Our cellar-dwelling reporter, Andrew Chalk, sends this report.
What Is The Recession Doing? Even Sacred Things are 50% Off.
You may have heard of Sacred Cellars. They are the wine merchant at the fashionable end of Sadler Circle that specializes in hard to find quality wines from all corners of the globe. Unlike many apparent incarnations of said concept around town they are not the far-flung offshoot of some distant corporate franchise but the year-old child of two serious oenophiles, Rudy Ced and Paul Burrough, who have serious palettes and the connections to get hold of small production stuff. Rummaging through the shelves in their store is like picking through a Victorian attic.
They publish a weekly newsletter and have just started a new feature called Steal of the Week. It features a single highly recommended wine on sale at some outrageous discount. I don’t mean the usual 15-20% off. This is 50% or more. For example, this week the ‘larcenized liquid’ is 2006 Hewitson ‘Old Garden’ Mourvedre from the best wine growing area of Australia, Barossa Valley. Google “2006 Hewitson ‘Old Garden’ Mourvedre” and convince yourself that $40 is about the going freight for this. It also scored 93 points from top wine critic Robert Parker, making it worth that price. The steal price is $20.
I tasted it and this thing is ready to drink tonight with steak, lamb or venison. It has enough tannin to disqualify it as a ‘fruit bomb’ (good thing) but those tannins are soft (quite voluptuous actually) so it doesn’t leave the inside of your mouth feeling rough. The fruit is very forward, mainly raspberries and plums. And the nose has that whiff of cigar box that makes red Bordeaux smell so classy. At $20 I think this is a must buy. Don’t keep it too long (maybe no longer than a couple of years) as I suspect the fruit will fade. 214-764-6858.
[Ed. note: No, he does not work there.]
