Wine club Insider back!

We’ve done a lot of talking about different wine clubs, and, yes, the choices are almost endless, with a variety of wines and prices almost to match.

But what about if you want to really purchase an investment-quality wine? Where do you look?

There are several high end wine auctions, ranging from “reasonable,” to “you need six figures just to look at the catalogue.” Seriously. There are wine auctions-public(ish), and private-that cater to those where money isn’t an issue.

If you’re looking for “cult” wines, or aged, classic, rare vintages, these are the places to start looking. If it is or was in a wine bottle, especially if it’s rare, there’s a good chance you can find it with a little looking.

Hart Davis Hart wine company – www.hdhwine.com – offers fine and rare wines.

Edward Roberts International – www.eriwine.com – concentrates on traditional live auctions, and their choices are awesome!

Bonhams – www.bonhams.com – is another top seller.

Of course, there are always Sotheby’s, Christies and Zacchy’s, if you prefer the champagne and caviar set!

Now, if you want to privately drop some REAL change, you might want to see if you can get yourself an invite to the “Angry Men,” which are a group of billionaire wine collectors who buy and sell wine in such quantities and such quality that it will make your head spin!

There’s a great article in Men’s Vogue that kind of explains their game… http://www.mensvogue.com/food/cellar/articles/2008/09/billionaire-winos?currentPage=3

Check it out!

Now, if you’re more of a regular joe, but still are looking for some classic wines, I’d recommend you check out www.vinvinwine.com, which is the website of VinVin Wine. Paul collects some of the best wines anywhere, and offers them at fair prices. Here’s a sample from their latest mailing:

So, as you can see, while it might not be ’45 Mouton, I’d love to have any of these grace my cellar!

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider out

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Wine Club Insider back on a snowy December 27th, and I’m trying a different font here today… what do you think?

As I mentioned, port wine is one of my favorite vices… We actually have 93 different ports on our wine list, ranging from aged vintages, to tawny’s, Cloheitas, LBVs (Late Bottled Vintages), white ports and many more.

There’s little that finishes off a great meal than a glass of port, and I try to do my best to support the port industry, if you know what I mean…

Here’s a bit about how port is made:

For starters, all true port (often called Porto, to distinguish it from the many other port-style wines around the world) comes from a relatively small area in Portugal, centered around the Duoro river and the town of Oporto.

Using several different black grape varieties, the most important of which is Touriga Nacional, the wine is racked into barrels containing brandy about half way through fermentation, which kills the yeast. Besides leaving the wine sweet, this also fortifies the wine to 20% alcohol.

There are several grades of port, starting at the rare and expensive Vintage Port, which is aged in the barrel for only two years, and then placed in the traditional opaque black bottles for as many as 5 or 6 decades, or even longer. Vintage port is only produced in exceptional years, so is quite rare. The sugars, tannins and high alcohol will preserve it almost indefinitely… at least as long as you will have the patience for!

Vintage port is always ruby, and contains a rich sediment which should be strained or decanted away before serving. It is interesting to note that several of the top wines from the last century were ports. Great ports can run between $60 and $600 per bottle or more, depending on the vintage and the age. Smith Woodhouse, Grahmas, Taylor Fladgate, Churchills, Cockburns, Delaforce, Dows, Feist, Fonseca and Warres are just a few of the great port houses.

Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) are aged longer in wood, throwing much of their sediment. They are much more affordable, usually ranging in the $18 – 30 range, and are great bargains.

Tawny port is port aged in barrels for a long time (from 10 to 50 years!) and then bottled just prior to release. It turns a light tawny or caramel brown, and are delightful. They range from $24 – 150/bottle. Tawny port goes great with chocolate!

Ruby port is a blend of vintages aged for 2 – 3 years, and can be a real bargain.

Many other countries make port-style wines, using the traditional port grapes or even other varietals such as zinfandel, cabernet, petite syrah and more. Australia makes several award winning tawny ports. Ports can also be mixed with other flavors such as Vanilla and chocolate. Deco and Knipprath cellars (Spokane) make excellent chocolate ports. I would be hard pressed to name something better than a glass of good port and a small wedge of English Stilton cheese after dinner, or even FOR dinner!

Okay… tomorrow, I’m going to tell you about a very unique port wine club that I think you’ll enjoy!

