3CUPS Blog  filter by tag: wine

Now on first AND THIRD Fridays! Don't be a fool by missing this dinner! Local farmer-chefs (and spouses) Austin and Dani Genke are fixtures here at 3CUPS, serving up small plates built from the flavors o f their farm in Cedar Grove. 3CUPS has a tasty selection of wines by the glass paired to each savory dish. 5-8pm, $6.50/plate or $35/all six.

Here's this week's menu:

$9.99 on sale (reg. $12.99)

You need a party white for everyone. You do not need to weather the headaches caused by "Bob from Accounting likes grassy Sauvignons, Aunt Doris wants an oak-tastic Chard...." Look, people, we're pouring one white wine at this party, it ain't a bar. This wine is middle-of-the-road in the best way imaginable. Vibrant enough for lovers of acidity and freshness, with texture and ripeness to please drinkers devoted to New World Chard. Serve with everything that your December gatherings contain.

So what does it taste like? More orchard fruit than citrus, but some aromas do veer a little in the direction of (I hate to say tropical but...) the exotic. Ripe but dry. Clean, not oaky, fresh but not thin or sharp. A wine of substance, not complex but totally satisfying. It tastes likes you went out of your way to buy a good wine, and didn't settle for an unloved white that was convenient to throw in the cart on your last cat litter and orange juice run. Serve it to people you like and drink with gusto, because Le Paradou is affordable and abundant.

Call us at 919 968 8993 to reserve your case!

What can we say, we love these kids! They'll be here this Thursday from 4-8pm.

Asian street fare meets west coast food truck in NC’s first mobile dumpling stand.  Chirba Chirba proudly presents mouthwatering Chinese style dumplings on wheels! After years of dumpling studies through extensive tasting, pleating, and learning secret family recipes, they have developed a menu that you’ll love.  

Chirba Chirba means "Eat, eat!" and is a welcoming phrase a host would utter to guests sitting down to table. Mangia, Chirba, whatever language you say it in, eating is definitely what we will be doing with these dumplings. There will be some specially selected wines by the glass and tasty beers to pair with the dumpling offerings. To read more about Chirba Chirba Dumpling, click here.

•  corn soup with cilantro pesto, crème fraiche
• charred eggplant with herbed goat ricotta, roasted tomatoes, mozzarella, basil
• shaved fennel and herb salad with chilled grilled shrimp, sherry vinaigrette
• braised pork belly with corn, shallots, butter bean ragout
• open face ravioli with Red Kuri squash, pumpkin seeds, thyme, brown butter
• blueberry panna cotta with riesling-rhubarb coulis

We're not sure how they do it, but the kids at Boxcarr Farms bring us the best eggs we have managed to find.  Ungraded and hyper-fresh, they just taste better.  They are so fresh that the thick whites often don't want to tumble out of the cracked shells, while the yolks stand up like orange ping-pong balls. Whether you're making a flan, souffle, quiche, pasta carbonara, or just cooking breakfast, these eggs from a variety of heritage breeds raised by the Genke family in Cedar Grove, NC raise the bar of the finished dish.  But my favorite thing is just to poach them, allowing the truth of their superiority to be self-evident.  Come find them in our cooler, $5/dozen.

Local farmer-chefs (and spouses) Austin and Dani Genke are back in the new year serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm in Cedar Grove.  This event will now be on first Fridays of every month.  As always, $6/plate, or $30 for all six, and 3CUPS has a tasty selection of wines by the glass paired to each savory dish. Here's this month's menu for June 3rd, 5-8pm:

• cucumber and potato vichyssoise with yogurt cream
• twice-baked goat cheese soufflé with fennel and beet salad
• smoked chicken salad with marinated cucumbers, mung beans, carrot ginger dressing
• tamarind-glazed pork belly over braised green tomatoes with green garlic broth
• fresh pasta with broccoli rabe and spring onions
• chocolate mousse with strawberries and almond cookie

Thu, May 26, 6-8pm

Austin and Dani Genke at Boxcarr Farms are the source of the freshest and most delicious local spring produce around. Austin will be marinating and then braising chicken with harissa, serving it over hand-rolled couscous with spring onions, cilantro, chickpeas, and a rich tomato and toasted garlic broth, a virtual victual voyage to Morocco. $35 gets you dinner and wine for two, or $20 = dinner for two only.

