Just ordered my first case from Behren's.

My most common are:
Cali Cab 30%
Cali Bordeaux Blend 15%
Oregon Pinot Noir 11%
Bordeaux 9%
Cali Chard 7%

plus my wife and i have a few cases of bubbly stockpiled as our go to daily wine, currently the chateau ste michelle brut, the best tasting $9 bubbly on the planet, no joke.

Chateau St Michelle is a solid value play!

It must be mailer season.  So far this week I've got offers from Rudius, Scully, Continuum, Ovid, Scarecrow's M. Etain, and a few others that I deleted without opening.   I'm not sure what I'll buy this week, as my annual Napa trip is less than 3 weeks away and who knows what drunk decisions I'll make.

purchased my m.etain 2010 allotment today

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It must be mailer season.

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It is. All told, I've got a case of pinot and other stuff coming from Siduri, Benovia, and J Winery.

are you getting any J bubbly?
that's some damn fine stuff

I believe so. I know I'm getting another bottle of the Nicole's Vineyard Pinot Noir, and that's another bottle to add to the vertical that I have going for that vineyard.

Benovia is awesome stuff. what do you order from them?

I bought Rudius today and then went to get M. Etain and it was sold out. Oh well. Allows me to not feel so bad for dropping the coin on Scarecrow when the time comes.

Sitting on a condo deck in Oxford ms smoking a cigar and drinking a 2009 L'Ecole cab.

Tastes pretty good.

BTHO ole miss

I've never heard of or tried Nicole's vineyard. Where is it?

Would love to be in oxford, alas, have a bachelor party and triathlon on Sunday.

Nicole's vineyard is in Russian River, it is a vineyard designated Pinot done by J.

Last night's juice:

2006 Girard Cabernet Sauv Pritchard Hill (one of my favorite areas in napa)
2007 Parallel Cab Sauv Napa
2007 Round Pond Cab Sauv Rutherford
2007 12C Cab Sauv Rutherford George III vineyard 


Also I was in Napa Valley for about an hour last week and stopped in at Alpha Omega for a tasting. It was 70 degrees out and sunny so I sat on their patio and tasted thru 5 wines. The Ags won, too, so I'll call it a perfect day.

Drank a 2007 Franciscan cab and a 2006 Kendall Jackson Trace Ridge Red wine.

The kj was surprisingly good.

Ordered some Hobel cab this week.

Game day Turley zin today.

BTHO la tech!

Wines at dinner last night:
2009 Stags Leap cab sauv Napa (2 bottles)
1995 Beringer Private Reserve Cab Sauv Napa

Wines during game
5 bottles of assorted Cameron Hughes can sauv (Howell Mountain, Chalk hill,2 x Rutherford, napa)

Had I known the game would last til sunrise, I may have taken a nap before dinner!

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Ordered some Hobel cab this week.

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Had an '03 chateau simard (st emilion) for 55. Outstanding. After about 45 minutes decanting, velvety, plummy, really impressive for this price point at a restaurant. If you're in Houston and haven't been to L'Olivier, I highly recommend it.

I'm trying to figure out a wine list for thanksgiving weekend. I'm mostly a red guy. There are some whites that I enjoy but not sweet. So I'm not sure which route to go with the whites. I'm bring 6-8 bottles and my sister is bringing 6-8. Typical thanksgiving food to pair with

I've got a couple of malbecs and a couple slh pinots. So I'm thinking one more red and two whites. I'm budgeting 30$/bottle max. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Depending on what you're serving, I'd shelve the Malbec for Thanksgiving, as the tannins aren't going to play well with just about anything you're going to serve with Thanksgiving.

Pinot is always a good choice, but the problem is finding decent ones under $30. My go-to Thanksgiving pinots are A to Z, Talbott Kali Hart Vineyard, and Castle Rock.

Whites actually tend to pair better with Thanksgiving fare, and anything that is really floral or something that has a little residual sugar goes well too. I like Rieslings, Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Viognier. Champagne or sparkling wine is a good choice too.

Unless you're just dead-set on reds, I'd go with more whites than reds.

Thanks htown. I'm not dead set on reds except the pinots. Thanks for the input on the whites. Still learning. I liked A to Z. Castle Rock has been hit or miss for me. Some bottles of theirs have been very nice and some have been way grassy and vinegar. Perhaps flawed. I need to look at my notebook to recall the years.
Would you say the less sweet rieslings?

[This message has been edited by A2 (edited 10/19/2012 4:54p).]

Conundrum (white by Caymus)might be a thought.

Amalie Robert is a solid Oregon Pinot, and you could probably find a good deal on it. Might be more than $30 a bottle, but would be close.

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Benovia is awesome stuff. what do you order from them?

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1 2010 Chardonnay Sonoma Coast
1 2010 Chardonnay La Pommeraie
1 2010 Pinot Noir Bella Una Vineyard
1 2010 Pinot Noir La Pommeraie

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are you getting any J bubbly?

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We get still and sparkling, and this month's shipment was a magnum of the 2003 vintage brut. The bottle is so damn big it doesn't fit anywhere.

I actually like zin with my turkey and gravy. Lots of options out there at the $30 price point.

BSD with the win.

A bottle of Turley Old Vines can be had for 30 bucks if you can find it.

Latest Vintage of Shafer Relentless (09) is off the hook. Highly recommend it in the under $50 range.

Is Shafer sold at retail in Texas? I don't recall ever seeing it but them again, I haven't shopped much for wine lately.

I'll be next door to Shafer this afternoon as I head to Quixote winery to visit Aaron Pott and taste his Pott Wines offerings. This is my favorite winery in Napa and the Potts are good people so I'm pretty stoked. Now if I can just get rid of this hangover...

Yes, it is readily available. One point five, Relentless, Merlot and even Hillside are sold at winestores and HEB.

Haven't tried Shafer. I'll look for it.

Mirror is the only allocation I've signed up for. Just ordered this:

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I'll be next door to Shafer this afternoon as I head to Quixote winery to visit Aaron Pott and taste his Pott Wines offerings. This is my favorite winery in Napa and the Potts are good people so I'm pretty stoked. Now if I can just get rid of this hangover...

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I tried some Pott last week. <snicker> It's really good stuff.
Shafer isn't that hard to find. My wine store gets at least 2 cases of Hillside every year and sells every bottle of it.

The Potts joke about making a Snoop Dog cuvée as a play on the name but those silly trademark laws get in the way. Their juice is fantastic!

Well, he is now "Snoop Lion". I haven't had any Potts winery wines, is this Aaron Pott from Quintessa?

That is him.

Have a Realm order coming.