Learn How To Easily Find Wines Of $50 Quality For $10 Or Less. Impress Friends With Your Expanded Wine Knowledge. Eliminate Your Dependence On Wine Salespeople. And Take The Hassle Out Of Buying Wine.
Earn $6.17 / Sale! %75 Commission! The Ultimate Resource For Anyone Who Wants To Learn How To Make Outstanding Wines & Spirits From Their Very Own Home!
Just a reminder that next Thursday (May 22) Wine & Spirits magazine is coming to town with their Hot Picks event, to be held from 7-10 pm in the chic MODAA gallery in Culver City. You can click on the logo to the left for more information and to purchase a ticket online.
For $75 you get a year's subscription to the magazine as well as the chance to taste some great wines selected for their excellent taste and great value--which is bound to appeal to a GWU$20 reader. These wine picks are highlighted in the June issue of Wine & Spirits, which features the 100 top values in wine and goes on sale the same day.
You will also get a chance to talk with some of LA's up-and-coming wine professionals, and mingle with local retailers (like Jill from domaine547, one of the event's partners). I'll be there, too, so if you recognize me come up and introduce yourself.
$5 of every ticket purchased goes to benefit Surfrider's efforts at water conservation and preservation.
Great wine, a worthy cause, and the inside track on some wallet-friendly options for your next shopping trip--all for $75. See you at the MODAA Gallery next Thursday night.
[04/18/2008, 18:15]
yesterday i started my grappa infusion. i bought a pound of not-exactly-plums-not-quite-prunes yesterday and cut them in half and shoved them into my silver medal award winning grappa that was super cheap at bevmo.
so i'm hoping for a simple plum-infused grappa. i figure even though it should realistically take about a week to infuse, i'm thinking of leaving the plums indefinitely so that the infusion gets stronger the older the grappa gets. the grappa is also ice cold so the infusion process will be a little retarded at first and get better as time goes on.
I found a really great site for custom wine racks. I found wineracks.com and I absolutely cannot decide which design I like best. They have a selection of smaller capacity wine racks that can store three to forty eight bottles of wine.
Wineracks.com has wine racks in both wood and metal. I?ve found several that suit my current needs and several that I wish my needs would suit! Some of the different styles are just simple stackable racks that assemble without tools. There are other wine racks that are elegant, solid oak racks with tabletop and stemware storage.
The twelve bottle modular wine racks are made of pine and can be configured in many different ways. There are kits available to add and expand these wine racks. Wineracks.com has this item listed for $22.50.
The Cha Cha Wine Racks sold by wineracks.com are made of colored plastic. They snap together with clips and come in four colors. The colors that the components for these wine racks come in are orange, light blue, green and white. Each color is sold separately for $22.50.
I was particularly taken with the Lisbon wall wine racks. They are black wooden wine racks that hold both bottles and stemware. Wineracks.com has the Lisbon wall wine racks listed for $69.00.
I am pretty sure that I do not want the Accordia wine racks that wineracks.com have for sale. My mother had one that looked like this when I was growing up and I always thought that it was ugly. I much prefer any other style.
The Bali fifteen bottle wine racks were inspired by contemporary Indonesian style. I like the wavy look of these wine racks. The price for the Bali wine racks is $96.00. These come in a natural color. There are also twelve bottle Bali wine racks that are $72.00 in either crimson color or black.
I do believe that my favorite wine racks have to be the cellar cubes. Wineracks.com has the cellar cubes in both unfinished Pine and Mahogany. The Mahogany cellar cubes sell for $59.95 and the Pine cellar cubes sell for $34.95. These wine racks require simple assembly and the holes are pre-drilled and the hardware is provided.
Quite forward, with blackberry jam, sweet spice and black licorice notes. Has a juicy, slightly raisined finish, but stays honest enough. Drink now. 40,000 cases made.
The Trimbach Cuvee Frederic Emile is one of the world’s great white wines. And at $35, it’s also one of the world’s great white wine bargains.
I had the 2001 recently with a friend and loved it. I tried the 2002 at a tasting last week and found it higher in acidity and not quite as subtle as the 01, so I went out and bought some more of the 01. I’ve never had the top wine from the Alsatian producer, the $120 Clos Ste. Hune (find this wine), but one of my friends who has had it describes the “Freddy” as “more than half the wine at a quarter the price.”
Although I prefer German Riesling on the whole to the Alsatian versions, this Freddy has a German-like precision, alluring aromas of lime zest, lemon grass, wet rocks and a touch of honey, while the palate has excellent richness while remaining dry and a long finish. I’d like to try a version of this wine with some age on it so I’ve stashed away a few bottles for just that purpose. Next time I’ll try it with pan-seared scallops.
The wine is from grand cru vineyards but still seems to have a production size that means that it actually can be found. Search for it now before it is all gone.
