greenband said:

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For the Dallas crowd, Kroger has 30% off wine for buying 6 bottles or more.

I'm in northwest Plano and the Kroger at 121/Josey Ln has a decent selection in the $30 - $100 range. I load up every time they have this sale so I'm not opening expensive club wine bottles (or two) every night ...

Great prices to add wine like Caymus, Faust, Daou, Peju, etc.

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Excellent, thank you

greenband said:

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For the Dallas crowd, Kroger has 30% off wine for buying 6 bottles or more.

I'm in northwest Plano and the Kroger at 121/Josey Ln has a decent selection in the $30 - $100 range. I load up every time they have this sale so I'm not opening expensive club wine bottles (or two) every night ...

Great prices to add wine like Caymus, Faust, Daou, Peju, etc.

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Agreed it's always a great sale, but for some reason Caymus is always excluded from the deal, at least at my Kroger.

Well done on the bubbles discussion. I don't have much more to add except maybe find a bottle of Delamotte if the price is right.

Speaking of right priced bubbles, I believe HEB will have a 25% off sale at year end. Anyone else?

Cecil, that was me that sent you a FB request, based on the Texas Wine discussion.

HEB's here in SA have terrible bubbles selection but yes, they go to 20% off soon for New Years.

aggiejumper said:

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HEB's here in SA have terrible bubbles selection but yes, they go to 20% off soon for New Years.

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.

I'm hoping the big boys go on sale. I need to stock up on the 2008s to last the next 20 years (and by stock up, I mean for special occasions, certainly not weekly wife wines!)

Found the ad online...

Quote:

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"When you purchase 6 bottles of wine 750 ML or larger with Card. Mix and Match 6 bottles. Limit one discount per transaction. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Excludes Conundrum, Emmolo, Mer Soleil, Red Schooner, and Caymus brands."

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Basically all the Wagner Family wines list. I don't see any others listed.

No pic, but I got a Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose NV in the mail today from an adviser we used on a transaction earlier this year. I'm not familiar with it at all but am looking forward to popping it soon.

It doesn't suck.

jh0400 said:

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No pic, but I got a Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose NV in the mail today from an adviser we used on a transaction earlier this year. I'm not familiar with it at all but am looking forward to popping it soon.

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It's legit

752bro4 said:

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Found the ad online...

Quote:

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"When you purchase 6 bottles of wine 750 ML or larger with Card. Mix and Match 6 bottles. Limit one discount per transaction. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Excludes Conundrum, Emmolo, Mer Soleil, Red Schooner, and Caymus brands."

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Basically all the Wagner Family wines list. I don't see any others listed.

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Another good reason to skip all Wagner family wines which, in addition to being over-produced, are sugar/fruit bombs (yes, even Caymus)

Wagner is bad, his son is 10x worse.

Are there any reliable ways to determine wines that add sugar to balance out poor wine?

Usually anything red < $16 usually has sugar added, but not sure about some of the more expensive bottles.

I read something about lower alcohol content also = more sugar.

Cyp0111 said:

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Wagner is bad, his son is 10x worse.

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Yep.

https://www.oregonlive.com/wine/index.ssf/2018/10/where_theres_smoke_theres_fire.html

MooreTrucker said:

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I read something about lower alcohol content also = more sugar.

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Lower alcohol can mean that the grapes weren't fermented to dryness, i.e. not all of the fermentable sugars were fermented into alcohol. However, lower alcohol can also indicate less ripe (under ripe) grapes. Oddly enough, IMO so many 2015 Napa cabs are so palpably sweet is the the hot growing season and resulting early harvest resulted in some harvesting their grapes at much higher sugar levels than normal and struggling to ferment to dryness. So even 15% alcohol wine can still have some residual sugar. And new ttb rules limit "table wine" to 16% alcohol, so there's a monetary (tax) reason to keep their wine under 16%.