Sheri Castle's new cookbook party!

• Tomato Gravy over Creamy Grits
• Chicken Smothered in Onions and Snappy Cream Gravy
• Fresh Strawberries and Shortcake Cream Biscuits with Chocolate Gravy

Local Small Plates by Boxcarr Farms on First Fridays

This month: April 1, 5-8pm

$6/plate or $30/all six

Expanded wine by the glass offerings, including two special Sherry cocktails this week!

Local farmer-chefs (and spouses) Austin and Dani Genke are back in the new year serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm in Cedar Grove.  This event will now be on first Fridays of every month.  As always, $6/plate, or $25 for all five, and 3CUPS has a tasty selection of wines by the glass paired to each savory dish. Boxcarr will also be doing a Simple Supper of shrimp & grits here on Friday, April 15 - more details to come!

2009 Massiac Sentinelle

The most wine for the least money- does that make sense? We've been conditioned to expect less from our "everyday" wines. Massiac treats simple wine for weekday meals like it matters. Which it does. Stop by for a free taste, and a discount (Fri-Sat only).

“Ask most people about Riesling and you’re likely to get a yawn or a “yecchh.” But invoke Riesling with wine pros, and they’ll start drooling like hounds outside a butcher shop.” - Mark Oldman, Oldman’s Guide to Outsmarting Wine

A sleeper, great with food... We scratch our heads at 3CUPS that more folks don’t love Riesling as much as we do. With Riesling there is a similar challenge to pink wines. For years we had less success selling traditional rose because of an image issue and then all of a sudden in the last few years almost everyone is happy with a bottle of pink in their wine tote. Not so with Riesling, and to that end we decided to include a bottle as part of the Real Value, Natural Wine set. Try your bottle with some Asian takeout or with pork chops and braised cabbage. Or with a simple supper of soup and cheese toast. This wine goes so well with food because of the refreshing acidity.

The Wine... This clean, aromatic white is more enjoyable than most white we encounter at twice the price. And this wine is big! For $13.99 you get a liter of natural wine from one of Germany’s most esteemed regions. Simply smell this estate Riesling from the Mosel - what can I say, it makes me happy. As refreshing as mineral water, with light, slightly saline lemon flavors and a hint of green apple. This estate Riesling most certainly “tastes more expensive than it costs.”

The Estate… Heinz and Silvia Welter own 7 hectares of vineyards in and around Piesport, the majority on steep slate slopes. The winery’s name is a combination of Silvia’s maiden name (Später) and that of her mother (Veit), whose winegrowing family is one of Piesport’s oldest. Heinz took over winemaking from Silvia’s father in 1988.

Local farmer-chefs Austin Genke, Sam Genke, and Chris McKinley are back in the new year serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm in Cedar Grove.  This event will now be on first Fridays of every month.  As always, $6/plate, or $25 for all five, and 3CUPS has a tasty selection of wines by the glass paired to each savory dish.

If you do the math, and I have, in order to achieve the really low retail price on the shelf for "$2-Buck-Chucks" and most other wines under $9-10, the actual juice or wine has to cost almost nothing. Remember, the company must buy bottles, caps, labels, cardboard, pay shipping costs, distribution costs, and then the retailer must make their mark-up. These wines are made using the popular corporate mantra of “better living through modern chemistry.” Wine does not require an ingredient panel or any disclosure about how the grapes became wine.  These wines fulfill a function, but the aesthetic and healthfulness of the wine leaves a bit to be desired. NOTE: these wines are not made at a winery but rather a factory.

Our wines have been carefully selected not only to have a greater proportion of your wine dollar devoted to grapes, but also to “taste more expensive than they cost” and this month we decided to dedicate the 3BOTTLES set to this theme. You can snag three great examples of natural wine value, plus a great New Orleans recipe, for $45. After all, it’s January and everyone could use a break in terms of cash flow. Featured in this set: Spater-Veit Riesling, Domaine de la Pepiere Cuvee Granit, and Eric Texier Cotes du Rhone.

