The Perfect Wines for your Super Bowl Snacks!

Looks like a northeast Super Bowl this year with the Giants and Patriots going to the big game.

As the Super Bowl heads to Indy this year, it may be time to rethink your big game party’s food and drink menu. You don’t have to think of the Super Bowl as a beer-only occasion.  According to entertaining experts, more and more people prefer to sip wine on the sidelines. WineMasters stores in New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut have just what you need to enjoy the game with friends and family.
When it comes to the Super Bowl – chips, dips, pizza, chili and other pub grub are in high demand. But which wines go with buffalo wings, nachos and chili?
Here are our suggestions:
BUFFALO WINGS
Piquant and vinegary wings need white wines with a lot of acidity like Sauvignon Blanc (Rockslide Road, Sonoma CA) to stand up to the sharpness of the flavors. If the wings are exceptionally spicy, an off-dry Riesling (Jung Riesling Kabinett, Germany) works well to tame the heat.

PIZZA


With so many variations in its preparation, pizza matches well with many different wines. Keeping with the Italian theme, Chianti is a natural fit. Its tart cherry flavor and bright acidity meld well with any pizza’s tomato sauce (Florentia Chianti Riserva, Italy). Red wines from the Barbera grape, which is produced in Northern Italy’s Piedmont area (Villa Caccione Barbera d’Alba, Italy) also have a nice tang to accompany pepperoni or sausage. For a pizza emphasizing garlic or vegetables, try a Pinot Grigio (Adagio Pinot Grigio, Italy).

  
CHILI/SLOPPY JOES
  

   Try a lush, fruit-forward Zinfandel with a sloppy joe (Bliss Vineyards Zinfandel, Mendocino CA), the bright berry flavors will have affinity for the sweet, tomato flavors. With chili, a Malbec (Caoba Reserve Malbec, Argentina) works wonders, as this wine has the same earthy and meaty characteristics. 
    VEGGIES AND DIP
Crispy and crunchy crudités call for a fresh, zippy white like Sauvignon Blanc (30 Degrees Sauvignon Blanc, California) or a blended white wine (El Encanto Trebbiano/Chardonnay, Argentina). If you’re in the mood for a red, try something light and fruity like an inexpensive Pinot Noir (Adagio Pinot Noir, Italy).
   NACHOS OR QUESADILLAS
   One of the best matches for anything with corn, such as chips or tortillas, is Chardonnay. This is the case here, as Chardonnay (Orbit Chardonnay, Russian River CA) also will complement creamy cheeses and counterpoint the salsa. In the red category, Zinfandel (Vicarmont, Lodi CA) likewise accompanies spicy salsa and Merlot (Bonaventure Merlot, Napa CA) can have a cooling effect. Consider drinking the reds slightly chilled.
 

Article about WineMasters!!

Wine Straight from the Source

By T.J. Foderaro/Inside Jersey NJ.com

The WineMasters seal of approval.

Why is wine so expensive? Part of the reason, certainly, is an abundance of middlemen.

Take that $15 bottle of Bordeaux or Chianti you picked up last weekend. A good percentage of the purchase price, of course, went to the winemaker. And the liquor store, too, took a cut.

But did you realize that between the winery and the retailer, there are typically two, and sometimes three, middlemen with their hands in the till? First, there’s the importer who sourced the wine for the U.S. market. His cut: anywhere from 15 to 25 percent. Then there’s a state-licensed wholesaler who bought the wine from the importer and sold it to the retailer. Its cut: perhaps another 25 percent. In some cases, there’s also a broker who represented the interests of the winemaker and negotiated with the importer. He might have taken another 10 percent. In other words, that bottle of Bordeaux or Chianti was marked up 50 percent or more even before it reached the liquor store.

But what if your local retailer could buy directly from the winery? Theoretically, the wholesale price the retailer pays would be substantially less. And, theoretically, the store could sell it to you for a lot less.

An increasing number of wine shops, and even some restaurants, are putting that theory into practice. Take, for example, WineMasters — a consortium of 45 stores, including 22 in New Jersey — which buys directly from wineries in Europe, South America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as California. The WineMasters portfolio currently numbers about 250 labels, ranging from $7 to $200 a bottle. These aren’t the only wines the stores sell, but the pitch to customers is that they offer the best possible quality-price ratio.

“Winery direct allows us to say we’re selling this item at the lowest price in the United States,” says Kevin Roche, a veteran New Jersey retailer who founded WineMasters a decade ago with Jim Treanor.

Roche’s family operates Queen Anne Wine and Spirits in Teaneck, while Treanor owns Valley Wines and Spirits in Wayne. But both men spend much of their time scouting for new sources of wine that can be marketed exclusively through the WineMasters consortium.

One of their discoveries is Casa al Vento, a vineyard in Italy’s Chianti region. Treanor was vacationing in Tuscany when he happened to stay at the winery. Turned out the winemaker hadn’t yet found a U.S. importer. Soon, Roche and Treanor were making the necessary legal and logistical arrangements to buy Casa al Vento’s wines directly.

The end result: WineMasters offers 2007 Casa al Vento “Foho” Chianti Classico Riserva through its website (winemasters.com) for $24.98 — a low-end price for reserve-level Chianti. If the wine had been imported via traditional channels, the price would be more like $32 or $33, according to Roche.

In other cases, WineMasters might contract with a winemaker who already sells to the New Jersey market but happens to have a surplus of wine. Roche and Treanor will negotiate to buy a big chunk of the surplus, then bottle it under a proprietary label. This way, they can offer the same quality as the vintner’s own label but at a reduced price. This type of product is known in the trade as a “private label” wine.

