FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

• Will there be an inventory reduction sale?
  • Yes, starting Monday Jan 21st everything (except bulk coffee and café food/drink) will be 25% off.

• What happens to my gift card?
  • You have until February 2nd to use any gift cards. Due to closing for financial reasons, we are unable to offer refunds for any gift cards.

• What is the return policy?
  • All sales from the closing sale are final. Any returns from prior (before Jan 21 st) to the sale must be accompanied by a receipt, and will be refunded for store credit which can be used until February 2nd.

• Will you still offer dinners and free tastings during the sale?
  • We will be discontinuing all tastings and cuppings effective immediately. We will still offer the Stone’s Throw Pizza event on Jan 26th and Boxcarr Farms Dinner on Feb 1st. PLease MAKE RESERVATIONS FOR BOTH!

• What happens to my 3Bottles membership?
  • January is the last 3Bottles selection we will be offering. You have until February 2 nd to pick up any previous months that has already been paid for.

After much deliberation, we have decided that our 3 Cups business model is no longer
financially sustainable. Therefore it is with a heavy heart that I tell you that we will be
CLOSING THE BUSINESS AS OF FEBRUARY 2, 2013.

Over the past eight years, the 3CUPS mission was to gather the very best products
we could find from extraordinary farms, farmers and food producers and bring them to
you. It has been an honor to offer products with true authentic flavor that bring such
pleasure to our daily lives.

I would like to personally thank each of you for your support of 3 Cups over the years.
You were all an essential part of building our community of consumers attuned to the
taste and stories of what we eat and drink every day.

I also want to express my deepest appreciation for our dedicated, passionate staff
members, patient investors and excellent vendors. They, along with you, have made 3
Cups a retail shop of which I will always be extremely proud.

We will miss seeing you at 3 Cups.

Warm Regards,

Lex Alexander

It is on the edge of Capria e Limite, a normal small Tuscan town. Sleepy. The road north from the winery is steep, winding through olive groves and past a small, well-maintained restaurant. Near the top is a gravel drive that leads Elisabetta and Fabio Montomoli’s farm. A teenage daughter works in the solar-powered kitchen that serves the agriturismo. Elisabetta’s family owned this land. She runs the businesses, while Fabio is in charge of the agriculture. Eleven hectares of vineyards (including a few old fields planted in the albarello method) are sited among 110 total hectares. The farm has a lot of forest, and reaching vineyards can be an eye-opening off-road adventure.  Fabio farms 30 hectares of Frantoio, Moraiolo, Leccio and Pendolino olives and uses older methods (including a manual stone press) to process the oil. They also make pasta di semolato di grano duro varietà San Carlo, a specific local grain, cut with bronze dyes and made into two shapes of tasty dried pasta.

“We don’t do anything in the cellar (enzymes, stabilizers, etc.) other than just preserve what nature gives. Our wines get their stability in the bottle. They are alive, they change. There is an evolution.” -Farmer, Fabio Montomoli

This biodynamically farmed white smells of coastal Mediterranean herbs. It does that basic, simple and essential wine thing: it tastes like where it comes from. The texture conveys sunny days, the aromatics tell us of cool evenings and of its high-elevation hillside homeland. I want to drink Castellina Vermentino with a whole baked fish stuffed with preserved lemon slices and fresh herbs, drizzled in olive oil and grilled. In winter it is also a treat with miso glazed cod.

Corzano e Paterno, Il Corzanello Rosso Toscana

When Aljoscha’s uncle Wendelin Gelpke retired from architecture and moved to Tuscany in 1972, he wanted to create a real farm, with animals, grapes, olives, grains: the possibility of a self-sustaining system. He bought Paterno from the Marchesi Niccolini in 1975. They acquired sheep “because cows are too big” and began making cheese. Today they sell a small range of really impressive and diverse cheeses.

Corzano e Paterno practice organic agriculture but are not certified as such. They produce 75,000 bottles of wine annually. They do a double green harvest: a rough one in July, then a finer adjustment later in the season once they have a better sense of the overall character of the weather for the season. “Fifteen years ago the grower with the most courage, the one who picked latest, that person made the best wine.” Goldschmidt said.  ”But that has changed. The climate has changed. It is now possible to end up with seriously overripe wines.”

