Alcohol in the news; Halloween Beers from the Corkscrew

From WCIA 3 CBS/ Illinoishomepage.net

Halloween Beers from the Corkscrew

Nick Bland from the Corkscrew brought a beer and a wine to the show.

The beer is Southern Tier Pumpking. The beer is available throughout town in retail and at the bars. It's on tap in quite a few bars.

The wine is Werewolf from Romania.

alcohol in the news; La Capra Viognier

From WCIA3 CBS/Illinois Homepage.net

La Capra Viognier

Nick Bland from the Corkscrew shows a clear wine for under $10.

La Capra Viognier, Nick really likes this wine.

Corkscrew also carries the Chenin Blanc.

alcohol in the news; 1-on-1 with buvons

From the Buzz

One on-One with Domenico Musumeci, manager of Buvons, Corkscrew's new wine bar

It's from the buzz, so the article is ... meh.

The Corkscrew

Beer Review; Founders Nemesis 2010

Wednesday evening, Jacob from Radio Maria, sent out a Facebook message stating that Founders Nemesis 2010 would be on tap starting Thursday at 4:05. After I sobered up, and spent most of the day at work, I coerced a colleague into taking me downtown to Radio to have one.

This year's Nemesis is a black barleywine. Black is the new black. Everyone is making a black something these days. There's plentiful black IPA's. It's the new IT beer. That's not a problem. Some of them are really good.

Inside the bar, this one came out looking black, and opaque. It had a nice caramel head. There was some good tight bubbles, and good lacing as it was drank. I later took it outside to the patio, and it did have some see-through-ness to it. It was like a really dark tea, or thin coffee.

It smelled hoppy and malty, with maybe a bit of chocolate. It had a lot of effervescence. It felt sort of thin. Eventually, any beer that went over the edges on the pour wound up being very sticky and syrupy. It could easily be confused with a stout based on the appearance, and the thinness of the mouthfeel will remind you that it is a barleywine.

With the color, the flavor expectations are chocolate, roast, coffee. Those are there, but predominately it tastes like a barleywine. It's got a peppery flavor in it, that I associate with barleywines. Additionally, there was a slight metallic ting to it. It wasn't unpleasant, but kind of made my teeth feel weird. An alcohol flavor was also present.

Overall, I really enjoyed this beer. Some people liked it better than last year's wheatwine, but I think I liked that one better. It did remind me of that beer. Initially, the thinness of the beer made it seem like it would be a quick drink, but that's not the case. At Radio Maria, this beer is served in a snifter, it took me about 45 minutes to drink it. It seems like it'd be fast, but this beer is to be sipped and savored.


Some other comments I heard while drinking it were:

Eric (distributor): said it seems less like a barleywine and more like a black IPA. (I agree)

Matt (colleague who took me to Radio): I like this, this stuff's good. I would have to say after tasting this year's and last, I would say that last year's blew me away. And while this year's is delicious, it was a little underwhelming.

In Champaign Urbana, the beer is currently available on draft at Radio Maria. It will eventually be available at Blind Pig and Crane Alley. Bottles of this beer are available at Crane Alley, Seven Saints, and Farren's. If you want some to take home and enjoy (or age), bottles are available at Friar Tucks, Piccadilly, Corkscrew, and Sunsinger. According to Eric, there weren't many cases that made it into town, so if you want some, you should go shopping soon. Also, you may want to call around to those locations to make sure they still have it available.

Alcohol in the news; New Wine Bar

From WCIA 3 CBS/ Illinois homepage.net

New Wine Bar

Anne checks out a new wine bar next to the Corkscrew in Urbana.

Buvons is in the news again. Nick Bland hosts Anne Dill for a live, offsite Whetting your whistle. They share a wine.

Alcohol in the news: It's your business: Wine bar now open adjacent to Corkscrew

From the News-Gazette

It's Your Business: Wine bar now open adjacent to Corkscrew

Buvons, the wine bar adjacent to the Corkscrew Wine Emporium in Urbana, is now open.

For the last few weekends, the Corkscrew has been holding its wine tastings in the new space and it officially opened the wine bar last weekend.

