Thanks, that's really good info.

I have one 160 bottle chiller and two Vissani 50 bottle ones that were really cheap at Lowe's (like $149)

I actually like the little one's better as they are a constant 55 degrees from top to bottom. The big one goes from 64 up top to 46 down below.

If I can ever afford it I'd like to convert one room and put in a chiller...

Also, just ordered 4 each of the Ancillary ( Myriad ) Pinots that were released today. Don't know much about Pinots, will try them Thanksgiving I think...

I don't need any pinot but I picked up some of each of the Ancillary for guests. They were good, with the Sangiacamo being a little bigger of the two.

thanks for the input guys.

I have seen the Eurocave stuff online. Unfortunately, I'm trying to find a solution that doesn't cost me $2k or more as I've got to fund college at the moment.

I have a small unit with about 2 cases in it. I'm a bit concerned it is too cold for a long term solution. at the moment, nothing has been in it longer than 2 years, but I've got a few items that I need to hold another 5 years or so before they are good to drink.

In additional, I've got another 3 cases holding stuff and I'm about to get a shipment with a case of Delille reds and I've got some Burgundy coming in December. Need some storage that won't ruin the wine.

A couple of guys I know from tastings at my local store converted closets to wine storage/tasting rooms. that is pretty ideal, but I don't have an internal closet big enough downstairs and don't really want to do it upstairs, so that is a dilemma.

I think the advice is solid, I need some 250+ size storage piece.

I'll check out BSD's link and the brands mentioned above. any other brand suggestions from anyone?

Where are you located? I'd recommend finding a wine storage facility in your city.

You could pay monthly and thus keep your initial costs down until you finish school.

However, if you can afford Burgs (of any reputable quality), you can afford a decent wine fridge.

I had a small storage locker at a temp/humidity controlled storage unit for a few months and it cost about $50 per month. You have to get creative to fit the bottles in but using milk crates I was able to store about 10 cases in it.

[This message has been edited by BSD (edited 10/30/2013 11:16a).]

Almost forgot: Dinner last Tuesday night was fun. My wife and I met up with two winemakers at Bistro Jeanty in Yountville. Since it's harvest, they hadn't seen each other in a while so we just sat back and listened to them talk farming, business, and of course wine. A lot of it was over our heads but it was very interesting to hear these guys speak and hear rumors of some other producers.

My buddy at Rivers Marie brought a 2009 RM Chardonnay. This wine alone is why I signed up for the RM list. It's such a delicious wine and hasn't lost a step.



He also brought a 2008 Lewelling Wight cab but the other cab on the table blew that out of the water: the 2010 Roy Piper cab. More on that below:

Roy Piper is a relatively new winemaker. He was in the finance field for a large money manager in LA and had a deep love for wine...so deep that he quit a promising career about 8 years ago and moved to Napa to work in the cellars for what was essentially minimum wage. Roy is an encyclopedia of Napa wine knowledge. He has walked every vineyard there and got his first job under Aaron Pott as his assistant. With the 2010 vintage, he is finally about to release his own wine, the 2010 Roy Piper Wines Cabernet. This is 100% Georges III vineyard cab out of Rutherford. I think future vintages will include some Moulds Vineyard cab but this one is all G III. Roy is a bit of a perfectionist. He's made wine from this vineyard before but it didn't live up to his high standards so he sold the juice off in bulk to other wineries...who submitted it to Wine Spectator and got a score of 92. Not bad for juice he didn't think worthy of his name. The 2010 was a very nice wine. Lots of big fruit, smooth tannins and a good mouthfeel...a great cab. I've tasted this every year since it was picked so it was interesting to see how it has evolved from the grape to the barrel to the bottle. He made 130 cases and the price will be in line with other wines from the area...$125. Below is a link to his website if you want to sign up for the list. Release should be in the next few months.

www.roypiperwines.com

Since I can only drink a few bottles a year, this will be one of them so I'm a buyer.

d78230,

I'm out of school, but have 2 of my own in college at the moment.

as a burb dweller, not sure any decent temp-controlled storage near me, I'll look into it though.

my burgs I'm getting are only a few and while seemingly high quality based on press, they still are under $100 wholesale, so not the most famous of estates. still, good stuff I'll need to hold.

Your profile has you living in Houston.

Quick google search turned up a number of places.

One called private storage looks promising. 3-4 locations around the Houston area.

A few others looked pricier.

Good luck though. In Houston, you should have no trouble finding something.

BSD,

FTW! Out of the 4 Pott wines you tried, which was showing the best? I had a St. Helena wine made by Aaron called "Sympa" that was delicious. I have not tried the current vintage Hourglass Merlot (2011), by chance did you taste it?

A2

The only Pott wine I had was the 2007 Incubo, which we took to dinner. I bought the '11s on blind faith. I talked to his wife while we were out there the day the wine was released and she said they were similar to the 10's: the '11 Majesty's Secret Service was more elegant and the '11 Arsenal was typical Rutherford greer vineyard fruit, big bold and beautiful.