In some ways my job is easy. Connecting the dots, using my senses in the most basic way. Look around in the valley of Corzano e Paterno: what you’ll find after Il Corzanello Rosso is uncorked is all present in that landscape. Piecing together is a simple exercise. It tastes of olives, unsurprising as Sangiovese is co-planted between olive groves at Corzano. I felt the intense sunlight on my face in the southeast-exposure vineyard. The texture of this wine on the palate shares the intensity of that sunlight. The red is solid, grounded in the “real” Sangiovese character of central Tuscany, and makes a tremendous meal with pizza, which you could make using only the ingredients they produce at Corzano e Paterno: black olives, pecorino cheese, olive oil. They also grow grain, for your crust.

Pruneto Chianti Classico

The estate is tiny, 3.5 hectares divided into just two vineyards, surrounded by forest. The older site is west-facing and was planted in 1972. Lanza says he never has to worry about sunburned grapes from this field. His other parcel was planted in 1999, and is surrounded on all sides by forest. Lanza describes with wonder the experience of walking through the forest to this hidden vineyard. All his vines grow at a temperate 550 meters above sea level.

In the cellar Lanza uses large barrels and simple equipment to make his wines. He has used the same press for 31 years. The cellar is clean, but not high-tech. “It’s difficult to find the right machine for me. I am low-tech.”

“The wine-making world is all about power. Which is why I prefer to grow grapes, or potatoes, or tomatoes.”

Riccardo Lanza makes Chianti Classico that lives up to its prestigious designation. His work defines and frames a real view of Radda. Tasting real Sangiovese likes Pruneto’s emphasizes how this grape is still underrated and under-appreciated, even in Italy. Sangiovese can make the best red wine, and is the flavor of Tuscany.

It tastes like the ideal. If the middle ground can be seen as a place of commonly accepted and enjoyed positive traits, not “mediocrity,”that is the territory Pruneto Chianti Classico inhabits. It is solid, measured, dark enough and with structural capacity for significant aging. Really the wine is a doorway to a different era, when Chianti Classico became one of the world’s three or four truly distinctively great red wines. It often still is. Serve with dry aged New York Strip, black lentils, or lasagna Bolognese made with fresh spinach pasta.

Thank you for reading!

Cheers,

Jay Murrie

The 3 Cups Team has a huge soft spot for all things fermented and fortified. And sparkling wine is certainly not an exception. Since according the Mayan calendar, the end of the world is upon us, what better way to go out than with a party! You can’t help but smile while enjoying the intoxicating tongue tickling delight of sparkling wine! And if we are still here in January, surviving the holidays and the end of the world, we will have so much to be grateful for!
We are all familiar with the prestigious sparkling wine region of Champagne, France, home of some of today’s most valuable sparkling wine. These double fermented sparkling wines have been a part of celebrations for the last few hundred years, originating in the late 1600’s.  Now sparkling wine is made all over Europe and the new world.

Myth + Bubbles = A Great Party or, Which came first, the English or the French?

In the 1600’s the transport of wine around Europe and to the new world created new challenges to delivering delicious wines and beverages. In the 1660’s, English scientist, Christopher Merret, was the first person to document the addition of sugar to a closed bottle of still wine creating a double fermented fizzy byproduct. He was attempting to make the severely dry and unpalatable French imports more enjoyable.

At the same time, a monk named Dom Perignon, in an abbey in Champagne, was experimenting with preventing unwanted natural double fermentation that sometimes made the wine bottles explode.  For this reason, some claim that he is the Grandfather of today’s famed sparkling Champagne. Whether or not he invented Champagne, Perignon, along with monk Frere Jean Oudart, are responsible of today’s practices of blending grapes from several different vineyard sites, clarifying sediment from wine and replacing woven hemp wine stoppers with cork. And for that, we can be nothing but grateful!

Another theory about the birth of sparkling wine comes from Italy with Benedictine monk Francesco Scacchi who was apparently experimenting with double fermentation 16 years before Dom Perignon was born. Scacchi was more interested in the health benefits of sparkling wine than good winemaking practices.

With that being said, we have chosen 3 fantastic sparkling wines from across Europe for December’s 3 Bottles. A classic Champagne, a Spanish Brut Cava and a Rose Prosecco from Italy.

These are wines that make life worth living so drink them with your friends and family this holiday season and celebrate the joy of being alive! So let’s drink to our health! Cheers!

Mont Marçal Cava Brut Reserva 2009

Mont Marçal is a winery located in Castellvi de la Marca, about 35 miles southwest of Barcelona in the heart of Penedes wine region. It was founded in 1975 by Manuel Sancho when he decided to retire from music industry and to dedicate his passion to the production of Cava and still wine; today Mont Marçal is fully owned and managed by the Sancho family. The winery prides itself on using its proven expertise and experience to deliver consistently high-quality, high-value wines to its markets. Delivery times, production flexibility, and quality certificates are strong points as well.

