Hardy's Whiskers Blake $14 ***+

It's one of only two ports that we buy by the case (the other is Six Grapes). It is so good and inexpensive that we sell half a case a month of this quintessential winter fortified wine in the summer. Hardy's is a wonderful place to start to find out if you like port it's rich and intense unctuous in a very good way and raisiny lingering on the palate in that wonderful way that has made port famous.

Mark Davidson Cab Merlot $9.99 reg $15***

Every now an then we get the opportunity to carry wine that hasn't been moving to well anywhere else. Distributer reps like to bring these kinds of wine to us because we are one of the few places that specializes in getting our customers to try something they haven't tried before, which means we can sell something obscure nobody has ever heard of before. But before we do that we check to see if the lack of sales was the fault of the wine and we do that the old fashioned way--we taste it. Well, whatever caused Mark Davidson to not sell so well it certainly wasn't the fault of the wine. This is a rich jammy full-flavored but still medium-bodied wine with soft tannins that is just a lot lot of fun to drink it's what I call a "crowd pleaser". For some reason there is no vintage on the bottle which I suppose means it's a blend of wine from more than one year. We got few cases at a steep discount and were selling at a steep discount. Grab one while they last.

Bakon--A Premium Bacon Flavored Vodka $33

I am so not kidding. This is either the best marketing gimmick ever or the end of civilization. Probably both. it's the logical extension to the endless bacon obsession that shows up on the internet where with very little effort you can find whole albums dedicated to picturing endless kinds of food wrapped in bacon. So why not bacon Vodka? Well, for one thing it sounds pretty disgusting and for another----actually, what else do you need to say? The reason I voluntarily tasted it was...oh, wait I didn't voluntarily taste it. I walk into the store and the distributer rep is there with every store employee gathered around him like they have found a land mine in the middle of the store. Then hiding the bottle they hand me a tasting cup with a clear liquid. Apparently, I'm supposed to guess what it is. This is not a good sign. Anyone who has ever gone to seventh grade knows that drinking something that no one will tell you what it is...is a very very bad idea. So I smelled it and it smelled like bacon and I mean very like bacon. Which was of course impossible. So I tasted it. It tasted...not bad, I mean, really not bad salty and savory sort of like a very light dirty martini. I think I want to try it in a Bloody Mary. In any case if you take to a party you will be the most popular person there at least until every one tastes it at least once.

Wine Fraud

Alright this is a bit above are usual price point around here ($150,000 a bottle). But the AP has an interesting article about a billionaire wine collector's (and yachtsman--of course) lawsuit against Christie's International for selling him fake Bordeaux. It was supposed to have been owned by some guy named Thomas Jefferson, it wasn't.

Bink, Merlot, 2003, $30 ****

Bink is her cat. Let's get that out of the way first because people keep asking me--what's with the name? And I met her and tasted wine while she talked about them. I've mentioned before that when you are in front of the wine maker tasting the wines they made, there is a distinct tendency for the wine to taste better than it would otherwise. So, what I try to do is re-taste which I just did with the 2003 Merlot. And I was right the first time, it's great. Rich blackberry and earthiness with some spice just to keep things interesting. As you drink it just keeps getting better and better.