This month's Da Da Wine Down at Café Amici, set for Friday, March 30, will feature the artwork of Rae Kehoe and Susan Miller and the Casillero del Diablo wines of Chile's Concha y Toro vineyards.
Kehoe and Miller will be on hand to discuss their work, which will be exhibited at Café Amici just for the evening. A wine tasting and seminar presented by Brian Andre of West Indies Corp. will focus on Casillero del Diablo chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and sauvignon blanc wines.
The event takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. There is a $10 fee for the wine tasting and seminar – which is offered continuously throughout the evening as long as wine supplies last. The reception and art exhibit are free, and café owner Rick Kingsland provides complimentary hors d'oeuvres.
Kehoe, a St. Thomas resident who came to the Virgin Islands in 1978, studied art at the University of Northern Iowa. She says she has been creating artwork "soulfully" as a way of life since 1985. Working in pastel, watercolor and acrylic, she is known for her rich use of color and photo-realism imagery. Among those who have her paintings in their private collections are musician Kenny Loggins, actors Ben Vereen and Elke Sommer, pro football player Jim Jeffcoat and former President Bill Clinton.
Miller, a Water Island resident, studied art at Wayne State University, the Cooper Union and the Art Students League, then worked as a commercial artist on the mainland for years. She moved in 1989 to Montserrat, where she operated a small art gallery for a time. Forced by the active volcano to leave that island in 1997, she settled in the Virgin Islands. Her recent work includes a series of pastel sunsets and colored pencil landscapes, although pen and ink remains her favorite medium. British Virgin Islands Gov. Frank Savage is a collector of her work.
Casillero del Diablo is one of five major labels of the Chilean winery founded in 1883 by Don Melchor de Concha y Toro that today accounts for 25 percent of that nation's domestic market and is exported to 75 other countries. Its name, meaning "the Devil's cellar," was derived from a rumor that Satan himself lived in the deep cellars where Don Melchor stored his best wines. (The rumor was started by the don himself, to keep his winery workers from absconding with his best stock.)
The wines being presented for tasting at the Wine Down are all estate-bottled from single vineyards begun over a century ago with the best grape varieties of France's Bordeaux region.
In 1987, Concha y Toro teamed up with Banfi Vintners to modernize its production system. The company went public in 1923, and since 1994 shares of Vina Concha Toro have been traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Today, according to the Concha y Toro web site, at http://www.banfivintners.com/concha_y_toro/wines/diablo.html, it is the United States' most popular imported wine.
The final Friday of each month is Da Da Wine Down time at Café Amici, located downtown in Riise's Alley. In addition to the wine tasting, the restaurant bar will be open. A number of door prizes, including dining certificates, wine and works of art, will be awarded at the end of the evening. For more information, call Café Amici at 776-5670.
