Long Shadow - Distinguished Wineries & Vineyards

I've said it before but one of the perks of owning your own wine business is the chance to taste wines you've seen on a wine list but never had a chance to taste.  Today was the Galaxy Wines Portfolio Pre-Holiday tasting at Montgomery Park.  First, one needs to understand the number of distributors in Portland.  Distributors are the group of companies that buy wine from the producer or importer and then wholesale "sell" them to people like me, Safeway, your local wine store, etc.  Each Distributor offers portfolio tastings and wine classes throughout the year.  Although I've featured and sold wine from Galaxy, I had never attended their portfolio tastings.

Phew!  You walk into Montgomery Park and there are 26 tables featuring a minimum of 8-10 wines per table.  You do the math!  That comes out to around 275 bottles of wine for you to sample!!  Impossible!  So, you take a stroll around the grounds and narrow down the ones you want to try - some old favorites like Abacela, Dom. Serene, Barnard Griffin, and L'Ecole No. 41.  Then you branch out and try news wineries like Ransom, Matello, Tamarach and Syncline Wine Cellars.  Oh, and did I tell you about Long Shadows??

Long Shadows is a constellation of individual wineries in the heart of the Columbia Valley:  Each winery is individually owned and managed as a separatge entity yet are part of a larger, collaborative effort.  I am featuring every one of these wines in my next newsletter because I did not, absolutely did NOT, sample a wine I didn't like. 

Armin Diel, one of Germany's most acclaimed Riesling producers creates Poet's Leap, an Alsatian-style Riesling.  And it only goes up from there.  Yes, these wines are a little spendy (like $50/bottle) but The Bordeaux-style "Pirouette", the New World blend "Chester Kidder", the Super Tuscan-Style blend "Saggi" from one of the oldest and most presitigious wine families from Italy, the "Feather" from Napa Valley Vintner Randy Dunn, the "Sequel" Syrah and the "Pedestal" Merlot, are unparalleled in excellence. 

If you buy one of these from me, you'll get a killer price of 20% off retail.  But if you find one of these in your local wine stores, BUY IT!  And save it for a special meal.  These wines would easily go for $150 per bottle at any fine restaurant and, believe me, if you walked in to Blue Hour, Paley's Place, Wildwood, or Departure, you may pay a $15-20 corkage fee but you'll still be way ahead of the game. I love these ones and YOU will, too!  Check them out.

Cheers!