Most of the world tends to think of boundaries in terms of nationality. I’m Portuguese. It’s from Germany. The fox is French. The wine world thinks in this way as well. Restaurant lists, wine stores, and importer’s portfolios are organized and separated by country.

Sometimes, though, these distinctions can be useless.

Take, for example, Movia. The winery is officially nestled in the hills of Slovenia. If you want to send Movia a piece of mail (say, a love note), you would jot down a Slovenian address. But, if you ask Ales Kristancic (pronounced alesh chris-stan-zick), the gregarious and charming proprietor of the estate, Movia’s identity, terroir, and juice is not tied to a particular nation. Instead, it’s tied to an appellation.

Perhaps you’ve heard of Collio? An appellation that straddles the border between Italy and Slovenia, Collio is famous for its crisp, lush, and mineral-driven whites: Tocai Friulano, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Bianco, Malvasia, Sauvignon Blanc, Ribolla Giallo.

Ever heard of Brda? Probably not. It is the Slovenian name for Collio. Among the sommelier set, the name has emerged as one of the most promising wine producing regions in the world right now, due in large part to the wines (and the personality) of Ales Kristancic. An outspoken champion of indigenous grape varieties, terroir-driven winemaking, and nothing but the most natural, organic, and biodynamic processes, Kristancic could be called a traditionalist.

He could also, perhaps just as justifiably, be called a radical. He leaves his white wine to age on its lees for up to two years (a looooong time) in 600 liter Slavonian oak casks. He performs his filtering by hand and in a limited manner, as dictated by the atmospheric pressure associated with moon cycles. And — get this — Kristancic bottles one of his sparkling wines undisgorged. This means the bottle arrives in the hands of the consumer with a ball of yeast in its neck. The longer a wine spends with said yeast, the more complexity it is thought to attain; Ales is maximizing this time by releasing bottles that have yet to be disgorged. The consumer must submerge the bottle in water, pop off the cork, and quickly bring the bottle upright. The yeast is released under the water, and the bottle emerges freshly disgorged and ready to be drunk. Oh yeah, you have to store the bottle upside down (try a large mixing glass or something similar) for two days before opening it to condense the yeast.

Crazy? Perhaps. Brilliant? Probably. Effective? Absolutely. The Movia ‘Puro’ (100% Pinot Noir bubbly) is one of the coolest wines the Lushes have tried this year. Yeasty, bready, yet fresh, with piercing minerality, and a mint/ginger spice on the palate. This bottle has not hit the LUSH shelves yet, but look out for ‘Puro’ (and a demo of it being opened!) at our West Town launch party on December 4th.

The Movia wines we have in stock right now include the Quattro Mani ‘Toh-Kai’ 07, a project involving four winemakers making wine from indigenous grapes around the world. I once read this wine described as ‘bizarrely delicious’ and I think nothing could be more apropos. Mint, white chocolate, apricot, menthol, green tea, and lemon peel all intermingle in an odd yet entirely satisfying progression of aromas and flavors. For $13, there may not be a better deal this year.

We also currently have the 04 Veliko Bianco (“Big White”) and the 04 Lunar. Both wines are made with the Ribolla Giallo grape, a native varietal that tends to produce creamy, rich, dry wines with great acidity. In the hands of the right person (ahem, Mr. Kristancic), these wines can be remarkably ageable. The Veliko Bianco is also blended with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and vinified according to the methods I mentioned above. The nose suggests a certain sweetness: honey, after-dinner mints, tangerine. The palate is dry and fierce, yet not without serious richness. This wine is lifted in a way that’s hard to describe: it’s almost like there is a layer of white flowers and menthol that sits between the wine and your tongue. It’s a pretty incredible sensory experience. Weird, yet utterly delicious and drinkable.

The Lunar is a different beast. 100% Ribolla Giallo. As an experiment, Kristancic wanted to make a wine that had no human intervention except at harvest and at bottling. The grapes were hand selected and then left to their own devices until spring in specially designed barrels. No pressing. No added yeasts. At bottling time, the juice is drawn off its skins using a vacuum and bottled with no sulfur dioxide. What emerges is nothing short of glorious (and nothing short of extreme): a wine that pours a rusty orange color, more reminiscent of beer than it is of wine. A bizarre confluence of tannin (from the extended skin contact), slightly oxidized flavors, rich, ripe fruit, piercing acidity, and residual carbon dioxide, this wine is mind-boggling. Cerebral yet still accessible, this wine will undoubtedly evolve for decades to come.

Join us in exploring this frontier of winemaking. We are very excited to offer these wines at LUSH, and hope that you enjoy them as much as we do .

Cheers!