Here's what Christine Muhlke wrote in the Dec 3rd Times:

Brooklyn is having a serious fried chicken and Southern-food moment, which the food writer Josh Ozersky recently labeled “lardcore.” Maybe these city hams should get a copy of THE SOUTHERN FOODWAYS ALLIANCE COMMUNITY COOKBOOK (University of Georgia, $24.95), edited by Sara Roahen and John T. Edge. The folks at the S.F.A., which works to preserve the region’s foodways, called on their friends — chefs, historians, civil rights activists and ham curers, to name a few — to help assemble a modern community cookbook. And what friends they have. The noted Alabama chef Frank Stitt contributes a hearty collard green and white bean gratin. Donald Link, one of the culinary heroes of post-Katrina New Orleans, shares his recipe for boudin blanc. John Currence sent in pimento cheese hush puppies from Oxford, Miss. And Matt and Ted Lee, of Charleston, S.C., by way of New York, contributed boiled peanut and sorghum swirl ice cream.

The chapter titles pay homage to crucial Southern food groups and preoccupations: “Gravy,” “Garden Goods,” “Roots,” “Greens,” “Rice,” “Grist,” “Yardbird,” “Pig,” “The Hook,” “The Hunt,” “Put Up” and “Cane.” The classics — dirty rice, country captain, pickled okra, fried squirrel with gravy, as well as biscuits, biscuits and more biscuits — are here, all with a personal stamp. (Martha Foose makes her chess pie with sweet tea.) The only thing that could make this book more Southern would be a complimentary bottle of bourbon.

• lentil and pancetta soup with goat cheese crostini
• fresh spring rolls: noodles, grilled mushrooms, mint, basil, veggies, mirin and hoisin dipping sauce
• brussels sprouts with guanciale, shallots, roasted chestnut demi
• gnocchi carbonara: egg, scallions, bacon
• lemon-lime meringue with graham crackers, blueberry conserve

If you and your family are already tired of turkey and stuffing, head on down to see us tonight between 5 and 8 - Chris and Austin from Boxcarr Farms in Cedar Grove will be serving small plates built from the flavors of their farm, and we'll have wine by the glass to pair with them.

This week's menu:

• meat & cheese: asiago sformato (custard), lonza, salumi, toast, mustard
• butternut squash soup: chili-spiced pumpkin seeds, feta, chives
• roasted beets with herbed goat cheese, fennel & parsley salad, tangerine dressing
• fresh pasta: baby leeks, swiss chard, crispy bacon
• pumpkin brulee with cream, almond cookie

3CUPS will be closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.

3CUPS will be open 8AM-6PM on Thanksgiving Eve (11.24.10), Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and Monday January 3, 2011 for our staff holiday party.

Otherwise, count on Monday-Saturday 8AM-8PM, and Sundays 10AM-5PM through 12/19/10, after which we will be closed on Sundays.

Chefs Chris McKinley and Austin Genke of Boxcarr Farms in Cedar Grove are here every Friday from 5-8pm serving small plates built from the flavors of their farm. $6/plate or $25/all five, and we'll have tasty wines by the glass available for pairing!

This week's menu:

• lemon grass and coconut milk soup with mizuna, scallions
• barley risotto with sweet potato, parmesan, sage brown butter
• mixed lettuces with cured meats, asiago, shaved egg, garlic basil dressing
• pork braised with white wine, tomato, parsley, olive oil potato salad
• chocolate mousse with caramel, almond cookie

With guest chefs Austin Genke, Sam Genke, and Chris McKinley serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm. Tapas, Antipasti, call it what you want: a la carte delicious foods and wines served by-the-glass or flight. Make tasty fare at 3CUPS a regular part of your Friday nights.

• kale soup with toasted garlic, goat cheese crostini
• arugula salad with shaved bresaola (air-dried beef), parmesan, lemon dressing
• swiss chard and potato gratin with asiago, caramelized onions
• beer-braised pork ribs with apple relish, sauerkraut
• bread and butter pudding with macerated cherries, vanilla cream

With guest chefs Austin Genke, Sam Genke, and Chris McKinley serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm. Tapas, Antipasti, call it what you want: a la carte delicious foods and wines served by-the-glass or flight. Make tasty fare at 3CUPS a regular part of your Friday nights.

• carrot and ginger soup with pumpkin seeds, feta
• poached egg with crispy lonza (prosciutto), scallions, brioche toast, hollandaise
• mixed greens with apples, cranberries, blue cheese, red onions, almonds, herb dressing
• braised pork with herb jus, sweet potato and barley hash
• eggnog custard with rum, almond cookie

With guest chefs Austin Genke, Sam Genke, and Chris McKinley serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm. Tapas, Antipasti, call it what you want: a la carte delicious foods and wines served by-the-glass or flight. Make tasty fare at 3CUPS a regular part of your Friday nights.