The Hourglass was a gift and we did not open the bottle. It is in our friend's cellar out there resting for a few years. I don't think that I've actually had an Hourglass wine yet so I'll let you know how it tastes in about 5 years!

La Sirena shipment arrives today.
Sherwin Family arrives Monday (3 x Reserve Cab for Thanksgiving)
Swanson Family ships Tuesday.
Mirror Howell Mountain ships soon

BSD:


Cecil:

Howdy wine thread Ags, especially those in Houston--

Thought I'd stop by on behalf of Coppa Ristorante on Washington to let y'all know about a few exciting wines we have in right now. After being a server for a while (at the time thinking I'd go back into corporate stuff) and helping out with the wine program in an unofficial capacity, I'm now managing and spending most of my time with the wine now thinking that's the industry I want to be in eventually. I know there are some very knowledgeable wine-o's on here so I figured y'all would appreciate knowing about some of these deals.

We received our allotment of a little over two cases of 2010 Continuum (this year, a Cab, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot blend) as well as a case of Opus One and will be selling them for $207 and $268 respectively.

We finally received some more La Jota Howell Mtn Cabernet (2010 I believe as well) and are pricing that at $85.

On the Italian side, one of my favorite new wines at any price is the 2007 La Magia Brunello, a 94-point wine and priced at $68 while we have our couple of cases. If you're into something more obscure, we have the 2009 Galardi Terra di Lavoro Roccamonfina IGT from Campania as well for just over $100. Really cool wine if you like something harder to find, the only wine really made in the area, and with that south Italian minerality and unusual terroir (compared to most of the rest of Italy).

The wine I'm currently obsessed with is the 2006 Beni di Batasiolo Barolo from Cru Boscareto. We have the only case of this single-vineyard Barolo in Houston, which is also half of the allotment for the entire state (the other half was saved for business(es) in Dallas-- don't know who). A really special wine that could be sold for two or three times the price in my opinion, but which we have for $88 while the last 10 bottles last.

We are pretty well-stocked on Amarone right now as well, starting with a few in the $70-90 range and going all the way up to Dal Forno Romano 2004 for $700-- if you're so inclined.

Finally, as always we have some cool domestic Pinot Noir to fawn over. We received our allotment of Sea Smoke "Ten" and "Southing" and likely have one left of the former and just a few more of the latter for your Santa Rita fix. We also have an off-menu set of Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve verticals starting in 1999 and going up through the next decade. Riley is selling those off to anyone who will appreciate them so stop on in and ask what year is going for what-- I don't honestly even know, myself. Probably the best deal in the building is the 2010 Domaine Serene "Grace," which we are selling for about half our typical 60% markup at $205.

As I try to expand my personal wine knowledge I hope to stop by this thread a lot more often, but I hope y'all will consider coming in and enjoying a nice spaghetti carbonara, try some wine, and ask for the one Aggie in the house when you do! Who knows, there may be a TexAgs discount in order as well if I'm managing that night!

Gig 'Em,

Andrew

I've always found the prices at Coppa, Brasserie 19, and Ibiza to be exceptional. $207 for Continuum at a restaurant??? That is unreal! I just checked my receipts and I paid $202.33 per bottle straight from the source. That is at least a $400 bottle in any other restaurant. Plus the food is great there. That was one of my go-to spots back when I could drink. My only suggestion would be that the restaurant should keep the bottles a little cooler. The last few bottles I had were a little warm. Other than that, I love the place.

Will y'all be getting any fresh truffles this season? I'm itching for some. Also, if y'all could make a dish called casoncelli, I'd eat there every day. I'll even send you the recipe!

Uh oh! This will be calling my name in about 5-10 years! One of the few wineries that I still buy from...

BSD,

We will be getting some burgundy black winter truffles when they are available to us. We run a special in-the-know truffle dish of burrata topped with prosciutto di san daniele, topped with porcini salt and shaved black truffles called "turf-n-turf-n-turf" for around $24 (our truffle add on cost last year was $21 alone) so definitely stop in, ask for Riley or Andrew-- and failing failing that ask for any senior server or chef-- and enjoy that. We're expecting them in during the next month. If turfnturfnturf doesn't float your boat, there's always carbonara, bucatini cacio e pepe, gnocchi, and mushroom pizza that do really well with shaved truffles, so either way check us out again soon. Send me a PM if you ever make a reservation and I'll make sure you're well taken care of!

And re: your wine temp concern, I just expanded our reserve bottle list and plan on using our our reserve cooler a lot more to have some of our nicer stuff properly stored. Right now we've just been holding onto a couple of higher priced amarones in there, but we need to put at least one of our Abacus XV, Lokoya, Cardinale, Domaine Serene Monogram, Biondi Santi Brunellos and so on in there too. We have more than enough to do so, so there's no excuse not to.

