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Happy Easter to everyone. You will find an outstanding variety of wines for your Easter get togethers in our stores, with the hottest ad prices in the area. With warmer weather comes the opportunity to start drinking lighter wines like Sauvignon Blanc’s, Moscato’s and sweet wines from our wineries in Illinois, Missouri and Indiana. There are lots of exciting new items coming out, so keep shopping. The Dreaming Tree wines from Dave Matthews taste great! 14 Hands from Washington state is another outstanding brand recently added to our shelves.
I hope you had a chance to try the Sam Adams Winter Lager Seasonal. It was an outstanding beer for the holidays. They are transitioning to their Spring beer over the next few weeks – Alpine Spring! This is a citrusy unfiltered beer with light hoppiness and smoothness. Also, the new 12pk Variety Pack, called Spring Thaw, it coming soon. It will have 2 of each – Spring Thaw, Sam Adams Boston Lager, Irish Red, Maple Pecan Porter (sounds delicious!), Double Agent IPL and White Lantern. Check it out!
2012 is quickly coming to a close, and I’m still trying to figure out where the year went. I want to offer up some suggestions for sparkling wines to ring in the new year. Keep in mind, when people talk “champagne” they are most likely talking about all sparkling wines, the only wines that can call themselves “champagne” have to be from the Champagne region of France, and while there are some great items available, there are a lot more “sparkling wines” that most customers purchase. If you like a traditional sparkling, you can’t beat Korbel Brut or Korbel Extra Dry. If you like sweeter sparklings, drink Martini Asti Spumante or Barefoot Bubbly Spumante. The most exciting sparkling wines now are Moscato d’ Asti which are delicious and from the Asti region of Italy. Spanish Cava’s like Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut are growing in popularity. Italian Prosecco’s are popular as well, and have less “bubbly” to them. Lastly, there are malt based sparkling wines like Verdi Spumante and Delicia Sparkling wines that are in the $5-$8 range and are very enjoyable. Be safe and have fun – Here’s to a great 2013!
Available in our stores now for a very limited time is Bud Project 12. 6 months ago, Anheuser-Busch InBev asked their 12 Brewmasters across America to develop a new craft beer worth of carrying the Budweiser name. 6 were chosen to be run in small batches and were sampled out to tens of thousands of consumers at summer events. After consumer feedback, they chose 3 beers to produce and provide in this sampler pack. The package is a 12pk and has 4 bottles each of a deep amber lager from Los Angeles, CA, a deep golden pilsner from St. Louis, MO and a bourbon cask lager from Williamsburg, VA. They are all outstanding tasting beers and you should pick one of these up to take to your next holiday get together, or sitting at home watching the football game with your friends. This will probably be gone in 3 weeks, so get it now, you won’t be disappointed.
Marty the Liquor Guy checking in again. As the Beer, Wine and Liquor Category Manager for Niemann Foods I want to take a moment to say “THANK YOU” for your business. As we are heading into the holiday season, please think of us for all of your food and beverage needs. I will have some incredible ad pricing coming your way. I have reviewed my competitors ads weekly for 10 years now and I can tell you that we are consistently the best place to purchase your beverages at the best prices around. Of course, with us being a supermarket I can not carry as much variety of wine and liquors as the specialty wine shops, but I work to make sure we have the items you want at the best prices around. I am very selective when choosing new wines and liquors to bring to our stores as well, while many of our competitors approve every new item into their stores. If you knew how many poor quality wines I tasted each week and end up pouring down the drain, you would appreciate the time we take to make sure we are providing you great quality products with much variety and at various price points as well. Enjoy the holiday season, and again, thank you for your business.
There are a lot of new mainstream beer items coming to our market area for Spring/Summer. Bud Light Lime-A-Rita tastes great, but customers might be tempted to pour the bottles into their blender with ice to make a blended margarita. Anheuser-Busch is also coming out with Mich Ultra 19th Hole Tea/Lemonade. I drank it last week, it has a strong tea flavor and a very mild lemon/lemonade flavor. Very refreshing for those that drink tea. Mike’s is bringing out Strawberry Margarita in 6pks. Sam Adams decided to get into the growing Cider business and is launching Angry Orchard Ciders. I am starting with the Crisp Apple variety for my stores to introduce the brand to our customers. We will continue to see lots of new items, so if you are in the mood to try something new, there will be plenty of options in the stores.
Vodka is the largest selling category in spirits, and flavored vodka’s have always kept up with the latest trends like Cranberry, Lime, Pomegranate, etc… But there are some new unique flavors that I had my doubts about, but they taste incredible and are selling well. We have Pinnacle Cherry Lemonade, Pinnacle Whipped Cream Vodka, UV Cake Vodka (tastes like cake and frosting!), UV Sweet Tea Vodka, UV Espresso Vodka, Three Olives “Dude” Lemon-Lime Vodka (to mix with Mt Dew), Burnett’s Fruit Punch Vodka, and coming next month Smirnoff Coconut Vodka and Burnett’s Whipped Cream Vodka. They are different for sure, but you have to give them a try. Most mix well with Coke or Pineapple Juice.
Crown Imports brought a new Mexican beer to the U.S. this year in a few select markets. They launched it in Texas, California, Chicago and some downstate IL areas, and the Carolinas. It is called Victoria Beer. It is the #1 selling beer in Mexico. I had a chance to drink this item this week. It is an outstanding beer. Very smooth and easy to drink. If you like Corona, you have to try this. If you don’t like Corona because it has a “skunky taste” you need to try this. If you like hoppy IPA’s, you won’t like this because it won’t have enough flavor for you. We are currently selling it in these markets in downstate IL – Monmouth, Pekin, Bloomington, Springfield and Sterling. These are the only markets we can get it at this time. If you are fortunate to live in or near one of these areas, get out to County Market or Cub Foods (Bloomington) and give this beer a try. Victoria Beer available in 6pk Bottles only. Take care.
The Moscato craze is as big as White Zinfandel was years ago. White Zinfandel was made by accident when Zinfandel grapes were removed from tanks early and created a pink wine. They added sugar for sweetness and White Zinfandel grew to become the #1 varietal for many years. Moscato was no accident. The Muscat grape has been used for years in Sparkling wines. Our #1 Sparkling Wine, M&R Asti, is actually made with 100% Muscat Grapes from the Asti region of Italy, it just never called itself a Moscato D’ Asti. You can find Moscato’s that have “frizzante” or bubbles in our sparkling sections, or if you don’t want bubbly, there are several to choose from in the misc. white sections. They all taste great, with just the right amount of sweetness. I have found that the Italian Moscato’s have a little more flavor and crispness than the California ones. Yellow Tail Moscato is new from Australia and it has just a touch of bubbles which makes it unique and very popular. Other popular Moscato’s are Barefoot Cellars, Beringer, Jacob’s Creek and many more. Pick up a bottle today, chill it down and give it a taste. I think you will be pleased.
I received a couple 12pk Bottles as samples of this new line extension from MillerCoors, and it is a great product. MGD 64 Lemonade is a 64 calorie beer with lemonade flavor. Last year, I really enjoyed Leinekugel Summer Shandy, which is a similar lemonade flavored beer, but they do taste different. Sometime in the next month when you are outdoors on a hot night grilling and enjoying a beer – You must try MGD 64 Lemonade, a refreshing lighter beer that tastes incredible. We will have these available across all stores in 6pk Bottles and 12pk Bottles.
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