Professional Wine Consultants - Milwaukee Wine - Sommeliers

Tonight I get on a plane and travel to Verona to attend Vin Italy! I have never been and was told by a respected colleauge that I had better wear comfortable shoes and get ready to run. I can’t wait!

I arrive on Friday and will be driven to Verona and then attend the event on Friday and Saturday.

On Sunday i am not scheduled for anything so I am going to take a train to Venice, just to take pictures and see it!

Then we travel to Tuscany to visit the wineries that the company represents and will be there for three days. I hope to get to Montalcino!

I am taking my laptop so hopefully I can update every day, plus post pictures as I go.

Ciao!!

Title: Going Green on Saint Patrick’s Day
Location: Wine Styles of Brookfield
Link out: Click here
Description: In honor of St Patrick’s Day…………

We’re GOING GREEN!
Join Toni Johnson,
Master Sommelier Candidate,
as we taste delicious wines from a variety of GREEN WINERIES.

6-7:30 PM

$20 per person/$10 Wine Club members

RSVP Please/Limit 20
Start Time: 6:00
Date: 2009-03-17
End Time: 7:30

17000 West Bluemound Road Ste:E

In the Fashion Plaza on the corner of Bluemound and Calhoun

(262)792-9463 (WINE)

Oh the red wines of Burgundy. When I was the Wine Director for a local restaurant, my favorite area to navigate with our guests on our list was the two pages devoted to Pinot Noir. Granted there are plenty of wines that have dizzyingly steep prices on those pages. Like all wine making areas of the world, certain wines and winemakers command exorbitant prices. Sometimes I get criticized for having some of these wines on the list. But I often say, (mostly to myself) “If you are going to have a French wine list, there are things that must be on it.” And those things are usually the most expensive. But there are some wonderful selections in Burgundy that are under $100.00 and some that are just a touch over that are well worth seeking out in a retail outlet.

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My love affair with Pinot Noir began in the late eighties when I was a retail wine buyer for a group of wine stores in Portland Oregon. (Pronounced OAR-eh-gn, not Oar–eh-GOHNE.). Of course the Willamette Valley has become to be known as a mecca for domestic Pinot along with the Russian River AVA in Sonoma County and the Santa Ynez Valley AVA in Santa Barbara County, California. Even though the world may not have known how fabulous they were back then, all of us Oregonians knew it.

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It is another busy day in December and I stop at a good account with a couple of wines to taste. As I fight the wind and snow, I enter the store and there is this incredible smell and the sound of laughter in the back room. The people in the back look up and say “T-bone!!” and invite me to join in the festivities.
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MORIC Neckenmarkter Blaufrankisch 2005, Mittelburgenland Austria

FROM DAVID SCHILDKNECHT FOR ROBERT PARKER’S WINE ADVOCATE: The 2005 Blaufrankisch Neckenmarkter delivers aromas of blackberry, smoked meat, and walnut, making for a pleasantly bitter, rather Cabernet Franc-like cast. Juicy, faintly bitter and salty, with subtle tart black fruit and walnut oil on the palate, this clings with a tart, bitter-sweet cast and striking salinity. There will be plenty of rewards for anyone who takes this wine through its paces at the dinner table. And it may gain over a couple of years in bottle, but will, I suspect, be best drunk within 3-4 years.

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2005 Rocca di Frassinello Poggio alla Guardia Maremma Toscana IGT

A collaboration between Baron Lafite Rothschild and Castellare di Castellinathis, this is the entry level wine of this estate of Rocca di Frassinello. On the nose it has ripe plum anise pepper and Granite. 45 Merlot, 40 Cab and 15 Sangioveto and ages in steel and concrete. Great structure and length. Great value compared to the higher end wines from this estate. Great texture on the palate mochaey and black berries not red berries.

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Every Friday…almost……I participate in a ritual where I and some of my contemporaries gather at a co-conspirators wine store on Milwaukee’s chic east side on the even chicier Brady Street called Waterford Wine. http://www.waterfordwine.com/

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Since August of 2004, I have had a bug. That is when I took the introductory course for the Court of Master Sommeliers and passed it. And I passed it only missing two of the 80ish questions. OMG did I know about wine or what! I thought I knew it all. I only missed two questions!!!

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