• pork chili with quark cheese, cilantro, lime
• wilted arugula salad with warm bacon vinaigrette, hard-cooked egg, feta
• leek and mushroom tart with asiago, herb salad
• white bean ragu with rapini, spicy italian sausage
• lemon lavender creme brulee

The Family... Anita Schwarzböck is the kind of pretty that makes me clumsy. She is a very gracious, polite ambassador for her family’s wines. When I tasted with her in Vienna, there was clean, correct and still charming quality to be found across the whole line-up. Anita runs Schwarzböck with her husband, Rudolf.

The Wine... Tasted in a line-up of similar products from across Austria, Schwarzböck really stands out. The winery’s liters of Grüner Veltliner are exceptionally ripe, sunny, and dry, with the scent of Meyer lemon and fresh hay. This is the kind of wine you can drink all day long. Serve with pike or trout, grilled summer vegetables, or marinated/ oil-cured antipasti. 

The Coffee... The Recinos family are in their seventh decade of farming heirloom Bourbon Rojo and Typica coffee varieties.  The plants are fed by pure natural springs and protected from the Guatemalan sun by dense, indigenous forest.  The result is sweet, balanced, and clean, with notes of nut, fruit, and caramel.

The Farm... Tucked into a valley between two mountains, the farmhouse sits on a parcel of fairly flat land, near a beautiful stream and rolling pastures. Behind the ranch house, however, is the coffee farm, which soars nearly straight up towards the peak of the mountain. The effect is of a gigantic amphitheater, soaring above the valley floor below. This geography is great for coffee quality, since higher altitudes almost always mean better coffee.

• potato and house-cured bacon chowder
• bruschetta: poached egg, shaved radishes, arugula pesto, feta
• mixed greens, blue cheese, dried cranberries, spiced almonds, herb dressing
• braised pork and kale pasta, herb beurre blanc
• winter squash fool, honey, almond cookie

The Estate... There are many cool things about Domaine de la Voute des Crozes. For a non-native French speaker, the name is not one of those things: hard to wrap my tongue around. But the wine is easy on the palate, and shows to my mind the correct balance of tradition and modernity for a wine. Nicole Chanrion went to university to study her craft, and has a level of understanding of oenology that would have been rare in the sepia-toned past. But her estate is a happy throwback: earthen cellar, very much a small family domaine, one that Chanrion took over from her father and operates with focus to make tasty old-school Cru Beaujolais.

The Land... Rocky and steep, the Cote de Brouilly is an emphatic southern endpoint to the better part of Beaujolais. In spite of a checkered recent past (too much commercial junk wine) and a long plebeian history (read up on Phillip the Bold for more details) the region of Beaujolais gets a lot of respect at 3CUPS. Top-notch Beaujolais is superb with innumerable French bistro classics. To understand the impressive range of foods this wine can match, #1 try it with salmon and lentils and then #2 have a bottle (or two) of Chanrion Cote de Brouilly with a lardon-laden macaroni and cheese dinner. This red is fresh enough for the former, and cleanses the palate between fatty bites of the latter.

The Grape... 98% of this region's wine is red made from one grape variety: Gamay grown in this part of France has an unmistakable aroma, color, and flavor. Refreshing lightness, lower alcohol, bright acidity, and red-fruit juiciness make Beaujolais a perennially satisfying red wine to keep around the house. 

With guest chefs Austin Genke, Sam Genke, and Chris McKinley serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm. Tapas, Antipasti, call it what you want: a la carte delicious foods and wines served by-the-glass or flight. Make tasty fare at 3CUPS a regular part of your Friday nights.

• frogmore stew: shrimp, sausage, and corn soup with stone-ground grits
• arugula salad, shaved egg, bacon, croutons, parm, lemon herb dressing
• antipasti and meats: fennel and lentils, peperonata, caponata, coppa, salumi, toast
• whitebeans, rapini, stewed tomatoes, house-made sausage
• honey creme brulee

The wine... Ripe citrus fruit flavors. This wine has great intensity. This wine as sharp as a knife, clean, precise, to be served with oysters to people you like becuase if there’s any ambivalence about your dining companions, the little wine-hoarder devil on your shoulder will wish this wine back out of their glasses and into the bottle. It is too good to be $25.99, yet it is. A happy weekend starts here.
 
