Newsletter


Story Teller Wine Company
I am proud to announce my discovery of a new urban creature: Mississippi erectus. Or for those of you who may not be social anthropologists like myself, Mississippi Man. But first, a geography lesson. Portland, Oregon is cut in two by the Willamette River. Luckily for us Portlanders, there are nine bridges you can drive/walk/run/bike across in order to get to the other side. And yet for a vast number of Portlanders, the Willamette River may as well be filled with molten lava. Which is where my friend who lives in NE Portland comes in. We have known each other since middle school and now that I’m back in Portland we exchange emails and phone calls all the time. But he’s never attended a wine tasting in my store. So when I bumped into him while running an errand on his side of the river I asked “how come I never see you at any Storyteller wine tastings?” This chance encounter led to my great discovery. Since he may actually read this week’s newsletter, I will refer to him as Mississippi Man. “Dude, your shop is all the way across the river.” I reminded him of the nine bridges. “But that’s a lot of effort considering I don’t own a car.” I reminded him of the time he rode his bike to Estacada (for you non natives, that’s a long way to ride your bike from NE Portland) to buy some “killer” Meadow Foam honey from a guy name Casper. This made no impression. Then I reminded him that Portland has excellent mass transit. “You mean like Tri-Met?” “Yes, exactly,” I replied enthusiastically. “No way, not me. Weird stuff happens on those buses. I might get my hair cut or sprayed with Super Glue.” Given that a man has recently been arrested here for doing just that on Tri-Met buses, I had to concede this point. “Besides my friend declared, we’re bringing everything we need right into our own neighborhood. Buy local my man!” Was he right? Could it be there is an enclave of self-reliant urban creatures living in my midst? Creatures that had mastered language and the ability to buy Birkenstocks but had a prehistoric fear of crossing water? I had to find out, so I grabbed my Margaret Mead decoder ring and struck out on my own. Once I entered the Mississippi zone of Portland, I immediately discovered two things: a Neil Kelly branch and a Pastaworks. My god, Mississippi Man was telling the truth. He and his tribe were assembling all the trappings of an advanced culture. After walking a few blocks I also discovered they had mastered some pretty basic technologies, like fire and panini presses. I knew this because I came across a court yard area where several groups of Mississippi Men and Women had pulled together carts to cook food for outsiders. I struck up a conversation with two very friendly young men and decided to eat with them. Their cart was called the Ruby Dragon and the golden curry and Roots fried rice were excellent. Everywhere I went, I asked the Mississippi Men and Women if they would consider crossing the Willamette River to attend a wine tasting at Storyteller Wine Company. “Will we sink or fall off the edge?” was a common response. Many indicated they already had several fine wine stores in their own territory. To which I replied triumphantly, “well, we have food on our side of the river and yet you will still find me over here once a week in pursuit of lamb ribs from Podnah’s, pork belly reubens from Bunk or blue cheese and Buzzing Canyon honey at Bar Avignon (thanks Casper!).” I will keep you posted on my efforts to tear down the Liquid Curtain. Next week I plan on standing on the Hawthorne Bridge while yelling out “Mr. Joannides, tear down this river.” Or perhaps I’ll just have to settle for luring my friend, Mississippi man across the river with some bodacious honey and this bottle of wine. 2007 The Eyrie Vineyards Reserve Chardonnay 33.00 at winery This is the wine by which all other Oregon Chardonnays are measured. The first time I tasted the 2007 reserve was at the big Eyrie Chardonnay vertical tasting that was held the day before the 2009 International Pinot Noir Celebration. My wife and I were honored to be able to attend this event, surrounded by wine media and Eyrie friends from around the planet. Afterward, British wine writer Jancis Robinson remarked that it was “one of the most extraordinary tastings I have ever been lucky enough to experience.” Considering the events Jancis has sat in on, that’s quite a statement. Even more amazing was how well these Eyrie Chards tend to age. Fans of Eyrie know these wines are almost immortal but it can be a shock for outsiders. Jancis told me that as the tasting progressed she had to keep revising her drinking window estimates for the younger wines based on how well the older Eyrie Chards were holding up. At the end of the day she wrote in her wine column that “by the time we had got back to the 1980s and 1970s, I started wondering just how many Burgundian domaines could present an array of white wines that has lasted as consistently well.” No other Oregon white wine is more deserving of the attention and the accolades. Just recently Steven Spurrier called the 2007 Eyrie Reserve Chardonnay the “best white wine in the New World,” claiming “this is a triumph of purity, complexity and lengthy. A superb, grand cru standard wine.” I can’t imagine that David Lett had any idea big time British wine critics would be gushing over his Chardonnay like this when he planted those vines back in 1965. Yup, if you are lucky enough to drink this wine you will be enjoying the fruits of labor from 45-year-old Chardonnay vines. And what nice vines they are. According to the late David Lett’s notes, “in late 1964, I followed Joe Torres, long-time vineyard manager for the Draper Ranch in St Helena, through the vineyard as he pruned the Chardonnay. Joe, for the previous 20 years, had selected certain blocks and vines from the vineyard which were favorites for quality wine production. A lot of these selected vines’ fruit went to Lee Stewart’s Souverain Cellars across