A change is gonna' come II (Dayton Wine Trail edition)

Another new development at Bruning's is upon us. The first iteration of the wine tasting limo bus tour that we've been talking about for what feels like months is coming up soon. On Saturday, April 17, we're going to kick off what we are currently planning to make a monthly event.

The Dayton Wine Trail will include wine tastings at Bella Vino Wine Merchants in Springboro, Culinary Company in Centerville, and here at Bruning's. We'll start the bus loop here at 1 pm. The bus will make continuous loops until 5 pm, so you'll be able to start at any one of the locations and hit all three before returning to your point of origin. This should be a great chance to meet some new people and try some great wines in enjoyable new settings. The best part of all is that the transportation is free! You'll only pay for the wines you taste at each location.

A change is gonna' come (with apologies to Mr. Dylan)

Spring is in the air. It's really nice out there right now. So I'm enjoying it by sitting inside and staring at a computer monitor. Awesome, right?

Anyway, Spring is a time for change, so I thought I'd drop a little knowledge on you about some changes afoot at Bruning's Wine Cellar. The big news is that we've recently added some new wine racks, increasing our label potential by over 50%. If you haven't been by in a couple of months, you'll find a lot of new wine available now, with more coming every week.

Spring is also the time to start enjoying lighter, fresher wines. Some new springtime classics available now include Con Class Rueda, Mirth Chardonnay, and Bellenda Prosecco. Of course, we have all our old favorites, as well.

In Seville, Spain, they celebrate Spring with the famous La Feria de Abril. Much Sherry is consumed during the six-day party, pictured above, so we're going to honor that tradition with a Sherry tasting featuring the libations of Emilio Lustau on April 21.

Exciting times here at Bruning's. We hope to see you all! Here's what we're tasting this week.

Wine times in Cincinnati

This past weekend saw the arrival and subsequent departure of this year's edition of the Cincinnati Wine Festival. We went down on Friday during a trade preview of the event and sampled the wares of most of the distributors in Ohio. We also had a fantastic dinner at Daveed's at 934 in Mount Adams, a restaurant I highly recommend you try if you ever find yourself in that neighborhood. Anyway, at the Festival, 600 wines were on display (I spit...mostly), and I have to say I was excited to taste a few that were new to me which you'll see appearing in our shop over the next few weeks.

I was really excited about the wines from JAQK Cellars. The packaging is a little bit gimmicky (okay, a lot gimmicky), but is very well done. And no one could argue with the quality of the wines. They were fantastic. I especially loved the Pearl Handle Chardonnay and the Black Clover Merlot. This stuff is new to Ohio and is not in stock at the distributor yet, but keep your eyes pealed for these great wines. I know I'll be bringing some in as soon as possible.

On the value front, there were also some great finds. El Vilosell is a northern Spanish blend that has power, finesse, grip and elegance inside the bottle, with a great looking label, to boot. And it costs like eighteen beans. Forefront, a Pine Ridge label, was also showing an out of this world value Napa Cab that is now under $20. Both of those should be here any second now.

Those are just a few of the highlights I'm excited about. Here's what we're tasting this week.

Ratings...what are they worth anyway?

I came across a wine a few weeks ago that I liked enough to bring in to the shop. It's a reasonably priced Tempranillo from Spain called Casajus VS. After I bought some, I wandered over to the interwebz to do a little checking on what others think of the wine (not that I really care). To my (lack of) amazement, I found the opinions varied in extremis. To wit, The Wine Spectator, that bastion of editorial integrity, basically hated it (to the tune of a whopping 78 on their supposed "100 point" scale wherein no wine ever scores below a 75). The Wine Advocate, on the other hand, decided it was heaven-sent, declaring it worthy of a near-classic rating of 92 points, which is quite high for a $24 bottle of wine. Perhaps they had a nice meal at Casajus.

So, who's right?

I'll let you think about it for a minute.

Still thinking?

The answer, I'm sorry to say, is immaterial. Now, I'm not going so far as to say that the only opinion that matters is your own (though I have in the past said that very thing when caught in moments of unguarded hyperbole). I do think, however, that unless a wine is to be considered universally classic, or great, or whatever, no consensus is necessary.

I have customers that are score hounds, buying only "90+" wines (or whatever). Many of them trust one publication but not another, with no discernible pattern to said predilection. None of this is to bash that kind of wine buying, or the writers who guide it. Hell, I read all of the wine rags. I do think that it's important to remember how subjective the whole thing is, though.

So, while I won't say that any wine some random schmuck likes is great, I will say that if you really want to know what's good, you may want to try it for yourself. Here's what we're tasting this week.