Manuel Sancho’s 230-acre estate, “Finca Manlleu,” is located on a prominent chalky knoll five miles south of Vilafranca del Penedes overlooking the hamlet of Sant Marcal. One hundred acres are planted to Parellada, Xarel-lo, Macabeo and Chardonnay for white wines; Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot for reds. The “Mont” provides 360-degree exposure, creating a wide variety of microclimates for maturation of the various varieties.

In 1975, Manuel Sancho purchased a neglected 18th-century convent, converting it to a state-of-the-art winemaking facility and initiating the restructuring of the vineyards. Recent excavation has expanded the cava aging and bottling capacity, at the same time revealing medieval underground passageways in the chalk which have been carefully preserved for additional bottle storage.

Intrinsic vineyard quality and careful handling of the grapes obtain a naturally-rich base wine in little need of dosage. Mont-Marçal Brut Reserva is produced from the indigenous white grapes, Parellada, Macabeo, Chardonnay and Xarel-lo, aged at least 24 months with the yeast, and disgorged on order for shipment. 

Trevisiol, Prosecco Rosé Brut

 At the annual Vinitaly festival, where even farmers can be spotted wearing their best suits, Paolo Trevisiol instead leans casually back in jeans and a button down to sip on a cool glass of his own Prosecco. Conforming is something that doesn’t concern him–the man just loves to make good wine.  Paolo’s sole interest is in making a small amount of quality wine, as opposed to the large productions of the past; he still rotates every bottle of his top spumante by hand!

A note on the Prosecco style: consistent with Italian white winemaking tradition, sparkling wine from this region tends to be lighter and less cloying than French-style Champagne. The tiny “frizzante” (as compared to larger “spumante” style) bubbles further contribute to Prosecco’s truly refreshing quality.

From Paolo Trevisiol, maker of our ever-popular Extra Dry Prosecco, we proudly present his breathtaking sparkling Rosé, a light, effervescent delight that dances on the tongue with fresh berries, lively acidity, and gentle bubbles. Trevisiol’s trademark minerals shine through, making this wine serious while being delightful. A great value and the light cherry blossom pink color is gorgeous in the glass, it’s a new seasonal staple brought to the U.S. in limited supply. 

Champagne Thierry Triolet Brut

The Champagne house of Thierry Triolet is located in the village of Bethon. The vineyards in Bethon are part of the Côtes de Sezanne region of Champagne which begins about 20 miles southwest of Epernay and extends southward from the town of Sezanne. Geologically, this narrow band of hills is a continuation of the more massive Côtes des Blancs. Traditionally,the Sezanne vineyards have been a source of excellent Chardonnay grapes for the large negociant Champagne houses to the north.

The Triolets are one of a growing number of families who have recently begun estate bottling their champagne. They own 10 hectares in and around the village of Bethon and almost all of their vineyards are planted to Chardonnay. M. Triolet farms in accordance with the principles of “lutte raisonnée” a practice of minimal intervention and he is committed to having low yields. Fermentations are carried out in a variety of cuves and no cultured yeasts are added.

This selection is a blend of Chardonnay 65% and Pinot Noir 35%. It is blended from mature wines, usually from three different vintages which after blending are put in the bottle to rest for a minimum of two years on the lees. This produces a floral, yet richly textured house style. The dosage of 12 grams underscores the floral, “bel canto” nature of the wine.

“Come quickly, I am drinking the stars!” –Dom Perignon

I could tell you about ten white wines, but I know everyone’s busy, so I’ve narrowed it down to telling you about two. Yet I would rate these two as my best wine experiences of 2012 in the category of Under $40 at retail.

Montenidoli Fiore Vernaccia 2008 – $25.99

 Paitin Elisa Roero Arneis 2010 – $17.99

The most exciting part of the food business for me has always been tasting a product that I didn’t know about, finding it delicious, and then digging for more information about the product. And it’s during this part that I realize that no one really knows about the product and therefore it is an underdog in terms of sales. When the retail price is lower than I think it should be it makes this process even more exciting. When I can honestly say to friends and customers, “If this isn’t the best ten dollars/five dollars you’ve spent recently, I’ll give you your money back.” I love bolstering the underdog.

