Wine Tasting and New Pairing

Today, Friday Jan. 22 from 4:30-6:30pm please join us at our location at the French Market for a free wine tasting. With the influx of so many new wines on our shelves during the past week we'd look forward to introducing you to some of the new additions. One of our new wines destined to be one of your favorites is a Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese blend from Mexico. Will we be pouring that one, or maybe a new French red? Stop by and find out.

This week our pairing is a well-loved but rarely seen Stateside cheese from England. Kirkham's Lancashire, hand-picked by our friends at Neal's Yard Dairy is the type of cheese locals call a "buttery crumble". It takes three days of curds to create the lemon and yogurt flavors. When the cheesemaker is ready to make the cheese the curds from the first day's cheesemaking has a nicely soured flavor profile which helps define the finished product. Crumbly, rich and creamy this is a great recent addition to our case, and to your next cheese plate.

Love espresso with a twist of lemon? That's the thinking behind our wine component of the pairing. 2005 Claymore Wines Shiraz and Viognier blend "Walk on the Wild Side" from Australia. Leather, spice with rich coffee notes, this is an exceptionally good Shiraz with a big full body.

Helping Haiti

Here at Pastoral we have a strong commitment to helping out our communities. Gift Certificates, catering, and the time and knowledge of our staff are things we gladly give. During this time of anguish and heartache for the nation of Haiti and her people a lot of people in the food community are coming together to help in whatever way they can.

There is a fundraiser on Thursday January 21 from 6-9pm at English Bar in River North which includes a silent auction. Many of our wholesale customers (Nightwood, Avec, Pulican and many others) are a part of the list of Chicago restaurants reaching out. We will also be participating in the silent auction and encourage everyone to do what they can to help.

Please check out the website Helping in the Wake of the Quake and the facebook link for more information and a complete list of restaurants participating. If you can't make the event, there is a link to donate directly on their website. Thank you for your generosity.

-Ken, Greg and the entire Pastoral staff