Why write about this wine today? Why, it is for Wine Blogging Wednesday #45, with a theme of Old World Riesling that Tim Elliott selected. Surf on over to Tim’s site to see a roundup of which other Rieslings people chose to explore. And thanks for the one day grace period, Tim!
When people find out that I enjoy cheap wine enough to devote a website to it, they usually ask me if I have been to Trader Joe’s. My response, until last week, has always been “No, not yet”.
Well, I finally caved and took a trip to Detroit, the nearest Trader Joe’s location for me here in Lansing. Ann Arbor might actually be closer, but as an MSU Spartan, I try to stay out of there.
I’d like to preface this review of Charles Shaw Cabernet with a synopsis of Trader Joe’s. If you have one near you, go there. If not for the wine, then for the thousands of food items that pack the small market. I spent 80 dollars, which sounds like a bit much especially for me. I ended up leaving with 2 cases of wine and enough food for a week. Fresh mozzarella, fresh gnocchi, fresh salsa (notice a pattern?), Guacamole chips, Trader Joe’s Marinara, soups, veggies…. I was in heaven. They have got all kinds of cheeses, breads, meats, micro-brewed beers, and their wine selection was out of this world. What a great store!
Trader Joe’s is the exclusive retailer of Charles Shaw Wines, better known to most as “Two-buck Chuck”. In California these wines sell for $1.99, which is just amazing. Here in Michigan, though, the price was $2.99.
Did we like it? Was it worth the trip?
Hell yes it was! For 3 dollars, I don’t think it could have been any better. The Cabernet was great. At first, I found it to be a little sweet, but looking back, I was actually enjoying the salsa with the wine, which probably wasn’t a great combination. Along with the Cab, I also purchased some of the Shiraz, Merlot, and Chardonnay (reviews coming soon).
Congrats to Two-Buck-Chuck and Trader Joe’s for achieving the highest rating available here on Cheap Wine Reviews. Hats off to you!
Rating: 10/10 Price: $2.99 Place of PurchaseTrader Joe’s
Whilst in Bordeaux I took the time to speak to Thierry Manoncourt at Chateau Figeac to ask him about his life and how things have changed during his stewardship of the estate since the 1940s - he will be ninety in September this year. The interview will be podcast in the near future (in [...]
If you're not a subscriber to The Wine Front you don't get to see the reviews that are added to the site on most days. In the past seven days the following wines have been reviewed in the Subscriber Only section of this website.
…Big Boy style Rob had been planning this event seemingly all his life, and twelve very fortunate guests were invited to the private room at Cru one innocent Spring evening for this once-in-a-lifetime event, making me the resident Chesire Cat. For those of you that might not know or forget, double-blind means you do not know [...]
Randy Hall, in response to our report that American Wine Wholesalers claim they are saving lives by making sure no tainted wine hits the shelves, answered the question I forgot to answer. Namely, How exactly do those amazing wholesalers actually check each and every bottle of wine to make sure it isn't tainted, thereby saving countless lives?
His Answer? X-RAY WINE GOGGLES!!
And he's right. Why it's downright amazing the kind of space age technology that can be developed when you are flush with dough due only to your state-granted monopoly. And now you can have your own, genuine set of WSWA X-RAY WINE SPECS.
[07/19/2006, 07:16]
The Argentinians consumed in May 2,55 liters for inhabitant Better results that in April the producers of wine obtained on the internal Argentine market. In agreement to statistical information delivered by the INV (Vitivinicultura's National Institute) of Argentina, the consumption of wine for inhabitant reached in May the quantity of 2,55 liters, relying on the general population of the country.
If one was counting only the major ones of 18 years, this number would rise up to 3,84 liters. This indicates an increase of 7,66 per cent with regard to the same month of the year 2005.
While, the wines liberated to the consumption in this May, always according to numbers delivered by the INV, added the 967.503 hl., that represents an increase of 8,9 % with regard to the same month of the year 2005 and 12,79 more % with regard to last month April.
The origin of these wines they were in the main from the province of Mendoza, followed by the province of San Juan.
This increase is justified by the campaign of advertising that is realized at present in the Argentina to increase the internal consumption.
It?s been a very busy week, but after my nice catching up session with Google Reader, here are some treasures worth noting from the RSS pileup:
1)Catavino?sRioja Report and EWBC 2008:Gabriella and Ryan over at Catavino have made a labor of love?an ambitious sort of compendium that is all things Rioja.From regional gastronomy to what else? Los vinos!You can find maps, profiles of wineries, beautiful photography and even a comprehensive explanation of Rioja labeling practices.I also found their buying guide particularly valuable and look forward to bringing it along on some shopping trips in the near future.This kind of stuff is a privilege to be able to look at when you consider other ?regional reports? published by people with a sense of entitlement to wine travel and $60+ annual subscription fees.Ryan and Gabriella are accountable for their material, actively and genuinely elicit and value readers? opinions, suggestions and evince passion for this stuff, so go ahead and bookmark them.