Jane

kc

LUSH West Town has been in the works for quite some time.  From the ground construction takes a bit of time, apparently, and contractors and carpenters, painters, plumbers, and such are a rowdy bunch and take some cajoling to meet deadlines.  Throwing booze at them only helps so much, and my super sad face just didn’t do it.  So, it’s been an intense, battling struggle to restrain our anxiety and overflowing joy to be opening a new shop.  We are nearly spilling over…just waiting for the dear city to bestow the ultimate gift, the golden ticket of a liquor license.  I will absolutely holler at the top of my virtual internet lungs the moment that our status progresses. Oh please, oh please, oh please.

However, in the meantime, alas, I must unfortunately call a halt to our raucous plans for Friday the 13th and kabosh the launch party until another date.  Do not fear, free wine, beer and snackies will be available when said party commences.  It will be a knee-slapping roof shaking good time.  We’ve got to break the new store in, of course.  So, NO go on the grand opening of Lush West Town this week.  If we do indeed procure said license, I will throw open the doors and welcome the thirsty, the seekers of knowledge and fun.

Please partake in the good times and show your support of our local little wine shop.  We are extremely thrilled to join the West Town neighborhood and the amazing local joints along the way…food, art, and a lively, smart drinking culture.  Pop in and say hi; get to know your Lushes.  And, we LOVE you.

For future reference, all pertinent details below…LUSH West Town, 1412 West Chicago Avenue, Chicago, IL  60642.  312-666-6900.  Holler at rachel@lushwineandspirits.com with questions.

And, for an alternative party plan, join LUSH Roscoe 4-6pm for a vertical Goose Island Bourbon County Stout tasting (06, 07, 08, 09) with a little dash of Matilda and Sophie…good historical lesson, ya know…AND, 6-8pm for a wine tasting with Lagniappe founder Andrew Grossman.  We’ll be tasting the great Dexter Lake mustache clad wine, Forlorn Hope, and some Argentinian juice.

Savvy?  LUSH it up.

LUSH University Village – 1257 South Halsted

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

5-8pm

LUSH is teaming up with the Sours projects from New Belgium Brewery for some sweet and sour shindigging. Join us this weekend to continue the celebration of the Barrel Aged Beer Festival. Jesse Katzman and Michael McAvena are joining in the fun, with some pork shoulder, homemade sauerkraut, and sausage to match the three sour beers hosted by the brewery…La Terrior, Fall Wild Ale, and the tart lychee brew. Last pig roast of the season…beer and pork, woot! Extra exclusive and absolutely, extremely, super fun! These three brews are brought in special for this event and are here and gone after this evening. $15 per person. RSVP necessary, good times promised. Open to the public, open to the industry.  Get it on.

Reserve your spot with erin@lushwineandspirits.com, or 312-738-1900.

FEATURE SPIRIT: HUM

The newest local spirit to debut, HUM is the brilliant beverage concocted by Mr. Adam Seger. This spirit is incredibly versatile and extra delicious, bursting with flavor and quite tasty herbs, flowers, and fruits. HUM is essentially a botanical spirit, or, rather, a mingling of a strapping base of rum infused with hibiscus, cardamom, ginger, and kaffir lime. A spirit and a liqueur, HUM is lovely as a twist on classic cocktails, or can pump up your favorites with a burst of flavor. Or, if you like to be told what to do, Mr. Seger has developed an extensive list of tried and true tasty cocktails. Sip it neat, stir, shake, or share. Elegant, balanced, and vibrantly pink!  www.humspirits.com

The odd couple…
My local European style grocery store pops up random deliciousness on a frequent basis, and last week, there was an overflowing pile of gloriously fresh shittake mushrooms.  Their pungent earthy aroma was so enticing, that I just couldn’t pass it up.  So, I grabbed a good bit of shrooms and scooted on home.  As for prep, I wanted to really focus on bringing out and highlighting the flavors of the shittake mushrooms without too much distraction.  Thus, I dusted them off, snapped the stems, and tossed them in lovely sweet cream butter.  And while the mushrooms sizzled away, the search for a proper wine pairing began.  Luckily, a super awesome closeout on some amazing wine had corresponded with my shroom discovery…and the Zmor Gewurztraminer from the Russian River Valley was already chilling in the fridge.

This project is a collaboration between well known winemakers, Daniel Moor and Jeff Morgan, and some top notch vineyards in Sonoma, including the Martinelli vineyard. The Gewurztraminer grape is deemed ’spicy’ by name, but not so much the spicy heat as the baking spice and herb interpretation of the term.  This particular bottling is barrel fermented and vinted to ‘dry’.  Lovely aromatics of white jasmine blossoms and orange blossom are framed by freshly ripe apricot, candied ginger and honey comb.  On the palate, the wine is appropriately viscous with a silky, creamy texture and flavors of cinnamon stick, fresh ginger, mandarin, fig, and pear skin tumbled with river stones.  Luscious, elegant and extremely well suited with food, this wine is yummy.

