Why our Wine Club?
People often ask us to name our favorite wine.
It’s a difficult question for us to answer, because we’ve spent decades working in one wine shop or another explicitly so we never have to settle on one answer. The real secret is this: we never know where the next great wine is going to come from. Of course we all have favorites, and we’re pretty sure we’re going to be happy every time someone comes in with a Riesling, but the real joy of wine is in the surprises. When we taste a Gruner Veltliner that spent ten years on the lees before release, or a Chenin Blanc from old vines in Mendoza that sets fire to our socks, or a seemingly humble Willamette Valley Pinot Noir that has seven or eight more years of age than it reasonably should. Reliably great wines that hit their marks vintage after vintage are wonderful to have and we put a lot of time and thought into finding those wines for our customers, but at the end of the day it’s the wines that truly surprise that keep us coming back for more.
It is for these wines that we have at long last chosen to start a Liner & Elsen Wine Club. This does not replace the newsletter; it would be silly of us to do away with thirty years of tradition, but rather, the Wine Club augments it. When you open up our newsletter, you know that each and every wine comes with the L&E stamp of approval. Those are the wines we share with our friends and keep in our own cabinets. The Wine Club will be a smaller set of wines, just two bottles or four, with a premium add-on option. You can expect these wines to surprise you, to open the door just a little wider on what grapes, and those who tend to them, are capable of, and maybe change your opinion of a wine style or region you thought you knew. These are wines for special meals, to celebrate birthdays and to impress your friends, and we can’t wait to share them with you.