the valley on Howell Mountain. Lee made some incredible Chardonnay wines from these grapes.The cuttings I took from the Draper Ranch and Torres’ selection became the basic vines of The Eyrie Vineyards.” Call them Draper or call them Wente, these are some nice clones that have been own-rooted, dry and organically farmed since the beginning. The wine you are hopefully about to purchase is the very best five barrels of Chardonnay from the 2007 vintage and it was made entirely with fruit from those original vines. When I first tasted this wine back in July of 2009, I wrote the following tasting note: “Wow!” I wrote that word in 3-inch tall letters on my notepad last Sunday. This is one of the best Oregon Chards ever, in my opinion anyway. Epic stuff. Jason took the best five barrels from the original Eyrie Chardonnay plantings and crafted a cuvee that will make white Burgundy lovers think twice about geographical allegiances. It has a very rich, golden sunshine color that you can just stare at all day in your glass. The aromas of beeswax and lightly toasted filberts explode up out of the glass as the wine warms in your hand. The palate is rich and full, with flavors of Granny Smith apples, those same filberts and a bit of zippy lemon citrus. And the finish is even longer than the Reserve Pinot Noir. I literally wanted to take my glass outside so I could sit in the sun and enjoy the wine to its fullest. I also started to wonder who might have some lobster to grill up in McMinnville. But I have had the wine many, many times since then, including a very eye-opening tasting this past Friday. Jesse Becker was in town, taking a few days off from his gig as the head wine dude at Frasca in Boulder, Colorado. Jesse is one of the youngest people I know who actually has a Master Somellier certificate and the one place he really wanted to visit was Eyrie. So there were, bright and early Friday morning at the winery, tasting wine with winemaker Jason Lett. I don’t know whether Friday was a fruit day on the biodynamic calendar or whether it was the cool, damp atmosphere of the winery, but the 2007 Reserve Chardonnay tasted even better than I remembered! Jason carries on the fine winemaking traditions of his late father David Lett, including not messing up what Mother Nature gives him with a bunch of new oak. Jason used older barrels, mostly French, that ran the range from 1984 to 2007. Jason likes to keep the amount of new oak used to around 10-15%. He also likes to the alcohol to a minimum, and even though the label says 13.5%, the 2007 drinks more like 12 to 12.5%. So it is no wonder I got this wonderful orchard fruit experience, with just a hint of citrus, smoke and filberts. It has also taken on a richness on the palate that almost makes me wonder if it possible to make a white peach-butterscotch sorbet. When Jancis Robinson finally got a chance to write up her tasting note on the 2007 Eyrie Reserve Chardonnay back in July, she wrote that it was “rich, with an almost butterscotch nose – without as much bracing acidity as some Oregon 2007 Chardonnays. A hint of nectarines. Still quite chewy on the finish. It grew in the glass and became really very subtle.” She also gave it a drinking window of 2010 to 2026. I am not joking, and I think she might be able to stretch that to 2030 if she wanted to! How many white wines can you find that are in this humble price range that you can drink with confidence over the course of two more decades? Exactly. The bad news is the winery has sold out of this wine. But those of us who were smart little squirrels stashed away a nice little trove of the 2007 Eyrie Reserve Chardonnay for the winter. It originally sold for 33.00 a bottle at the winery, which I thought was an infinitely reasonable request. But if you buy some of the last of the 2007s in all of Portland from Storyteller Wine Company, your price per bottle will be 30.00. Now allow me to sweeten the pot a little, not with honey from Estacada, but by offering you free shipping to any of the lower 48 American states. Now I don’t want to discriminate against local folks who want to just drop by the store and pick some wine up, so if you pick the wine up at Storyteller, the per bottle will be 26.00 a bottle. And if that doesn’t get Mississippi Man over here, I don’t know what will! Friday January 15 and Saturday January 16 Wine Tastings Yes, we will be having our regularly scheduled tastings, 6:00-9:00PM on Friday, 12:00-5:00PM on Saturday. No, I do not know what we are pouring yet. But I’m sure it will be good. But the focus on the two days will clearly be on the Third Annual Storyteller Inventory Reduction Celebration. It is our biggest sale event of the year, mainly because I am a one person inventory team and I hate counting bottles. On Friday January 15 Storyteller will be open from 10AM until 9PM and on Saturday January 16 we will be open from 10AM until 7:00PM. All wines not currently on sale will be either 15%, 20%, 25% or 30% off their regularly marked prices. Cheers, Michael Alberty Head Storyteller PS Speaking of folks who have a Master Sommelier diploma, I’d like to give a big “thank you” to Greg Harrington, MS. Greg is a former big time sommelier who has worked at great, famous restaurants in places like NYC and Las Vegas. He moved to Washington a few years ago to make wine and his wineries, Gramercy Cellars and 21 Grams, are getting a lot of critical acclaim. But what I want to thank him for is a statement he made on Facebook the other day. I’m not sure if Greg is confusing us with somebody else or whether he had just not sobered up yet from NYE celebrations, but Greg called Storyteller Wine Company “one of the top ten retail wine stores in America.” Regardless of intent or where Greg’s tongue may have been planted, we accept all accolades, from all quarters. We work in the dark, we do what we can. But if anybody takes notice, that’s nice too! Visit www.StorytellerWine.com >> 5511-B SW Hood Ave, Portland \| (503) 206-7029 \| 1.800.753.2531