The estate... Roland Lavantureaux has been making excellent Chablis since 1978. With no Premier or Grand Cru vineyards to distract him, Lavantureaux has brought care, attention, and precision to his basic Chablis and Petit Chablis. This approach leads to wines that are often greater (and always cheaper) than Chablis made from classified vineyards around his region. This estate has proven that exceptional terroir in Chablis exists outside of the spotlight as well, and that a motivated farmer can overachieve from “lesser” fields.  
 
The land... Chablis is an isolated northern outpost of Burgundy, disconnected with the famous Cote d’Or and other points south that produce wines in styles more commonly considered “Burgundy.” In the 19th century vineyards covered, uninterrupted, a vast region beginning just north of Chablis and ending far to the south in the Rhone. After phylloxera, much lesser land surrounding Chablis went fallow. But Chablis remained, if diminished in size. Kimeridgean and Portlandian limestone marls underpin and forge the character of the best Chablis. The wines here are unlike anywhere else, with lift, brightness, and substance.

 Local Antipasti from Boxcarr Farms

With guest chefs Austin Genke, Sam Genke, and Chris McKinley serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm. Tapas, Antipasti, call it what you want: a la carte delicious foods and wines served by-the-glass or flight. Make tasty fare at 3CUPS a regular part of your Friday nights.

• creamy mushroom and barley soup with sherry wine, croutons
• mixed lettuces with capicola  ham, Hickory Grove cheese, turnips, walnut dressing
• house-cured salumi with toast, mustard, pickled vegetables 
• warm cabbage and lentil salad with grated apple, smoked pork
• sweet potato cake with brown-butter icing spiced nuts

The Wine… is quite a gem from the value-laden Languedoc. It is imported by Kermit Lynch, a pioneer in finding, importing, and being a champion of farm-made wines from Europe. Here is what he had to say about Lou Maset from Sylvain Fadat: “Since its arrival three weeks ago, this has been a favorite around the house, and it is fun (at least to me) to answer the question, Why? 1. Its pleasures are so accessible. 2. The flavors are quite Mediterranean, and at home we do a lot of Mediterranean-style cooking. 3. It is medium-bodied, yet still seems rich and meaty.”

The Winemaker… from Sylvain Fadat, the proprietor of the Domaine: “My family has been producing wine for over five centuries. Three generations ago, at the end of the 19th century, my ancestors were producing wine at Aupilhac and sending it all over France. When I launched the Domaine d’Aupilhac as an independent vigneron in 1989, I was also cultivating melons, asparagus, tomatoes, and peaches; but since 1992, I have concentrated exclusively on the vines. My father, Charles Fadat, an ornithologist particularly involved with woodcock preservation, enjoyed cultivating and developing the plants that belonged to my maternal and paternal grandparents. Between 1989 and 1992, vinification took place in old bowsers parked in the open air and I bottled the wines before the following summer! In 1993 I built a covered cellar equipped with modern, efficient equipment."

The Farming... Fadat again: “We plough the land regularly; this means the roots have to force their way deep into the cool sub-soil, thus protecting the vines from seasonal drought. We treat the land (terroir) with great respect, our absolute priority being to maintain its natural balance. We harvest the grapes by hand. The skins must be properly mature if we are to extract the best aromas and colour, as well as ensuring silky tannins. On young vines we carry out a summer or green harvest to remove some bunches before they reach maturity; this stops the vines suffering from the heat and helps root development. The land’s own yeasts ensure the grapes ferment naturally. The wines mature in casks and barrels in our underground cellar. We bottle the wines ourselves at the domaine, unfiltered. We believe that work in the vineyards has far more influence on a wine’s quality than what we do in the cave.”

Local Antipasti from Boxcarr Farms
Fri, Oct 1, 5-8pm
$6/plate or $25 for all five

With guest chefs Austin Genke, Sam Genke, and Chris McKinley serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm. Tapas, Antipasti, call it what you want: a la carte delicious foods and wines served by-the-glass or flight. Make tasty fare at 3CUPS a regular part of your Friday nights.