Although I did get stuck in the glass for a while, sniffing and swirling and sniffing again, the warm, butter infused mushrooms were also dying for appreciation.  And, nom nom, this pairing was exceptionally tasty.  The grounded, earthy, smoked moss and nutty flavors of the mushroom played off the bouncy fruit and spice of the wine, and all mingled appropriately with the buttery, creamy accent of the butter and full malolactic fermentation and barrel aged of the wine.  I suggest that you track down some shittakes and some Gewurztraminer and give it a whirl.  Weee!

SUPER SPECIAL, extra EXCLUSIVE EVENT:
Twisted Oak River of Skulls Release Party
[$50 including tax, NOT tip]
Friday, OCTOBER 30th
6-9pm

Get Twisted. The infamous, rowdy folks from Twisted Oak are here and we’ll be celebrating the release of their super special River of Skulls. This wildly burly, sneaky and scary wine is chock full of Calaveras County Mourvedre from the Dalton Vineyard. Heady, aromatic perfume encourages you to jump recklessly, fully, into a glass of this juice. Deep, dark, dirty and sexy, this Mourvedre is earthy and funky, yet pulsing with luscious fruit and sassy spice. An ankle bone of cherries is connected to the shin bone of raspberries, which connects to the knee bone of smoky vanilla. The knee bone is connected to the leg bone of Mourvedre’s natural tabacco character, which connects to the hip bone, back bone and neck bone of a nice long finish. Oh Dem Skulls!

Warm and toasty, belly busting snacks will include some sort of chunky, gourmet chili with crusty bread, sweet cream butter with cornbread, and a custom rum cake. Rubber chickens and pirates will be here too! Join the fun and dress up for the costume contest…one precious, uber yummy bottle of Twisted #%@& will be awarded for the best outfit. http://www.twistedoak.com/

RSVP absolutely necessary. Space is limited and time is spiraling down to zero. Holla at Ms. Erin, erin@lushwineandspirits.com or 312-738-1900. Bring friends and bring the par-tay.

2005 Domain Guiberateau Chenin Blanc, Samur, Loire Valley, France
Oh Guiberateau, how I heart thee!  Now that I’ve conquered the correct pronunciation of your name (well, by my American standards anyway), I can completely, whole-heartedly love you.  I’ve loved you, sweet, sweet bottle, since we met a few months ago, and just had the chance to try you again for a tasting we were doing.  Yep, I still heart you, wonderful wine, even more so!  So wierd yet so delicious.  The nose is so great and beautiful and smells like rocks with a touch of honey.  The palate shows a soft fruit, graphite and slate with a lingering minerally finish that has a hint of lime.  It paired great with the talipa I did not cook but did enjoy last night.  Suprisingly, there is still some left for me tonight, so while I’m hard at work, I’ll be dreaming of that half-full bottle of this delightful wine.

As we move into October, we say good-bye to Bourbon Heritage Month. On August 29, 2007 the Kentucky Board of Tourism announced that the US Senate had approved the measure to designate September ‘Bourbon Heritage Month.’ Well, what exactly does this mean? Basically, it is a month long celebration of ‘America’s Native Spirit’, culminating in the annual Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown. It’s also a damn good excuse to drink bourbon, talk about bourbon, and learn about all the culture, people, and history that surround the spirit.

So, what is bourbon? In order to be called bourbon, a spirit has to meet the following requirements:
(1) The primary ingredient must be corn (at least 51%)
(2) Must be distilled at no greater than 160 Proof
(3) Only new, charred, white oak barrels should be used for aging
(4) Be aged at least two years to be called a straight bourbon whiskey
(5) The spirit must go into the barrel at no more than 125 Proof
(6) Only water can be added to adjust the Bourbon to the appropriate bottling strength…nothing else.

Also, while bourbon is a distinctly American spirit, it is not necessarily strictly Kentuckian. (Is that a real word?) Although most bourbon is made at one of the few active distilleries in Kentucky, it doesn’t HAVE to be in order to be called bourbon. So what really makes bourbon distinctive from other types of whiskies — say Rye, Scotch, or Irish Whiskey — is the mash bill (i.e. a majority corn, with a proportion of malted barley and wheat OR rye), and the barreling (new, charred white oak barrels). Kentucky bourbon also traditionally uses column stills versus pot stills (with the exception of Woodford Reserve), and this contributes to the flavor as well.

