Early in my wine career, I was almost exclusively attracted to big, bold, intense Cabernets – like La Jota. I loved his wines back then – very age worthy. In fact, I was thrilled to stumble upon two bottles of twenty-something year old La Jota I had cellared a long time ago.

During the tasting, I asked what brought about the almost complete turnaround in wine making discipline in her father. Going from making full extraction, tannic, mountain grown Cabernet monsters to crafting light, fleshy, delicate Pinot is like a burly longshoreman becoming a ballet dancer. But I realized, I specifically went to that tasting room to taste Bill Smith’s Pinot Noir.

So, I guess I answered my own question. Tastes change and even successful winemakers evolve to take on new challenges. I still enjoy the big Cabs, but go out of my way to taste a good Pinot Noir.  So now, I completely understand Bill Smith – just by drinking his wines.

Donny

The South Beach Wine & Food Festival is held every February in Miami Beach. (Actually, quite a bit of the action takes place ON Miami Beach!). Individual events like wine dinners, tasting seminars and themed parties take place over four days at many of the area’s hotels. But for me, the best part of the festival takes place in the sand under a series of huge white tents.

Having attended a multitude of industry and consumer wine events over the years, where business casual attire is the norm – it is so refreshing to comfortably move between wine vendor tables and sample the fine foods of dozens of area restaurants – in shorts, a golf shirt and sandals! Some attendees actually come directly from their beach chairs in bathing suits after catching a little morning sun. Yes, it was February – and as usual, the temperature for the festival was in the 80′s! This year, the nice ocean breeze was enough to keep the hanger-sized tents comfortable. In some years, the festival organizers had air conditioning running to keep things cool.

The Food Network is “all in” at this festival. Throughout each day of the beach schedule, two kitchen studios are heavily scheduled with demonstrations by the stars of the celebrity chef circuit. The audience gets to watch their heroes cook, answer questions and sometimes even get up on stage to assist with the meal. Iron Chefs Flay, Symon, and Morimoto are all there. Bad boy Anthony Bourdain, Wine Country legends Guy Fieri and Michael Chiarello have packed audiences for their shows. The darlings of the kitchen – Rachel Ray, Paula Deen, and Anne Burrell – all enjoy the enthusiastic fans that seemingly can’t get enough of them.

All of this, while getting to sample from hundreds of wines and liquors being poured and enough food to feed the army of attendees walking between 46 tents that make up the tasting village covering three blocks of prime SOBE real estate. Not a bad way to spend a winter weekend – and punch your bucket list ticket! Join me next year?

Donny

Each individual restaurant closing comes with its own story as to why it happened – and the point of this article is not to just state the obvious or offer my opinion – but to spotlight some of the “bright spots” in the dining scene.

Brand new Aqua Blu and relative newcomer, Water Street Grill in Toms River are both seemingly doing very well.  Both are “reincarnations” of previous food establishments – and I say,  both are SIGNIFICANT upgrades.  The Atlantic Bar & Grill in South Seaside Park, one of the shore’s top dining rooms, just reopened from their winter hiatus with a new chef and a new menu and they have been packing them in.  Latitudes in Lacey Township just announced a wine dinner (Saturday, March 3rd) that sounds delicious and pairs four courses of food with some very nice wines at under $50 per person!

It has been suggested that I have a bias towards BYOB restaurants, and while I do enjoy MY wine with THEIR food – I am an equal opportunity foodie simply seeking out a great meal.  I feel that the synergy between wine merchants and restaurants – either BYO or licensed establishments – is mutually beneficial.  I’m often found at the kitchen window, sending in my favorable comments to the chef and his or her team after a good meal – doesn’t matter where the dinner wine originated.

Do yourself a favor and either go out to one of your favorite eateries and do your part to stimulate the economy or check out one of the new places that you haven’t frequented yet to give them a shot.  Either way, make sure you fully enhance the experience with a bottle (or three) of wine!

Donny

New Spirits Unlimited in the Crossroads Shopping Center, Toms River.

We are VERY excited to announce that our new store discount liquor store is open as of February 1st.  Located at the new Crossroads Center in Toms River, at the corner of Routes 37 and 166 (at the Crossroads of the Garden State Parkway), this 8,000 square foot store has been an exciting project to put together and has some very interesting features.

This store will open with a twelve tap Growler Station, which will dispense an ever-changing lineup of fresh draft beer selections that you can sample and take home in a 64oz Growler Bottle.  This concept is relatively new and there are only about two dozen of these in the state.  Their numbers are limited by the fact that the operator needs to have a very specific type of liquor license (of which the state no longer issues) and five of our Spirits Unlimited locations (Middletown, Point Pleasant Beach, Brick, Bayville and Manahawkin) have those licenses.

