The PRIMA Vini VINE Monday, August 26th
Can it really be three years since we opened here? I remember the first time I saw the place- it was called ‘Western Tile Design Center,’ and the space was, to put it mildly, in desperate need of some TLC. But Brandon and I loved the expansive warehouse space and once we closed our eyes and imagined what could be, well, things began to come into focus. And here we are! Three years later. PRIMA Vini Dublin is still very much a work in progress. It was never meant to be ‘Walnut Creek South,’ but rather something uniquely suited to our little piece of Dublin and our growing and evolving demographic. We’re not there yet- not by a long shot- but, with your feedback and support, we’re a lot closer than we were. We invite you to explore and use the space. All our racks are on wheels and we can turn the showroom at the front of the store into a dancefloor, bowling alley or curling rink, if you but say the word. So far we’ve hosted wine classes, poetry slams, socials, board meetings, wedding receptions, client presentations, music recitals and a first-day-of-school-wine-a-
Thanks for those who took advantage of our in-store-only 20% off sale this past weekend. If you couldn’t make it in, have no fear. We’ve decided to extend it through Tuesday. We’re not actively advertising this so please mention you saw it in the Vine when you come in to get your discount. The sale covers most everything you see but not wine currently on an e-mail offer or in our Enoteca wine cellar.
One of those offers- below- is for the off-beat but thoroughly delicious Sank Laurent from Felsner. Pinot Noir lovers will find a lot to love in this funky, fun and snappy red and it’s really well priced. Two other offers highlight the spectacular 2022 vintage in Burgundy. Jobard and Magnien are two of our favorite small producers and it’s nice to have enough of these three wines to offer them to a wider audience than just the few PRIMA Insiders that buy these every vintage. Consider adding some to your cellar.
And thanks again for three great years. Here’s to many more.
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ON THE PRIMA Vini Calendar
Saturday, September 7th- PRIMA’s Il Consorzio Wine Clubs Pickup Party
Friday, September 20th- Around The World With Emily Kaplan
Friday, October 25th- An Evening in Piemonte with Giacomo Bologna-Braida
Saturday, October 26th- PRIMA’s Annual Halloween Bash
Saturday, December 7th- PRIMA’s 37th Annual Champagne Extravaganza
ANY TIME WE’RE OPEN
COME SEE WHAT WE’RE POURING IN THE PRIMA Vini WINE BAR!
We change the wines we pour by the glass week frequently so there’s always something interesting and fun open. Or pick a bottle up off our shelf, wine fridge or Enoteca! If it’s under $50 on the shelf, there’s only a $15 corkage and if it’s over $50, hey, we’ll waive it! Or do what the ‘Back to School Moms’ did last week and bring your own group, a bunch of your favorite fixins’ from one of our fine local restaurants and take over the place! And, coming soon, the East Bay’s first Italian Pizza Vending Machine. Whaaaaat?
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PRIMA WINE BAR’S BY THE BOTTLE SPECIALS
We’ve chosen a half dozen really special wines you can enjoy at our tasting bar with no additional corkage!
Order a pizza or some takeout to be delivered here and ask us to pop a bottle of one of these half dozen really special wines you can enjoy at our tasting bar with no additional corkage! These are not available by-the-glass so bring a friend or two or come thirsty~
2018 Antica Fratta Franciacorta Saten $45
2023 Spottswoode Sauvignon Blanc, Napa/Sonoma Counties $48
2020 Fattoria Felsina Chianti Classico Riserva $40
2022 A. Rafanelli Estate Zinfandel, Dry Creek Valley $60
2022 Williams Selyem Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley $65
2019 Oddero Barolo Classico $67
PRIMA’s Wines of the Week
2017 Weingut Felsner Sankt Laurent ‘Ried Rohrendorfer Thalland’ Kremstal, Austria
Regular Price $28.00,
Our PRICE $19.99
From somewhere out near wine’s lunatic fringe (and Austria) comes today’s offbeat but really, really delicious offering. Manfred Felsner is one of those guys who- despite its commercialization and globalization- still exist in the wine business. He farms as he’s always farmed and makes wine as he’s always done with little care about anything else- like how his wines might be perceived in a world any further away than the Kremstal hills where he works. He carves a sort of living from an ancient cellar dug deep into a hillside of pure löess. The cellar looks like it always has; damp, covered in multicolored flor and lined with really, really old casks and barrels, one dating back, in fact, to the nineteenth century, though most were constructed right inside the cellar back in the 1960s. Manfred is a throwback character from another age. Even though his vines sit adjacent