cecil - did you happen to go to Ommengang? we were in the catskills for a family reunion years ago and made a run at it. at the time, my beer palate was way to immature to appreciate it

We ran out of time, so didn't get there...

I like beer, but not as much as my wife!

Any recs for decently priced widely available cabs? I'd like to start exploring a little and I've liked big cabs in the past.

What's your definition of a decent price?

Let's break it down to sub 50 and sub 100 retail.

Ok cool. I have to head out shortly but I'll get a list of cabs I like in those price collars when I get home (or in the morning). Fair warning, I'm mainly a Cali cab drinker so I'll be heavy on those.

Caymus at $65 is very good.
Hess Allomi at $24 iis good
Atalon $24 is outstanding

Go grab a fe wbottles from time to time and experiment.

Be sure to get them chilled to sixty degrees to truly enjoy...

Steele Cabernet ($20) is a steal at that price.
Round Pond ($44)
St. Supery (~$25)
Bennett Lane Maximus ($35)
Ladera Napa Valley ($45)
Neal ($40)
Caravan (2nd label for Darioush) ($40)

There's a lot more that I can't think of right now. When you break the $30 barrier in Cabernet from California, there's a 95% chance that it's going to be good. Tread carefully in the sub-$30 range, because you can run into a lot of "green" wines and duds. The 2007 and 2009 vintages were really good, with 2008 being a cooler year where the grapes struggled to get ripe. If you like the full-throttle cabs, go with 2007 & 2009. If you like a leaner cab, stick with 2008, but go with proven names.

I will preface this list by saying not all wines are easily obtainable.  Some require buying direct from the winery but if I can remember if I’ve seen these at stores, I’ll note it.  Also, prices are estimates.  If there isn’t an approximate price, I just didn’t note what I paid or got drunk and forgot.   The price should lay in the respective range, however. Also also, vintages vary but these are consistent producers.
 
Under $25
Beringer Knights Valley – can get retail for around $20
Lots of Cameron Hughes (he buys leftover grapes and juice from producers and make his own wine…good value and Costco carries it)
BV Rutherford – widely available for right around $25
Educated Guess – 2007 was great but haven’t had any since.  at $15, it’s worth a shot.
 
$25- $50
Bourassa – can get retail
Roth  – can get retail for ~$27(not Groth)
Provenance – available retail and look for sales, especially on their website. Good value when you can catch it discounted
Scully  - Mt Veeder wine
Chappellett – the Signature wine is pretty good at about $40, bought at Specs
Frank Family – just under $50 available retail
Girard- $26, vailable retail.  Not bad from what I remember
Snowden (The Ranch) - $40, at Specs, they also have higher end bottles that are good.
$50-$100
Rivers Marie – several different cabs but the Napa bottle is $50.  Winery only.  Great juice!
Jean Edwards
Bucella Mica $64 at Specs
Jones Family
Karl Lawrence ~$55
Emerson Brown $50, I think this is 100% Oakville fruit. 
White Cottage $50 at Specs
12C $65
Drinkward Peschon $65
Lancaster Estate – can get retail  $65
Anderson’s Conn Valley – can get retail I think
Hoopes – can get retail I think, around $50-60
Lamborn $75
Myriad – 4 wines in this range, all excellent.  I’m a big buyer of this name
Quivet – same winemaker as Myriad, same thoughts
Outpost – also good zins and Grenache, available retail
Ovid – the experiment series for $80ish, winery only
Larkmead $60, I think I’ve seen at Specs
Lewelling $50-60, seen at Specs in past
Fantesca $90, good Spring Mountain wine, winery only I think
Grassi – winery only I think
Erna Schein – just saw it on Specs website for $52
Mondavi Oakville - $65ish, look for this on sale from the winery and you can sometimes get it for $40…a steal.
 
$100+ (all are winery only unless noted)
Realm
Maybach
Scarecrow
Pott
Schrader
Seven Stones
Corra – seen at Houston Wine Merchant

I would also look to Washington state cabs and cab blends, producers such as Gorman, Feather, Owen Roe and Gramercy Cellars, to name a few, all make excellent cabs in your price range. A $50 Bully from Gorman is of quality equal to $100+ cabs from Napa, IMO.

you can also get some great value in Washinton wines like Chateau St. Charles and some of the St. Michelle stuff from Heaven Horse Hills.

Awesome guys - thanks!

I'm going to start slowly and work my way through these lists.

quote:

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$100+ (all are winery only unless noted)
Realm
Maybach
Scarecrow
Pott
Schrader
Seven Stones
Corra – seen at Houston Wine Merchant

---

have you had any of the Pott "projects"? Chesters Anvil or Fisher Vineyard? WOW!

