3C
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2016
T
he Daily Astorian invites people to submit the
wine, beer or craft spirits they enjoy and share
a few thoughts. This week, Steven Sinkler, of The
Wine Shack in Cannon Beach, gives us his insight.
To submit, send to news@dailyastorian.com
Q: The striking thing about the inventory of your store
is your decision to focus on Oregon and Washington wines.
Tell us about that decision.
A: I made the decision to focus our wine selection on Oregon
and Washington for two reasons. First, we live near some of the
finest wine regions in the world. I wanted to showcase excep-
tional selections from the Willamette Valley, southern Oregon,
Walla Walla and the Columbia Valley. Second, customers want to
try locally made products. Why would I offer a Australian Syrah
when Walla Walla and southern Oregon is producing wines of
equal or higher quality?
Customers have given us great feedback on our emphasis on
local wines.
WHAT ARE THEY
DRINK ING
Q: You recently traveled to Walla Walla to survey that
treasure trove of wines. Tell us what you found.
A: Winemakers in the Walla Walla area are making world class
wines. The cabernets, merlots, syrah and riesling coming out of
Walla Walla can stand next to wines from Bordeaux, Loire, Alsace
as well as Napa and Sonoma. Anyone who doesn’t believe that
has blinders on.
Some of my favorites are: Sleight of Hand, Zerba, Gramercy
Cellars, Walla Walla Vintners, L’ECole and Bergevin Lane.
These wineries deliver excellent products at competitive
prices.
Q: Where do your customers come from?
A: As you can imagine, the majority of our customers visit
from the Pacific Northwest, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver,
British Columbia. However, we also have a surprisingly strong
customer base from Northern California, Phoenix and Houston.
Q: What do you say to the first-time customer who says, “I
don’t know that much about wine”?
A: We have new wine drinkers in the store every day. We want
to make sure we help them find the perfect wine for them, so
we start by asking questions, such as, “Do you like ‘red’ or ‘white,’
‘fruity’ or ‘dry’”? From there, we then determine their budget. We
continue to ask questions to narrow in the wine that will work
for them.
Q: What variety is your biggest seller?
A: Puffin Pinot Noir is our store’s best seller. Nothing else is
even close. Puffin is our store’s proprietary brand and consis-
tently earns high medals from local judges. Our 2012 Puffin
Pinot Noir won a double gold medal last October at an invita-
tional wine competition.
At only $29 per bottle, it’s an exceptional value.
Q: Does that change through the year?
A: No, Puffin Pinot Noir is our best selling wine 12 months of
the year.
Q: The wine media is fairly expansive. What do you
read?
A: I try to read about wine as much as possible. I read Wine
Spectator, Wine Enthusiast, Oregon Wine Press and Wine Press
Northwest. I also look at results from local wine competitions
to see which wines are showing especially well right now.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Steven Sinkler, owner of The Wine Shack in Cannon Beach.
Obama to host jazz concert at White House
Artists with
international
Àavor to appear
By DARLENE
SUPERVILLE
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Inter-
national Jazz Day, one of the
world’s biggest celebrations
of jazz, is coming to the White
House.
President Barack Obama
and his wife, Michelle, plan
to host a blockbuster con-
cert April 29 featuring Are-
tha Franklin, Al Jarreau,
Sting, Herbie Hancock and
many other established and
up-and-coming musical art-
ists. The show is to be tele-
vised by ABC the following
day, on April — the ¿fth
anniversary of International
Jazz Day.
Scores of musical perfor-
mances and educational and
community service programs
are also planned for across the
District of Columbia, in all 50
states and 196 UNESCO and
United Nations member coun-
tries, said Tom Carter, presi-
dent of the Thelonious Monk
Institute of Jazz. The jazz
institute and UNESCO spon-
sor International Jazz Day. It
was established to highlight
jazz music as a unifying force
for freedom and creativity.
The District of Colum-
bia is where the famous jazz
Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo
Andra Day and Anthony Hamilton perform for President Barack Obama, front row, lower right, and others during the “In
Performance at the White House” series in the East Room of the White House in February.
pianist and bandleader Duke
Ellington was born, on April
29. The city is also known for
its thriving jazz scene.
Previous host cities for
International Jazz Day were
Istanbul, Turkey, in 2013;
Osaka, Japan, in 2014; and
Paris in 2015.
In 2012, programs were
held at UNESCO headquar-
ters in Paris; in New Orleans,
the birthplace of jazz; and at
the U.N. General Assembly
Hall in New York City.
“Jazz has been a uniting
force and very unifying for
people all over the world for
the last century,” Carter told
The Associated Press by tele-
phone. “It is the voice for
many of those facing chal-
lenges around the world.”
Last year’s programming
reached more than 2.8 billion
people, he said.
Hancock, a UNESCO
goodwill ambassador whose
idea led to the creation of
International Jazz Day, said
jazz is a musical language that
is understood worldwide.
An award-winning pia-
nist and bandleader, Han-
cock said that, in the past,
anyone who wanted to learn
jazz had to travel to Amer-
ica. But “incredible” jazz
musicians are now every-
where, he said.
“That really shows me the
power of the music and the
fact that it has reached every
country on the planet,” Han-
cock told the AP in a tele-
phone interview.
Obama and the ¿rst lady
are big music lovers and sup-
porters of jazz. During a
recent appearance at the South
by Southwest festival in Aus-
tin, Texas, Mrs. Obama said
one of her grandfathers loved
and collected jazz and that she
would visit him on Saturdays
while growing up in Chicago
“and I would just play music
with him.”
The Obamas practically
jumped at the chance to bring
the International Jazz Day
concert to the White House,
Carter said.
“They welcomed us with
open arms,” added Hancock.
Now available in the
The Daily Astorian and
Chinook Observer
For more information call 503-325-3211
crbizjou rn a l.com