Story Teller Wine Company

I am proud to announce my discovery of a new urban creature: Mississippi erectus. Or for those of you who may not be social anthropologists like myself, Mississippi Man. But first, a geography lesson. Portland, Oregon is cut in two by the Willamette River. Luckily for us Portlanders, there are nine bridges you can drive/walk/run/bike across in order to get to the other side. And yet for a vast number of Portlanders, the Willamette River may as well be filled with molten lava.

Which is where my friend who lives in NE Portland comes in. We have known each other since middle school and now that I’m back in Portland we exchange emails and phone calls all the time. But he’s never attended a wine tasting in my store. So when I bumped into him while running an errand on his side of the river I asked “how come I never see you at any Storyteller wine tastings?” This chance encounter led to my great discovery. Since he may actually read this week’s newsletter, I will refer to him as Mississippi Man.

“Dude, your shop is all the way across the river.” I reminded him of the nine bridges. “But that’s a lot of effort considering I don’t own a car.” I reminded him of the time he rode his bike to Estacada (for you non natives, that’s a long way to ride your bike from NE Portland) to buy some “killer” Meadow Foam honey from a guy name Casper. This made no impression. Then I reminded him that Portland has excellent mass transit. “You mean like Tri-Met?” “Yes, exactly,” I replied enthusiastically. “No way, not me. Weird stuff happens on those buses. I might get my hair cut or sprayed with Super Glue.” Given that a man has recently been arrested here for doing just that on Tri-Met buses, I had to concede this point. “Besides my friend declared, we’re bringing everything we need right into our own neighborhood. Buy local my man!”

Was he right? Could it be there is an enclave of self-reliant urban creatures living in my midst? Creatures that had mastered language and the ability to buy Birkenstocks but had a prehistoric fear of crossing water? I had to find out, so I grabbed my Margaret Mead decoder ring and struck out on my own. Once I entered the Mississippi zone of Portland, I immediately discovered two things: a Neil Kelly branch and a Pastaworks. My god, Mississippi Man was telling the truth. He and his tribe were assembling all the trappings of an advanced culture. After walking a few blocks I also discovered they had mastered some pretty basic technologies, like fire and panini presses. I knew this because I came across a court yard area where several groups of Mississippi Men and Women had pulled together carts to cook food for outsiders. I struck up a conversation with two very friendly young men and decided to eat with them. Their cart was called the Ruby Dragon and the golden curry and Roots fried rice were excellent.

