Wines That Will Put You In The Mood

On Saturday, May 1st at Rulis’ International Kitchen, Creative Juices will be hosting ‘Wines That Will Put You in the Mood.’ We censored the title, but you get the idea. We will be serving six (6) wines that are silky smooth, and will excite your palate to no end. Come with someone special, or by yourself to this sensual in-mouth experience hosted by the most attractive Sommeliers in the business: Creative Juices. We promise you will leave satisfied.

The event starts at 6:30pm, and as always, there will be a give-away bottle at the end of the event. This is going to be a fun event, and we plan to enjoy drinks with you well into the evening, after the event has concluded. For group reservations call 915.541.9990. Rulis’ International Kitchen is located at 318 N. Mesa Street, El Paso, TX 79901 in the historic Cortez Building. See you there!

Cheers!

Zak & Olena

Texas Beer Night @ Rulis’

Hello Friends! It’s Friday, and we’re excited to announce that tomorrow night will be Texas Beer Night @ Rulis’ International Kitchen! We will be tasting 7 beers from Texas, eating delicious munchies prepared by Chef Rulis, and having an awesome time. These events are getting more fun every time we host them. We love, and appreciate your support. Thank you all for making these events such a huge success.

We will be kicking things off tomorrow night, Saturday April 10th, at 7pm. We have four beers from Real Ale Brewing Co. in Blanco, TX, 2 beers from Shiner, TX, as well as the classic Lone Star coming straight from Dallas. The event costs $20, and we will be serving all of the beers throughout the evening for $3 if you want to stick around. If you haven’t been to one of these events, what have you been doing with your life? You’re missing out. So, if you like fun, and beer, and Texas…we’ve got your plans for the weekend at Rulis’. See y’all there! Cheers!!!

-Zak

Spanish Winemaker Meet & Greet Announcement

Hello everyone! We had a great weekend, and a delicious Easter dinner with a brilliant 2006 Pinot Noir made by Ehren Jordan (previous winemaker of the year). We hope that all of you enjoyed your weekend, and that the new week, and beautiful weather are treating you well. Those of you that made it out for ‘Wines With Cool Labels’, thank you! We had a blast, and can’t wait for the next one.

That being said, we have an exciting announcement for you! As many of you already know, we will be having a Spanish winemaker meet & greet on May 5th at Rulis’ International Kitchen. Today, we sat down with Justin & Xabier to finalize the list of wines and winemakers that will be present at the event. We are proud to tell you about this exciting event, and want to let you know to clear your schedules for May 5th. This is going to be an absurd amount of fun based on the stories we heard about a lot of these winemakers, but we’ll let you find out for yourselves upon meeting them.

The final list of winemakers is as follows (in no particular order, and includes some of the wines we will taste from each of them):

1. Ruben Simon–Laxas- 2009 Albariño–Rias Biaxas, Spain

2. Alejandro Migeulez–2006 Abad Dom Bueno Mencía, and 2008 Abad Dom Bueno Godello–Bierzo, Spain (We love these wines!)

3. Paco Puerta–2008 Lorca Monastrell, Bullas, Spain

4. Rafael Cambra–2008 El Bon Homme, Cabernet Sauvignon, Monastrell–Valencia, Spain

5. Felipe Alvarez–2008 Milcampos Tempranillo–Ribera Del Duero, Spain

6. Jose Alberto Casajus–Casajus Ribera del Duero Vendimia Selecion 2006–Ribera Del Duero, Spain

7. Diego Ibañez–2004 Heras Cordon Reserva (Tempranillo, Mazuelo, Graciano)–Rioja, Spain

Just writing about this has me excited! Olena, Chef, and I have tasted all of these wines, and we promise you that this is a wonderful treat. As the date approaches, we will be able to release more information about the Tapas menu for the event. Please stay tuned, and confirm your intent to attend. I for one can’t wait to share a few drinks with these guys. Talk to you soon!

Cheers!

– El Zak

Wine Tasting Reminder

Hello everyone! Those of you who have stopped by the shop know that we’ve always got something going on. During April, we will be continuing that trend by hosting our Wine & Beer Events (check the Events Tab) every Saturday of the month! We have also started Thursday Wine Tastings every Thursday evening starting at 5pm. Stop by after work to try a few new wines, and maybe take a couple home with you. You’ll get to share your experience with the only two certified Sommeliers in El Paso, us!