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider

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Wine Club Insider back, dressed in my tux for themas Final Four wines in our Top Ten cabs for Christmas list! It’s the 23rd if December, and as the weather is getting cooler, the winners of the “contest” keep getting hotter!

Here we go with number four…

4) Pepper Bridge ’05 Cabernet Sauvignon. $50. www.pepperbridge.com.

With a score of 93 from Wine Enthusiast, this is an awesome wine! ‘Deep and brooding,’ is how Stephen Tanzer described it, and I concur. We served this for a winemaker’s dinner a while back to rave reviews!

Their “Bridge Club” wine club sends out their best stuff a couple of times a year, and their winery is great to visit, located in the heart of the Wall Walla area.

3) ’98 Renaissance Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. www.renaissancewinery.com  $65/bottle

This is a penetrating, dimensional and truly elegant wine with great structure and lovely balance. I had a bottle five weeks back, and while it was quite drinkable, I think it will last another 10 – 15 years in the bottle. Renaissance is a great story, and one of my favorite wineries, and I’m going to do a whole post or two on them coming up soon. This could easily been number one or two!

2) ’98 Jarvis Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. www.jarviswines.com. $80/bottle. The Inner Circle Club.

In a winery known for amazing wine, this is as good as it gets. This is pretty close to the upper end of my self-imposed cost limit, and well worth it! I’ve already written a bit about Jarvis, but if for no other reason, see if you can snag one of these for the big dinner, and get on a tour. You’ll never forget either one!

Drum roll please…

Here we go with my personal favorite “under $100″ bottle of “Christmas Cab,” and it has a special place in my heart, as it was the first truly great wine I had ever tasted.

Ready? Okay, here goes… and in the number one position…

1) ’94 Silver Oak Alexander Valley. www.silveroak.com. Approx. $85/bottle.

Life truly is a Cabernet for the folks at Silver Oak, and of all their wines, this one remains my favorite. While the winery is sold out of this remarkable vintage, I know you can still get it on auction or on several wine sites like www.hookedonwine.com.

I love this wine. It’s just about perfect for drinking right now. As a matter of fact, I have two bottles left, and I think this will be my main wine for the big dinner… what better way to savor a great wine than with family and friends at Christmas?

Seriously, you just can’t go wrong with ANY of the wines on the list, so choose a few, and enjoy your holiday meal with friends and family! This is what great wine was made for!

Tomorrow, I’m going to share my “dream list” of cabs that you CAN’T get easily (if at all!), generally AREN’T under $100 (or $1000 in some cases), and that I only wish I had been able to taste. Get ready to drool with me!

Until then,

Cheers,

Wine Club Insider out.

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Wine Club Insider with you again.

For the last couple of days, we’ve been talking about building a wine cellar to keep your wine club collection safe, cool, and happy. Today, we’re going to chat about some of the other “necessities” you need to make your wine cellar complete!

Number one is a good opener. I mean, what kind of fun can you have with your wine club collection if you can’t open your bottles?

I mainly use three different openers, depending on my mood, and the condition of the corks.

Lately, my favorite has been an “automatic” opener from Oster (www.oster.com). Basically, you put it over the bottle, press the button, and it grabs the cork and pulls it out. The best part is that it works on a rechargeable battery.

My second favorite is a CO2 “popper:” You poke the needle through the cork, hit the button, which releases CO2 into the bottle, and out pops the cork. It has a few limits on certain types of cork, but is the most fun, for sure.

The other important opener in my collection is the “Ah So,” which is basically a set of prongs that you wiggle down beside the cork and ah, so, out it comes. You can get almost any cork out with this.

Of course, having a very good Sommelier’s corkscrew is probably recommended, just in case…

The next key is to have a couple of nice glasses to pour your wine club collection into.

Of course, the “gold standard” is Riedel (www.riedel.com), which is often misspelled Reidel, even on so-called “real” websites. I have to say, from my experience, that while there may be some wine glasses almost as good, there aren’t any better. I also enjoy Dansk (which we use for our dinner parties), but my true favorites for everyday sipping are the Riedel “O” glasses; they are perfect for casual-and not so casual- company, and they work great for the hottub!

I’ve already mentioned before about the airator by Air au Vin (www.winebreather.com), and of course having a good crystal decanter or two to decant your vintage wines into is a must, but I think you’ve got the idea.

