're told that only 40 cases come to VA and it sells out at wholesale in only a day or two each year.)

ON THE TASTING BAR THIS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1-4 PM: ALL SPANISH LINEUP

Cindy Yim, one of the owners of Elite Wines, has just returned from a week in northern Spain where she visited the producers whose wines Elite imports. In addition to their direct imports, Elite is our distributor for the imports of Aurelio Cabestrero's Grapes of Spain. That gives them one of the best portfolios of Spanish wines in VA. We've worked with Cindy to select four terrific Spanish wines to feature on the tasting bar this Saturday. Beyond her discussion of the wines, if you offer her a little encouragement surely she will tell you something about the people, their vineyards, their wineries, and even their cuisine.

That's it for this weekend folks, I'll let you know if I hear of anything else!