Paitin Arneis

Italy is mostly known for its red wines—which is as it should be—but I’ve recently had an experience with two of its whites that have been fantastic. Both of these Italian whites that I’ve fallen in love with are made from native Italian grapes. Here’s the reason most people have never tasted them. For an obscure grape from Europe to be accepted in America it must travel well, which in the wine trade means that you must plant the grape in other parts of the world away from its native terroir, and it will produce reasonably good wine. Two of these grapes are Cabernet and Sauvignon Blanc. Here’s what I mean… If Sauvignon Blanc hadn’t done well in places like California, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa, most people wouldn’t know the grape, and it would be harder to sell a bottle of Sancerre, which is a Sauvignon Blanc from France’s Loire River Valley. The two grapes I’m going discuss here, Arneis and Vernaccia, do not travel well. The fact that they don’t makes them more appealing to me, but also keeps them as underdogs.

The Wines… I’m not going to give you a bunch of wine gobbletygoop about scents of honeysuckle and overtones of pear. Why would I do that? That’s like telling someone what’s inside the box of a gift. It’ll ruin what’s inside. I’ll let you discover that yourself. What I can tell you is that both of these wines gave me two of my best wine experiences for under $50 of 2012, and that both show great restraint while displaying amazing elegance. If I were going to parallel how I experience the wine to music, I would say that these wines have beautiful melodies without any wild crescendos or drum solos, and their complexity and balance make them great companions to spend an evening with. Both wines are made from 100% of the indigenous grape on the label and both vineyards farm their grapes organically.

The grapes… Arneis translates literally to mean “the rascal” due to its stubborn nature and the fact that it’s a hard grape to grow. It’s grown in different parts of Italy, but the best wines come from the northwest of Italy in the region of Piedmont.

Vernaccia comes from the word Vernacula, which means “indigenous” and it usually precedes the part of Italy from where it was grown. In this case, Vernaccia di San Gimignano.

The Family and the Winery… “Fagiuoli and her husband Sergio founded their winery in 1965, on their hillside property across a little valley from the picturesque Tuscan town of San Gimignano. Montenidoli means “mountain of little nests” and with its forested reaches and populations of swallows it’s easy to understand how it came by that name. San Gimignano, known for its many intact Medieval clock towers and surrounding wine, is quite famous in the wine world for being awarded the very first DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) designation of anywhere in Italy. This honor was no doubt due, in part, to the

Montenidoli Vernaccia

historical significance of Vernaccia de San Gimignano which has been famous since at least as far back as the Renaissance, where it was a favorite of the sculptor Michelangelo.

Fagiuoli’s land sits on a bulge of some of the oldest rock in Italy, and she claims that it was planted to vines first by the Etruscans, whose 7th century BC civilization lends Tuscany its name. She and her husband own about 900 acres on the top of her hill, of which most is essentially a nature preserve — ancient forest and wildness. Out of this forest the Fagiuolis have carefully coaxed about 57 acres of vines, olives, and farmland.

Part of their inspiration for becoming vintners was the discovery of ancient olive trees overgrown with brambles that they believe are as old as the stone home they moved into on the property, which dates back to the 13th Century and was purportedly constructed by the Knights Templar.

Since breaking ground in the late 1960s, insecticides and herbicides have never been used on the vineyards, and the Fagiuolis avoid the use of copper and sulfur on the vines except in dire circumstances. The grapes are harvested by hand, carefully sorted, and then destemmed and crushed.

The winemaking is mostly done in what might be called an ancient style, with the primary concession to modernity being temperature controlled steel tanks for the white wines.

…Elisabetta is both the viticulturalist and the winemaker, and ultimately the keeper of the soul of Montenidoli and its wines. She is widely credited with singlehandedly elevating Vernaccia di San Gimignano to a new level of quality, and continues to make some of Tuscany’s most distinct wines, now from vines that are 50 or more years old. Her label bears the words “Sono Montenidoli” or “Only Montenidoli” in reference to the fact that the wines have always been, and will always be, only from grapes that she tends herself.

Without question, her white wines are some of the best made in Tuscany, and are incredible values. They are some of the most exciting things I have put into my mouth in 2011 and I highly recommend seeking them out.”  – Alder Yarrow  Vinography.com

Happy Holidays from all of us here at 3Cups!