I’m always willing to help out, so when you’re ready, give me a call, and I’ll come by and help you test it all out with you! Until then,

Cheers!

Wine Club Insider out!

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WCI back with you, looking at building that perfect wine cellar to help you store those vintage wines you’ve collected from your wine clubs!

So, we’ve got our temp, humidity and light sorted out, and we’ve picked out the perfect spot in your house; maybe the northwest, tree-shaded corner, or maybe in the addition you built off the kitchen. Now, you’ve got to look at cooling and humidity systems, which are essential, if you don’t have the perfect natural conditions.

Vinotheque (www.vinotheque.com) makes some of the premier units in the world, and there are several good choices on www.wineenthusiasts.com as well.

The key is to get one that is correct for the room size and conditions you have; obviously, if you live in Phoenix, you’ll need a little more juice than if you live in the mountains in northern Idaho.

Next, choose your floors. We chose slate, which we laid ourselves, and we’re very happy with it, though it’s not too forgiving, if a bottle does drop… Other choices include hard wood, tile, or even cork.

With your shelves, choose some that make it easy to get at your wine collection, and that make it safe to take a bottle out. Plain shelves can hold a lot of fine wine, but can cause complications if you want to take out a bottle of vintage wine on the third or fourth layer down, especially with the odd shaped Syrah bottles. Trust me on this.

I would highly recommend having a “wine system” or main, free-standing rack that holds a lot of wine, has room on top for large wine bottles, and end pieces for glasses, and your other wine accessories. My brother-in-law crafted mine by hand as my birthday gift a few years ago, using plans he got from Norm Abrams’ New Yankee workshop (www.newyankee,com).

For the remaining wall space, I used wine racks from www.winerack.com, and the good folks at International Wine Accessories (www.iwa.com) can actually outfit your entire cellar for you, designed as you like it, and I mean anything; they will custom build you ANYTHING you want (and even things you didn’t know you wanted!), built to fit your space.

Now you’ve got your space, and tomorrow, we’ll talk a bit about how to keep track of your burgeoning fine wine collection!

Cheers,

WCI

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WCI back again!

Having recovered from my weekend with Don Townshend, I’d like to detour slightly today, and talk about a very cool wine site on the web.

Hooked on Wine (hookedonwine.net) is one of the best wine purveyors on the web. Actually, Michael Shemali is a wine re-buyer, I guess. He buys entire cellars of wine from folks, buys on consignment, buys from the wineries, and then offers the great deals he finds to those on his mailing list, and through his on-line store. Folks can also consign wine through his store or through auctions he runs.

One of the coolest things is that he really focuses on fine wines, and offers some great deals that you just won’t find in many places.

For example, today in my emailing, he had verticals of Opus and Silver Oak on, going back more than twenty years!

His site is attractive to look at, and is well set up and easy to navigate. He has it broken down by Favorites, by Region, by Rating, by Bottle size and by Vintage.

The Region section is extensive, covering most of the main wine growing areas of the world, and many of the minor ones. It also breaks them down by varietals.

The Ratings section has wines from 85 – 100 points, broken down in small increments.

The Bottle size section has wines up to 18 liters (!), and the vintages go back to the 50′s. He also has a section on new wines, and one for his favorites, which has some interesting choices. Some of the lots have one bottle, some have several cases… you never know, which is why it’s so fun to keep up with what’s new.

They will also ship wines as a gift, and some of these bottle will make GREAT gifts! D’you have someone who really likes wine on your list? How about shipping them an 18 liter  (That’s equal to two full cases, BTW!) bottle of 1999 La Petite Cheval Bordeaux for only $3900… Now THAT’S a Wine Club Gift that I’d like to see under my tree!

Cheers,

WCI

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WCI back to regale you with an evening of some of the best reds I’ve had in a long while…

As soon as we finished our salads, Don Townshend of Townshend Cellars (www.townshendcellar.com) started pouring. Nothing like starting with the Big Boys, so we poured Don’s acclaimed ’00 Cabernet Sauvignon, and my first contribution to the evening, a St. Supery 2000 Dollarhide Ranch Cabernet. (www.stsupery.com)

These were some huge wines! The St. Supery was a bit softer but still had a ton of fruit, while the Townshend was huge… a bit more acidic, as is Don’s tendency, but easily worthy of another decade in the bottle. The five of us began our informal, highly subjective judging, and declared it a tie, with a caveat that we would taste again in a half hour or so.