Hi guys - new to the thread and had a quick question.

I am looking for any tips on Cabs that fall at a price point between $30 - $60. Seems like most of the "nice" Cabs sit above $100.

Essentially I was wondering if there's a vineyard out there you guys love/trust for a nice Cab that has some complexity to it.

Hate asking this question as I feel there is always the view that you get what you pay for - I just want a more price accessible cab to keep around for less formal events/steak night here at the house. Just can't bring myself to pop open the Stag's Leap when the wife and I are just having a quick steak dinner with the kids here....

Oh - and have loved reading through the thread. There is some serious wine knowledge here. Thanks for sharing.

Just some I can remember off the top if my head:
Kobalt Window Pane
Chappellet Signature
Cervantes (2nd label of Chappellet)
Round Pond
Caravan (2nd label of Darioush)
Blender Boy
Blue Rock Baby Blue

Poured wine for a wine group last night. The theme was sentimental wines. The best part was I got to try everything and didn't have to shell out $150+ to participate.

09 Etain (Winner)
09 Velvet Glove
98 Dunn Howell Mt.
05 0'Shaughnessy Howell Mt.
02 Chateau Montelena
05 Vineyard 29 Aria
05 Dominus Estate
07 Paul Hobbs To-Kalon
06 Spottswoode (Came in second)
04 Penfolds RWT
01 Casanova di Neri Brunello (corked)

thanks HTown! Now I can have some fun trying out these wines!

quote:

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01 Casanova di Neri Brunello (corked)

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NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! I have a few of those at home, now I'm scared.

djmeen,

The first readily available wine that came to my mind is Chappellett Signature. If you can find a retailer that still has them, Karl Lawrence is a must. I'd also sign up for he Myriad and Quivet mailing lists. There Napa cabs are about $60 and are delicious. They only release once per year though so it might be awhile before you can get some. But it never hurts to plan ahead!

Thanks BSD. Am on the mailing lists!

Inspector Spacetime, awesome info and thanks for your contributions. Riley's a cool cat and he parties with a group of people I hang out with from time to time.

Will try and get in there to try some of those wines, incredible pricing as always!!

Us And Them - The Pink Floyd Experience
http://www.usandthemband.net

djmeen,

If you are in Houston, I have quite a few solid cabs in that range for sale, including Quivet, Karl Lawrence, Maze and 12C. Let me know...

Whaaaaaa?!?!?!

I am indeed interested BSD! Let's sort something out my man. Would love to get a couple of bottles!

Dreaded double post


[This message has been edited by Djmeen95 (edited 11/13/2013 6:06p).]

Yeah, I don't drink much anymore. My email is in my profile if you want to hit me up.

BSD: The owner of my favorite sushi place in town had a B-Day wine get together and we tried a 05 Hundred Acre, 05 Blankiet(Paradise Hills) and a 04 Pahlmeyer Merlot. I was very surprised that while all were tasty, the Pahlmeyer was my favorite. Could it be that the cabs were just not ready? (I typically prefer Cabs.)

A2

Was that at godai? IMO, wine and sushi is a tough pairing.

I prefer Pinot in those situations. Cabs have no business with fish. I love pahlmeyer esp their red wine.

My 0.02.

Just rec'd my final fisher allocation of the year. Now I just need to nut up and open one of these gems! '10 wedding vineyard cab; '11 Bordeaux blend; and '11 Syrah.

I got to do a pretty badass Champagne tasting last night.
Henriot Brut Souverain
Taittinger Comtes de Champagne
Veuve Clicquot Rose 1996
Vilmart la Creation 1998
Krug Grande Cuvée
The Vilmart was my personal favorite.
As an aside, we have a bunch of the Krug available for $129/btl. We got 15 cases of it, and have about 5 left. Sorry, no case discounts on this.

Leaving for San Francisco/Napa tomorrow suckers!

Spending a few days in SF then Thanksgiving week in Napa. It's going to be great. This is the wife and I's third Napa trip. I might not come back this time.

Requests for the Texags community wine collection?

13wins: We'll be there in 2 weeks. Our list so far:

Trefethen, Domain Carneros, Chateau Montelena, Pride, Sherwin Family, Grgich Hills, Hendry, William Hill, Tulocay.

Can't wait.

Enjoy!

quote:

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BSD: The owner of my favorite sushi place in town had a B-Day wine get together and we tried a 05 Hundred Acre, 05 Blankiet(Paradise Hills) and a 04 Pahlmeyer Merlot. I was very surprised that while all were tasty, the Pahlmeyer was my favorite. Could it be that the cabs were just not ready? (I typically prefer Cabs.)

A2

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It could be you just found a cab lovers merlot. I've always enjoyed switchback ridge merlot and I typically shy away from that varietal. Realm's merlot blend is delicious too.

[This message has been edited by BSD (edited 11/23/2013 11:16a).]