to the likes of Schloss-Gobelsburg, he has no appetite for fancy packaging, submitting his wines to the press for reviews or even, particularly, bottling and releasing his wines in any sort of organized fashion. An agent of non-change, he even voted against the Kremstal’s new Premier Cru designation even though he farms vineyards like the Thalland that would qualify. That’s where his amazing 2017 Sankt Laurent comes in. Coming from several old barrels that have been sitting unheeded in a corner of the cellar for the past six years, it’s one of the great finds in delicious red wine we’ve seen this year! Sankt Laurent is an Austrian mutation of the Pinot Noir grape that has been in the ground here for over 400 years. The wines made from it tend to be a bit darker, a bit snappier and a have a bit more rustic tannin than the Pinot Noir we’re used to but, nonetheless, has many of our favorite Pinot Noir attributes, like those prized floral, the cinnamon and the deeply-pitched cherry aromatics, light-on-its-feet texture and amazing earthy persistence. Coming from vines in Thalland aged over 50 years, Felsner’s seven-year-old Sank Laurent has depth and character to burn. One might equate it with one of those Old School late 1980s Willamette Valley Pinots from Eyrie or Adelsheim. The color is gorgeous and the nose is a veritable grandma’s cupboard of baking spices, dried and fresh black cherry, mulberry and even fig. While lightly chilling and enjoying a bottle in the backyard over the rest of this summer is definitely on my agenda, there’s something rather ‘pumpkin spicy’ autumnal about the wine. Maybe save some for Thanksgiving! This is, though, a real find and lovers of flavorful reds of all ilks will find a lot to love here for $20!
2022 Bernardus Pinot Noir, Arroyo Seco
Regular Price $37.00, Our PRICE $19.99
Bernardus Pon, who established Bernardus Winery in 1989, was something of a visionary when he wisely chose Carmel Valley as the optimal location to plant vineyards and start his eponymous winery. A native of Holland, Bernardus (Ben), bouncing back and forth between Europe and the U.S., fell in love with California wine and, after careful research, determined that the Carmel Valley offered the ideal conditions for the style of wine he wanted to produce. That wine was a Bordeaux blend, labeled as Marinus, which went on to win high praise in all the major wine publications. The west-facing valley allows for hot days and cool nights while the porous, alluvial soils, comprised of gravel, sandy loam, granite and limestone, provide the perfect home for grape vines. Since those early days, Bernardus Winery has evolved into a major enterprise, complete with an elegant tasting room, event center, golf resort, lodge, spa and culinary center. They’ve also expanded their wine program significantly, sourcing fruit from their estate vineyards and other sites throughout Monterey County. Bernardus now produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and, more to the point, Pinot Noir from the Santa Lucia Highlands and beyond. The wine featured here, the 2022 Pinot Noir, comes from vineyards in Arroyo Seco, supplemented with fruit from some of the top sites in the Highlands. The winemaking team at Bernardus employs sustainable methods in all their farming efforts, including organic and biodynamic techniques wherever and whenever possible. The resulting wines are always full-flavored and beautifully balanced, expressive of their unique and varied microclimates of the great Monterey County. The 2022 Bernardus Pinot Noir has a plush texture, balanced by refreshing acidity and topped off with plenty of exotic fruit flavors and spicy aromas. It begs to be paired with a seared halibut steak or richly seasoned chicken preparation; both of which I enjoyed this past weekend with the Bernardus Pinot. My wife Ellen and I share the dinner duties; she does all the cooking and I supply the wine. I know, I know…it’s a tough job but after all my years in the wine business, I’m up to the task. Wines like the Bernardus Pinot Noir make my job all the easier. -Frank Rothstein, Minister of Value
2022 Domaine Remi Jobard Bourgogne Cotes d’Or Blanc
Vieilles Vignes
$59.99 with shipping included on 4 bottles
