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Bella Vita’s web site is up and running. Click here to visit. One thing missing that I see is that there are no vintages listed with the wine selections. The division of the wine list is a bit puzzling as well, but I am happy to see them out on the web.

I hadn’t noticed this comment on an earlier post, but straight from Chris Hoel himself…

“Well I can tell you…. It’s been a wonderful experience moving to Napa after living in St. Louis for over 24 years. St. Louis is and will always be very close to my heart.

I miss my friends and family and my baseball!. GO CARDS!”

Thanks to Lauren from Bella Vita for forwarding a list of available wines to me. She says that the list will have changes and additions in the near future, but this is what is available now.

*****Please note I have taken the list down as there are new changes.*****

With all the craziness that goes into a 4th of July weekend, I was unable to make it in. However, with Shooting Star Blue Franc on the list, it won’t be long. Thank you to Lauren and Gordon for your help.

I just got off the phone with Gordon of Bella Vita. He reports things are going well with the new concept for the wine bar in St. Louis. A website will be up shortly and a wine menu and food menu will be available soon after some tweaking. I’ll post as soon as I know. I hope to make it in some time this weekend and take some pictures to share. Thanks, Gordon. If anyone has been in, let me know how it is.

Adam Jahav of the Post Dispatch and more directly, the Hip Hops column has also commented in a previous post. He reports that the column will appear on the second Wednesday of every month and that the second installment can be found here. Thanks, Adam for letting me know. I look forward to future installments.

Bella Vita is now open in Rock Hill. I cannot find any web site or list of wines they may have. I’ve emailed a couple of times trying to find more information for you good people, but have not heard anything back. I’m going to try to hunt down a phone number and call later this afternoon. If someone happens to stop by, let me know how it is.

True, I have been a disgruntled employee at one time or another. But not disgruntled enough to resort to arson. I’m glad to see they are still planning a comeback at Copia. From the Post Dispatch.

A bit more from the new movie. A nice 8 minute break to help you get through the work day.

One of two new movies coming out to tell the story of the famous 1976 Paris tasting. I’ve read that there will be an August 08 release. There is a bit of controversy with this movie version, as the organizer of the tasting, Steven Spurrier, is not thrilled with his portrayal in Bottle Shock. The other movie version is based on George Taber’s book, Judgement of Paris, which is a great read if you are looking for a new book these days. I believe Mr. Taber had a hand in writing the script of this second movie as well. A little background information, George Taber, a writer for Time Magazine in the seventies, was one of dozens of journalists invited to cover this famous tasting. He was the only one who showed up to the event since everyone else assumed that there was no possibility of American wines overcoming French wines in a blind tasting. And so the story unravels into two movies thirty plus years later.

Bottle Shock Trailer

I’ve been hard at work on the site looking for pictures to use (a St. Louis background might be nice), a forum setting, among other things. Wordpress, while a great source for the blog, is giving me trouble on a few of these items. Needless to say, I am going to soldier through and hopefully a different look will be upon us. Make it a great weekend.

The Governator has officially declared a drought in California. Water rationing and other rules of conservation are a very real possibility in the near future for residents and businesses of CA. This is not good news for CA grapes and it will be interesting to see how they cope this season.

This got me thinking about our abundance of rain here in MO and how it might affect the grape harvest this year. Some areas of MO have seen an extra 15-20 inches of rainfall this year and it is just the beginning of June. Yesterday I emailed Elaine, the wine maker of Ste. Genevieve Winery, and asked her how the grapes on her vineyard were faring. Here is what she had to say…

“The rainfall so far has been fine, good even. We have been in a drought for a couple years, so rain is good, especially since we dry farm. Rain during bloom is bad, and the grapes are just starting to bloom, but we have missed a lot of the rain this week that other parts of the state has had. Hail is always bad, heavy hail can be very bad. It could wipe out a considerable part of the crop. We did have hail here about a month ago, but it was not detrimental to the vines. Since we dry farm, we rely on the rain, and so a shower a week all summer long would be ideal. July seems to be really dry the last couple years, which is bad for us, since that is when the grapes need moisture to plump up.

Also, our vineyard is away from any major flooding river, so excess rain early in the year is no problem for us.”

Elaine also runs a blog called A Day In The Life Of A Missouri Winery. It is a very interesting read about so many topics involved in running a farm and winery. Check it out. Thanks, Elaine, for your help.

And as I finish this up, the sun has gone away, and the clouds have started to roll in.

Bella Vita…The new wine bar in Rock Hill will be featuring 60 different bottles of wine. I am not sure which bottles and they have no website yet, but there will be some higher end offerings in there. This is possible due to Enoline which was featured in a youtube video I posted earlier of the system in use in Washington wine country. I’ve sent out some emails trying to get a list, but have not heard back yet. As soon as I do, I’ll post.

RIP Hip Hops…I officially think that Hip Hops is dead. The first and only article was featured on May 7. It has not been seen since despite the claim that new columns would come out regularly. I tried emailing the writer, Adam Jadhav, but my email was returned with a failure notice. Its too bad, I was looking forward to future articles. If anyone has any information about this or you’ve seen it, let me know.

I was out of town an unable to attend this years Taste of Clayton event but apparently, there was alcoholic ice cream making a debut. Flavors with chardonnay and riesling selling for $2.50/scoop. I have never had such a thing and while it does not sound appealing to me, if I ever come across it I’ll be sure to give it a try. More on this here.

Tomorrow, more on St. Louis Wine Festival.