• chicken rillettes, preserved figs, toast
• French lentil soup, house-cured bacon,  croutons
• mixed lettuces, pickled red onion, shaved hakurei turnip, feta, herb dressing 
• gnocchi with smoked pork, mustard greens, red onions, parmesan
• chocolate cake, cajeta, sweetened goat milk curd

The wine... is really good with fresh butternut squash risotto. Bright clean Riesling fruit paired with rich, buttery and nutty pasta flavors can make for a good dinner. Dry Riesling rarely gets easier to enjoy than this: the wine is refreshing but not too edgy. I love 12 percent alcohol whites. Pretty fruit, and no heat.  

The estate... is organically farmed by Olivier Spanier. His family have cultivated the land around Hohen-Sulzen (near Worms) in the Rheinhessen for many generations. In the vineyard Spanier follows many of the tenets of Biodynamic agriculture. Spanier’s wife Carolin Gillot is also a talented winemaker with her own estate in the Rheinhessen, which means their 3-year-old son may be genetically hard-wired to grow outstanding Riesling.

The map... The Rheinhessen is a difficult area to organize. It is a large (61,000-acre) and relatively undifferentiated mass of towns that have an unnerving tendency to end with the suffix “heim.” It boggles my mind and resists compartmentalization. Take a map of the area out of context and one is left to look at a Wisconsin-shaped blob bordered on the east and north by the Rhein river. Because wine towns are scattered across a large landmass, the growers who are reshaping the region are often working in isolation from each other, and far from the Rhein. Today young idealists like Spanier and Gillot are creating a degree of recognition for their recently anonymous hometowns.

****Newsflash: You would have thought that the fourth week of September would be in the safe zone, temperature-wise, for an outdoor party, BUT NO! North Carolina's fickle weather raises its head, throws its monkey wrench in the works, mixes an untold number of metaphors.  Fear not, gentle reader, as we will still have a bevy of French winemakers pouring 20 wines under the aegis of 3CUPS' air conditioning today. We would put Boxcarr Farms' food truck inside, too, if it would fit, but Austin, Sam, and Chris will have to grin and bear it outdoors as they make your delicious foods to match the wines.****

Click here to see more details, menu, and clues about which winemakers will be here!

Local Antipasti from Boxcarr Farms
TONIGHT, Sep 17, 5-8pm
$6/plate or $25 for all five

Fresh off the hard work of Thursday night's party with French winemakers from Kermit Lynch, guest chefs Austin Genke, Sam Genke, and Chris McKinley will be serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm. Tapas, Antipasti, call it what you want: a la carte delicious foods and wines served by-the-glass or flight. Make tasty fare at 3CUPS a regular part of your Friday nights.

• antipasti trio: lentils with pumpkin seed pesto, white beans and mustard greens, barley with tomato and feta
• deviled eggs with arugula and herb salad, lemon dressing
• butternut squash soup with goat cheese creme and chives
• smoked pork with honey-mustard coleslaw
• lemon cheesecake with blueberries

With guest chefs Austin Genke, Sam Genke, and Chris McKinley serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm. Tapas, Antipasti, call it what you want: a la carte delicious foods and wines served by-the-glass or flight. Make tasty fare at 3CUPS a regular part of your Friday nights.

We got new shirts! At long last! In new colors! Perfect for outfitting your new emo rock band!

Tarts: Chocolate Ganache with Cape Gooseberries, Peach-Strawberry with Buttercream, and Fig-Port-Almond Cream, handmade by Annie Pambaguian of Carrboro's Sweet Little Something. Yum.

With guest chefs Austin Genke, Sam Genke, and Chris McKinley serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm. Tapas, Antipasti, call it what you want: a la carte delicious foods and wines served by-the-glass or flight. Make tasty fare at 3CUPS a regular part of your Friday nights.

The Coffee... The Recinos family are in their seventh decade of farming heirloom Bourbon Rojo and Typica coffee varieties.  The plants are fed by pure natural springs and protected from the Guatemalan sun by dense, indigenous forest.  The result is sweet, balanced, and clean, with notes of nut, fruit, and caramel.

The Farm... Tucked into a valley between two mountains, the farmhouse sits on a parcel of fairly flat land, near a beautiful stream and rolling pastures. Behind the ranch house, however, is the coffee farm, which soars nearly straight up towards the peak of the mountain. The effect is of a gigantic amphitheater, soaring above the valley floor below. This geography is great for coffee quality, since higher altitudes almost always mean better coffee.

