Pick your poison.

The only thing to fear

is not grabbing these wines...

before they disappearrrrrr!

OoooOOOoohhhh!

El Maestro Sierra Amontillado 12 Year (375ML) 

Brought to us by: De Maison Selections | Free Run Wine Merchants 

Regular: $34.99 TWS: $27.99 

Sherry can easily be overlooked or misunderstood. Perhaps due to an association with dusty bottles of large production, low quality sherry or a literature induced fear of the fate of Fortunado, palates can be shy when it comes to this category of wine. If you are willing however, to be brave and a bit geeky, venturing into the depths of sherry leads to a treasure trove of incredible wines produced with painstaking care and patience, and a bounty of intriguing food pairings. 

My trick, if you dare to join me, is the 12-year Amontillado Sherry from El Maestro Sierra. The crown jewel of Jerez, Maestro Sierra is one of the few independent bodegas in the region. A tale of renegades, Maestro Sierra was founded in 1830 by Jose Antonio Sierra, a master cooper who broke through aristocratic ranks to become an established almacenista. The business passed down through the family and was led from 1976-2020 by Dona Pilar Pla Pechovierto, a beacon of talent and grace who stood her ground in a male-dominated world. Today Dr. Carmen Borrego Pla (daughter of the late Dona Pilar) is at the helm along with powerhouse capataza Ana Cabastrero and long-time consulting capataz, Paco Salas. 

Amontillado is a style of sherry that begins ageing biologically under a layer of flor (as pictured), but the flor naturally breaks up, and the wine then continues to develop and age with controlled oxidation under the watchful eye of the capataz(a). Produced from must of Palomino grapes grown in Jerez de la Frontera, this Amontillado from Maestro Sierra spends 12 years ageing in solera. They run the scales by hand – moving the wine manually between barrels in each layer (criadera) – with the oldest wine pulled from the bottom later (solera) for bottling without fining, filtration, or added SO2. What this renders stylistically is a delicious combination of oxidative flavors of toasted almond, black walnut, brown sugar, and dried fruit, with a hint of saltiness from its beginning under flor, all on a palate that is dry and smooth, elegant but powerful. Try this paired with a hearty, creamy crab soup or with some serrano ham, hard cheese, and olives while you wait for trick-or-treaters! 

-Lauren Loeffler

Les Lunes "Cosmic Blend" 2020

Brought to us by: Opici Family Distributing

Regular: $24.99 TWS: $19.99 

What makes Halloween so exciting is the unknown. What candy will you get, what costumes will you see, what will happen? To me, the best treats are unexpected surprises. I guess I like tricks that are treats and that’s exactly what the Les Lunes Cosmic Red Blend is to me. 

When I think of Cabernet Sauvignon, what immediately comes to mind is the rich, bold, and substantial styles of California. Honestly, probably something I’m not ready to drink until the middle of winter. So when I read that the Cosmic blend was 76% Zinfandel, 17% Merlot, 3% Cab Franc, 3% Zinfandel, 3% Chenin, the Cabernet Sauvignon shaped my expectation. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This California Bordeaux style blend is fresh, fun, and new. The nose is rich with spice and dark fruit. The palette is medium bodied and unfiltered with juicy deep black fruit followed by smooth tannins and lightened with acidity. This is achieved with shorter aging and maceration. The grapes were all harvested and vinified separately, hand-destemmed and gently macerated. The Merlot and a portion of the Cabernet Sauvignon were pressed as rosé. The wines were aged separately in neutral oaks and tanks for seven months, then blended and bottled without fining of filtration. Just the kind of Cali Cab Blend for someone tannin shy, like myself.

Les Lunes Wines was named in reference to the team farming and harvest the fruit by the cycles of the moon. The winemakers Shaunt Oungoulian and Diego Roig manage and farm their vineyards to ensure 100% organic farming and fruit without input. They produce in their own cellar as well to ensure no influence from other wineries. 

This delicious, organic, and bio-dynamic red is a wonderful way to embrace cooling weather. The label is a treat to look at too.

