Sokol Blosser Wine Blog

You may have read in the press recently that there are two bills being considered in your state legislature that would severely limit and/or cut-off your ability to order and receive wine from out-of-state wineries such as Sokol Blosser. Illinois has long been a reciprocal state, allowing for friendly and easy direct shipment of wine to Illinois residents. However, two bills - HB4350 and SB2180 - would replace Illinois’ reciprocal language with language that appears to allow direct shipping but actually includes poison pills that will cut-off our ability to ship wine to you in Illinois.

If you oppose these two bills, we encourage you to make your voice heard. Free the Grapes makes it easy to do so. Just visit their website, www.freethegrapes.org, click on "Illinois Consumers", and send a personalized message opposing HB4350 and SB2180 to your state legislators. It is quick and easy, and your voice will hopefully be heard.

Here's just a bit of the language in these two bills that would prevent us from shipping wine to you:
* The bills prohibit all wineries producing more than 100,000 gallons, about 42,000 cases, from shipping directly to IL consumers. This includes Sokol Blosser! We would no longer be able to send you Cellar Club shipments or any other wine!
* The bills prohibit shipments unless you have visited the winery, even if you have already been purchasing wines directly from wineries. While we'd love for you to come visit us, we imagine it might be difficult to accomplish for most consumers.
* While the model direct shipping bill allows a licensed winery to ship 24-cases of wine per year per consumer (and in New York, the limit is 36 cases), these proposed bills in IL would decrease that amount 90% to just two cases per year!

There is hope - HB 4444 is based on a model direct shipping bill that has passed and been implemented very successfully in other states, such as New York. We hope you will join us in our fight to preserve our ability to ship wine to consumers like you in Illinois. If you have any questions about this, please don't hesitate to call or email us.

Posted by Alison Sokol Blosser at 01:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We just received a call from our new UK importer, Les Caves de Pyrenes, letting us know that Decanter magazine called our 2002 Dundee Hills Pinot Noir "best red" for the month of February! We're quite thrilled about the news and wanted to share it with you as well. We won't start to see the February issue of Decanter state-side for another week or two, but when you do see it, be sure to pick up a copy!

Here's the text of the review:

BEST RED

Sokol Blosser Winery, Pinot Noir, Dundee Hills, Oregon 2002

"From its estate vineyards, Sokol Blosser has turned out an outstanding example of Pinot Noir from the Dundee Hills in Willamette Valley. This 2002 is made from relativey young vineyards, and it was the first vintage at the winery to be organically grown. The wine was aged is small oak (59% new) for 16 months and was aged in bottle for a year prior to being released. Though youthful and closed-in this lovely wine gradually reveals black cherry and earthy aromas with a hint of truffle and spice. Silky, delicate and supple, it has similar flavours backed by light tannin and light oak. The winemaker suggests it will age 10-15 years. It definitely needs 3-4 to evolve and could in fact be reaching its peak in a decade."

Posted by Alison Sokol Blosser at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)