While on the topic of beer, we will have an incredible selection of packaged beer as well.  There are twenty five beer cooler doors and an entire store aisle stocked with craft beers and beer displays.  This store will be a beer enthusiast’s dream!

On the liquor side of things, Crossroads will have the extensive selection that Spirits Unlimited is known for and feature an admirable collection of high end cognac, scotch, tequila and rum.  This niche collection will be displayed in a custom made display case that will be one of the focal points of the store.

Speaking of display cases, wait till you see the wine locker.  A three door, climate-controlled storage unit that will be stocked with a carefully chosen collection of high-end wines.  In support of this wine program, we’ve installed a tasting station. Our new wine dispensing system will enable customers to sample from a rotating selection of twelve different wines!

Opening Line Up for the Growler Station

Keegan “Mothers Milk”
Sierra Nevada “Ruthless”
Southern Tier “Iniquity”
Firestone Walker “Double Jack”
Kane “Head High”
Port “Mongo”
Unibroue “Tres Pistoles”
DogFish Head “Namaste”
DogFish Head “Palo Santo Maron”
Weyerbacher “Merry Monk”
Lost Abbey “Lost & Found”
Troegs “Mad Elf” – Featured on the New Jersey Craft Beer tap

On Deck…

Kane “Drift Line”
DogFish Head “Immortal”
McNeil’s “Dark Angel”
Yards “General Washington Porter”
Port “WipeOut”

We would like to thank everyone who participated in voting for the featured New Jersey Craft Beer Tap. One of the lucky NJCB members that voted will receive a Gift Card to The Spot Pizza Grill. Congratulations!

We’ve assembled a great team to serve you and have quite an exciting opening program featuring in-store giveaways and special events to get 2012 off to a great start.  The Grand Opening will be Saturday, February 4th; we welcome Carl & Marty from the WRAT morning show for a live remote broadcast from 2-4 pm at our new store.  The Rat Pack will be giving away prizes and we will have an incredible lineup of draft craft to sample.  Discounted Growler fills during the WRAT promo are also available.

You can also check us out on Facebook for more updates.

Donny

I gotta tell you – I was fortunate to participate in a “cheese night” event at a local restaurant recently and found a couple new favorites to add to my list.  These were a little more esoteric in nature – and you might not find them easily locally – but remember these two names for when you might be somewhere that sells a wide variety of fromage.  Beemster XO and Rogue Blue.  The first is an aged Holland Gouda that has crystallization like you’d find in an older Reggiano, but with a butterscotch-like flavor that was exquisite and pairs well with Chardonnay!  The blue was from Oregon and smoked over a fire of hazelnut shells.  Awesome with a big bold red wine!

The real reason for this story today is to remind you that some crusty bread, a little cheese and a bottle of wine makes for a great snack and I consider it great “kindling” to start a party “fire.”  If you want to invite the neighbors over or get together with some friends you haven’t seen – the enticement of BCW is a great motivator!  BCW (bread, cheese, wine) would be a great Christmas Eve treat or a New Year’s Day snack.

While I’m on the subject – there are a few places in Ocean & Monmouth County that I’d recommend if you are looking for a cheese selection above and beyond the run-of-the-mill offerings.  Joe Leone’s in Point Pleasant Beach has some incredible specialty Italian cheeses.  I love that store!  If you are in the vicinity of Ocean Township, Wegman’s has a nice cheese counter with some helpful staff to assist you.  But the most surprising outlet for a diverse assortment is the new Shop-Rite at the Crossroads Center in Toms River.  Bought some Humboldt Fog there last week at a very fair price.  Glad to see a supermarket raising the bar in my home town.  The fact that it’s next door to my office makes it even easier to support their efforts.

If you love cheese, let me know where you go for a good selection.

Donny Sanders

P.S. I’m currently flying back from Florida with three pieces of cheese and ice gel packs in my luggage.  An expensive proposition – especially with Spirit Airline’s luggage policy – but as I said earlier, I LOVE CHEESE!

In my almost 30 years as a wine retailer, and a HUGE fan of the BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) concept, it was never more clear to me that the synergy between wine retailers and BYO’s is mutually beneficial.  The wine retailer, especially one that has good BYO’s close to their store, makes a sale – just because there is a good place close by for their customers to go.  When that wine joins good food, nice glassware and attentive service, it makes for a positive dining experience – and is usually repeated, over and over again.

A restaurant benefits from the recommendations that wine shop personnel give to their customers.  There is something to be said for restaurants that are smart enough to cultivate a relationship with us wine retailers.  Not only can we “talk up” their place, but when we get to know their menu, we can give great advice on bottles of wine that pair perfectly – further enhancing the dining experience – further enhancing the probability of a repeat customer to that dining room.  Not to mention the “What a great meal I had last night…” buzz that usually follows.

