Some "Favorite Things" at Corks

Welcome to Cork’s weekly newsletter. We have some late breaking news on a couple of our Cork’s employees. For those of you who don’t know my sister Marianne, she is a cashier on Saturdays here at Cork’s as well as our web mistress. My cousin Valerie is also a cashier here on some Saturdays as well. Val nominated my sister Marianne as a “Hero” to be on, or in the audience of the Oprah Winfrey show that films in Chicago. Well they both got tickets for Tuesdays taping along with other heroes and those that nominated them.

Although Marianne is not fond of the hero label, she has done some amazing stuff for kids. She wrote a program a few years back after one of her students committed suicide called Strategies for Success. It’s sort of based on Tony Robbins' ideas, but for kids at the High School level. She taught this for many years at Mt. Hope High in Bristol, and for the last few years she has been trying to get this into every HS in the country. She also has taught it to RI College Freshman and is testing the material out this year at the middle school level. Her program is amazing and has turned the lives around for many of her students.

With all the recent talk of bullying that has been in the media lately this makes her program even more helpful as it has answers to bullying and so many other situations that our kids face these days. Here is a link to her site if you know of any schools in your area that could use it http://strategiesofsuccess.com/aboutus.htm. My cousin Valerie (AKA Ted’s dog sitter) nominated her. She too is an amazing woman and does so many things for her family and friends as well.

So anyway, they were in the audience on Tuesday for Oprah’s Favorite Things show! It will air this Friday at 4 PM for most in this area. I’m not sure what she has won and she is sworn to secrecy, but being Oprah’s last year I’m sure it’s amazing. I’m very proud of my big sister…and my cousin Val…they both deserve this…and if either of you have any extra stuff you don’t need, you know where to find me!

OK…back to Cork’s stuff and our busy week of tastings. We have Jack from Geary’s Brewing Co. out of Portland, ME here this Thursday from 4:30 to 7 PM. He will be sampling the Geary’s Pale Ale, Hampshire Special Ale, Imperial IPA, and London Porter. These are great local …well close enough…beers and super people. If you’re ever up in Portland I recommend swinging by and checking them out. As with all our beer tasting you will get 10 % off any of the beers you taste that evening.

We have a double barreled wine tasting for you on Friday night from 4:30 to 7 PM. We have Isaac from Classic Wine Imports making his Cork’s debut, and Mark from Power Marketing making his annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to the store. Isaac will start things of with a pop by pouring Heidsieck Blue Top Champagne. Next up is Johannisberg V Riesling Kabinett from the Rheingau region of Germany. Off to Argentina for Norton Torrontes and Pascal Toso Malbec. We come back stateside for AVV Temptation Zin and Sebastiani Cabernet. He will end with the perfect Thanksgiving wine Tomasello Cranberry Wine.

Mark will have 2 German Rieslings from St. Urbans-Hof, the QBA and the Bockstein Ockfen Kabinett that just got a 90 plus rating and is supposed to be in the Wine Spectator top 100. Next up is Bianchi Chardonnay from Santa Barbera and Bianchi Zinfandel from Paso Robles. Next up Mark has 2 of the perfect red wines for the Thanksgiving turkey, Pinot Noir. The 1st one we brought in last year around Thanksgiving and it has been a huge success. It’s just called Pinot and is estate grown Pinot Noir from the Central Coast region. The next one is brand new to us, Girasole Vineyards Pinot Noir is not only certified organic, but it is also Vegan. All these wines are great holiday wines so be sure to stop by and check out our double tasting.

Robert