In addition, we will be bringing in over 20 new labels over the course of the month, followed by a meet and greet with 8 Spanish Winemakers on May 5th. Details for that event will be posted the beginning of next week. Bottles from two of those winemakers are already on sale at the shop, with more to come after next week. Come out for dinner Wednesday through Saturday and take advantage of retail pricing on all wine. We also offer 50% the menu price on all beer to go.

See you at 318 N. Mesa Street. Cheers!!!

Zak & Olena

Windy in El Paso

It is windy in El Paso today. I was walking, no – floating, to Rulis International for dinner today, and thinking how wonderful a glass of a Pinot Grigio would be. Or a glass of a Gruner Veltliner. Or a Dolcetto…
The wind was blowing at over 40 miles an hour and my nostrils were full of sand. All the city pigeons where hanging out on the library lawn facing the wind, showing off their aerodynamics skills. I was trying to hold on to the aviators on my face and bypass all the potentially unstable structures.
15 minutes later I was sitting at the bar with a glass of Pinot Grigio in my hand. Apparently, we finally opened a bottle that was just sitting around for a while. It is Solombra 2008 Fair Trade Certified Reserva Pinot Grigio, and I believe the chef’s father bought it at Sam’s Club for $3 on clearance :-). It drinks pretty darn well, and is absolutely perfect for this weather. I do know that the bottles sold out that day, but if you see this wine anywhere, it is a great, inexpensive and a straightforward wine. Cheers, and hope you guys are enjoying a better weather where you are!

Some tasty wine

I won’t be making this a long, unnecessarily complicated post about all sorts of details about a wine you guys may have never had and won’t care to read a long description about. I just want to say that H3, a Columbia Crest Cab from Horse Heaven Hills, 2007 is a absolute steal at $13 and paired beautifully with a 4 pound steak Zak cooked up tonight (that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but just barely so). It also paired great with pajamas, a couch and some Castle on Hulu.

Cheers,

the Kilsons

Wine Bar Consultation

Good morning. Last night was a pleasant reminder of why we got into this business in the first place–To share our passion. Creative Juices services have been enlisted by a group of gentlemen that are planning to open a Wine Bar here in El Paso. This has become a trend here lately, as two have already opened their doors in the last three months. The guys we’re working with are excited to learn more about wine, and as a result, ask a lot of questions. This makes our job much easier. One thing that we really appreciate is that they aren’t afraid to admit their lack of knowledge of wine. We’re not dealing with all-knowing wine snobs, that think that everything you need to know can be found in the ‘legs’. This is a good situation.

We sat down last night for a little less than three hours and did what we love. We talked about wine. Over the next couple of months, we will be sitting down and teaching them as much as we can to ensure the success of their Wine Bar. I feel like last night was a good start, and they really seem to be learning. We’ll keep you updated on their progress, and as they get closer to their opening date (which should be sometime in June) we’ll release all of the information about their place.

El Paso may end up being a Wine drinking town after all. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Cheers!

Zak

Beer From 6 Continents (Sorry Antarctica) Beer Social @ Rulis’

Good morning everyone! Happy Tuesday!

This Saturday marks the kick off of the Lady Bowlers Tournament here in El Paso, and in honor of their arrival (and the fact that it will be Saturday) we’re hosting Beer Night at Rulis’. This time around, we will be tasting beer from six Continents, and tasting delicious treats prepared by Mista International himself, Chef Rulis.

If you have never been to one of these events, what have you been doing with your Saturdays? They are a ton of fun!

–Alex P. we missed you at the Latin American Beer Night. I’m calling you out. You and the family have to be at this one!

Cheers!!! We’ll see you Saturday at 7pm.

Zak

How Racial Discrimination Changed This Wine Blog…

Let me begin by saying sorry for the dramatic title, but as you read this blog post, hopefully you will understand.

Those of you who follow our blog know us to be a couple of wine loving individuals that are generally upbeat, and always passionate about sharing our love of the grape with others. Despite being trained wine professionals with accreditation from two well-respected wine institutions, we have a very laid-back approach to wine. Wine shouldn’t be intimidating to anyone, yet for many reasons, it is. A lot of what I have noticed through reading several wine blogs (including ours) is that the content is pretty bland. In many cases, I have found that wine blogs are misleading, and create an undesirable image of the Wine World.

Recently, Olena and I have been discussing how to improve the content of our blog to better serve you. Rather than do the same thing that many wine bloggers are already doing, we want the content we write and put on video to be entertaining, and informational. This is not to say that all wine bloggers are doing it wrong, it is just that we have a unique situation being a married couple who happen to be Sommeliers. Why not showcase it?