Holiday Hours

Christmas Eve, Monday 11/24

8AM-5PM

Christmas Day, Tuesday 11/25

CLOSED

New Year’s Eve, Monday 12/31

8AM-5PM

New Year’s Day, Tuesday 1/1

CLOSED

At 3 Cups at any given time, we have 300 to 500 different wines. For every wine on our shelf, we have tasted many more that did not make the cut. Here is what we are focused on: we are looking for natural wines that taste more complex and interesting in your glass than you have to pay at the cash register. And we’re trying desperately to keep “clunkers” off our shelves.
What’s a “clunker”? A clunker is a wine that is overpriced, or has too much alcohol, or is so monolithic or unilateral in its flavor that after a couple of sips, you are bored by it. A clunker is a wine that does not pair well with food because it often lacks acidity and tastes too much like fruit juice.
I haven’t tasted all the wines at 3 Cups, but I’ve tasted my fair share. And here is one that I feel exemplifies the line “tastes more expensive than it costs.”

Bisson Vermentino 2011:
Vermentino is an indigenous Italian grape that, as the Italians say, doesn’t travel well. What they mean is that it doesn’t grow well in places other than where it grew up, in this case, in the Ligurian coast of Italy. It is grown widely in the Corsica, Sardinia, and Liguria regions of Italy.
I happen to love the flavor of Vermentino, but it is a grape most Americans have never tasted – unless they’ve had a carafe of it in a village trattoria in Italy, represented there as the local wine. Matt Kramer, author of Making Sense of Italian Wine, says, “A good Vermentino can be intensely flavorful with an extravagant, pungent herbal scent (sage, mint) and a definite note of bitter almonds.”
I personally fell in love with this wine last year when it was served to me with Peter Roy’s crab salad. This wine is simply spectacular with crab and fish dishes. I’ve always liked underdogs, and what chance does the Vermentino grape have to show its stuff here in America? One of our jobs at 3 Cups is to try to discover and shine the light on these underdogs that are often under priced because they won’t sell at what they’re worth. Someone could buy a bottle of fancy California Chardonnay for what this bottle is worth. To me, this tastes like a $50 white Bordeaux.

Tickets are $40/ person, which gets you stuffed with oysters and white wines. Wines TBA. RSVP by calling 919.968.8993. See you there!

Bernie Herman in Westerhouse Creek

To get you through the colder months, we decided to host a little shindig of pairing BBQ from the Pig with beer from Foothills Brewery. Sam Suchoff, local BBQ whisperer and head of The Pig Restaurant has started doing something awesome: making BACON! We are so excited to help celebrate this by bringing you an evening of delicious BBQ and Bacon, washed down with local beer. We could not be more excited about pairing up these local all-stars.

FOOD:
BBQ Plate with Slaw, Pickles, Cornbread, Bacon-Mac-N-Cheese, and a Brussels Sprouts Salad with Blue Cheese and Bacon.

BEER: Delicious Foothills offerings TBA

Here’s how it works: RSVP through our events section online or by calling 919.968.8993. Tickets are $20 each, which gets you a killer beer sampler paddle and a barbeque/bacon dinner.

The Pig Restaurant is known for their commitment to regional flavors, and use of naturally pastured, hormone and antibiotic free NC hogs. You know it’s good, and good for you! We’ll see you there!

Food provided by Jujube Restaurant.

Perfect for wine the curious wine novice and guru alike! Ever come in for coffee but felt intimidated to wander back into the land of wine? This is the perfect opportunity to get your feet wet and try some really amazing selections in a relaxed educational setting!

Join Rosenthal Wine Merchant’s own Trey Stephenson for an informative and fun Wine Class on the Southern Rhone of France. We’re excited to host this class as Trey makes his way through our neck of the woods, and we look forward to sharing his knowledge with you. Food pairings from the delicious Jujube will be included in the tasting.

Who is Rosenthal Wine Merchant you ask?

Rosenthal Wine Merchant began in 1977 as a one man retail operation in New York City. Shortly after, Neal Rosenthal and new partner, (Ms.) Kerry Madigan, expanded their retail base to become an importer and distributor of fine wine and specialty food products. Their objective from the outset was to work as directly as possible with growers who were dedicated to producing limited quantities of the finest quality wines and who shared the RWM passion for “terroir”, that ephemeral “sense of place”. All products brought to the marketplace by RWM are produced in as natural a manner as possible; they believe strongly in sustainable and organic agriculture.

We at 3 Cups believe in mission of the Mad Rose Group and Rosenthal Wine Merchant! And we are SO thrilled to be able to share it with you!

Tickets are $35/ person, and RSVP required! You can call 919.968.8993 or go to the calendar page here and submit your reservation at the bottom.

More info on Rosenthal Wine Merchant can be found on their website:
http://www.madrose.com/index.php/company-info