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Monday, 06 September 2010 08:21 |
Fashion’s Night Out 2010 on Abbot Kinney
The City of Los Angeles is participating in Fashion’s Night Out 2010 taking place all over the globe on Friday, September 10th. This annual shopping extravaganza is led by Vogue Magazine and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Retailers on Abbot Kinney are participating.
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Friday, 03 September 2010 07:01 |
Abbot Kinney Events - Venice, California - Shops - Bars - Restaurants
 Connecting to Facebook
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September 2, 2010
1142 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, Ca 90291
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Tasting Menu, September 3rd-5th
IT'S FIRST FRIDAY ON ABBOT KINNEY BLVD!!!
Join the Crowd, Join the Fun!
Join us and importer Diem Van Groth of Tisza Wine Company as we pour three new discoveries from one of our favorite, emerging wine producing countries, Hungary.
If you can't make it Friday,don't worry, we'll be pouring these little gems all weekend long!
TISZA RIVER WINES, HUNGARY
Hungary’s best known wine export is the sweet and luscious dessert wine Tokaji, but talk about Hungarian wine beyond that and most give you an inquisitive look. The country has a long and proud winemaking history though, and since the fall of the Iron Curtain, the arrival of foreign investment and a rejuvenated wine industry, the quality of Hungarian wine has been steadily improving. Tisza River is a great example of embracing this change whilst maintaining a focus on tradition. Their estate is in the Badacsony region, an area situated on the volcanic slopes overlooking Lake Balaton. The winery produces modern style, clean fresh wines from traditional grape varieties that have been planted in the region for centuries.
Taste Three Wines/ $10
Fresh Baked Bread Provided by 3 Square Café + Bakery
Gourmet items provided by Market Gourmet
No Reservations Required
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| 2007 TISZA RIVER, |
Riesling |
| Badacsony |
Importer’s Notes: Riesling is one of the most important and best-known white wine grapes throughout Hungary’s historic wine regions. It is a yellow-green wine with fresh fine fragrance and an aftertaste that is reminiscent of bitter almond and green apple, with acids in complete harmony.
This bone-dry Riesling is true to the grape’s fine reputation; highly “terroir-expressive," with a distinct taste of Dörgicsei mineral extract from first taste and into the finish. This is a high-value, refreshing wine, with lively-to-crisp acidity notes, and a unique oily bouquet that develops even further with a little maturity. This noble white wine takes well to cellaring, as characterized by its balance of sugar and acids. A summer time favorite, these wines are often mixed in Europe with natural fruit soda and served as a fine wine spritzer.
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| 2007 TISZA RIVER, |
Pinot Gris |
| Badacsony |
Importer’s Notes: Cistercian monks brought Szürkebarát, the Hungarian variant of Pinot Gris, to Hungary at the order of Charles IV of Habsburg from Bourgogne around 1375. The variety has become the most famous wine in the Badacsony region. Tisza River Pinot Gris is grown around Lake Balaton where the warmer temperatures extend the growing season through October into early November. This extra month and half allows the grapes to stay on the vines until they are perfectly ripe (turning purplish red) so that they contain enough sugar to balance out the higher acid content of the wine. Crisp and distinctive, the Hungarian version of this grape provides an interesting dimension and it is fast becoming the favorite among people who normally don’t drink wine or wine drinkers who don’t drink white wines.
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| 2003 TISZA RIVER, |
Cabernet Sauvignon |
Dörgicse
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Cabernet Sauvignon is the king of the red wines. Its color is deep red, and it has a rich, full-bodied, complex characteristic profile with hints of spicy fragrance. Tisza River Cabernet Sauvignon tastes true to the grape, un-engineered, and Über natural.
Tisza River Cabernet Sauvignon is a true 100% Cabernet Sauvignon grape grown in one of the best microclimates and soils for this grape type. The result is an authentic wine that is not blended with other grape types and a wine that does not need to use new oak barrels or oak chips to mask or craft the taste associated with blending several grapes together. Tisza River Cabernet Sauvignon uses only old oak barrels for aging its Cabernet Sauvignon; to openly display its fine multiple layers of fruit flavors, and a smooth but firm tannic structure. Because Tisza River Wines are handpicked, and only the best grape bunches are ever used, Tisza River Cabernet Sauvignon is a big, smooth, red wine with minimum sulfite levels only to protect wine integrity.
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Tasting Information:
Friday: 5:00pm to Closing
Saturday & Sunday 1:00pm to Closing
Three Wines -$10 No Reservations Required
Upcoming Events
WINE CLUB!
