Corti Brothers Newsletter for March 2004  Page 2

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For several newsletters now, I have proposed different versions of what Jancis Robinson and I think is the quintessential Australian white wine: Semillon--and Hunter Valley Semillon at that. Unfortunately, semillon does not ring a bell with Americans, nor for that matter with our customers. I do not know why. But I must admit defeat. We own considerable stock of these wines and since no one seems interested in buying them at the original price, to make them more interesting, we will lower their price, in the hopes that someone out there might just buy some and find them to their liking. Corti Brothers has some exclusively.

In Australian wine shows, it is the semillon class, especially the older vintages, which is the plum tasting. Semillons need time to develop and they develop very well (far better than chardonnay.) They are unique with fantastic bottle bouquet, color, and flavor. At 20 years of age, they are still young. Since I find them fascinating, I have bought them whenever possible, but I must admit they are a very hard sell. There are several vintages that we own from the two famous producers in the Hunter Valley, McWilliams and Tyrrell. These two producers usually vie for the trophy wine in the semillon class. So here goes our sales offer.

McWilliams Mt. Pleasant Lovedale Semillon 1986 Sold out.

Tyrrells Vat 1 Semillon 1996 Sold out.

Tyrrells Reserve HVD Semillon 1995 Sold out.

Tyrrells Stevens Reserve 1996 Sold out.

Tyrrells Stevens Reserve 1998 Sold out.

 GRABER OLIVES: California’s (therefore America’s) best olives. 

For 110 years, the Graber family has produced a very special olive from their orchards in the Sierra Foothills and cured at their plant in Ontario, California, just east of Los Angeles. These are not your ordinary canned olives. They have a texture and savor unique to their special curing techniques. But their special character begins in the orchard. There, the hand picked Manzanillo olives-- which are ripening, turning from green to pink to a blush red-- are gently picked to avoid bruising the skin which shows up as a blotch on the cured olive.

Graber olive color is unique: it is an “olive” color, not green, not brown, but a yellowish, ruddy color indicative of the fruit’s original ripeness. Graber olives are the color Nature intended them to be.

Once selected out of the curing vats, the olives are canned according to size, and retorted. They then go out to discriminating palates. Very silky textured, their flavor rich and nutty, they are unlike any other commercial
olive. Graber tree ripened olives come in four presentations. These depend on fruit size. All the cans are the same #300 size, packed 24 to a case. The largest size, #16, is the rarest, simply due to its size. This can holds about 25
olives. Slightly smaller sizes, #14 and 12, contain about 29 and 40 olives respectively.

Corti Brothers customers should be aware of Graber Olives. Once opened, they are irresistible. In fact, they provide palate refreshment at several wine competitions in California. I do not think they distort wine flavor and we judges love them. You will too.