Everywhere I went, I asked the Mississippi Men and Women if they would consider crossing the Willamette River to attend a wine tasting at Storyteller Wine Company. “Will we sink or fall off the edge?” was a common response. Many indicated they already had several fine wine stores in their own territory. To which I replied triumphantly, “well, we have food on our side of the river and yet you will still find me over here once a week in pursuit of lamb ribs from Podnah’s, pork belly reubens from Bunk or blue cheese and Buzzing Canyon honey at Bar Avignon (thanks Casper!).”

I will keep you posted on my efforts to tear down the Liquid Curtain. Next week I plan on standing on the Hawthorne Bridge while yelling out “Mr. Joannides, tear down this river.” Or perhaps I’ll just have to settle for luring my friend, Mississippi man across the river with some bodacious honey and this bottle of wine.

2007 The Eyrie Vineyards Reserve Chardonnay 33.00 at winery

This is the wine by which all other Oregon Chardonnays are measured. The first time I tasted the 2007 reserve was at the big Eyrie Chardonnay vertical tasting that was held the day before the 2009 International Pinot Noir Celebration. My wife and I were honored to be able to attend this event, surrounded by wine media and Eyrie friends from around the planet. Afterward, British wine writer Jancis Robinson remarked that it was “one of the most extraordinary tastings I have ever been lucky enough to experience.” Considering the events Jancis has sat in on, that’s quite a statement. Even more amazing was how well these Eyrie Chards tend to age. Fans of Eyrie know these wines are almost immortal but it can be a shock for outsiders. Jancis told me that as the tasting progressed she had to keep revising her drinking window estimates for the younger wines based on how well the older Eyrie Chards were holding up. At the end of the day she wrote in her wine column that “by the time we had got back to the 1980s and 1970s, I started wondering just how many Burgundian domaines could present an array of white wines that has lasted as consistently well.”

No other Oregon white wine is more deserving of the attention and the accolades. Just recently Steven Spurrier called the 2007 Eyrie Reserve Chardonnay the “best white wine in the New World,” claiming “this is a triumph of purity, complexity and lengthy. A superb, grand cru standard wine.” I can’t imagine that David Lett had any idea big time British wine critics would be gushing over his Chardonnay like this when he planted those vines back in 1965.

Yup, if you are lucky enough to drink this wine you will be enjoying the fruits of labor from 45-year-old Chardonnay vines. And what nice vines they are. According to the late David Lett’s notes, “in late 1964, I followed Joe Torres, long-time vineyard manager for the Draper Ranch in St Helena, through the vineyard as he pruned the Chardonnay. Joe, for the previous 20 years, had selected certain blocks and vines from the vineyard which were favorites for quality wine production. A lot of these selected vines’ fruit went to Lee Stewart’s Souverain Cellars across the valley on Howell Mountain. Lee made some incredible Chardonnay wines from these grapes.The cuttings I took from the Draper Ranch and Torres’ selection became the basic vines of The Eyrie Vineyards.” Call them Draper or call them Wente, these are some nice clones that have been own-rooted, dry and organically farmed since the beginning. The wine you are hopefully about to purchase is the very best five barrels of Chardonnay from the 2007 vintage and it was made entirely with fruit from those original vines.

When I first tasted this wine back in July of 2009, I wrote the following tasting note: “Wow!” I wrote that word in 3-inch tall letters on my notepad last Sunday. This is one of the best Oregon Chards ever, in my opinion anyway. Epic stuff. Jason took the best five barrels from the original Eyrie Chardonnay plantings and crafted a cuvee that will make white Burgundy lovers think twice about geographical allegiances. It has a very rich, golden sunshine color that you can just stare at all day in your glass. The aromas of beeswax and lightly toasted filberts explode up out of the glass as the wine warms in your hand. The palate is rich and full, with flavors of Granny Smith apples, those same filberts and a bit of zippy lemon citrus. And the finish is even longer than the Reserve Pinot Noir. I literally wanted to take my glass outside so I could sit in the sun and enjoy the wine to its fullest. I also started to wonder who might have some lobster to grill up in McMinnville.

