Thief Wine Shop & Bar - Shorewood

06/02/2020

05/30/2020

🥰🍷 Thief Wine’s Meme of the Week
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05/29/2020

One of the most misunderstood categories in wine is dessert wines and sure, not everybody has a sweet tooth, but a great sweet wine shows a balance of sweetness and acidity. This acidity takes away the syrupy richness and clunky finish, making for a sweet, but clean experience. They're great as/with dessert, and accompany cheese plates and sweet/savory proteins for a main meal. Some of the world's most sought-after wines are sweet, though the wrongful, general perception is often dismissive.⁣
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Dessert wines are produced in a variety of regions around the world utilizing the grapes of those areas. The two main types of production are the passito method, where grapes are either left on vines to raisin or dried out in cool parts of wineries, concentrating sugars in the grape and minimizing the juice resulting in small yields of pretty dang sweet juice. The grapes are crushed and fermented (for months or years!) resulting in wines with high residual sugar, moderate to high acidity, and alcohol of 10%+.⁣
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Wines such as Port and Madeira are produced using fortification, where the fermentation of ripe fruit is stopped using neutral grape spirit which kills yeast, leaving residual sugar in the wine and a higher abv (typically 18%+). These wines are generally less sweet than passito wines, however the higher abv also gives consumers a greater perception of sweetness.⁣
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This is, of course, the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the broad, layered category of dessert wines, though we hope that it inspires our faithful patrons to give them a try! Check out some of the following great examples we've got in the shop to get started! ⁣
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🍇P.J. Valckenberg 2005 Beerenauslese, Rheinhessen Germany ($19.95 / 375 mL bottle, normally $29.95!) ⁣
🍇Dumangin Ratafia, Champagne France ($39.95 / 750 mL bottle)⁣
🍇Chateau Laribotte 2016 Sauternes, France ($20.95 / 375 mL)⁣
🍇Quinta do Infantado Tawny Port, Portugal ($17.95/ 750 mL bottle)⁣
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*awesome infographic from Wine Folly (which has even more great words on dessert wine if you’re interested!)

05/28/2020

🍇➡️🍷 We're taking a week off from our virtual tastings to let you (and ourselves) enjoy the weather, but if you're still itching for some wine knowledge check out this wonderful (and FREE) virtual wine class! The course, "World of Wine: From Grape to Glass," is presented by the University of Adelaide and is a comprehensive and entertaining 101 course that covers everything from farming to production to tasting. It's completed at your own pace and generally takes between 10-20 hours to complete. We highly recommend this course even if you're not new to wine! ⁣
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🏫👩🏻‍🏫 About the course: "Think about your favourite wine. Imagine the brilliance of its colour in the glass, the ripe fruit aromas on the nose, a hint of toasty oak and lingering tannins on the back palate. The attributes that make wine so enjoyable are achieved through the expertise of viticulturists and winemakers, whose decision-making in the vineyard and winery is underpinned by science – to be precise, viticulture and oenology. The finer details can take years to learn, but in a matter of days this course will give you a broad understanding of the principles and practices used to grow grapes and make wine, and their impact on wine appearance, aroma, flavour and taste. You’ll also gain an appreciation for how cutting-edge research is helping to secure the future sustainability of the global wine industry." ⁣
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Link: ⁣
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edx.org/course/world-of-wine-from-grape-to-glass⁣
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05/19/2020

🧑🏾‍💻🍷👨🏻‍💻🍷🎥👩🏻🗺🍇🍷⁣
Italian Whites Tasting with Kristin Milles of Dalla Terra Winery Direct Imports ⁣
this Saturday, May 23 From 7:30-8:15pm at your computer / tablet / phone⁣
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Since we can't currently hold tastings at our wine bar, we're going to keep going with our virtual tastings - they've continued to be super fun and popular! For this tasting, we're delighted to welcome Kristin Milles of Dalla Terra, a fantastic importer of some of Italy's best wineries. We'll be sampling three different Italian whites, one from the northeast of the country, one from the northwest, and then we'll finish with a delicious offering from the far south in Sicily! ⁣
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To participate:⁣
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1) Register for FREE at thiefwine.eventbrite.com⁣
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2) Purchase 1, 2, or all 3 of the wines (special pricing on the set); you don't have to purchase any wine to participate in the tasting, but it's a lot more fun to taste as you learn!* ⁣
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The wines will be:⁣
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-Inama 2018 Classico, Soave ($15.50)⁣
-Vietti 2018 Arneis, Roero ($23.95)⁣
-Tenuta Capofaro 2017 "Didyme" Malvasia, Sicily ($24.95)⁣
Purchase individually or as a set - only $60 for all three!⁣
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3) I'll send attendees a Zoom link and registration code in advance.⁣
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4) The tasting itself will last about 45 minutes; We'll open up each of the wines and discuss them, the regions, and the varietal itself; you can open up one, two, or three and taste along with us and ask questions. Super fun! (If you can't make it at that time, we'll be recording it as well so you can watch later!) We'll send you the Zoom link early on Saturday; if you don't receive it in by two hours in advance of the tasting please email [email protected] and we'll resend it to you.⁣
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*Note - if you do want to purchase wines, please let us know as soon as you're able so we can ensure we have enough quantity on hand - we had an amazing response for the previous tastings, so want to make sure we're prepared well for this one. Thank you so much for your support!⁣
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05/18/2020

