Hurricane news and booze from Cork's Fine Wine!

Welcome to Cork’s Hurricane Irene newsletter. What a crazy week it’s been - a rare earthquake on the east coast, (that I never felt) and now a hurricane bearing down on us. Let’s hope it goes out to sea or weakens considerably before it gets our way. For those who don’t know, the Kenny Chesney/Zach Brown/Country Concert has been moved from Sunday to Friday night at 5 PM. As of now Saturdays show is still on. And for all you headbangers out there, the Uproar Festival at Great Woods has been pushed back to Tuesday 8/30. As of right now we plan on being open normal hours Saturday until 10 PM and Sunday 12-6. If it looks really bad we may close on Sunday so check the website (http://www.corksfinewine.com/) or follow us on Facebook or Twitter for updates.

Our Thursday night beer tasting (4:30 to 7 PM) will feature the Smuttynose Variety 12-pks that we have featured as our “Beer of the Month” in August. I’m pretty it will be Miguel from L. Knife here to sample you on the mix pack that features 3 bottles each of Shoals Pale Ale…IPA…Old Brown Dog…and Summer Weizen. We will take 10 % off tonight only and give you a Smutty pint glass to boot.

We won’t have a wine tasting this Friday night, but I must say the turnout was unexpectedly large for last Fridays tasting. Usually summer tastings are a little on the weak side but last week was great. Thanks to all who came. Next Friday night I won’t be here (luxury suite tix for the Sox vs. Rangers…Happy Birthday Sis!) but we’ll have a supermodel from Beringer pouring the Founders Estate wines that will be featured at the Deutsche Bank Golf tournament next week. Here are our wine, beer, and liquor whiteboard specials for the next 2 weeks.

Wine Sale Items for 8-25-11 to 9-7-11
· Colores Del Sol Malbec 750 ML …$9.99
· Beringer Founders Estates Wines 750 ML … $9.99…Chard…Merlot…Cab…P. Noir…P. Grigio…Riesling…
· All Organic Wines… 15 % OFF !

Beer Sale Items for 8-25-11 to 9-7-11
· Magic Hat Night of the Living Dead mix 12-PK … $13.99
· Michelob Ultra 18-PK Cans… $15.99
· Clown Shoes Lubrication 22 OZ … $3.95

Liquor Sale Items for 8-25-11 to 9-7-11
· Captain Morgan Spiced Rum 750 ML … $19.99
· Hendrick’s Gin 750 ML … $32.99
· Kahlua Combos 4-PK … $6.99 … White Russian… Mudslide… With Milk

So if you’re heading to 1 of the concerts…catching the Sox and Pats on TV…or just loading up for an Irene Party…be sure to stop into Cork’s and let us fulfill all your beer, wine, and liquor needs. Please stay safe people!

Robert

Summer's not over yet! Come to our Friday doubleheader...

Welcome to Cork’s weekly newsletter. Another gorgeous day as we wind down on the summer season. Perfect weather for the beach, BBQ’s, picnics, concerts, or a baseball game. Speaking of baseball…go Cumberland, RI in the Little League World Series! Let’s see if you can do better than the team I was on in ‘73 as we didn’t even make it out of the 1st round in the state tourney. As the season changes, we have a ton of new Fall/Pumpkin/Oktoberfest beers arriving daily, as well as a bunch of new wines as we gear up for the cooler days and wine season. So be sure to ask Marc or myself what’s new at Cork’s.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves and end summer just yet – this is the theme of my wine tasting this Friday night from 4:30 to 7 PM. I will start with Willm Pinot Blanc from Alsace France. This a very versatile food wine from a region that makes great wines that are so often overlooked. Next we go to Germany for Starling Castle Riesling. I got a great price on this wine that originally sold for $12.99. It is part of this week’s sale and is just $8.99 or 2 for $16. A to Z Oregon Rose Wine is a perfect summer wine and goes great with grilled salmon. Billa-Haut Cotes Du Roussilon Villages and Bogle Old Vine Zinfandel make up the “Red” portion of the tasting. From burgers…to ribs...to juicy steaks, these are both excellent BBQ wines. We will finish with the newest addition to the Sangria craze from Red Guitar.

Similar to the Sox on Tuesday, we have a double header here at Cork’s. Due to scheduling issues with Vinnie and his Vinnions, we had to move our Thursday beer tasting to Friday night. One of the Vinnions will be here to sample you on Goose Island out of Chicago, IL. He will have the 312 Urban Wheat Ale, IPA, and Honkers Ale all in 6 packs. He will also taste you on the Fleur and Pepe Nero in the 22 OZ large format. As with all our beer tastings we will take 10% off any Goose Island product you buy that night.

Robert

Save the date! No Kick-off Beer Tasting but Oktoberfest instead!

