2013-05-09
2012 Hour Magazine Wine Store of the Year
Wine Tasting Saturday!
Stop by between 11 am and 5 pm! Plus, CHEESE samples!
Sampling a nice variety at several price points
Wine Stroll tickets on sale here! It’s next Saturday, kids!
We have more bacon. We. Have. More. Bacon!!!
Note: We will be CLOSED this
Sunday, May 12 for Mother’s Day.
Come one, come all to another of our drop-in wine tasting
Saturdays this weekend. We’ll be pouring samples of “five or six” wines,
including some new vintages, old Cloverleaf favorites, and possibly one or two
new wines. Make it a point to stop in between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., try some wine
and some of the excellent cheeses we’re now carrying, stock up for Mother’s Day
(hint: Mimosas, or rosè!), and of course talk wine. Even better, if you can,
BRING MOM!
Wine Stroll next weekend! Purchase tickets
now, Save $10
You and 1,700 of your best friends can tour downtown Royal Oak’s finest restaurants and retail establishments
on Saturday, May 18 from Noon to 5pm. Each stop will have wine samples and
appetizers, including yours truly, Cloverleaf Fine Wine, which will be
partaking again for the 5th straight year. This is typically a
raucous, fun, and popular event, so if you want to go it is best to purchase
tickets in advance! You can purchase directly from us for $40 each, or pay $50
the day of the event—if there are any tickets left at all. Wine Stroll usually
sells out, especially with good weather. This is a great way to pop in to a
number of great Royal Oak businesses all in
one afternoon, places you may have passed by for years on your way to Doofus
Big Box, Inc. Buy Local!
Featured Wines…
Locations “I” (Italy)
Reg. price: $24
Sale price: $17.99 (no further discounts)
Note: Winemaker
Dave Phinney of Orin Swift fame has come out with the latest in his Locations
series of wines. “I” for Italy follows “E” for
Espana and “F” for France, with the idea that
the wines will present creative and delicious blends of classic varietals from
each country. The “locations” for “I” are as far south as Puglia
and as far north as Piemonte, and the blend features Negroamaro, Nero d’Avola,
Barbera, and native varietals of Puglia.
Winemaker’s
note: “Revealing an attractive color spectrum of crimson and scarlet with a
slight magenta band on the rim, the wine explodes with aromas of macerated
raspberries, dried lavender, plum tart, and toasty oak accents. The palate is
immediately hit with super lush flavors of ripe berries and spice, supported
with a dense core that has just the right amount of characteristic acidity. The
tannins are already velvety and soft which provide for a lingering finish with
hints of minerality and some herbal notes.”
Pikorua Sauvignon Blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand)
Reg. price: $13
Sale price: $9.99 (no further discounts)
Tom’s note: This wine is a really, really nice surprise! To
my knowledge it is new to the Detroit market
and is only available to restaurants and a few select fine wine shops (ahem).
Dry, crisp, with bright tropical fruits (but not too “grapefruity”) and light
herbal notes. At less than ten dollars it way overdelivers.”
2011 Fontanafredda Briccotondo Barbera (Piedmont)
Reg. price: $14
Sale price: $10.99
Tom’s note:
“Cherry-berry floral and herbal notes mingle over smooth tannins. Crisp, juicy
flavors with nice density in the mid-palate with racy acidity driving the
floral and spicy finish. We had a salesman in here the other day, and he
noticed Oscar Farinetti’s photo on the cover of the new Wine Spectator magazine
here in the store. He said ‘Hey, that guy’s also in the wine business, and we
have one of his wines and I have it on sale!’ So we tried it, and it is just a
classic Piedmont Barbera, and because it’s on sale we are able to offer it at a
really, really good value.
“Piedmont is an area of northern Italy
that is really known for food. It is also the home of the Barbera grape, and
though Barbera is now grown all over the world, this is the real thing. It
tastes exactly like a Barbera is supposed to taste, and at this price it is a
tremendous opportunity."
Circle M
Ranch Center-Cut Bacon
$7.99/pound
Note: Tom Natoci has made another
sojourn to the nether regions of the hallowed Peninsula and returned with more
of his self-professed “best bacon I’ve ever had.” This stuff is the beauty,
thick-cut with a light smokiness to it. Pick some up Saturday when you come to
taste some wines!
--The Guys (and Gal!) at Cloverleaf
2013-04-26
2012 Hour Magazine Wine Store of the Year
Another wine tasting this Saturday
FREE event samples wines of Spain
All choices of “superstar” importer Jorge Ordonez
2013 Royal Oak Wine Stroll comes May 18
Tickets on sale here! Event will
sell out
Last weekend’s in-store tasting of South African wines was
such a hit, we’re doing it again! This time the focus will be on the wines of Spain.
Join us this Saturday, April 27th, from Noon to 5 pm as we
try reds, whites, and rosès brought to the U.S. by importer Jorge Ordonez. From
Borsao to Fuego to Milcampos to Alto Moncayo and several others, Ordonez wines
have been big sellers at Cloverleaf over the last several years because they
deliver excellent, consistent wines, vintage after vintage, at tremendous value
whatever the price point. As wine press icon Robert Parker has stated, “Certainly,
one could say that Jorge Ordoñez is a gift from Bacchus to thrifty wine
consumers.”
So please plan to stop in this Saturday, sample a variety of
excellent Spanish wines, nosh on our great Cloverleaf cheeses, and do your
weekend wine shopping with us! Vino Bueno!
Wine Stroll! Purchase tickets now, from us!