Virtual Tasting with Vailia of Desparada Wine this Wednesday, May 20⁣
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7:30 - 8:15 p.m., at your computer / tablet / phone⁣
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Please join us for an intimate virtual winemaker tasting with Vailia From, winemaker and proprietor of Desparada Wines - we're really excited about this one! It'll be just one wine, so we can really drill down into the winemaking, you can savor and enjoy the wine throughout the night, and most fun of all, get to virtually meet Vailia.⁣
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Phil got to know Vailia several years ago when Thief Wine hosted her and her husband Russell From (of Herman Story Wines) for a consumer tasting; it was a huge hit and a lot of fun, and they ended up going out for a long and wine-soaked dinner with them that night. Man, they've got some good stories.
Here's Vailia's brief bio, in her own words:⁣
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"Vailia, I know, it's kind of an odd name. I was named after my grandmother, my mom's mom. I'd like to think that I got some of her strength, confidence, and pluck. She showed me the importance of packing light, keeping your friends close, and following your heart. That's where the name comes from - here's the stuff that you want to know: before I dropped out of high school, I was a 4H star and a straight-A student. I once got arrested in an airport for forgetting that my grandmother's beretta was in my purse. I spent two years living in a 1977 Royal International trailer on Pine Hawk vineyard, where the idea of Desparada was born. I make my own deodorant."⁣
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To keep this fully interactive and allow for a good discussion (i.e., participants will be unmuted), this tasting is limited to 20 entrants (if you're purchasing as a couple, that would just count as one, of course).⁣
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The wine will be her 2017 "Suitor", a fantastic blend of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc, sourced from four vineyards in central California. Super limited, like all of her wines (only 368 cases of this one!) and delicious!⁣
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The "Suitor" is $38.95, purchase it and register for the tasting at thiefwine.eventbrite.com, and then just give us a call or email to let us know at which location you'd like to pick your bottle up, and we'll have it ready for you.⁣
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We'll send you the Zoom link early on Wednesday; if you don't receive it in by two hours in advance of the tasting please email [email protected] and we'll resend it to you.⁣
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This one will likely sell out quickly, so get your tickets before they're gone!⁣
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05/16/2020

🧑🏾‍💻🍷👨🏻‍💻🍷🎥👨🏻‍🦰🗺🍇🍷⁣
We’re hosting another virtual wine tasting tonight at 7:30! This week’s tasting is very special as we have Peter Stolpman, proprietor of Stolpman Vineyards, joining us to taste through his very own wines! We are down to only a couple full sets of the featured wines, so if you still need to buy them call our shops ASAP! If you didn't acquire the wines but still want to join in on the educational fun, register at thiefwine.eventbrite.com and we'll send you the Zoom invite link and password!⁣ ⁣
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05/14/2020

👋 Hey, everyone, look at this bottle! LOOK AT IT! 👀 It’s magnificently badass. And it’s only $44.95! Call now and dibs one for yourself as we have a very, very limited supply of these Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Heredad Cava magnums. 🥂⁣
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From the winery: “Reserva Heredad was created to offer an elegant and versatile premium sparkling wine. Only the very best wines are selected from each vintage, then aged in bottle, in contact with the lees, for more than 30 months. This ageing ends with our winemaker giving every bottle the magic touch with the last poignettage or shake of the wrist, which intensifies the contact of the lees with the wine to create a more complex bouquet for an elegant Cava.” 🇪🇸⁣
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This is a truly high quality wine made with care and a very personal touch, all at an incredible value. After you drink it don’t recycle it though! Well, definitely recycle it as opposed to just throwing it in the garbage, but that's only if you’re actually trying to never see this beautiful piece of gothic art ever again. We mean don’t RE-cycle it, instead, UP-cycle it! This bottle deserves a second life. ♻️⁣
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Here’s a few ideas:⁣
-badass candle holder⁣
-badass tiki torch⁣
-badass lamp⁣
-badass vase⁣
-badass carafe⁣
-badass bird feeder⁣
-badass self-watering planter⁣
-badass home defense weapon⁣
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