We just received two darker reds that are going to be perfect for the cooler evenings of autumn. The timing is very good. They are stacked up by the front door, perfect for grabbing on your way into or out of our Boxcarr Farms small plates thingy Friday Night. Hint Hint.

All about Aranleon

The estate...was founded in 1927. Today they farm organically 40 hectares
of vines, focusing on indigenous regional grapes. The winery is located
in Los Marcos, a town in Valencia roughly 60 miles from the
Mediterranean Sea in southeastern Spain.

Aug 30 - Sep 4, 2010
Jenny vs. Bruno: - Pick 3 Tastes - $10

An importer face-off of the first order!

Clos du Gravillas Rendez-vous du Soleil - $8/gl - $19.99/btl

Chateau Petite Roubie Tannat - $5/gl - $9.99/btl

Dom. de Tournelle Savagnin - $9/gl - $36.99/btl

Mas Rimbert Travers de Marceau - $7/gl - $17.99/btl

Sunday Supper with Shawn Mead of Louis/Dressner Selections
Sun, Aug 29, 5-7pm
$45 in advance / $55 day-of

Great local food! Great natural wines from Burgundy and Beaujolais! Shawn Mead will be here to weave the stories of these wines into the evening, and to answer your big-and-small questions. She is a great host, the wines she brings to us are from some of the best natural estates in Europe. Space is limited. You'll leave happy, healthy, hopefully laden with new favorite wines. $45/$55 day of event. 

The wines:
Jean Manciat Macon-Charnay
Domaine de Roally Vire-Clesse
Clos de la Roilette Fleurie
Jean-Paul Brun l’Ancien
Georges Descombes Brouilly
Sylvie Esmonin Gevrey-Chambertin

Boxcarr Farms of Cedar Grove will be preparing the meal from the fruits (or vegetables) of their own labor. Austin, Chris, and Emma are supplying the summer flavor for our Burgundy/Beaujolais Sunday Supper:

• panzanella... mozzarella, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, red onions, croutons with herb dressing 
• corn chowder... house-cured and -smoked bacon, thyme, potatoes
• grilled chicken... swiss chard, basil, lemon spaetzle, herb jus 
• dessert... blueberries, sabayon, almond cookie

The Coffee... Sumatra is one of the classic coffee origins: deep, velvet-bodied, earthy notes with hints of dry cocoa and spice swirl in each sip. Sumatran coffees are renowned for their sweetness and lack of acidity; the perfect afternoon or late night coffee! This coffee, from the northern Sumatran region of Aceh, is shade-grown by a cooperative of small producers dedicated to shade-growing on small, family-owned farms.

The coffees from Gayo are wondrous. Deep, chocolatey, and velvety, they manage to achieve a very rare thing in coffee: they are earthy without being dirty, they have a long, sweet aftertaste that is never cloying, and their sweet, syrupy body make a strong cup of Gayo like drinking molten dark chocolate.

The Region... Aceh, as the region on the northernmost tip of the island of Sumatra is called, is a fascinating and complicated place. Aceh has been troubled by political instability for years.  You might remember Aceh as the place where the tsunami in 2005 had a devastating effect.

With guest chefs Austin Genke, Sam Genke, and Chris McKinley serving up small plates built from the flavors of their farm. Tapas, Antipasti, call it what you want: a la carte delicious foods and wines served by-the-glass or flight. Make tasty fare at 3CUPS a regular part of your Friday nights.

The Coffee... Caramel, chocolate, black cherry notes. The body of the coffee is juicy, a reliable Colombian coffee that delivers satisfaction with a sweet and clean aftertaste.

The Name... “La Golondrina” means “the swallow.” In Latin American culture, the swallow is a symbol of communication between people separated by distance and borders. The swallow crosses borders easily and carries messages of goodwill between friends, no matter how far away. Also, the swallow returns every year, just as we plan to return to Cauca every year.

The Project... Alejandro Cadena and Giancarlo Gianetti are two Colombians who dedicate themselves to finding and protecting small lots of great coffee grown in the mountainous region of Cauca. Alejandro and Giancarlo search Cauca for farmers willing to make the strong commitment to quality we need, and immediately send samples from potentially great farms to for analysis. If the coffee meets our standards, we purchase the lot from the small farmer who offered it at many times the local price. In this way, we were able to create a strong incentive for these talented farmers to supply us directly rather than sell it to the local mass-market buyers for homogenization and export.