Thorn-Clarke Wine Dinner – featuring Sam Clarke!

Unbeknown to the wonderful citizens of Central Wisconsin, this event has been a long time in the making.  Well, not this specific event, but an event like this one…

We are absolutely psyched to announce the partnership of Cafe le Grand ( www.cafelegrand.com )and City Grill ( http://www.citygrillbistro.com/index.html ) to bring you an event like no other for Wausau & Central Wisconsin (at least in the 11 years since I’ve been around!).  Together, along with one of our many distributors (Purple Feet Wines) we are pleased to announce a wine dinner featuring Sam Clarke, owner/president and son of Thorn-Clarke founders David & Cheryl Clark (nee Thorn). Read all about Thorn-Clarke at http://www.thornclarkewines.com.au/ .

Thorn-Clarke is an Australian wine producer with deep roots in the Barossa Valley.  They produce wines under the labels of William Randell, Shotfire, Terra Barossa, Sand Piper (Milton Park in the US) and Innovative Wines.  Under each label they produce various wines from various varietals and grape sources.  Their wines routinely rank very high in points, earn medals in various competitions and are highly regarded from just about any wine source around.  As a matter of fact, just prior to joining us in Wausau, Sam Clarke is meeting with Robert Parker and Wine Spectator so they can taste the amazing wines of Thorn-Clarke!

So, what’s the deal?  A reception with hand passed appetifs (where you’ll get the opportunity to meet Sam Clarke), then a sit down 5 course meal.  We’ll be tasting at total of seven wines – two at the reception & five with dinner!

Thorn -Clarke Wine Dinner

Featuring Sam Clarke

Friday, June 26, 2009

Reception at 6:30 p.m. and Dinner at 7:00 p.m.

$65 per person / $120 per couple

Reservations, with pre-payment required can be made at Cafe le Grand

Cafe le Grand

700 Grand Ave

Wausau, WI

715-849-9787

In addition, if you’re a Cafe le Grand Wine Club member, there is a Wine Club member only reception with Sam Clarke starting at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, June 26.  Don’t pass this opportunity by to taste some wonderful wine and meet Sam.  He’ll be there to chat during the reception and will be discussing his wines and Thorn-Clarke as we enjoy dinner!

Thanks for visiting the CLG Blog and we look foward to seeing you Friday, June 16 at the City Grill!

Siduri Wines

Last November we had the wonderful opportunity to meet several people while attending Pinot Days in Chicago – one of whom was Adam Lee of Siduri Wines.  Since then we have brought some Siduri and Novy (their Syrah label) into Cafe le Grand and have been spreading the word about these great wines.  Today we had the absolute pleasure of meeting Adam & Dianna Lee at Siduri Wines in Santa Rosa.  Adam took a couple hours to show us around, share their story and thoughts on winemaking and wine drinking – and pour us several glasses from tank and barrel.

Ron & Loreen with Adam Lee of Siduri

( Adam asked that I explain his attire… see, we were his only tour today and he was headed to a Jimmy Buffet concert… apparently Jimmy Buffet is a huge wine guy and quite the fan of Siduri… so Adam was headed backstage to hang out with the band!)

Adam & Dianna’s story ( which is written about in detail on their very complete website  http://www.siduri.com/index.html ) starts in Texas, where they met at Neiman-Marcus.  Adam was the wine buyer while Dianna worked in the gourmet foods department.  Following a dream, they headed to California and in 1994 they launched Siduri wines.  Since this time they have specialized in vineyard designate Pinot Noir and Syrah (being bottled under the Novy label… named for Dianna’s maiden name).  They source grapes from specific sites from Oregon to the California Central Coast – seeking the true expression of the place… and doing a damn good job!  Some of their smaller projects include a dessert wine, a Nebbiolo and a Viognier.

Adam Lee pulling barrel samples

In tasting through all of the tank & barrel samples and hearing Adam’s passion was nearly the same message in a different medium.  Each wine was clearly a word, sentence or paragraph in liquid form.  We found the final blended wines to be very complete and very expressive, while the various blocks and clones were obviously a part of something bigger – something to be determined when the time is right – just a part or chapter from the complete story.  All in all it was an impressive display of what Adam thinks when putting together his wines.  The single vineyard wines, which are really the heart of their program were like great single works – expressive, complete on their own and specific to their intent.

