Wine briefs: Wine of the week

By Times staff, wires
Published August 8, 2007

Wine of the week

Solo Arte vin santo, Castellani

While vin santo can be hard to find, opening a cold half bottle of any dessert wine is a grand Idea of the Week, especially when the week is a mid-August scorcher.

Vin santo is a special high-proof treat from Tuscany made strong (16 percent) and sweet through special small-batch winemaking of a rustic, artisan style. Grapes are drained and dried to become sugary raisins, then fermented twice to make a rich drink that is aged for as long as 10 years, sometimes on the farmhouse roof.

Solo Arte's is not too sweet, a copper-golden color, part almond and part honey (with a few stingers left in). It's richest served warm, or on a summer night, brought down to an icy thickness in the freezer.

Any sweet wine, whether a late harvest, vin santo or just a rich muscat in a $15 half bottle, is a bargain summer refresher to keep in the fridge.

Get behind me, August!

Availability: In selected shops, approximately $10.

 
Watering holes

Westchase has its own brew-haha foaming with beer fans at the World of Beer (9524 W Linebaugh Ave., Tampa; (813) 852-2337), a branch of Clearwater's long-standing beer specialist, this time with bar stools and live music.

Thirty-some beers on tap include brisk IPAs, German kolsch, double chocolate stouts and brawny Belgians, with 600 more by the bottle, imports and American microbrews as well.

Those with earthier tastes can look forward to Ground, a new shop on Franklin Street in downtown Tampa that will sell organic coffees and wines to drink on-site or take home. Owner Leslie Shirah, who opened the Fly Bar and Restaurant (1202 N Franklin St., Tampa; (813) 275-5000), is working on plans to put something new in our cups later this year.

A collector wine?

The first movie-branded wine, 2004 Ratatouille Bourgogne Chardonnay, won't make its debut on retail shelves after all. Walt Disney and Costco decided at the last minute not to introduce the $12.99 wine. Concerns that a wine-drinking cartoon rat would appeal to kids quashed the project.

Named for the foodie flick Ratatouille, the wine is a modest white from Burgundy, imported by D.C. Flynt M.W. Selections. The producer, Chateau de Messey, bottled 500 cases with a label featuring the movie's hero, Remy. The bottles are still in D.C. Flynt's warehouse.

What happens to the wine?

"I honestly don't know," Flynt said . "It won't be dumped, but it won't be available - at least not to the public."

Will it end up on eBay? If not, you can track down a bottle of 2004 De Messey Macon Cruzille and still taste the wine, though with the original label.

Staff reports, Times wires

[Last modified August 7, 2007, 14:50:34]