it was the undergroundcellar.com offer. So how does that work? You buy some bottles and they may "upgrade" you to Second Flight for an extra $500?

And no. Screagle is not getting dumped. It still commands high premiums on the secondary market, as does second flight. Trust me, I've been looking!

Each offer has a fixed per bottle price, e.g. $40.

You can order as many as you like. Usually for a six bottle order you get three "upgrades".

There percentage of the offer allocated to each bottle is shown. For the ScrEgl it's "1% of the bottles".

I got the Maybach for $42 this way, it was 0.5%, I think he had one and I got lucky.

I've done maybe six from them, and most have been good, to very good. However the prices he shows are full retail, if you "win" mainly the base wine or one upgrade up, you're not saving any money - not really overspending, just not that good of a deal. I've gotten several nice bottles with him. He's a bit to twentysomething hipster cool for my tastes, but is a nice guy from the couple of conversations I've had with him. He's also grown much faster than he was expecting.

That's an interesting concept but not my style anymore. You know what is my style? Schrader. and the offer just came out. I have the option to wish-list another 6 pack if anyone has an interest. I also may be willing to part with some of my '11s...all at cost of course.

I'm still in the having fun looking around mode. It's an opportunity try different things.

For instance the 2008 Susan Balbo Brioso, one of the best (if not THE best) forty dollar wines I've had. Also just reading a bit about her....

BSD, I've never had Schrader but hear great things. What, if any, will you be offering out of your allotment? What can you tell me about the Schrader's you have consumed? Worth the price?

Schraders are really classic Napa wines. They come from three vineyards: To Kalon in Oakville, George III in Rutherford, and Las Piedras (LPV) in St Helena. Each wine is from a specific vineyard and even those are broken down by location or clone (To Kalon grapes make 5 separate bottlings). They are everything that I like in a Napa cab...big, bold, balanced, and well structured. It's some of the best wine from that area and I dont mind paying for it. It certainly beats other wines in that price range (Opus comes to mind).

As far as this 2013 allotment (delivery next Novemeber), I can wishlist an extra (I'm keeping my own) "Classic pack" which includes a bottle of 2013 Schrader CCS, 2 bottles of 2013 LPV, and 3 bottles of Schrader RBS. The package is $1050 (you'll have to add in shipping and tax). If granted, they will just charge my card. I also have one each of 2011 RBS and LPV in the cellar that I will let go of at cost and i can send those immediately.

Those are the basics. The wishlist certainly isn't a guaranteed offering but I thought I'd throw it out there if anyone wanted to take a shot at it.

oh a little bit of this, a little bit of that...

Will you adopt me? Please.

Nice cellar! I could be Cecil's younger brother.

That isn't mine, but I had the pleasure of trying to empty it a few times. One of the coolest wine rooms in a home I've ever seen.

I'll have to get a pic of my buddy's wine room in Austin. He just moved into a house he's been building for 2 years and the wine cellar has all glass walls and sliding vertical wine shelves. It's not big but it is efficient, and pretty awesome looking. It holds about 800 bottles (he downsized from his 2500 bottle Houston cellar) and plans to have offsite storage for the rest.

Today's undergoundcellaris $275 per bottle.

Napa vs Bordeaux

Assume that's an Arvid painting? Love that stuff.

If memory serves he was at Boerne Wine Company a number of years ago. Paul Thompson, the proprietor of Cypress Grill game by to get him to sign a super fancy Far Niente presentation box.

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Today's undergoundcellaris $275 per bottle.

Napa vs Bordeaux

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Bought in on this and ended up with a bottle of 2011 Screaming Eagle. Whoop!

Nice! what else did you get? I really like Bond. I hate the price, but I love the wine.

I also got the 2006 Bond 'Melbury' Red Wine. I have never had anything from Bond before so that is a very exciting thing to get as well! Looks like it will be good to drink now and the Eagle will sit in the "cellar" for another year or so.

BSD, you have my email, shoot me the cost of those '11 Shraders you are willing to sell

Anyone tasted the 2012 Bevan Ontogeny? Parker give it 99pts, but he gave the 2012 Caymus 96, so what does he know anyway! We got a couple of bottles at Total Wine this afternoon.

Also, on a whim we got a 3L of 2012 Caymus. It's for my FIL and the family Christmas celebration. You can't buy him anything and his palate is shot. But he knows the Caymus label, so maybe it will be something he likes!