Pedigree counts for a lot in Burgundy, and when your name is Jobard and you live in Meursault, it counts even more! For a domaine whose wines have been called ‘a sensual tour of rock and vine,’ expectations have always been high, and Remi is, after all, the son of Charles and the nephew of Francois, two of the most legendary names inBurgundy. But Remi, since taking over the family domaine in 1996, has done nothing but enhance the pedigree of the family’s holdings. He started by converting his farming fully to certified organic. Taking just over a decade to complete, this was no easy feat for those days. And no one in Burgundy has a better reputation for making ‘straight’ Bourgogne Blanc than Remi. All sourced in either Puligny, Meursault, or both, his Bourgogne Blanc cuvees are vivid expressions of terroir and very fine entrants into the Jobard pantheon. Take the Bourgogne Cotes d’Or, a cuvee of six different parcels right below the village of Meursault. With an average age over 45, these Chardonnay vines know well how to effortlessly produce great wine, and Remi modestly claims his job is to simply stay out of their way. Raised in exactly the same manner as his iconic Premier Cru Meursaults, the grapes are fermented on their own yeasts and aged half in small barrels (a portion of which are new) and the rest in older foudre, double-sized barrels. Remi says his 2022s are ‘very rich and concentrated with good power’ but there is plenty of energy too- a nice lemon verbena quality that adds lift and verve to what’s really an impressively weighty Bourgogne Blanc with gravitas and class. A more vivid window into the soul of Meursault (without paying for Meursault) we can’t imagine. Clean, mineral-driven acidity drives a palate rich with yellow cherry, lemon curd, Asian pear and spice. Mouthfilling yet fresh, it’s a full-bodied white that will do excellent service alongside crabs and other kinds of shellfish, richer fish dishes or just a lovely, runny Epoisses! Sure. There are a lot of Bourgogne Blanc appellation wines costing a lot less out there but, I say, there is also a lot of Meursault costing twice as much not nearly as good! Only three cases.
2022 Domaine Michel Magnien
$49.99
Shipping included on 6 bottles or more, mixed or matched
2022 Domaine Michel Magnien Gevrey-
$95.99
Shipping included on 6 bottles or more, mixed or matched
The 2022 red Burgundies are arriving apace and, as a group so far, they’ve been sensational! Coming on the heels of the massive, ultra-ripe 2020s and the very serious 2021s, they are also a refreshing change; wines that have amazing fruit but also purity, definition and transparency. In short- they pop! And I ask myself, for $50 would I rather have a bottle of Magnien’s magnificent Bourgogne Cotes d’Or Rouge or a similarly-priced Pinot from the Russian River, say. For me, the answer was simple. Of course, the choice is yours not mine, but if you are a lover of vibrant, characterful red Burgundy, these are two wonderful choices. We all know Domaine Michel Magnien. This exquisite Morey-Saint-Denis producer is justly renowned for its great holdings throughout both Morey and next-door Gevrey-Chambertin and has, over the past few years, evolved into a Burgundy producer of a singular style and philosophy. The family long sold their grapes to the local cooperative until 1993, when Michel’s son Frédéric joined the business and persuaded his father to make and bottle wine themselves. Frédéric began experimenting with organic practices in the late 1990s and the entire production was certified biodynamic by Demeter by 2015, and now their Grand and Premier Cru holdings now get amazing reviews and routinely fetch prices high in the triple-digit prices. Frédéric has gradually evolved his wines from a richer, notably oaky style to an aging regimen now solely in used barrels and clay amphorae. The wines are much more transparent and aromatically pure than formerly. The Bourgogne Cotes d’Or sets a very high bar for this appellation. Coming from several regional and village-level vineyards spread across the Côte de Nuits, these are vines planted by Frédéric’s grandfather with an average vine age of 50 years. The cuvee was considered highly enough in 2022 that Frédéric used around 20% whole clusters in the fermentation, a process reserved only for the most-worthy wines in the cellar. There is a lot of Morey St. Denis DNA in this cool, dark and fragrant bottle of Burgundy and its cinnamon-y, sage-y complexity will marry gorgeously, we think, with all kinds of game, meat and grilled dishes for the next six or eight years. We think it’s an excellent value for what you get here. Or maybe you want to raise the stakes a bit and get a few bottles of one of Magnien’s crown jewels, the Gevrey-Chambertin Les Seuvrées, a lieu-dit lying directly below the grand cru of Charmes-Chambertin. The word Seuvrées comes from the Latin “separatas” and was named because the plot separates Gevrey from Morey and shares the best attributes of both- the gorgeous natural acidity and crisp tannins of the former combined with the almost unctuous confit-like fruit and sexy aromatics of the latter. It’s a fine, fine bottle of Burgundy we think would be a fine pairing with a Provencal-style leg of lamb or a rich confit of duck. The nice thing about these 2021s is that, with a bit of air, both will show their stuff at dinner tonight but I would sure be glad to find either in the cellar in a decade. (Can your Russian River Pinot do that
? Both highly recommended and, for what you’re getting, relative bargains too!