During the last few weeks, I’ve had the great good fortune of sampling a bunch of wines from two of the most distinctive, essential importers going: Kermit Lynch (about whom I’ll be posting more later) and, last night, Eric Solomon.

While Solomon wasn’t present, his spirit surely was at Bourget Imports’ warehouse in St. Paul last night. Most important, his fabulous (but, alas, limited) portfolio of great juice from France, Spain and Portugal was there for the sampling.

It’s rare to hear experienced wine professionals rave about an aroma or flavor profile that is new to them. Such was the case with the Conreria d’Scala Dei Blanco Les Bruegere, a grenache blanc from Priorat that smelled like one was bathing in pear juice (or, at other times, pulling a pear tart straight out of the oven). Bill Abrahamson was ordering as much as he could for Sutler’s in Stillwater, and everyone was gushing about it.

Which is saying something at a tasting that included: some killer Chateauneuf-du-Papes and a superb Lirac “Chapelle de Maillac” from the estimable Domaine Roger Sabon; superb Spanish wines from Manchuela (Alto Landon), Rias Baixas (Paza de Senorans Albarino), Rioja (Vila Viniteca Paisejes) and especially Priorat (Bodegas Mas Alta Artigas, Celler de l’Encastell Lo Givot); and two stunning bottles from Portugal, the Pintas Red and Guru White.

As great as the wines were, what impressed me just as much was seeing which merchants were on hand to explore Solomon’s extraordinary portfolio. I wasn’t there the entire time — only for 2 1.2 hours – but the folks besides Abrahamson doing serious reconnaissance included Michael Hennessy from the emerging McDonald’s in south Minneapolis; three of my favorite smaller merchants in St. Paul (Paul and KaTrina Wentzel of the Wine Thief, Chuck Kanski from Solo Vino and Jeffrey Huff from the Little Wine Shoppe) and a trio of Andersons (David, Gretchen and Alicia) from France 44.

Without putting too fine a point on it, these are people who want the very best for their stores, and a big part of the reason (along with some others like them)  that wine shopping in the Twin Towns is better than ever.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 7:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.