We’d barely finished our first tastes of those when he poured his 2000 Cabernet Franc. It was one of the biggest wines I’ve had in years. It was a giant, and leapt into the running for the evening’s top wines. I love Cab Francs, but have had some disappointing ones as well, so it was a great surprise.

Now, we were using an air breather by “Air au Vin,” (www.airbreather.com) that breathes air into either a bottle or a glass of wine, equalling about an hour of decanting in about 30 seconds. We were able to “taste test” the new wines fresh from the bottle, and then airate them and taste them again; it makes a real difference.

Don then opened a second Cab Franc, this time a  1999 L’ Ecosse from California, that he had bought a case of years ago. On any other evening, it would have been a star, but while tasty, didn’t stack up to the Townshend Cab Franc.

Finally, he opened his 1999 Merlot. This is a Monster wine. As many of you likely remember, after the movie “Sideways,” Merlot sales fell, while Pinot sales climbed, and people kind of went off Merlot. I think it’s kind of ironic, since two of the most acclaimed, expensive and rare wines in the world are Merlots… yup, Chateau Petrus and Le Pin are both Merlots. I think Sideways did wine drinkers disservice, because with a wine like this, people are missing out! It is easily one of the best Merlots I have ever had, and Don said it might be one of his top two or three best wines he’s ever made, along with his Late Harvest Chenin Blanc, and his 95 Reserve Cab… Legacy wines.

I haven’t even got to tell you about dinner yet, so I guess I’ll be back to finish the story tomorrow!

Cheers,

WCI

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Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you’re enjoying a wonderful holiday with some great wines to go with it!

I’d love to hear what everyone’s drinking with their turkey… please drop me a comment/note and let me know, so we can post your preferences. At our place, we’re having a very nice Ste. Michelle Reisling, a David Bruce Pinot Noir from Oregon, and a surprisingly wonderful huckleberry wine called “Huck.” For dessert, we’re having a Cabernet Sauvignon Ice wine (!) from Icicle Ridge winery in Washington. What are your Turkey Day favorites? Drop us a line, and I’ll post your choices next week!

Okay… let’s get back to ”The valley…”

Heading west down the tranquil Oakville Crossroad toward highway 29 and Opus One (www.opusonewinery.com) an almost mystical place to a new “winey…” I mean, this was OPUS, for goodness sake!

Opus is a joint venture between the now-late Robert Mondavi, and Baron Phillipe de Rothschild to produce a “proprietary Bordeaux blend,” of mostly Cab, and a few other varietals, such as Merlot, Cab Franc, Petite Verdot, etc…

This winery is amazing. It is an architectural wonder, that almost defies description. It is also expensive.

We had missed the 10:30 a.m. guided daily tour, so we were forced to enjoy the grounds on our own with our $25 tasting of the famous Opus One, which lived up to its  billing. I bought one, even at the “exorbitant” price of $85/bottle… funny how things change in a couple of years. $85 for a ’94 Opus now? Gimme a case!

From there, across the street to Mondavi! (www.robertmondaviwinery.com). The famous roof line silhouette greeted us, and we headed in for a tasting of an impressive line of wines. A few samples and a little conversation with the wine room manager later, and we were in a small private room with a couple of delightful library wines; older vintages of special character, kept back by the wine maker as something special.

I bought a couple of bottles of their best, the Mondavi Reserve Cabernet, and we continued our trek. Francis Ford Coppola’s fine establishment (www.rubiconestate.com) where I purchased several vintages of the iconic “Rubicon.”

Across to St. Supery (www.stsupery.com) where I joined the “Divine Wine Club,” and remain a thankful member to this date. St. Superyhas a fairly wide variety of wines, but are best known for their estate grown Rutherford Vineyard Cabs.

How many wineries had we been to so far? Nine? Ten? Eleven, I think. I had truly lost count, but I was determined to make an even dozen–one for each bottle in a case?

Our final stop was V. Sattui, one of the most interesting wineries in the valley, and where we’ll pick up tomorrow, as we hop along the dusty wine roads on our way for some good post-Thanksgiving shopping!

Cheers!

WCI

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