Bevan is good stuff. I'll vouch for Parker there. I haven't tried this year's Caymus but I'd be highly suspect that any vintage of this wine truly earned a 96. That's my two cents. But back to Russell, he makes great wines and I was really bummed that I couldn't buy more of his product.

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I also got the 2006 Bond 'Melbury' Red Wine. I have never had anything from Bond before so that is a very exciting thing to get as well! Looks like it will be good to drink now and the Eagle will sit in the "cellar" for another year or so.

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I'm loving the 2006 vintage for Napa cabs. I'm sure the Bond will be an excellent wine. I have one of the '03 Bond Vecinas left. Maybe I'll open that for my wife's birthday next week. The best part was that I got it and some other really nice wines half off at a sale at the end of 2009 (or was it 2010?). Cecil, that is how you got that Caymus SS so cheap!

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I'll have to get a pic of my buddy's wine room in Austin. He just moved into a house he's been building for 2 years and the wine cellar has all glass walls and sliding vertical wine shelves. It's not big but it is efficient, and pretty awesome looking. It holds about 800 bottles (he downsized from his 2500 bottle Houston cellar) and plans to have offsite storage for the rest.

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And here it is. It's a blurry pic but you can get the idea. The shelves are packed tight and they wheel out to pick a bottle.

All, I still haven't taken a CA Cab plunge? Here is the sale list of my local wine store. http://www.bassins.com/sale/california_sale-BF.php I was thinking the Barnett Spring mountain 12. Is it a bad choice? Thoughts on others?

Barnett is good juice. as is Bevan and Maze. I don't think those sale prices are anything special unless no shipping costs are involved.

The 2010 Antica they have at $50 is $40 full price at HEB and $32.40 on sale.

Thanks! No shipping. Maybe I should stick to their Barolos and Barbarescos, if the price is too high.

TPAg '87, cecil77 and the women silly enough to marry them. At Guenthers Biergarten

And the wine consumed:

Looks like a good time. I guess the wines were spectacular .

We don't drink a lot of wine, but I'd like to get a nice red to go with a prime rib I'll make for Christmas. Typically I go to the specs on smith st and ask them to pick me something good around $50. I've never known if they are really picking the best or pushing a slow mover or high markup wine, but it's usually decent compared to the $15 HEB stuff we would normally drink.

Should I be so trusting of the guys at specs? Do they generally know their stuff?

Or any recommendations on something I can easily find in Houston for $50-70?
Could also use some other red wine recs in the $20-30 range that are easy to find. We like Cab, Malbec, Shiraz usually but open to anything. Big flavor is what we usually like.

Thanks in advance.

most of the Spec's guys are good, but don't fool yourself, they are trying to make commission. definitely don't trust the little short weasley dude that always hands you the bottle. F that guy.

If I were you, I'd go to Houston Wine Merchant and do the same thing. Yes HWM is more expensive, but the people there are generally much more knowledgeable and they usually are familiar with any wine in the shop. Tell them what you are eating and your price point and they can probably find you some decent new world and old world options. Just my $0.02

I really pictured cecil as a lot older in my brain. now i'm kinda bummed.

Looks like fun, boys! Glad yall had a good time.

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We don't drink a lot of wine, but I'd like to get a nice red to go with a prime rib I'll make for Christmas. Typically I go to the specs on smith st and ask them to pick me something good around $50. I've never known if they are really picking the best or pushing a slow mover or high markup wine, but it's usually decent compared to the $15 HEB stuff we would normally drink.

Should I be so trusting of the guys at specs? Do they generally know their stuff?

Or any recommendations on something I can easily find in Houston for $50-70?
Could also use some other red wine recs in the $20-30 range that are easy to find. We like Cab, Malbec, Shiraz usually but open to anything. Big flavor is what we usually like.

Thanks in advance.

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It looks like Specs has Snowden Reserve Cabernet on their website. That's always been a bit of a sleeper cab in my eyes. Lancaster (Sonoma) is good, too. I also saw Anderson Conn Valley and Chappellet.

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most of the Spec's guys are good, but don't fool yourself, they are trying to make commission. definitely don't trust the little short weasley dude that always hands you the bottle. F that guy.

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I don't know if he's still there, but the blond guy with the European eye glasses is pretty good. I've liked a lot of his suggestions.

My experience with sales people at Spec, Gabriel's and Total Wine is that if you can show even a bit of enthusiasm and knowledge, the can become fellow wine aficionados as much as salesmen. A Spec's guy put me on to Von Strasser, which we've enjoyed and visited.