-Sheena Callage

William Fevre Saint Bris 2019 

Brought to us by: Maison & Domaines Henriot | Southern Glazer's of MD 

Regular: $24.99 TWS: $19.99 

Hail and well met weary traveler!  Welcome to my humble abode and rest your tired loins while I fetch us both a libation.  Ah! A fellow connoisseur I see! You recognize my bottle of William Fevre’s 2019 Chablis from Saint Bris, a delectable treat!  Let me go ahead and pour you a glass of this beautiful Chardonnay with notes of green apple, lemon zest, pear and dried grass with hints of honey.  Are you enjoying this heavenly ambrosia?  Good because you have been deceived!  Hoodwinked! Bamboozled! This wine is no Chardonnay, but rather Sauvignon Blanc! Saint Bris is the only Burgundy AOC to allow Sauvignon Blanc!  Now you know the terrible secret! That this bottle is not only Sauvignon Blanc from Chablis, but that it is also available for the low price of $19.99!  Dre, the impish wine trickster, has claimed another soul!

-Andrew Thorp

de Moor Le Vendangeur Masqué Caravan 2019 

Brought to us by: Louis Dressner | Free Run Wine Merchants

Regular: $29.99 TWS: $23.99 

As a child, going through your candy haul and realizing that you had been betrayed by your neighbors’ choice in candy was a viscerally disappointing moment. I mean, Almond Joy? Atomic Fireballs? Pixy Stix? What is wrong with these people? Was the store out of Reese’s Cups, or do they just delight in torturing children?

Then, later in life, you realize that Almond Joys are actually delicious and you were wrong all along. Sometimes, tricks can turn into treats with time and maturity, which is essentially the winemaking ethos in a nutshell. And with that clumsy segue out of the way…

Caravan by Le Vendangeur Masqué is a beguilingly weird and offbeat white. The winemakers are a husband and wife team who both studied oenology before buying up a small property in Chablis. They have slowly extended their land holdings over time, but still run a relatively small operation. Caravan is a collaborative effort with grapes from their own vineyards, as well as grapes sourced from friends in the wine industry across France: Chardonnay from Ardèche, Clairette from Drôme, Riesling and Pinot Blanc from Alsace, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Gris from the Loire Valley, and Aligoté from Burgundy. What you end up with is a richly layered and endlessly complex white wine. Aromatic varietals impart notes of honeysuckle and sweet spice, while the palate is a mélange of Golden Delicious apples, yellow pears, and dried citrus before finishing with a pleasing yeasty-cidery quality. An interesting and autumnal natural wine that needs to be tasted to be believed. 

Plus, the label has cute little beetles that look like Tiki masks, so it’s on-brand for Halloween!

-Andrew Sayers

Grant "La Garrocha" Oloroso Sherry (375ml)

Brought to us by: de Maison Selections | Free Run Wine Merchants

Regular: $18.99 TWS: $14.99

Tricky, strange, undead, and delicious; oloroso sherry is wine that fools the palate but treats it with joy if willing to except the bizarre. Sherry is a fortified wine from Southwest Spain with the majority coming from DO Jerez featuring the Palomino grape. Oloroso sherry unlike other sherries is aged without the flor (a protective layer of yeast that protects the wine, allowing it to age gracefully) instead more distilled alcohol is added, up to 19% ABV, which allows for a prolonged aging process. Just as most sherries, Oloroso “La Garrocha” undergoes the solera aging process. Solera aging is a process in which the wine is passed from one cask to the next multiple times always leaving wine in the previous barrel to age with next year’s wine, “La Garroccha” in particular goes through a 9 year solera ageing. “La Garrocha” offers a rich, nutty nose with hints of cocoa and toffee, but don’t be fooled this wine is bone dry. On the palate it maintains those notes of cocoa, almond, and toffee due to oxidation and prolonged aging process as well as that classic palate cleansing astringency associated with sherry which makes that next bite of food sooooo good. Great to drink as is, beside the fire in your robe but quite complimentary paired with your favorite chocolate dessert or Halloween candy.

-Matthew Supik

Remhoogte "Honey Bunch" Chenin Blanc 2020

Brought to us by: Well Crafted Wine & Beverage Co.

Regular: $24.99 TWS: $19.99

I’m a guy that’s much more partial to treats than tricks. That’s why I’ve chosen the Remhoogte Honeybunch Chenin Blanc from Stellenbosch, South Africa; an absolute treat. I am of the mind that you can overload your palate with too many big, oaky, rich white wines (looking at you, Cali-Chard butter bombs); however, in moderation and with nuanced winemaking, they are a real treat to savor.