3)Remember Mr. Show?s Worthington Law applied to wine?Looks like the research findings from that CalTech/Stanford study published earlier in the year have been further validated.Working Paper No, 16, published by the American Association of Wine Economists details a new study in which people generally preferred less expensive wines, unless told by researchers of course, that a wine was particularly expensive.
4) If you read Spanish and want to stay up on the latest happenings in the Mendoza wine industry, you may want to bookmark El Blog de Vinos de Argentina.I have been reading their blog for some time now and have found it more and more valuable in terms of getting an inside track on what they?re thinking in Mendoza.As an Argentine, I?ve become a bit tired of receiving my Argentine wine industry news solely from the perspective of English-language consumer magazines.In the Argentine wine-sense, I?m approaching the sort of frustration many over here are feeling with news sources like CNN and FOX?it?s unfortunately limited for my needs.I may not be alone in wanting something like this?I really feel that things would get interesting if insiders from many wine regions only generally covered by shiny-cover magazines began communicating their perspectives directly to readers in a couple of other languages.
5) I would like to issue a preliminary warning before checking out this final note...it is cringe-inducing. I caught this on an Argentine website related to wine news. You'll click on the link and notice the article is written in Spanish, but that won't deter you from making the appropriate inference...Madonna will be contracting some local producer to lovingly craft her own label of Malbec. My comments? Oh hell no. Truthfully though, the nausea actually set in when I read that the label will reportedly be named after "Evita." Whether you are a foreigner and think Evita was a great person or an Argentine who may have the courage to speak up and express a more balanced perspective for the legacy of this famous political figure, one thing's for sure, Madonna could have chosen ANY OTHER variety cultivated in ANY OTHER country. Why us, oh God why us?
This South African beauty is a steal at just $6! Well, that was the sale price. Regardless, the regular price is more like $10 which is still a good deal for a fruity, elegant, and nicely textured wine.
I could see this pairing well with a variety of dishes, and it also was delicious to drink on its own. I encourage you to seek out South African Chenin Blanc. Some wineries use the grape name Steen, however, it seems more of them are reverting back to the French name for the grape on the label. Either way, it's often great stuff at a modest price. Raise a glass!
With advertising like these, I assumed ‘A bela Sintra‘ was a Brazilian winery - actually seems an upmarket restaurant. I still like the pics This is a post from: Burgundy-Report a bela sintra
We have previously reviewed the entry level “Hard Yards” Shiraz from Sylvan Springs here on Winetastic and found it to be most agreeable. As you can imagine when a bottle of their premium Sylvan Springs Cyril’s Reserve Shiraz 2006 arrived unannounced, I was somewhat excited. It is fair to say that Sylvan Springs are currently doing a lot right at both the budget and super-premium level.
Showing a vibrant crimson hue, the aromas are currently subdued with a little vanilla oak, blackberry and cherry showing. Full flavoured but refined and impeccably balanced, the juicy Shiraz fruit glides across the palate and is well supported by spices and a hint of oak. The finish is very long, mouthwatering and leaves you wanting more. This is a Shiraz to put to sleep in the cellar for several years.
Straight after opening the aromas were a bit muted, however this is not to be unexpected from a recently bottled premium red. My reaction to the first sip was something along the lines of “wow, this is the best young red wine I have tasted this year”. After a couple of hours, the flavours became even more intense with loads of ripe blackberry fruit coming to the fore.
Score: 93/100 Price: $40 Closure: Stelvin Lux (Fancy Screwcap) Alcohol: 15% Other Opinions:Winorama Would I buy this wine? Yes, At $40 per bottle, I feel it does represent decent value for money. Squashedgrape have it for $35 if buying a case.
I think it's great that the San Francisco Chronicle and the LA Times would give Alice a fairly large stage to bitch and moan about California wine not being to her tastes and the contention that a single, Maryland-based Palate is the reason for her California Discontent.
Alice is in the midst of promoting her new book that takes the art of bitching and moaning into a book length format. Feiring's "The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization" has a whimsical looking cover design that might just as easily be translated to a publishing effort on how pandas and tulips can save the world. But it seems behind the happy cover lies another approach:
"Join her as she sets off on her one-woman crusade against the tyranny of homogenization, wine consultants, and, of course, the 100-point scoring system of a certain all-powerful wine writer."
Just for the record there is no tyranny of Homogenization in the world of CA wine. There is only disappointment that most wines don't appeal to one's palate. It's also true that Alice's call for more "natural" winemaking and "natural" wines is really just a a reflection of her philosophy of life and not a critique of winemaking. It's highly doubtful she or most others could consistently identify wines that are made with and without "natural" winemaking techniques.