The Elvino Wine Club Offerings Have Begun!
Be The First On Your Block To Join!
Our Offer:
The idea behind our wine club is to offer you the convenience of boutique wines ready for you each month. It’s a nice surprise that is hand selected by one of our knowledgeable team for your enjoyment. Receive wines exclusively sourced for Elvino wine club members. Inside your shipment you’ll get detailed tasting notes and food pairing ideas, and never the same wine twice. Benefits include store discounts, VIP event invites and exclusive offers.
Our Three Clubs:
One Great Bottle Club $25.00*
As the name suggest this club gets you one premium bottle every month
5% discount on all purchases.
VIP invites to Elvino in store events
Abbot Kinney Club $35.00*
Great wine shouldn’t have to cost a lot of money. Each month receive two stunning values that we select only for our club members.
5% discount on all purchases.
VIP invites to Elvino in store events
Cellar Key Club $75.00*
Two top shelf selection each month
5% discount on all purchases.
VIP invites to Elvino in store events
First look at limited wines
SHOP HOURS:
Sunday - Monday 12pm-8pm
Tuesday - Thursday 11am-8pm
Friday - Saturday 11am-9pm
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Friday, 27 August 2010 06:14 |
Connecting to Facebook
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August 26th, 2010
1142 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, Ca 90291
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Tasting Menu, August 27th-29th
BURGUNDY:
For many, the name Burgundy congers up luxurious notions of some unattainable elixir for the elite. Of course, there is more to Burgundy than Grand Cru wines. Ever increasingly, the region’s top producers are looking to deliver wines at everyday prices whilst retaining the quality that their top flight offerings are known for.
The first two wines in the week’s flight are definite examples of this trend, from two highly regarded producers who also happen to cultivate vineyards in the Cote d’Or, home to most of the Grand Cru growths in Burgundy.
Our third wine is from Beaujolais in the far south of Burgundy. Made from Gamay grapes, the wines of Beaujolais can often be overlooked in favor of their northern neighbors. But when you look beyond the lake of workhorse/cashcow Beaujolais Noveau that the region became best known for, you’ll find many Beaujolais producers intent on creating some pretty serious wine. See for yourself…
Taste Three Wines/ $10
Fresh Baked Bread Provided by 3 Square Café + Bakery
Gourmet items provided by Market Gourmet
No Reservations Required
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| 2009 LES HÉRETIERS DU COMTE LAFON, |
Macon-Villages |
| Chardonnay |
Dominique Lafon oversees production at his family’s Domaine des Comtes Lafon one of the most revered Estates in Burgundy. All of the Domaine’s land is farmed biodynamically, including their land in the Mâconnais in the south of Burgundy. Traditionally all of the fine wine focus has been in the North of Burgundy, in the Cote d’Or, but escaping the shadow of its star-studded neighbor to the north, the region of Mâconnais, with its limestone subsoil, overlaid with clay or alluvial top soil is becoming known as serious white wine country. Visionaries like Dominique Lafon are literally changing the landscape of wine in the south by implementing the same careful biodynamic practices as those applied in the north. Consumers are rewarding these efforts and competitors are beginning to take notice. This is bringing on a change in farming attitudes in Maconnais. This phenomenon can also be seen throughout the wine world from Santa Barbara to Central Otago thanks to pioneers like Lafon.
The warmer climate in Mâconnais usually brings on riper flavors in its Chardonnays than those to the north. And 2009, a stellar vintage, was no exception. Lafon has managed to balance those ripe melon fruit with focused minerality. The buttery character, brought on by malolactic fermentation, is skillfully integrated and the finish has splash of citrusy crisp acidity that lingers pleasantly. -Biodynamic-
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| 2007 PIERRE-LABET, |
Bourgogne Rouge, Vieilles Vignes |
| Pinot Noir |
The Labet family has a 500 year history in the Côte d’Or, where they cultivate vineyards at their prestigious Domaine du Château de la Tour in Vougeot as well as Domaine Pierre Labet around their family home in Beaune. François Labet is responsible for both Domains, he uses no clones in the vineyards, only massale selection, a popular practice in France where cuttings from a small number of plants in the vineyard are used to propagate the rest, helping to conserve some of the traditional variety in the region. All farming has been fully organic since 1992 and all winemaking organic since 2005.
After harvest, the grapes are carefully sorted and then without de-stemming the reds go into the vats, whole-cluster. Open concrete vats are used for red fermentation, which François likes because he says that it’s temperature neutral “Concrete – when it’s warm it’s warm, when it’s cold it’s cold. Wood is similar, but after harvest it dries and you need to re-water them to re-proof them, but I think dust gets between the staves and I find this not so clean.”
