Monthly Archives: June 2010
 Rick Spine At Strongbox Wine Storage, we’re always trying to provide better service and better resources for our clients. So we want to know: What gets you going about collecting wine? Is it discovering a great wine bargain, or learning about the stories behind that wine? Do you like to explore wine in the company of friends, or do you take care to provide your customers with excellent choices in your store or restaurant?
Our passion is to be the caretaker of your prized wine collection. Whether we’re maintaining the ideal controlled conditions for aging your wine, helping you connect with great tools for wine collectors, or giving you a heads up on a can’t-miss deal with a local wine merchant, we want to make sure we always have your needs and convenience in the front of our minds.
Where do you go to talk and taste wine in Chicago? Let us know in the comments.
 How knowledgeable are you about the wide world of wine? Below are a list of famous wineries and the nations in which those wineries were established. Can you match the vineyard with its home nation?
Guess as many as you can correctly – one random entry with the most number of correct guesses at the end of the month will receive a $50 gift card from Binny’s Beverage Depot! Send your email and your answers to us at info@winestorage.com and you may get a chance to try something from your favorite wine country.
| 1. Wickham Vineyard |
A. New Zealand |
| 2. Clarendon Hills |
B. Chile |
| 3. Chateau Indage |
C. Malta |
| 4. Chateau Ksara |
D. Lebanon |
| 5. Achaia Clauss |
E. South Africa |
| 6. Domaine du Caste |
F. Austria |
| 7. Guigal |
G. United States |
| 8. Duckhorn Vineyards |
H. Turkey |
| 9. Vega Sicilia |
I. Canada |
| 10. Antinori |
J. Italy |
| 11. Schloss Johannisberg |
K. Spain |
| 12. Trapiche |
L. Portugal |
| 13. Jackson-Triggs |
M. England |
| 14. Concha y Toro |
N. India |
| 15. Boschendal |
O. Greece |
| 16. Cloudy Bay Vineyards |
P. Australia |
| 17. Kavaklidere |
Q. Germany |
| 18. Symington Family Estates |
R. France |
| 19. Emmanuel Delicata |
S. Israel |
| 20. Lilienfelderhof |
T. Argentina |
Strongbox Wine Cellar wants to take this opportunity to celebrate Binny’s Beverage Depot, a haven for connoisseurs of all kinds of fine alcohol. Many of our own wine storage clients are loyal customers of Binny’s, who not only have an incredible selection of wines but who take care to have on-site a wine expert, capable of helping you choose exactly the bottle you need for any occasion.
Binny’s has 24 superstores located throughout the Chicago area, but they’re not just a place for you to browse and purchase liquor. Binny’s works very hard to establish a community of enthusiasts, almost like a club atmosphere. They reward their loyal customers by offering numerous discounts to store cardholders, and sell a wide variety of amusing gift baskets to share with other fans. Check out their Events Calendar — there’s often something exciting happening at many of their stores…really, the only problem is trying to attend all of the events you’d like!
Also, whether you’re an experienced oenophile or just starting to discover your palate, Binny’s wine blog is an excellent educational resource, offering advice and information about all types of wines.
Our clients are both particular and trusting—they know what they want in a wine and they know they want us to take good care of it for them. On the same note, we trust our clients’ choice of wine sellers…and many of our clients choose Binny’s.
  
For hundreds of years, there was no controversy at all—a wine bottle was sealed with a natural cork, and that was that. Recently, however, the rise of synthetic corks and screw-top bottles has led to impassioned arguments about which type of seal was best for the wine.
Although the screw-top has typically been considered a sign of cheap or inferior wine, there have been a number of well-evaluated wines in the past few years that are proudly bottled with the screw-top. Screw-tops are the predominant wine closure in wines from New Zealand, and have also caught on at other major wineries. Still, the mystique of the natural cork remains strong, with some countries specifically forbidding the use of any other wine closure. Spain, in 2006, outlawed all but natural cork in 11 of their wine-producing regions.
Share your opinions in the comments—you may be surprised how many different viewpoints there are on the subject of sealing wines!
Here are some quick pros and cons about the three main varieties of wine enclosures.
Natural Cork
Pros: Creates a dependable seal due to its ability to conform to any bottleneck. Environmentally friendly (biodegradable, and can be harvested without killing the tree).
Cons: As much as 20% of wine sealed with natural cork may be spoiled by oxidation, caused by faulty cork seals. Natural cork may be difficult to remove, and the cork may fall into the bottle when removed, tainting the wine.
Synthetic Cork
Pros: Prevents cork taint, and a plastic cork is recyclable. Cheaper than natural cork to produce, and not subject to humidity concerns.
Cons: If not recycled, plastic corks are actually worse for the environment. Not a dependable seal for wines you intend to store long-term, as plastic corks will eventually lose their elasticity.
Screw-tops
Pros: Create a perfectly airtight seal, eliminating problems of cork taint and oxidation. Cheap and easy to remove, and not subject to humidity concerns.
Cons: May cause sulfidation in wines because the seal is too airtight. Environmentally unfriendly, and also not a dependable seal for wines you intend to store long-term.