But, what makes one bourbon unique from another? There are a number of factors that will contribute to a different taste, feel, and smell from one bourbon to the next. Here is a — by no means comprehensive — list of some of the factors that differentiate bourbons. It is helpful to know, if only to pinpoint why you like a particular bourbon, and help you to find other bourbons that you will like!

(1) The proof. Bourbons will run the gamut from 80 proof (40% alcohol by volume) to 140+ proof. Find out what proof you like. You can always add a bit of water or an ice cube to get down to a desired proof, but you can’t boost one that’s too low.

(2) The distillery. You will certainly get general deviations from one distillery to the next (type of still, location of warehouses, etc.), though people are always surprised by how many different expressions of bourbon can come out of the one distillery as well. Pappy Van Winkle and Buffalo Trace are both distilled at the Trace distillery; Four Roses distills Bulleit bourbon; Booker’s, Baker’s, and Basil Hayden all come out of the Jim Beam distillery. More important than the actual distillery are the choices that the distiller is making…

(3) The small grain. Bourbon is made of a majority corn, a percentage of malted barley, and then either rye OR wheat. The rye or wheat in a bourbon is referred to as the ’small grain’, and whether a bourbon has wheat or rye for its small grain often makes a big difference in terms of flavor profile. Bourbons with rye as the small grain (the more common variation) tend to be spicier and more robust, while ‘wheated bourbons’ (as bourbons with wheat as the small grain are called) tend to be sweeter and softer. These are, of course, generalizations that don’t always hold true, but a good jumping off point. Some of the most famous wheated bourbons are Maker’s Mark, Pappy Van Winkle, and Weller.

(4) The mashbill. Each distillery has its own unique mashbill, which is the percentage of the corn, malted barley, and small grain in the mash. The proportion of the grains will make a difference in the flavor profile: a high percentage of corn tends to make a bourbon sweet and round; rye can add spice and body; wheat can add softness and delicacy; and malted barley has its own unique grain flavor profile that can take center stage or fade in the background. Bulleit, for example, proudly markets itself as having the most amount of rye of any bourbon on the market.

(5) The age. It is an interesting (and fun!) experiment to run through the different age statements of the same bourbon. Take Pappy Van Winkle, for example. If you wanted to, you could taste the 10 year (at two different proofs), the 12 year, the 15 year, the 20 year, and the 23 year all right next to each other. You will see, as a bourbon ages, it softens out a bit. The edges round, the spice recedes, and secondary nuances and flavors emerge in their place. Dried fruit. Tobacco. Leather. Most people find that they like bourbon around a certain age. For some people, the older the better. Others might like a bit younger bourbon.

Stop by your local LUSH and taste some bourbons with us. Find a new favorite. We celebrate bourbon every month of the year.

Posted by Jane.

Dear reader, I cannot express to you how lovely it is for me to discover a new BYOB restaurant–particularly when it is right between the store and my house. And so it is with a fair bit of enthusiasm that I left Ciao Amore last night.

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect. I live in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood, and as such my favorite places in the ‘hood are typically small joints that dish out carnitas, barbacoa, al pastor, and birria. What would calamari fritti and beef brascole/braciole mean for my dining options? I had been hoping for the best, as my palate of late has been sort of craving hearty meat-and-cheese dishes such as my friend’s Italian grandmothers would make when I was growing up just a stone’s throw outside of the heavily Italian-American city of Philadelphia.
A few weeks ago, when I first heard about the restaurant’s opening, I was excited at the prospect of a new place opening up so near both the store and my house. Obviously, knowing that it was a BYOB restaurant sent my mind into high gear: what wines could I have at hand at the store, ready to recommend to customers–and myself!–heading down the street to eat dinner at the new place? At first, my thought led instantly to Italian whites and reds, whose natural acidity typically lend themselves nicely to food pairing. But, when the time came, I thought something a little different would be the right fit. I settled on the excellent J Mourat Fief Vendeens Rouge, a spry blend of Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc, and Negrette from the Loire Valley. Herbaceous on the nose but with lively black cherry fruit on the palate and a dash of spice on the finish, this squat-shouldered bottle [featuring an owl on the label, who knows why?] was the perfect accompaniment across several genres of food, from the well-seasoned and not-at-all chewy calamari to the homey beef braciole, a rolled steak stuffed with prosciutto, spinach and cheese topped with zingy tomato sauce.
The space was warm, with exposed brick and welcoming yellow walls. I was thrilled to see our LUSH cards featured on a hutch, alongside other local busineses and some icons and candles. All in all, the meal was a great, comfortable experience, and I am happy to welcome Ciao Amore, Pilsen’s newest BYO restaurant. Don’t forget to stop into LUSH on the way to grab the right bottle for the food. We got you covered.
CIAO AMORE
1134 W 18th St, Chicago, IL 60608