Produced from vines over 40 years old, this beauty is still showing gobs of primary Pinot aromas and flavors. Deep red fruit is both dark and silky. The texture is lacy with good length, some mineral and very long. Tannins are sappy, ripe and well integrated with the sweet fruit.
-Organic-
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| 2009 DOMAINE DE LA MADONE, |
Beaujolais le Perreon |
Gamay
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In the southernmost reaches of Burgundy, the vineyards of the Beaujolais region begin in the low, granite hills just south of Mâcon, and stretch southward for some 35 miles into the much flatter land and clay soil northwest of Lyon. Here the red grape is not the esteemed Pinot Noir -grown with unending devotion to the north- but Gamay, the only grape allowed for Beaujolais’ red wine production The variety thrives here, and perhaps nowhere else on earth does it create such drinkable, low-tannin, vivid, light, and fruity wines, due in large part to the method in which most wines are produced, using the long-used tradition of carbonic maceration. Using this method, whole clusters of grapes are placed in a sealed fermentation vat. The weight of the grapes on top crushes the grapes on the bottom where the resulting juice begins a natural fermentation. Eventually the closed vat is saturated with carbon dioxide (a natural bi-product of fermentation) creating an atmosphere in the vessel where the rest of the fermentation literally takes place inside each individual, whole grape.
Olivier, Bruno and Frederic Bererd, proprietors of Domaine de la Madone, farm this family vineyard where many of their low-yielding Gamay vines are 100 years old. The domaine is located in Perreon in the northern, hilly part of the Beaujolais region.
2009 is considered to be one of the best vintages the region has seen in 30 years. 80-100 year old vines were used in the production of this wine, showing vivid black fruit with hints of smoke and coco powder aromas that lead into flavorful black cherry flavors and a nice “grapey” finish. The brothers’ use of oak lends structure to the finished product. This wine won’t easily be confused with one of its Beaujolais Noveau counterparts.
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Tasting Information:
Friday: 5:00pm to Closing
Saturday & Sunday 1:00pm to Closing
Three Wines -$10 No Reservations Required
Upcoming Events
DON"T MISS!!!
THE NEXT FIRST FRIDAY IS: September 3rd
Tisza River Wines
Hungary
THE NEXT SPARKLING SUNDAY IS: September 12th
THE NEXT SIX-PACK TUESDAY IS: September 14th
I CAN
Join Us for Our Next Six-Pack Tuesday!
Taste Six Beers, Six Bucks.
All Canned, All Night!
Cans, The New Black
DON’T MISS!!!
The 26th ANNUAL ABBOT KINNEY FESTIVAL
September 26th, 2010
-Join Us!-
SHOP HOURS:
Sunday - Monday 12pm-8pm
Tuesday - Thursday 11am-8pm
Friday - Saturday 11am-9pm
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Thursday, 19 August 2010 08:10 |
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Third Friday Music at Tales & Toys
Friday, August 20th
Tales & Toys
1140 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 396-6909
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Back by popular demand Tristana Ward will be singing songs from her bedtime album Dreamland: Songs for Sleepyheads Big & Small!
5:45pm - 6:30pm!
www.tristanaward.com
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Tuesday, 17 August 2010 08:14 |
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4 Year anniversary event Thursday August 19th, 2010 at ecookie. RSVP to:
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
ecookie
1639 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 392-2135
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Saturday, 14 August 2010 09:32 |
Abbot Kinney Events - Venice, California - Shops - Bars - Restaurants
Connecting to Facebook
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August 12th, 2010
Elvino
1142 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice, Ca 90291
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Tasting Menu: August 13th – August 15th
ALSACE:
Located in the in the north west of France, Alsace shares its boundary with Germany, and like so many European border areas, the culture is a mix of both countries. Put simply, Alsace wine is a French attitude applied to German style wine. The last of the major French wine producing regions to obtain AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) status (1962), their Grand Cru designations only just began in 1983. However, the region’s wine producing history stretches back to before the 1500s. In fact Lucien Albrecht, which we’re pouring this weekend, can trace their winemaking ancestry back to 1425.
To Alsace’s west are the Vosges Mountains. This chain of mountains protects the region from any major downpours creating a drier area suitable for growing quality grapes. Winegrowers in the region have been at the forefront of the biodynamic and organic movements for many years now.
The Rhine River forms the border with Germany as it cuts through the landscape creating fertile soil on the valley floor in contrast to the rocky, mountain slopes and rolling limestone hillsides. Each of the varied soil types is suitable for different grape varieties.