Adam in the barrel room

Adam is not alone in this venture.  In addition to Dianna, he’s got the obvious invaluable and dedicated assistance of assistant winemaker Ryan Zepaltas, who we also had the pleasure of meeting.  In addition to helping out at Siduri, Ryan is also doing his own thing under the Zepaltas label (http://zepaltaswines.com/).  The other very cool thing about meeting Ryan is that he is from Eau Claire, WI.  Having this commonality (me having gone to UWEC) we chatted about WI and our favorite watering holes on Water Street.

Ryan Zepaltas supervising filtering of a special dessert wine

 I think it’s pretty clear that we had a great time tasting and talking with Adam and our thanks go out to their hospitality.  We strongly encourage you to seek out these wines – and we’d be more than willing to bring in anything from Siduri/Novy that you’d be interested in buying.

Thanks for checking out our blog and we look forward to seeing you at CLG – where we’re changing the way you look at wine!

Regards,

Ron

Wine Classes @ Café le Grand!

This has been a long time in the making… after pouring many bottles of wine… enjoying them to their fullest and contemplating the concept, we have finally decided to venture into wine education.  Nicknamed Winoversity ( or Oenoversity ), the first session being offered is a fundamentals course comprised of four classes over four weeks.  Each session will be about 2 – 2 1/2 hours long and be made up of some lecture style classroom stuff as well as tasting 4 to 6 wines each class.

The first session will begin on Sunday, January 4, 6:00 p.m. – running four consecutive Sundays.  The cost of the class is $100.00 per person, which covers the classroom, wine tasting and course materials.

The basic outline of the course is as follows:

Week 1:  Systematic approach to tasting, introduction to aromas and tastes, component tasting, faults

Week 2:  Varietals (red & white), characteristics, reading a wine label

Week 3:  Winemaking process (red, white, rose), affect of the process on wine

Week 4:  Old World vs. New World, laws, styles and trends

There will be as much information as I can fit into about 1 – 1 1/2 hours of lecture/discussion and I’m sure there will be (actually hoping there will be) tangents based on questions, etc.  Although this is the first class, it will most certainly not be the last.  We anticipate further sessions on a variety of topics and perhaps an intense tasting group class for those dedicated to training their palate.

If you’re interested in learning more or signing up for the class feel free to e-mail The Shop at cafelegrand@verizon.net or give a call 715-849-9787.

We hope to see you in class… until then… keep thinking and drinking!

Cafe le Grand – Changing the way you look at wine!

Regards,

Ron

The Return of Dusted Valley!

Yes… you are correct.  Corey Braunel of Dusted Valley Vintners is once again visiting Cafe le Grand!

As many of you recall, Corey (originally from Marathon) visited us in November where he shared some of his fantastic DVV wines and shared some tales of his path into winemaking.  We are pleased to welcome him back on Tuesday, February 26, 2008, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.  You are welcome to attend, free of charge, to taste the Dusted Valley wines as well as their Boomtown series.  During the evening we’ll have Boomtown wines for you to purchase and will be taking orders for the DVV products.  For more about Dusted Valley, visit their site: http://www.dustedvalley.com/

Although this event is free, we are asking that you RSVP (via e-mail cafelegrand@verizon.net or phone 715-849-9787).  We are taking reservations for times, starting at 5:30 p.m., every 15 minutes.  Due to limited space we are hoping to limit overcrowding by staggering attendees!

We sincerely hope to see you there, and strongly encourage you to be one of the first in Wisconsin to taste these great wines!

Regards,

Ron

Employees… Space… Snow…

Hello and Happy Holidays!

Just a quick note to let you know that you’re going to be seeing a new face behind the counter at Cafe le Grand.  We want to welcome our newest addition – Caitlin.  She comes to us from the world of corporate coffee (the land of the angry mermaid where bitter isn’t better) and we welcome her experience, energy and bright smile.  And if you happen to stop in during the Holiday Season you may get a glimpse of a blast from the past, as Kathleen is home from school and grabbing a couple shifts.  Other than that, we want to thank all of our employees (Jane, Robin, John, Melanie, Rachel & Apryl) for their hard work and dedication – and we encourage you to thank them as well.

If you’ve been in recently you have probably noticed that not only did we lose the couch, but we’ve rearranged some tables.  In our quest to magically make the shop larger, fit more wine and not lose seating space, we’ve switched some tables around.  Hopefully you find it more conducive to coffee, lunch, visiting, etc.

Lastly… have you noticed it’s winter?  Just a brief note to thank everyone for their patience and flexibility as the snow piles around our lot get bigger and the lot gets a tad bit smaller.  And remember, where there’s frozen water… there’s ice.  So walk carefully and we’ll keep the salt on for you!

Have a great holiday season and we hope to see you in the shop!

Regards,

Ron