Welcome to Cork’s weekly newsletter. I hope you’re all enjoying the beautiful summer weather we have been having lately. Not to put a damper on your summer fun, but have you noticed the days getting a little shorter…the nights a bit cooler…the Patriots opening up the pre-season…and yes, even Pumpkin and Oktoberfest beers trickling into Cork’s.

Speaking of Oktoberfest, due to some scheduling conflicts with a few of our vendors we have made some changes for our next major tasting. Instead of our 6th Annual Kick-Off Beer Tasting we are going to have our 1st Annual? (we’ll see how it goes) Oktoberfest Beer Tasting on Saturday October 1st from 2 to 5 PM. We will have much more details on this event in future newsletters, and on our website at www.corksfinewine.com.

Speaking of beer tastings, Marc will be doing tonight’s (Thursday) tasting from 4:30 to 7 PM. Here is the lineup he has chosen for your beer tasting pleasure: Lagunitas Little Sumpin Wild…North Coast Red Seal Ale…Ommegang Belgian Pale Ale…Rogue Morimoto Soba Ale…and Bellhaven Wee Heavy Scotch Ale. Sounds like a pretty interesting lineup if I do say so myself. We will take another week off from the wine tastings as I recover from my hernia surgery and can’t stand for 3 hours. I will have one lined up with a rep, or do 1 next week myself, I promise.

Wine Sale Items for 8-11-11 to 8-24-11

· Starling Castle Riesling… $8.99 or 2 for $16
· Chocovine Original or New Espresso… $9.99
· Bila-Haut Cotes du Roussilon… $10.99

Beer Sale Items for 8-11-11 to 8-24-11

· Pabst Blue Ribbon 18-pk cans… $10.99
· North Coast Red Seal Ale 6-pk… $9.99
· Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest 24 OZ… $4.95

Liquor Sale Items for 8-11-11 to 8-24-11

· UV Cake Voka 750 ML… $10.99
· Mount Gay Eclipse Black Rum 750 ML… $21.99
· Ursula’s Nip Special… Dr. McGillicuddy’s or Fireball 50 ML… 99 cents

Here’s hoping the Pats have an injury free pre-season on their way to the Super Bowl. And it’s been awhile since I’ve mentioned… how bout those Sox with the best record in the American League after that dismal start. Have a great weekend folks and we’ll see you soon.

Robert

A loss in the Cork's family...

Welcome to Cork’s weekly newsletter. Thanks to all of you who attended the 5th Annual Customer Appreciation Day event on Saturday. The weather was picture perfect…well, maybe a lil warm for Andrew grilling them burgers and dogs. I think there was a great mix of new wines, beers, and spirits to sample. The raffle went off pretty well and I think most everybody won something. This event is a lot of fun for us and is a small way for us to give back to you, our loyal Cork’s customers. We won’t be having any beer or wine tastings as we regroup and recover, but we will start lining them up on Thursday and Friday nights as we end the summer and head into the fall season.

On another note, for those don’t know, my 21 year old son Cody passed away last month. It’s been a very tough time for me and the rest of his family and friends. I very much appreciate the cards, prayers, well wishes, and donations that so many of you have made. Not only was Cody an amazing kid, he was also a Cork’s employee when I could wake him from the futon and bring him to work with me.

He was an aspiring artist and architect student and the gnarliest skateboarder you can find. He was such a generous kid always willing to give a dollar to the homeless or any charity that asked…even when he had just a few dollars in his pocket. He made one terrible decision 17 months ago to take drugs…1 night…1 high…and his life was ruined and came to an end way to soon. Hopefully some of his friends who saw him suffer in 3 hospitals and 3 rehab hospitals will learn a lesson and ask themselves…is it worth it? I don’t want to preach to the parents out there…but talk to your kids about drugs…stay on them…ask questions…check up their friends. I wish I could go back and change things…but I can’t…hopefully some of you can. He is missed terribly by those who knew and loved him. RIP Cody

Robert

This part is from Cody’s Aunt, Robert’s sister, Marianne, also a Cork’s employee (I do the website, post this blog and man the register on Saturday mornings).

Since Cody was a healthy 19 yr old boy, his parents never thought of taking out life insurance on him. So now, in addition to student loans and medical bills, his parents now have funeral costs to take care of as well. I created a web page over a year ago to track Cody’s progress for his family and friends (www.codyupdates.com ). I have put a link on there to make a donation if you feel you would like to help. Although the page may say the Cody Gouveia Memorial Fund (it’s not actually a charity at this time but may be if it doesn’t cost that much to set up), it will actually go to my PayPal account for my business (Horizon Enterprises, Inc.). I will transfer anything I receive to my brother.

We’re looking into some fundraising activities as well down the line and we’re open to suggestions if you have them. Robert’s thinking of having a high-end wine tasting sometime in the fall or winter as a fundraiser which will be catered – a combination of great wines and food.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give my brother.

Marianne Douglas