Apart from Pinot Noir, the grapes planted in Alsace are almost exclusively white. The shining stars Pinot Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris, Muscat and Gewurztraminer. The later four are known as Noble Grapes in Alsace and are the only ones permitted in Grand Cru wines. Though Pinot Blanc is not officially on that list, many would argue it deserves to be. More recently, some exceptions have been made to allow other grapes in certain sites, an example being Sylvaner, which is now permitted in Grand Cru wines from the Zotzenberg vineyard.
This weekend we’ll be pouring a little taste of Alsace for your oenophilic pleasure.
Step On Up and Enjoy!
Taste Three Wines/$12
Fresh Baked Bread Provided by 3 Square Café + Bakery
Gourmet items provided by Market Gourmet
No Reservations Required
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| LUCIEN ALBRECHT, |
Crémant d'Alsace Rosé Brut NV |
| 100% Pinot Noir |
There are several sparkling wine appellations throughout France that produce their bubbles using the same traditional method (second fermentation in the bottle) that winemakers in Champagne have been using since the early 1800’s. For a time, these sparklers bore the words “Méthode Champenoise” on their labels, a designate that did not please the proud Champenoise, and in the 1980’s an agreement was reached that prohibited the mention of Champagne and instead, these appellations would use the word Crémant, while “Méthode Traditionnelle” replaced “Méthode Champenois”.
The Crémant d'Alsace AOC produces 1/10th in volume to that of Champagne, but with 33 million bottles produced annually, the region still places second for France’s sparkling wine production. Most Crémant d’Alsace is made using the Pinot Blanc grape, with Pinot Gris, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay allowed in the blend; for rosé, only Pinot Noir may be used.
The winegrowing history of the Albrecht family can be traced back to 1425, when Romanu Albrecht settled in the town of Thann. Five centuries later, led by Lucien Albrecht, the family has become one of the prominent producers in Alsace with over 35 hectares (90 acres) of vines over nine communes.
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| 2007 DOMAINE BOTT GEYL , |
“Meitss” Pinot d’Alsace |
| 33% Auxerrois, 33% Pinot Blanc, 17% Pinot Gris & 17% Pinot Noir |
From the Importer: Jean-Christophe Bott has been steadily honing his style over the past several years. It is safe to say that he is now one of the most dynamic, intuitive and sensitive wine growers in France. Fully invested, both emotionally and intellectually in biodynamic farming, the results are beginning to show in the wines that he produces. Tasting in his cellar reminds us of being with one of the true masters, such is his total command of the subtleties of the his various terroirs and how they follow through to the wine in both vat and bottle. The crystalline view that his wines provide of the various vineyards and sites can be very enlightening as one digs deeper seeking the essence and soul of Alsace.
A blend of the four different "Pinots" (33% Auxerrois, 33% Blanc, 17% Gris & 17% Noir), this exciting wine shows good ripeness and depth while still maintaining a fresh, bracing minerality that backs up the aromatics. All cépages are vinified together and the result is a natural marriage of grapes that when produced separately provide very different results.
-Organic & Biodynamic-
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| 2006 DOMAINE ROLAND SCHMITT, |
Grand Cru Altenberg de Bergbieten |
| Gewurztraminer |
From the Importer: The Schmitt family has been making wine from its vineyards in Bergbieten since the early 17th century. Roland Schmitt began working them when he was fourteen years old and took over the estate in his early twenties with his young wife Anne-Marie. Together they replanted many of the vineyards and steadily began making a name for themselves locally and all over Europe as producers of excellent, moderately priced German styled white wines.
In December of 1993 the Schmitts were in a tragic automobile accident, and Roland was killed. After spending four weeks in a coma, Anne-Marie took over the estate by herself with the help of a trusty long-time employee and her two teen-aged sons. Three years later, she was cited in the prestigious Revue de Vin de France on two separate occasions as being one of the rising stars in the region. Her wines are now served in many of the top restaurants in Alsace, a region blessed with more Michelin starred restaurants than any other in France.
This is a very ripe wine with just a hint of residual sugar. It shows the classic clove and spiced apple nose that we look for in this grape, while retaining a fresh, crisp acid core, which keeps you coming back. Very classy wine. -Organic-
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Wine Tasting Information:
Friday: 5:00pm to Closing
Saturday & Sunday 1:00pm to Closing
No Reservations Required
SHOP HOURS:
Sunday - Monday 12pm-8pm
Tuesday - Thursday 11am-8pm
Friday - Saturday 11am-9pm
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