But I'm not aware of any way to know which lower end producers add sugar. In California, I think it's way more than we'd like to know. Same with oak alternatives (staves, chips, powders). A recent article polling producers indicated that at $25 and below it's likely that oak alternatives are used. They didn't poll sugar, since almost no one will admit to it. Kinda like all that Mega Purple sold in the market that nobody seems to use!

And 1000x yes to the Wagner stuff. To be fair I've not tasted Caymus since that infamous 2012 40th anniversary vintage, which was so sweet I swear it was their Conundrum red just relabeled.

I'm looking at buying new wine fridge #3.... I don't drink wine as fast as I buy it (which concerns me about how much I must be buying!). This time I plan to buy something with a higher capacity (100+). It will be free standing in a room that primarily just has a bar in it and is one of the first rooms you see when you come into my house so would like it to not be an eye sore. Also, I drink lots of Pinot Noir which tend to be fat bottles that don't fit great in a lot of these wine fridge racks. Anyone have a suggested fridge or a place I should go browse? I'm in the woodlands... would like to keep the price below $1,500.

Appreciate the offer, but yes in Dallas. I appreciate the feedback on checking the wine from everyone. We'll give it a shot.

Hourglass is a pretty cool tasting. I love how they have a setup showing all the various soils from around Napa to talk through the varietion the grapes see. Also learned about Dakota Shy there about 5 or 6 years back and he's on his own now. Great wine. Just started following this thread. Will have to go back to Hourglass next time to try their merlot!

Texas Howell Mountain Tasting Event

They're having another round of Howell Mountain tasting events in Texas in February. We went to the Houston tasting a couple years ago and really enjoyed it. Will probably be doing this one as well. Anyone else?

I did notice Black Sears dropped off....

Hourglass Blueline Merlot is tasty!

AlexSAWineguy said:

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Hourglass Blueline Merlot is tasty!

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We went to the Howell Mountain event several years ago and it was great. We are now members with KrissTodd and really like them as people as well having spent time with them both times we have been to Napa since.

I know not everyone is interested in this kind of stuff, but if you are this is a good read.

Essentially one of the world experts on the effect of geology on wine taste, admitting that there is no link at all.

Busting terroir myths: The science of soil and wine taste

Austintm said:

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AlexSAWineguy said:

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Hourglass Blueline Merlot is tasty!

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Don't be bringing up this **** movie on this thread.

One of my favorites.

And I've read all three books.

So, I'm thinkin' Ok for this thread!

Howdy, first post on this board. Venturing over as Christmas came with a Coravin under the tree. Any suggestions on price point or style of wine to make the most of it? Now that I have this device, would love some specific bottle suggestions to try (Dallas area) that are best enjoyed over a few sittings.

Lately have been getting to know the valpolicella region, especially paradiso and amarone style labels. Would love suggestsions on labels to try for these styles too.

Cheers and Merry Christmas!

Movie is fine other than this one BS line that gets repeated ad nauseum by people who have never seen the movie nor have any reason for shying away from Merlot other than that line. And Merlot's are ****ing delicious

terradactylexpress said:

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Movie is fine other than this one BS line that gets repeated ad nauseum by people who have never seen the movie nor have any reason for shying away from Merlot other than that line. And Merlot's are ****ing delicious

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Relax, it's a just a movie.

Chipotlemonger said:

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terradactylexpress said:

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Movie is fine other than this one BS line that gets repeated ad nauseum by people who have never seen the movie nor have any reason for shying away from Merlot other than that line. And Merlot's are ****ing delicious

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Relax, it's a just a movie.

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To you, it's "just a movie". Problem is, it's a movie that's convincing people not to try great wine.

To take a break from the movie talk....

Wife got me the wine folly master guide for Christmas. I've enjoyed diving into it so far. Anyone else familiar with wine folly? Really like the illustrations and being able to flip through it as I'm drinking wine.

Also, I got her a gift card for a wine for normal people class. So excited about that as well....