Chenin Blanc juice is fermented for 8 months in French oak barrels. It then spends another year in those same barrels aging on the lees while undergoing malolactic fermentation. These three factors combine to create a rich, decadent, body and mouthfeel. The influence of oak on the actual flavor is mild, as its contributions to the texture shine through while the backbone of acidity and fresh tropical fruits balance the richness.

The resulting wine has a fresh and floral nose. Aromas of honeysuckle and orange blossom mix with tangerine, apricots, and toasted almonds. There is a touch of the honeyed spice of French oak on the palate, but primarily tropical mango and papaya give way to a more savory orange marmalade dry finish. This wine is a pairing dream, or great to enjoy as a treat in its own right.

-Jake Groenke

Taylor Fladgate 10 Year Tawny Port

Brought to us by: Kobrand Corp. | Republic National Distributing Company

Regular: $34.99 TWS: $27.99

Port wines are a style of wine I have always considered to be a definite treat. One of my favorite Ports is Taylor Fladgate's 10 Year Tawny. This style of Port is matured in seasoned oak casks each holding about 165 gallons of wine. Here, over years of ageing, the wine gradually takes on its characteristic amber "tawny" color, slowly developing the complex mellow flavors and the smooth luscious palate which are the hallmarks of Tawny Port. Taylor Fladgate blends its magnificent 10-year-old tawny from its extensive reserves of old cask aged Ports matured in their cellars. Taylor Fladgate 10-Year-Old Tawny is a superb example of the aged tawny style. Mellow and elegant, combining delicate wood notes with rich aromas of mature fruit, it is bottled for immediate drinking. It has a deep brick color. It boasts a rich and elegant nose combining aromas of ripe berry fruit with a delicate nuttiness and subtle mellow notes of chocolate, butterscotch and fine oak wood. It is smooth and silky on the palate and full of ripe figgy, jammy flavors which persist on the long finish. A delicious dessert wine, it combines particularly well with almonds, berries or dark chocolate. It also works great with blue cheese - the classic sweet and salty pairing. Nothing Tricky about it..... so Treat yourself today!!

-Dan Zetlmeisl

Bisson Pigato 2020

Brought to us by: Rosenthal Wine Merchant | Potomac Selections Inc.

Regular: $29.99 TWS: $23.99

In the wine world, few topics are more confusing than the naming and identification of grapes and varieties. This is due partially to the incredible mutability of the grape vine itself: vitis vinifera. When moved to a different terroir, over time a grape can adapt so that it no longer looks or tastes as it used to, though genetically it remains the same variety. This reflection of place and all the diversity entailed is part of what makes wine so exciting, but it also results in utter chaos when it comes to naming and identifying grape types. Throw profit concerns, cultural pride, language, regional differences and thousands of varieties into the mix and you have endless confusion. What is the difference between Syrah and Shiraz? Mourvedre and Monastrell?

One silver lining here is the pleasure of making connections and stumbling upon epiphanies. You might drink a delicious bottle of Pinot Nero, or Spatburgunder, with knowing that both grapes are actually what might be a more familiar wine: Pinot Noir. The trickiness of wine names results in the treat of finding an old friend from a new place, or of seeing something long known in a fresh light.

One of my favorite examples of this is Vermentino. Most famous as the delicious sea-food friendly white wine of Sardinia, it is also known as “Rolle” when grown in Provence, “Favorita” when in Piedmont, and “Malvoisie de Corse” on Corsica. But I think the most delicious form of Vermentino is called “Pigato” and grows on the dramatically steep, gorgeous, terraced vineyards of the Ligurian coast.

Though rare in Maryland, we currently carry a Pigato by Enoteca Bisson. If you love a good mineral-driven white like Sancerre or Chablis, try Pigato. Fresh and tart, but still substantial, the body of this wine comes from the grape itself, not oak. There is a plumpness reminiscent of peach juice or a bellini. The nose is beautiful showing under-ripe peach, bitter melon, lime pith, crushed stone, fresh kiwi, smoke, candied lime, and peach rings. The palate is more herbal, giving parsley/chervil, stone, and lime juice. 

Yum!

-Kasimir Bujak