Yes I have! Great stuff. In fact, I bought Chester's Anvil zin, chard, and Gewurtztraminer just yesterday. I've also bought Bello, Fisher and of course Seven Stones. Aaron is one of my favorite winemakers from Napa, along with Thomas Rivers Brown and Mike Smith. I'd say 30% of my cellar are wines by those 3 guys alone.

Nice. some recs from your other two favorites?

Actually a lot of the wines are listed above:

Thomas Brown
Rivers Marie -his own label, one of the best values in Napa (Pinot, cab, and the best Chard I've had out of Cal)
Schrader- one of the top wines every year in my book 
Maybach- another wow wine
Outpost- cabs, zins, Grenache 
Black Sears
Seaver
and others

Mike Smith
Myriad- his own label (cabs and syrah)...another great napa value
Quivet-Mike and a few investors (wines much like myriad, just different label)
12C

Mirror is a really good Napa cab as well.

Which Myriad cab should I order?

Is the 50 buck one good?

The $50 Napa cab is great for the price and the Myriad Dr. Crane and Spring Mountain wines are both excellent, too. Unfortunately I think they're all sold out for this vintage.

I know a place that has a couple of Schrader '10 for retail, but lordy are they expensive!!!

Just bought me a couple of Roths and a Chappellet.

[This message has been edited by dermdoc (edited 9/22/2012 7:52a).]

quote:

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I know a place that has a couple of Schrader '10 for retail, but lordy are they expensive!!!

---

Schrader is certainly not cheap on the secondary, and even the direct pricing is pretty rich. I'm glad they only offer me a handful of bottles each year!

Tonight's wines:

2008 Rosenblum Paso Robles zin...decent fruit, not too jammy, almost like Turley
2008 Wolf Family Phaedrus Cabernet (not good)
2007 Cameron Hughes Cabernet Lot 143 Napa (Howell Mountain)...notes to follow on the week 1 wine thread

Drinking Roth right now.

Me likely.

Just placed my first order for Realm and Behrens.

Roth isn't bad for the price! They are the same people as Lancaster Estate.

I got the Realm email today. I'll place a small order and keep my powder dry for the spring release (Crane, To Kalon, Farella).

Thanks for all the info.

We need to be wine snobs together some time.

Sounds good to me. There is a Howell Mountain tasting here in Houston in November that is looking promising!

Echoes,

I'm hearing bad news out of Napa. According to two people I know, Karl Lawrence is dissolving the winery. I heard a similar rumor last year but so much time had passed, that I thought it was just that, a rumor. But it sounds like they are stopping with the 2010 vintage. Not a good day for people that like value!!!!

Oh man that really sucks! Extremely sad to see that happen. Ric had said they were losing their tasting room (I believe) because of that new hotel development going in there. Disappointing, we'll definitely be sure to gather up as much of their stuff as we can.

Hey on that Howell Mountain thing, I saw that's on November 10th, y'all gonna go? We're going to RSVP, lots of good juice on the bill including our favorites Outpost.

Probably gonna be a little snooty (saw the attire is "country club casual"?, wtf), but hey whatever for some tasty goodness. Be great to sample some of the others from the mountain.

my wine cellar broke. checked the temp at it was at 80'. took apart the cooling components and i thought this thing broke since it wasnt cooling and the fans were running:

did some snipping and soldering and replaced it ($9 amazon). now its down to 65'. next up, the mother board. me thinks im not getting the full voltage to it - the unit should roll in the 50s no problem. thats saturday's project. by the way, Peltier gizmos are badass. im pretty sure i could refrigerate anything now.

Ron, what type of setup do you have?

Echoes, yeah, I'm bummed. I remember Ric telling me a hotel was going up there when I visited last spring. I told a winemaker friend of mine what I heard and he said he heard they stopped buying grapes. I thought it was all a rumor until now. Time to stock up!

I think we are doing the Howell Mountain thing. I just hope it doesn't interfere with football. If not, I'll have to turn off my phone for 2 hours while I record it. But for Arkenstone, Lamborn, and Outpost, I can get by...

Wine purchases the last two weeks:
 
2010 Chester’s Anvil Chardonnay, Zin, and Gewurtz.
2010 Hobel Cabernet Sauv.
2010 Realm –a predominantly merlot blend, a cab franc blend, and a cab sauv blend
 

here she is - 4 years old or so?
http://www.air-n-water.com/product/aw-280e.htm


this is the first sign of trouble we've had - for the price, id say 4yrs is a decent run. im about $50 into the repair right now.

Need more info about the Howell MFN event in Houston.

Drank the Chappellet 2008 cab last night.

Very nice.

Turley tonight with some Osso Bucco or lamb chops.

coscaggie, here's a link to the info on Lamborn's site:

http://www.lamborn.com/index.cfm?method=pages.showPage&eventid=93ac10a2-1cc4-81ae-7550-0a9c438fee8f&pageid=aae4be4e-2264-112b-b167-eb414bd993f3