I was in there a couple of weeks ago, right before it opened, and the place looks really cool. Well, it did before it was open.

At Buvons, patrons can order wine by the glass or the bottle. Fourteen wines will be available, including six whites, six reds, a sparkler and a sweet. Every six weeks, staff members will change the offerings, but they'll always have the best-selling white and red available, said Nick Bland, manager and co-owner of the Corkscrew.

There are signs for it around town now, including a large one on University Avenue.

The name Buvons, which means "Let's drink" or "We drink" in French, was suggested by a French friend of the owner, Geoff Bland.

...

Buvons, at 203 N. Vine St., can be reached at 337-7704. It's open from 4 to 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

Alcohol in the news: Spanish White Wine

From WCIA 3 CBS Morning Show, Illinoishomepage.net

Spanish White Wine

Nick Bland, from the Corkscrew Wine Emporium talks about white wine.

The Corkscrew is building a bar on the south side of the building. The area looks great, and will be able to seat a lot of people. According to Nick, they should be open next week.

Alcohol in the news; Jaboulet Parallele 45

From WCIA 3 CBS, Morning Show, Illinoishomepage.net

Jaboulet Parallele 45

Nick Bland from the Corkscrew drinks Jaboulet Parallele 45, with the Morning Show people.

Alcohol in the news; Where and how to go wine tasting

From the Buzz.

Where and hot to go wine tasting

I think the author, and editor, may have spent to much time tasting wines. I don't mean to nit pick, but seriously, this article is flawed. Instead of going to learn about wines, they should have learned about writing.

By the time I cross the stage at Foellinger, I will gladly be graduating with a B.A. in English and a minor in Coors Light. A self-proclaimed Burnett’s Vodka connoisseur, I have experimented with several you-call-it style concoctions. When away from my home bar top, my choice usually falls between beer or liquor.

...

However, Champaign-Urbana is a wine-rich community. With various wine tastings in the area, many of them for free, one can easily supplement their collegiate education with one in the ways of wine.

...

While the is vineyard located in Southern Illinois, the family runs satellite locations and provides a daily wine tasting for CU.

"While the is vineyard located", shouldn't that be "While the vineyard is located"?

Manager Nick Bland said that their Saturday tasting (2-6 p.m.; small fee, never more than $5) usually have some sort of theme loosely based around the wine’s country of origin, varietals, or style, creating a more global knowledge of wine rather than just which ones taste good.

Take away the parenthesis and the sentence reads "their Saturday tasting usually have".

But the biggest error (the one that would have cost me 25 points each time I did it (on a 100 point scale) was...

A more recent addition to the area is Wine at the Pines in Urbana, which opened in October of 2009. In addition to wine, Wine at the Pines also serves baked goods from Milos, teas, and Metropolis coffees, filling the void that Bar Giuliani left.

A misspelled name, Wine at the Pines.

If you look at the article, the image that shows up is a picture of the place. Underneath the picture of Wines at the Pines, is the caption, Wine at the Pines.

There is some good information about how to sample wines; and some nice do's and don'ts. Also, the article lets you know where you can go to taste the wine.

So, the article has good information, it's just somewhat poorly written and edited.

(If you are going to complain about my blog; remember, this is a blog, not an article that was actually printed)

Places mentioned in the article are:

Corkscrew

Wines at the Pines

Krannert Center

Alto Vineyards

Alcohol in the news; Summer Beers

From WCIA 3 CBS Morning Show/Illinoishomepage.net

Summer Beers

Nick Bland from the Corkscrew shows some summer beers.

He talks about lawnmower beers, kindof. The first is Konig Pilsner, the second is North Coast Acme IPA.

The conversation leaves beer...

Alcohol in the News; Red Wines for Robert

From the WCIA 3 CBS Morning Show.

Red Wines for Robert

Nick Bland from the Corkscrew Wine Emporium visits.

Nick brings 2 different rose's. One from Portugal, one from Washington State.

Alcohol in the Local News, Lady Rose

From WCIA, CBS 3

Lady Rose

Nick Bland from the Corkscrew talks about Lady Rose.