But I have had the wine many, many times since then, including a very eye-opening tasting this past Friday. Jesse Becker was in town, taking a few days off from his gig as the head wine dude at Frasca in Boulder, Colorado. Jesse is one of the youngest people I know who actually has a Master Somellier certificate and the one place he really wanted to visit was Eyrie. So there were, bright and early Friday morning at the winery, tasting wine with winemaker Jason Lett. I don’t know whether Friday was a fruit day on the biodynamic calendar or whether it was the cool, damp atmosphere of the winery, but the 2007 Reserve Chardonnay tasted even better than I remembered!

Jason carries on the fine winemaking traditions of his late father David Lett, including not messing up what Mother Nature gives him with a bunch of new oak. Jason used older barrels, mostly French, that ran the range from 1984 to 2007. Jason likes to keep the amount of new oak used to around 10-15%. He also likes to the alcohol to a minimum, and even though the label says 13.5%, the 2007 drinks more like 12 to 12.5%. So it is no wonder I got this wonderful orchard fruit experience, with just a hint of citrus, smoke and filberts. It has also taken on a richness on the palate that almost makes me wonder if it possible to make a white peach-butterscotch sorbet.

When Jancis Robinson finally got a chance to write up her tasting note on the 2007 Eyrie Reserve Chardonnay back in July, she wrote that it was “rich, with an almost butterscotch nose – without as much bracing acidity as some Oregon 2007 Chardonnays. A hint of nectarines. Still quite chewy on the finish. It grew in the glass and became really very subtle.” She also gave it a drinking window of 2010 to 2026. I am not joking, and I think she might be able to stretch that to 2030 if she wanted to! How many white wines can you find that are in this humble price range that you can drink with confidence over the course of two more decades? Exactly.

The bad news is the winery has sold out of this wine. But those of us who were smart little squirrels stashed away a nice little trove of the 2007 Eyrie Reserve Chardonnay for the winter. It originally sold for 33.00 a bottle at the winery, which I thought was an infinitely reasonable request. But if you buy some of the last of the 2007s in all of Portland from Storyteller Wine Company, your price per bottle will be 30.00. Now allow me to sweeten the pot a little, not with honey from Estacada, but by offering you free shipping to any of the lower 48 American states. Now I don’t want to discriminate against local folks who want to just drop by the store and pick some wine up, so if you pick the wine up at Storyteller, the per bottle will be 26.00 a bottle. And if that doesn’t get Mississippi Man over here, I don’t know what will!

Friday January 15 and Saturday January 16 Wine Tastings

Yes, we will be having our regularly scheduled tastings, 6:00-9:00PM on Friday, 12:00-5:00PM on Saturday. No, I do not know what we are pouring yet. But I’m sure it will be good. But the focus on the two days will clearly be on the Third Annual Storyteller Inventory Reduction Celebration. It is our biggest sale event of the year, mainly because I am a one person inventory team and I hate counting bottles. On Friday January 15 Storyteller will be open from 10AM until 9PM and on Saturday January 16 we will be open from 10AM until 7:00PM. All wines not currently on sale will be either 15%, 20%, 25% or 30% off their regularly marked prices.

Cheers,
Michael Alberty
Head Storyteller

PS Speaking of folks who have a Master Sommelier diploma, I’d like to give a big “thank you” to Greg Harrington, MS. Greg is a former big time sommelier who has worked at great, famous restaurants in places like NYC and Las Vegas. He moved to Washington a few years ago to make wine and his wineries, Gramercy Cellars and 21 Grams, are getting a lot of critical acclaim. But what I want to thank him for is a statement he made on Facebook the other day. I’m not sure if Greg is confusing us with somebody else or whether he had just not sobered up yet from NYE celebrations, but Greg called Storyteller Wine Company “one of the top ten retail wine stores in America.” Regardless of intent or where Greg’s tongue may have been planted, we accept all accolades, from all quarters. We work in the dark, we do what we can. But if anybody takes notice, that’s nice too!

Visit www.StorytellerWine.com >>
5511-B SW Hood Ave, Portland | (503) 206-7029 | 1.800.753.2531

If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, click here to unsubscribe or edit your settings.