My moment of clarity was in the completely full dining room of Serenity Cafe in Toms River on a rainy Tuesday night.  I watched people, without reservations, come into the busy storefront bistro only to be gently turned away because every table was full.  They “didn’t think they would need a reservation on a rainy, winter Tuesday night.”  They took their bottle of wine elsewhere.  I hope they had a nice meal – I sure did!

Cheers!
Donny

Six Degrees of Separation:  Spirits Unlimited ——–> The Super Bowl

Are you familiar with the concept where two seemingly unrelated things (or people) can be connected together through an unpredictable series of connections in five moves?  Even if you are not, try to follow along – it makes for a great story.

1) I work for Spirits Unlimited, and through some great fortune and a little luck, I was asked to be a guest of the New York Giants to fly to San Francisco to watch the Giants play the San Francisco 49ers.

2) The hotel they chose to have our group stay at was located in the Napa Valley.  Spirits Unlimited happens to sell quite a few things that originate in the Napa Valley.

3) The Napa Valley has many famous golf courses.  On a day that I was offered the chance to play one of those beautiful courses, I respectfully declined.  I have no right to take my awful golf game and tear up a beautifully landscaped parcel of and. I’m much better at sampling the end results of grapes grown at other parcels of land just down the road.

4) Hundreds of wineries to visit, only a few hours to work with.  I had a standing invitation to visit one place in particular and the offer to go off the beaten track to visit their “prized parcel” a dry farmed Zinfandel planted in 1908!  So my first choice of visits was to Vermeil Winery.

5) This winery is owned by NFL coaching legend, Dick Vermeil.  ”Coach” has, on display in his tasting room, the Vince Lombardi trophy he won as the winning coach of the St. Louis Rams.  So, I connected Spirits Unlimited to the Super Bowl in only five moves!  Impressive.

6) How’s this for even more impressive?  That same night I was at a dinner party and had the pleasure of sitting next to New York Giants legend, George Martin. Giants fans know George at having some big plays in SuperBowl XXI and their big win over the Broncos.  Most memorable, was George’s safety of John Elway that turned the tide of the come from behind victory.  So I told George about my close encounter with the Lombardi Trophy earlier in the day and he says “wouldn’t it be cool if I let you try on my Super Bowl ring?”

He was right – it was very cool!  And there you have six degrees of separation linking Spirits Unlimited to the Super Bowl.
Cheers, Donny Sanders.

(Sort of ironic that the Giants and the 49ers are both having great seasons.  Maybe one of them will represent the NFC in this next Super Bowl — against my Patriots!)

I’m on my way to California for an action-packed 72 hour business trip that includes a “free day” in the Napa Valley!  The rest of the trip itinerary has me pretty busy with group travel and activities in and around San Francisco.  But, since I don’t play golf (at least not very well) and took a “pass” on an offer for a “spa day”, I’m left with an entire Saturday to continue my exploration of California Wine Country.  Since my last trip a few years back, there are new wineries, new restaurants and new chefs to get to know.  So where do I begin?

I’m gonna squeeze as much out of this trip as I can and already have a few places to visit and people to see but I’m hoping to “take you along with me”.  I’m going to document the trip with the help of modern technology – a digital camera, my cell phone and my I-Pad.  I’ll be blogging throughout the weekend and plan to come back with great, new stories one of my favorite places in the world.  Feel free to follow along and post comments or questions while I’m there.

Here’s a cool story… Prior to me being asked to go on this trip, I had made arrangements for a group of my friends who were visiting Napa to spend some time at one of my favorite wineries – on this same exact weekend!  Can’t wait to see their faces when I greet them at Silver Oak Winery. Could be good YouTube video in the making…

Life is Good!

Donny Sanders

To say I had writer’s block was an understatement.  This piece was “due” to be written yesterday and I’ve decided to tell you about my day so that I could drive home this point…

…How many people do you know taste twelve different wines before lunch?  I take my job very seriously and I happily pass along the results of my extensive research to my co-workers and the customers of Spirits Unlimited.  I know, it’s tough work to challenge my senses of sight, smell and taste – but I take my responsibility passionately.  The fact that the by-product of my tasting all those wines today gave me inspiration for today’s blog is very fortunate for me.

What did I learn today?  There are a slew of new wines coming to Spirits Unlimited in the very near future that are tremendous.  If I wasn’t so busy today, I would have had space in this blog to tell you about some of them.
Stay tuned……

Donny Sanders
Wine Ambassador
Spirits Unlimited