After several conversations about this topic, we have decided to be honest with ourselves. What’s the point of leaving out details? We want you to understand who we are, and what we are all about. We want to share with you our everyday trials and tribulations that come with making a wine business bloom in a market that is barely budding in terms of wine consumption. We want our blog to become a behind the scenes look into what our end of the Wine Biz is all about. Being the only two Certified Sommeliers in El Paso (a city of more than 600,000 people) sounds, and looks great on paper, but it comes with a daunting uphill climb that serves as a reminder that we have to work harder. We are trying to educate the #1 Bud Light drinking city in the Country about wine. Needless to say, we’ve had easier times.

To catch any newcomers up to speed, we recently took over the wine program in a friend’s restaurant in downtown El Paso, TX. We are currently carrying about 70 labels, and plan to grow our selection to over 100 by mid-summer. Rather than our customers paying astronomical restaurant wine prices, we offer retail pricing with the option to consume on or off premise. This is an innovative way to generate a larger interest in wine, without intimidating prices (which are often ridiculously excessive). In addition, we host Wine Socials every other Saturday at the restaurant where we informally educate people on wine regions, varietals, etc. under the helpful guidelines of a tasting. The response for this has been phenomenal, and we have been rather pleased with the turnouts. That brings us to why I titled this blog post what I did…

This past Saturday was our “How do you pronounce that?” Wine Social. We were tasting a collection of exciting varietals from all over the globe that people seem to have trouble pronouncing. Going into the evening, we were excited simply because the varietals we planned to taste, also happen to be delicious.

For me, everything changed when a party of three showed up an hour late to the tasting (which is no big deal) and sat down in the bar area where we were hosting the event. From the moment the group walked in, they had an air about them that put me off. Being in the service industry, this is not an uncommon occurrence. They appeared to be well-dressed, well-groomed, and that was all I knew of them.

As I welcomed them to the event, the lone female member of the group stared at me with a furled brow, and impatiently waited for me to stop talking. The man to her left blankly glared up at me with a disappointed, bored, annoyed gaze. The other man in the group just stared at the table, and didn’t acknowledge me in the least. I thanked them for coming out to the event, and asked if they had any questions. They all just sort of shrugged, and chuckled to themselves. I didn’t pay much attention to it (there was a fairly evident language barrier) smiled, and excused myself.  As I walked away, I began to feel as though it may be of little use to prepare their glassware for the tasting. I knew they weren’t going to go through with it. I did it anyway, and while I was fetching their glasses, a fourth person joined the group. As soon as she sat down, a conversation between her and the first woman began. I know when someone is talking about me, and in this case, there was no attempt to hide that the topic of conversation was me. Because the continued glares, and disapproving looks continued to come my way, I casually paid attention to what was being said. The words that came out of woman #1’s mouth disappointed, and cut through me, leaving me with a bitter taste in my mouth. While looking at the man to her left, she said, “I don’t want to do this. They’re White.”

Moments later, Olena told me as she was returning the glassware to the bar, “they have decided not to take part in the tasting.” She went on to tell me that the man (who was staring at the table earlier) informed her, “We don’t want to do this. I already know a lot about wine. I know what I like. I like Cabernet.” Number one, we weren’t tasting a Cabernet that night, and number two, it turns out that the “How do you pronounce that? Wine Social would have benefited him after all. Cabernet is not pronounced, “Cahb-air-NET”.  As Olena finished relaying that information, all I could say was, “I know.”

I generally don’t take too many things seriously, and I feel as though I’m pretty hard to offend. However, the events of Saturday night have really stuck with me these past couple of days. I have been kind of down on myself, and El Paso in general to be perfectly honest. I’ve been trying to break out of this funk, and it has proven to be a little bit more difficult than expected. We’re often the only ‘white people’ in the room, but until now, I haven’t thought about it.

To the people who I feel are ruining the beauty of what wine should be about by painting a picture of elitism, I leave you with a quote:

“In Europe we thought of wine as something as healthy and normal as food and also a great giver of happiness and well-being and delight. Drinking wine was not a snobbism nor a sign of sophistication nor a cult; it was as natural as eating and to me as necessary.” – Ernest Hemingway

Please share any similar stories you may have. Thank you for reading.

Cheers!

Zak

How do you pronounce that?… Wine 101 Social

We will be tasting a Grüner Veltliner,  Vinho Verde, Gewurztraminer, Crémant de Loire, a Texan Carignan Mourvédre Blend as well as a Tokaji. We will be talking about the grapes, the land and the tastes of all the wines, as well as providing you with Tapas pairing options. The event costs $25 and all bottles are available at retail. We will discount all case orders. See you there!

Cheers!