WineMasters may be among the most active New Jersey retailers involved with “winery-direct” buying and “private label” wines, but they’re not alone.

In South Jersey, Moore Brothers has been at it since the mid-1990s. And while WineMasters affiliates carry all the mainstream brands in addition to the consortium’s selections, Greg and David Moore offer only wines they source themselves.

“We’re like Apple Computer,” quips David Moore. “Or they’re like us.”

Moore Brothers, with stores in Pennsauken, as well as Wilmington, Del., and New York City, has relationships with 120-plus winemakers in France, Italy, Germany and a few other regions. “We go to Europe ourselves and find the producers with whom we want to work,” David Moore says. “It’s all about the person and the place and the culture.”

The Moore brothers are fanatical about quality — to the point where they guarantee their wines are temperature-controlled from the time they leave the vineyard to the time they reach the consumer. The stores themselves are kept at a constant 56 degrees. “We have fleece vests all over our stores,” David Moore explains.

Gary Fisch, owner of Gary’s Wine and Marketplace in Bernardsville, Madison and Wayne, purchases wine directly from some of California’s top vintners, then bottles it under his own labels: Going Forward, Go Figure and Grand Finale (all variations on his initials). Fisch said he takes advantage of the fact that winemakers typically grow or purchase more grapes than they know what to do with.

“I go with my wine-buying team and we meet with the winemaking team,” he says. “They bring barrel samples and we taste through them.”

The Going Forward line comprises a Sonoma Coast chardonnay and pinot noir priced in the $14 to $16 range. The same wines are sold by the winemaker under his own label for more like $20 to $30 a bottle, Fisch says.

So why don’t all New Jersey wine merchants buy directly from the source? For one thing, it’s logistically complicated. First, a retailer has to establish relationships with winemakers thousands of miles away. Then, they have to arrange for the wines to be shipped and cleared through licensed importers and wholesalers. As a rule, only larger retail operations have the wherewithal to pull it off.

“It’s a minimum of a six-month process from when we find someone we like until we bring it into the market,” says WineMasters co-founder Treanor.

There are exceptions, however. Nicholas Harary, owner of Restaurant Nicholas in Middletown, occasionally offers his customers “shiner wines.” These are wines from exceptional growers who end up producing more than they can sell in a given vintage. When they do, they’ll set aside a portion of their output in unlabeled bottles — hence the term “shiner” — and find someone like Harary who’s willing to take the surplus off their hands.

Restaurant Nicholas will then create a private label and sell the wine for a fraction of the regular price, typically as part of the restaurant’s “wine of the month” retail program via its website (restaurantnicholas.com).

“One of the wines we sold last year, the winery sold for $50 under their own label,” Harary says “But under our shiner label, it was $20.” 

Think outside the bottle!

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOTTLE

NEW YEAR’S WINE RESOLUTIONS

A new year brings new beginnings…and without fail, resolutions. Are you embarking on a health kick (along with the rest of the world) or are you thinking outside the…bottle this year? As you contemplate ways to better your mind, body and soul during these upcoming weeks, WineMasters has one mission for you: to spice up your wine repertoire. With these mini motions, we guarantee that you will not only follow through with your New Year’s resolution past February, but will still enjoy the wine you drink come this time next year. 

Resolution #1: Set an Attainable Goal

            This is Goal Setting 101, but there is a very good reason that is the first tip for any resolution. When you have an end point in mind and can envision yourself down the road, you are more likely to stick with it. Think about what you want to achieve. Is it to discover new wine? Learn all there is to know about Chardonnay, or the region where your favorite Pinot Noir is from? Regardless of your specific goals, dive right in, take the first sip and see where it leads you. 

Resolution #2: Pick a New Destination

It’s all about location, location, location. Take a step outside of your comfort zone because there are several new regions that are bottling up some delicious, affordable options such as New Zealand and Argentina. Also, if you know you love Chardonnay from Mendocino County in California, start small and try one from Napa Valley, then one from Monterey. Before you know it, you will be well on your way to becoming a wine connoisseur.

Resolution #3: Take Notes

            Have you heard of the old weight-loss trick of writing down everything you eat? Well, keeping track of the wines that you have tried will not only help jog your memory of what you like and what you are not the biggest fan of, but will be a valuable tool the next time you would like to try something new. Things to think about: style, region, varietal and sweetness level will be key assets when choosing your next selection because you will begin to figure out what qualities you look for in wine.

Resolution #4: Go Green

           If you haven’t jumped on this bandwagon just yet, ease into it with organic wine selections! There is no question that “going green” isn’t just a trend, but a lifestyle change that is here to stay. Our favorite certified organic wines include the Casa al Vento FoHo Chianti Classico and Costa al Sole Montepulciano. 

Resolution #5: Try a New Varietal

            Do you have a go-to varietal? What about one that you ALWAYS stay away from? Try that one! Unless you have had a very bad experience recently, you may surprise yourself.  As your taste-buds develop and you acquire a taste for different sweetness, body and acidity you can venture out of your comfort zone. If you like soft, silky flavor try a Pinot Noir like Orbit Vineyards. For sweetness with a clean finish try a Riesling like Jung Riesling Spatlese or if you are into bold flavors try a Zinfandel like Vicarmont Vineyards

Resolution #6: Pop the Bubbly on a Tuesday

  

Move away from the notion that champagne is to only enjoy on special occasions. There are so many options in varying prices ranges that you can sip on this non-traditional choice any day of the week and not feel guilty. We love Eugene Deybach Cremant d'Alsace Sparking Rose and Gimonnet-Gonet Brut Sparkling White. However, if you over-indulged at the stroke of midnight, may we suggest trying this a little later in the year…