Save $10
You and 1,700 of your best friends can tour downtown Royal
Oak’s finest restaurants and retail establishments on Saturday, May 18 from
Noon to 5pm. Each stop will have wine samples and appetizers, including yours
truly, Cloverleaf Fine Wine, which will be partaking again for the 5th straight year. This is typically a raucous, fun, and popular event, so if you
want to go it is best to purchase tickets in advance! You can purchase directly
from us for $40 each, or pay $50 the day of the event—if there are any tickets
left at all. Wine Stroll usually sells out, especially with good weather. This
is a great way to pop in to a number of great Royal Oak businesses all in one
afternoon, places you may have passed by for years on your way to Doofus Big
Box, Inc. Buy Local!
Featured Wines…
2011 Fontanafredda Briccotondo Barbera (Piedmont)
Reg. price: $14
Sale
price: $10.99
Tom’s note:
“Cherry-berry floral and herbal notes mingle over smooth tannins. Crisp, juicy
flavors with nice density in the mid-palate with racy acidity driving the
floral and spicy finish. We had a salesman in here the other day, and he
noticed Oscar Farinetti’s photo on the cover of the new Wine Spectator magazine
here in the store. He said ‘Hey, that guy’s also in the wine business, and we
have one of his wines and I have it on sale!’ So we tried it, and it is just a
classic Piedmont Barbera, and because it’s on sale we are able to offer it at a
really, really good value.
“Piedmont is an area of northern Italy that is really known
for food. It is also the home of the Barbera grape, and though Barbera is now
grown all over the world, this is the real thing. It tastes exactly like a
Barbera is supposed to taste, and at this price it is a tremendous
opportunity."
And here’s another: “The fact that wines
such as this can be purchased is unbelievable.”-Robert Parker
2011 Domaine LaFage Bastide Miraflors (France)
Less than $14
Tasting note from
Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate: “ 93 points. There are 3,000 cases of the
naked, virginal, unoaked 2011 Bastide Miraflors Vieilles Vignes made from 70%
Syrah and 30% Grenache aged in concrete. The difficult economic situation in
the Languedoc-Roussillon corridor is being exploited to the maximum by importer
Eric Solomon. The fact that wines such as this can be purchased is
unbelievable. Largely an artisanal wine, it is brilliantly pure with a stunning
nose of spring flowers, blackberries, cassis and earth. It is almost
incomprehensible that something of this quality, complexity and richness can be
purchased for $25 to $50, much less $10 to $12. The 3,000 cases should be
gobbled up as quickly as they hit retailers’ shelves. I am honored to share my
excitement about this amazing wine with readers.”
--The
Guys (and Gal!) at Cloverleaf
2013-04-18
2012 Hour Magazine Wine Store of the Year
Wine tasting this Saturday
FREE event samples wines of South Africa
SALE on a new, “classic Piedmont Barbera”
From the founders of brilliant market concept “Eataly”
Plus, spectacular French wine for just $14!!!
Join us this Saturday, April 20th, from 12
Noon to 3 pm as we actually get to help a new wine wholesaler select his
inventory! Or at least part of it. Specifically, we’ll be sampling 9 wines from
South Africa and offering our opinions on them as a local businessman, who has
started a new wine importing company, chooses his book. The event is FREE and
we will be sampling several of the cheeses that are available for sale at
Cloverleaf. So come on in, sample, mingle, nosh, and of course STOCK UP! It’s
springtime, baby!
Great new Barbera, ridiculously low price
Perhaps you’ve heard of Italian businessman Oscar Farinetti,
or more specifically his upscale market Eataly which is taking the food and
wine world by storm. With its original location in Turin, Italy, and subsequent
openings in New York (along with Mario Batali), Tokyo, Rome, and (we hope,
soon) Chicago, Eataly is as much a destination as it is a marketplace. The huge
Eataly stores are a combination European-style open market, Whole Foods-type
supermarket, restaurant, bar, and learning centers.
“We had a salesman in here the other day,” explains
Cloverleaf’s Tom Natoci, “and he noticed Oscar Farinetti’s photo on the cover
of the new Wine Spectator magazine here in the store. He said ‘Hey, that guy’s
also in the wine business, and we have one of his wines and I have it on sale!’
So we tried it, and it is just a classic Piedmont Barbera, and because it’s on
sale we are able to offer it at a really, really good value.”
“Piedmont is an area of northern Italy that is really known
for food,” Tom continued. “It is also the home of the Barbera grape, and though
Barbera is now grown all over the world, this is the real thing. It tastes
exactly like a Barbera is supposed to taste, and at this price it is a tremendous
opportunity."
2011 Fontanafredda Briccotondo Barbera (Piedmont)
Reg. price: $14
Sale price: $10.99
Tom’s note: “Cherry-berry
floral and herbal notes mingle over smooth tannins. Crisp, juicy flavors with
nice density in the mid-palate with racy acidity driving the floral and spicy
finish.”
And here’s another: “The fact that wines
such as this can be purchased is unbelievable.”-Robert Parker
2011 Domaine LaFage Bastide Miraflors (France)
Less than $14
Tasting note from
Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate: “ 93 points. There are 3,000 cases of the
naked, virginal, unoaked 2011 Bastide Miraflors Vieilles Vignes made from 70%
Syrah and 30% Grenache aged in concrete. The difficult economic situation in
the Languedoc-Roussillon corridor is being exploited to the maximum by importer
Eric Solomon. The fact that wines such as this can be purchased is
unbelievable. Largely an artisanal wine, it is brilliantly pure with a stunning
nose of spring flowers, blackberries, cassis and earth. It is almost
incomprehensible that something of this quality, complexity and richness can be
purchased for $25 to $50, much less $10 to $12. The 3,000 cases should be
gobbled up as quickly as they hit retailers’ shelves. I am honored to share my
excitement about this amazing wine with readers.”
--The
Guys (and Gal!) at Cloverleaf
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