I'd probably sleep in there if I put all that work into it!

Wow. Impressive.

The Botami is excellent, year after year. The stackhouse is also good but I'd put the Intrinsic cab from Columbia Valley at $20 ahead of it as a value/quality wine

Merry Christmas to you, too, and to all those who read and contribute to this thread.

Agreed and I second that.

Merry Christmas, my TexAgs wine(o) friends.

Same here. Lots of wines poured at a party tonight, including Peter Michael, Pride, Bevan, Aubert, Saxum, Marcaissin, Chateau Montelana 1996, Ruinart, Pierson Meyer, and several Booker wines.

We opened a 2008 Shafer One Point Five and a 2010 Burgess Cabernet for Christmas dinner. Both very good for different reasons.

Any suggestions on tastings/lodging for a February trip to Santa Barbara? Will be a Pinot heavy trip for the wife & I, 1st time to SB

GBMont3 said:

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Any suggestions on tastings/lodging for a February trip to Santa Barbara? Will be a Pinot heavy trip for the wife & I, 1st time to SB

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in that area, thinking of Santa Rita hills wines, I'd look into the following Pinot makers - Tyler, Domaine de la Cote, Foxen (make a lot of wines), Au Bon Climat. If you like chardonnay, the best is Liquid Farm in the area (along with Sandhi). And I would recommend looking into a Grenache producer called A Tribute to Grace, but not sure if they have a tasting room.

All that is off the top of my head, I've never been to the area but it is next on my list. I'm a fan of wines from that area. There are some other top notch pinot producers out there, I'm sure.

We did Santa Barbara county earlier this year. It was a bigger group though so we rented an AirBnb house in Lompoc. On our "Pinot" day we hit up Mellville and then Fiddlehead and Arcadian in the "Lompoc Wine Ghetto." Mellville was my surprise of the trip, I was really impressed with their Pinot (and chard and Syrah) and think it's equal or better to Pinot producers at higher price points.

If you are into Rhone varietals we did Stolpman, Beckmen and Andrew Murray on our "Rhone" Day. Would suggest any of them but Stolpman sticks out to me.

I'm in the Stolpman club. Good stuff.

Pinot in the city is coming to Dallas and Austin. If you are a fan of Oregon wines this is a great event. Over 50 wineries pour 3 glasses apiece. Don't miss the Chardonnay and Riesling either. I went to it in DC several years ago and it was awesome. The hardest part was spitting out all that great juice.

Someone tell me about being a startup wine distributor in texas. Made some great contacts in Napa and Sonoma that really want to push their product deeper into texas.

Comeby! said:

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Someone tell me about being a startup wine distributor in texas. Made some great contacts in Napa and Sonoma that really want to push their product deeper into texas.

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I hope you have better resources than texags to get that started. would be curious what "great contacts" in Napa and Sonoma have quality product but not current access to Texas market.

reload85 said:

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Pinot in the city is coming to Dallas and Austin. If you are a fan of Oregon wines this is a great event. Over 50 wineries pour 3 glasses apiece. Don't miss the Chardonnay and Riesling either. I went to it in DC several years ago and it was awesome. The hardest part was spitting out all that great juice.

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That looks, cool, I might try to weasel my way to the Austin one.

Comeby! said:

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Someone tell me about being a startup wine distributor in texas. Made some great contacts in Napa and Sonoma that really want to push their product deeper into texas.

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It is probably not as easy as it sounds. Do you want to sell to retail customers or restaurants?

bularry said:

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Comeby! said:

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Someone tell me about being a startup wine distributor in texas. Made some great contacts in Napa and Sonoma that really want to push their product deeper into texas.

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I hope you have better resources than texags to get that started. would be curious what "great contacts" in Napa and Sonoma have quality product but not current access to Texas market.

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I do have references in the business in texas but texags knows stuff so I wanted to tap in to experience here, if any.
I won't get into the products but can I assure you you know it. One is very established (25+ years), another is (15years+) and one of a startup. They are already in big box liquor stores being peddled by big box distributors. Their struggle is that they are not a top priority with their distributor.
The very established one is coming to Dallas this month where in setting up a tasting event. For what it's worth, I'm a fan and customer, not an industry member.

Wrong thread.

Sparkling in Napa/Sonoma - BESIDES Domaine, are there any specific bubbly tours that anyone has been on?

Schramsburg is a great tour.

Like she's the first one,...

Haven't been but Mumm gets high praise.

TP Ag '87 said:

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Like she's the first one,...

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Hey I apparently didn't help the situation, I was chilling on the bench out front and didn't even know what she was doing, but I doubt I would have caught it!

that sounds more reasonable, a smaller guy stuck with a big distributor looking to get new representation.

Victory and Pioneer seem to be the distributors most friendly to the smaller, niche producers, at least domestically.

Mumm is also real nice

ha! well played.

Favorite Brands tend to carry the smaller ones too.

Bularry, curious of your impression if you go.

bularry said:

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that sounds more reasonable, a smaller guy stuck with a big distributor looking to get new representation.

Victory and Pioneer seem to be the distributors most friendly to the smaller, niche producers, at least domestically.

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Thank you!

Does anyone have a Wine Advocate subscription? I'm interested in how a few wineries scored out.

I don't, but I know someone who does.

I used to get a one month subscription for the cab report (and would look at everything else published throught the year) but they did away with those and now it's a one year subscription. I don't think its worth a year any more. I'm curious about Realm (specifically Bard which I have a client), Rivers Marie, Schrader, and if they rated Roy Piper's cab.

It looks like Rivers Marie pinot/chard is coming up on 1/17 and Maybach on 1/24. I promised myself I'd throttle back after my '13 buying binge but I always get a case of RM Sonoma Coast pinot and I can't resist Maybach Materium. last year I bought 375s, 750s, and a mag. This year I may lower the number and pass on the mag. Maybe.

Also be on the lookout for a new cabernet wine, William and Mary, coming out around Valentine's Day. I don't think there's a website yet but I'll post when I find out.