Still, I love to see Alice, this artful writer, make a full frontal assault on those wineries and critics who like to drink and make wines that don't appeal to her. There is a passion here that transcends and makes secondary work of the disappointment that is at the heart of her recent screeds and editorials. It's good writing, it's controversial, it engages the reader and it demonstrates that the politics of preference is alive and well in the world of wine.
As I read the good news today that the California Supreme Court overturned the law prohibiting same-sex marriage, I saw similarities between Feiring's position that California wine should be more subdued and natural and the opponents of the California Supreme Court ruling who believed marriage should be what it always was, between a man and a woman. Both Alice and the conservative, anti-gay camp believe there has been some brainwashing going on. But in the long run, both the opponents of same sex marriage and Alice will lose their battles. America is not, and never was, a place where traditions were forceful enough to squash the aspirations of those who choose to simply do what they want as long as it's not hurting anyone.
The big, bold wines that Alice believes are imitations of what real wine should be will be with us forever and will continue to be made because California's climate allows this as does technology, and because other people like them. But she should take take heart. There will always be Cathy Corisons, Steve Edmunds, Stony Hills and many, many others who, if Alice wants to seek them out, will demonstrate that there is no winemaking region in the world more diverse in the style of wines it produces than California.
When you're gazing at endless rows of wine and you have no clue what to buy, here some generalized tips that can help weed out the crap and allow you to make an educated guess:
1) Don't buy any wine that has dust on it. Chances are there is a reason it hasn't moved. It is either a horrible wine or its a terrible value.
2) If you only see a couple bottles of a particular wine left on the shelf, it may be worth trying. This could be an indication that people are buying it up like crazy and you just happened to walk in at the right time.
3) Read the back label for helpful flavor guides. Smart wineries include descriptions and food pairings. Those that don't have any indicators are anyone's guess as to how it will taste.
Hopefully these easy-to-remember tips will help those in need. Be smart. Use common sense. Don't blindly buy another bottle of vino without making at LEAST an educated guess. Cheers!
Mongrain Glass makes beautiful and fancy wine glasses. James Mongrain is the artist behind this beauty. The thing that impresses me most about James Mongrain is that he has worked with Dale Chihuly since the late 1990?s. Dale Chihuly is a world class glass artist.
I looked through the Mongrain Glass website at the pictures of fancy wine glasses. The white glass goblets were magnificent, as were the chartreuse and yellow. I looked further at the Solid Series and there were more fancy wine glasses in blue, pink and the prettiest black glass I?ve ever seen.
James Mongrain and Mongrain Glass have so many fancy wine glasses for sale. It is important to keep in mind that each of the pieces is handmade and one-of-a-kind. If you want to order any of the Mongrain Glass fancy wine glasses, you need to e-mail or call with your order.
Mongrain Glass has a series of fancy wine glasses called the Creature Series. These are so beautiful. The stems of the fancy wine glasses are creatures like swans and sea horses. There is one design in particular, that has a frosted look to it. There are even dainty flowers around the base of these fancy wine glasses.
The Modern Venetians line of Mongrain Glass fancy wine glasses are very sophisticated in appearance. The glass detail work brings lace to mind because of its intricacy. I would have a very hard time trying to choose which line of Morain Glass fancy wine glasses I wanted. I actually like them all.
In addition to fancy wine glasses, Morain Glass makes commissioned pieces of art. Some of the pieces pictured in the gallery on their website were very large. There are no prices listed on this website, but these look like they cost many thousands of dollars.
Fancy wine glasses really do seem to be a small part of what Morain Glass does in their studio. I found a picture of a piece of art entitle Vortex. Vortex is described as a 7-foot stainless-steel slice of sensuality. The foundation of this piece of art is set in steel and a collection of glass forms illuminate neon light from within. The union of glass and steel in this piece of art is somewhat of a contrast, both in form and idea. Glass and steel are two distinct elements that have been joined so intimately it?s as if they are one.
Prince Edward County (PEC), the most-talked about new wine region in Ontario, may be scoffed at as being too intemperate for vines to survive there, but wineries like Norm Hardie, the Grange, Rosehall Run and Long Dog are changing the...
Normally when a person passes away, our memories of him fade over time. I don't think that this will apply to Robert Mondavi. Much has been written about him, his life and his many contributions, to wine and beyond. He was a singular man, as focused on one great objective as anyone I have ever known.
Tecnorati
We have previously reviewed the entry level 
Alice Feiring....You GO!
to drink and make wines that don't appeal to her. There is a passion here that transcends and makes secondary work of the disappointment that is at the heart of her recent screeds and editorials. It's good writing, it's controversial, it engages the reader and it demonstrates that the politics of preference is alive and well in the world of wine.