 Perhaps by now you’ve developed a very discerning palate. You know which wines you serve with dinner and which ones you serve when you’re just entertaining your friends. You have a sense of what you prefer to taste in a white or a red wine. You know what you desire in a good port.
If that describes you, then now might be the perfect time to go adventuring for new wine! Below is a list of summer wine-tasting events in the Chicago. You never know if you’ll find a brand-new wine that you prefer even to the one wine you always thought would be your favorite…at the very least, you’ll probably have a nice time meeting other wine enthusiasts out for the thrill of discovery.
Let us know how your experience went—and remember, if you find a new wine that you need taken care of, you know how to get in contact with us.
6/24 at 6:30 pm – Exploration of Dry Rose at Binny’s Lakeview
Think pink when you drink this summer! Explore the world of dry Rose. Find out why it’s not only the perfect wine to keep you cool, but also the perfect accompaniment for your BBQ or picnic. $15 W/Binny’s Card / $20 non-members. Call (773)935-9400 for reservations.
Saturdays at 1:00 pm – Fine Wine Brokers (Lincoln Square)
Free and open to the public
7/16 at 8:00 pm – Que Syrah Bar-B-Que Pairing
The folks at Que Syrah pair up ripe, full-bodied, reds with spicy beef briskets, pulled pork, baby back ribs and all the snappy, savory whites that match up with smoked chicken and all the sides. Seating is limited. Call 773-871-8888 or visit the shop to RSVP.
It would be like a scene from any wine enthusiast’s nightmare. Imagine that by chance you have encountered a bottle of an especially enjoyable wine. You invite your friends to come share in your find. You prepare an excellent meal to accompany it. You establish a festive mood in your backyard, on a cool summer evening, the sun just starting to set. You display the bottle, reveling in your friends’ admiration. You prepare to serve the wine.
But you have no corkscrew. Somehow, it has gone missing. You search your kitchen, your wine rack, anywhere it could possibly be (and a few places it couldn’t possibly be), but have no luck locating it. The wine is trapped and the atmosphere is ruined.
It doesn’t have to happen that way. In the below video, Pascal Berthoumieux, proprietor of Evanston’s Bistro Bordeaux, teaches you how to open a wine bottle without a corkscrew.
In most cases, of course, it’s better to have a corkscrew handy. But in case of emergencies, all you need is a shoe, a hard surface, and a little patience.
What’s the most you’ve ever spent on a single bottle of wine? What made you decide that this particular wine was worth the investment? Did you happen to find it by accident at an auction, or sitting on a shelf in some obscure wine store, or was it a bottle you hunted down for months or even years?
Let us know in the comments your story of how you acquired your most prized bottle! And here’s a look at some of the most legendary wines ever—sort of a wine hall of fame:
 This coveted and controversial Chateau Lafite 1787 Bordeaux once allegedly belonged to founding father Thomas Jefferson, purchased when he was ambassador to France. Were you to ever uncork the bottle, you would likely discover that the wine has since turned into an undrinkable vinegar—Bordeaux doesn’t last more than 50 years—but the mystique of owning this bottle is really its own reward. This bottle sold at Christie’s auction house of London in 1985 for $160,000, and was recently at the center of controversy when it was claimed that the wine was a forgery (last year, the former director of Christie’s wine department won an apology in court from his accusers).
 The most expensive bottle of champagne in history, this 1907 Heidsieck Monopole isn’t just valued because of its advanced age, but because for 80 years of its life, it was on the bottom of the Baltic Sea along with the shipwreck of the Jonpoking, which had been carrying the bottles to Tsar Nicholas of Russia. Recovered by divers in 1997, these bottles fetch an asking price of $275,000 apiece and can only be enjoyed at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow—finally having arrived at their destination.
Another wine connected to Thomas Jefferson, a bottle of this Chateau Margaux 1787 has the dubious distinction of being the most expensive bottle of wine ever broken. Destined for the auction block, the bottle met with its tragic end at a restaurant, when a waiter accidentally bumped into the bottle with a coffee tray and knocked it to the floor. Fortunately, the owner had had the foresight to insure the bottle for $225,000 beforehand…which was probably a more satisfactory conclusion to the whole affair than it would have been to garnish the hapless waiter’s wages for the next hundred years.
Let us now take a moment to appreciate the little guy, the unsung hero—the cork in the wine bottle.
Until the mid 1600s, nobody understood the incredible sealing abilities of the bark from the cork oak (Quercus suber), instead relying on oil-soaked rags as stoppers. Today anywhere from 60-80% of the billions of wine bottles sold each year rely on a natural cork seal.
Some quick facts about cork and the Cork oak:
- On average, a single tree can live about 200 years. Over the course of its life, the bark of the oak may be harvested 12 times.
- Cork oaks occur naturally in Europe and Northern Africa.
- Cork forests provide habitats for a number of endangered species, such as the Iberian lynx (the most critically threatened cat in the world).
- Besides being lightweight and insulating, the bark of the cork tree helps protect the branches of the tree in case of fire. While other burned trees have to start regenerating from seeds, the cork tree is able to regrow from a more mature stage.
- Besides wine stoppers, cork is also used in office bulletin boards, floor tiles, and musical instruments. It also makes up the core of a baseball (although using cork in the center of a baseball bat is a good way to get thrown out of the game!)
|
|
