Von Strasser was me. I hope you like it. Its a staple in my cellar and Specs will always have it.

Von Strasser is good stuff, we've been wine club members with them for several years. Really enjoy the variety of vineyard cabs, especially the "Agira" (sp?) and "Post" vineyard cabs. The estate cab is really good too, and they're nice people.

If you go visit, set up the chocolate/wine pairing in the caves, delicious!

If you like whites, they're one of the few in the Napa area that make a Grüner Veltliner, since Rudy the owner is Austrian.

I tasted through a group of reds last weekend:

2009 Vina Cobos Volturno
2010 Tenuta Setti Ponti Oreno
2009 21 Grams
2009 Chateaue Leoville Barton St. Julien
2009 Futo

We tasted all of them blind, and I was able to pick out the Leoville and the Oreno. The Cobos was my favorite, followed by the 21 Grams, Futo, Leoville, and Oreno. The voting overall was very close. The mystery wine was a 2005 Enchanted Path from a magnum, and if I'd known it came out of a magnum, I would have gotten everything correct except for the winery. I guessed a 2007 Spottswoode.

95 d'Yquem Monday night: nice color, good sweetness, lacking some nuttiness that I prefer, nice botrytis. Still, had better d'Yquem. I'd say an 89 pointer.

08 Leoville Barton last night. It was opened last Saturday, and was too tight. Tonight, still tight at first in glass, opened up beautifully in 15 minutes. More international style, less Bordeaux gravel, leather and earth. Lots of fruit. California influence? 88 points if you grade it as a St Julien, 92, if you grade on my enjoyment.

I get jealous everytime I come back to this thread...

Its the best thread (by wide margin) on Texags. I've found some great wines and learned quite a bit.

Planning my next trip to mostly Sonoma and RRV (with a sprint by Diamond and Howell Mountain) as a result of this board.

Quill has some great diamond and howell mountain designated Cabs. They do not own property or a winery; they source fruit from those mountain AVAs and use a co-op for the winemaking.

Definitely worth checking them out if youre a mountain cab fan.

invino.com has 2009 Duckhorn Cab for $30 per bottle right now.

This will make a dang good everyday wine!

Nevermind, it's for splits...

[This message has been edited by cecil77 (edited 12/5/2012 3:47p).]

I'm considering joining the Burgess wine club. I realized about 90% of my chiller is Pinot and Champagne, and I need some other good reds to drink.

I'm also finding that "value" and "Bordeaux" are two words that can be used in the same sentence again. Now if Burgundy would follow suit, things would be good.

Cecil. I saw $30 and went straight there to realize baby bottles...

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Can someone point me to website where I can get historical region grades and/or specific wine grades? Total Wine publishes this in their catalog, I just don't have one handy.

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Anyone?....Anyone?....If I have to go to Total Wine its gonna cost me at least $100.

I picked up 09 Realm To Kalon Cab, 2010 hourglass blue line cab and cab franc and 2009 Bolgheri Ornella this evening.

quote:

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quote:

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Can someone point me to website where I can get historical region grades and/or specific wine grades? Total Wine publishes this in their catalog, I just don't have one handy.

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Anyone?....Anyone?....If I have to go to Total Wine its gonna cost me at least $100.

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Like this?

http://www.erobertparker.com/info/vintagechart.pdf

Or this?

http://assets.winespectator.com/wso/pdf/022912VintCard2.pdf

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I'm considering joining the Burgess wine club. I realized about 90% of my chiller is Pinot and Champagne, and I need some other good reds to drink.

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If you cook me up some food, you can have plenty of my other good reds!

I used to love Leoville Barton at about $25-35 but like most Bordeaux, it's crazy pricey right now.

Thanks BSD, the Parker guide was basically what I was looking for. Any sites to get specific wine grades that don't require a subscription?

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Thanks BSD, the Parker guide was basically what I was looking for. Any sites to get specific wine grades that don't require a subscription?

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Cellartracker.com has free wine ratings from their members.

BSD, I'd take you up on that offer, but I actually live in Austin now, so that would be a problem

Grower champagne class tonight. This shall be fun.

[This message has been edited by HTownAg98 (edited 12/6/2012 9:43a).]

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Grower champagne class tonight. This shall be fun.

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most jealous. have to dry out for a race this weekend.

It's one of my favorite classes of the year. Once you realize you can have Champagne that drinks like $100+ bottles that cost $40-$50/btl., you'll never drink Dom or Vieux-Clicquot again.

Othe than cellartracker, Wine Enthusiast may have ratings but I haven't been on that site in a long time.

Htown, that class sounds awesome. Didn't you say there was a way to determine whether or not a bottle was grower champagne?

Added some Lewelling, Realm, and Scarecrow to the cellar today:

Ordered some Rockpile (Mauritson) today. We're dipping our toe into grown-up wine.

BSD - That's a great addition. I added some Realm this week and a case of scarecrow a few weeks ago. Now on to the wait to drink these vintages (although I'll sample a bottle of each to see how they are drinking now)

Yep, these are in that "hurry up and wait" category of wine. I'll usually hold cabs for at least 5 years but broke the habit and had a 2008 Realm Farella recently that was excellent!
And prischris, I love zins and petit sirahs out of the Rockpile area. Mauritson does some good ones.

Dinner with wife: 2001 mouton. First impressions are nice maroon color, floral perfume pepper nose. Tight and tannic. Needs more decant. Check in later.

Scarecrow is $300 per bottle?!

I'd probably try to hold my pee for a week!

I'm getting it at $150 per list.

$150 is M. Etain pricing. I think Scarecrow is just shy of $300 with shipping and taxes. When I first signed up for the list, it was $125.

Oh yeah. Just checked. Mines $250

And I thought I was splurging on Insignia and Caymus Special Select.

How good is a bottle like that. Really, really good I'm sure. I hope to reach that level some day...

got to drink what makes you happy. sometimes these ultrapremium are worth it, sometimes not.
the people and setting make the wine experience more often than not, imo.

What Mr Ceasar said. I may drop Scarecrow in the near future because of the massive price increases. We actually dropped my wife's allocation last year. I've found wines that are just as good at half the price and the reasonable side of me keeps saying that I should scale back. Don't get me wrong, it's great wine, but $300 is quite a bit for a bottle of fermented grape juice!


Who am I kidding, I'm not reasonable. I'll stay on!

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Didn't you say there was a way to determine whether or not a bottle was grower champagne?

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Yes, look for something that is RM-XXXX, where XXXX is a series of numbers. The RM is what is important. All of the big Champagne houses (Krug, Roederer, Mumm, etc.) will have an NM-XXXX label. They are usually in very fine print around the edges of the label. I think some of the bigger Spec's stores have a section of "Grower Champagne" bottlings, and they should all have the RM-XXXX designation. If you're ever unsure or just feeling lazy, ask someone that works that section.

[This message has been edited by HTownAg98 (edited 12/7/2012 10:35a).]