GOING OUT WITH A BANG

Last weekend, we finished off the 2009 D.E.P.’s Fine Wine & Spirits Tasting Schedule with what we affectionately like to call our Holiday Show. It’s a two-part event that we’ve been quietly doing for the past 4 years. Part one is always at our Covington Store on Friday night, and repeated Saturday at our Fort Thomas location, while part two takes place at Fort Thomas Friday and reversed at Covington for Saturday.

Usually, we toss in some extra-nice sparkling wines and dessert wines, yet this year, we opted to focus on all table wines, though none of them were what you would call “value.” No, for this tasting, we focus on the stuff we wouldn’t normally get to try our customers, opting for a great deal of higher-end and extremely limited wines. As always, these tastings weren’t about highlighting a particular style of wine, grape variety or wine region – these tastings were simply a thank you to all of our customers for all of their patronage this past year.

The line-up was as follows:

Friday at Covington: Illumination Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 2007, Saintsbury Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard 2006, Domaine Tempier Bandol 2006 and Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2003. Saturday: Muller-Catoir Riesling Kabinett Trocken 2007, Domaine de la Charbonniere Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee des Perdrix 2005, Charles Joguet Chinon Chene Vert 2007 and Bookwalter The Protagonist 2006.

Friday at Fort Thomas: Muller-Catoir Riesling Kabinett Trocken 2007, Domaine de la Charbonniere Chateauneuf-du-Pape Cuvee des Perdrix 2005, Charles Joguet Chinon Chene Vert 2007 and Bodegas Norton Perdriel 2003. Saturday: Illumination Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 2007, Saintsbury Pinot Noir Cerise Vineyard 2006, Domaine Tempier Bandol 2006 and Chateau Senejac Haut-Medoc 2005.

Overall, the wines should very well, and it was a nice follow-up to a fairly chaotic Thanksgiving Day week. I would have to say my personal faves were the Charbonniere, Charles Joguet and Muller-Catoir, but it is not an easy thing for me to choose a favorite – the wines on our shelves are all my babies, and it is impossible and just plain wrong to choose a favorite child. (And in case you didn't notice, we slid in a few different wines, with each store concluding with a different big boy, just an extra treat.)

I want to thank all of our customers for coming by on their holiday weekend and sharing in these wines. For those of you that missed it, I would highly recommend seeking out these beauties to try for yourself sometime. They are all seriously worth it.