We were out there last weekend, but didn't make it to Inwood. Are you working on Sundays too?

Just completed my bi-weekly CostCo trek and saw the 2011 Chateau Le Dome, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru for $147. Any one ever had?

Not yet. Will start Sundays in a week or two...

Out of curiosity, what does everybody do for wine storage?

In the past, I had a 40-ish bottle cooler, but it died on me a few years ago. I'm starting to purchase some nicer bottles and want to store them properly.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

I've been just keeping most of mine in boxes in an interior closet. not ideal for long term storage. I do have a couple of smaller wine fridges but I mainly keep the drinkers in them.

I'm about to buy a Koolr wine storage fridge. They seem to get pretty good reviews and their price is really good. I'm willing to try one in the utility room and see how it does.

I would really like to have offsite storage, but not many options available and the ones that exist are really expensive, my little collection isn't worth enough to justify the costs.

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One goal I have as part of continuing wine education (and thankfully I don't have to throttle my intake) is expanding my palette. There's such a huge world of wine out there...

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Yep, I try to do this too.

In that vein, something I've had recently I really enjoyed was some Arneis from Peidmont. A really delicate and floral wine with pear the dominant fruit profile. First wine I've ever had that really made me think of flowers. super light in color it is really enjoyable. the crappy ones can be a bit too sweet, but the good ones are very tasty, dry, crisp and not expensive.

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One goal I have as part of continuing wine education (and thankfully I don't have to throttle my intake) is expanding my palette. There's such a huge world of wine out there...

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Yep, I try to do this too.

In that vein, something I've had recently I really enjoyed was some Arneis from Peidmont. A really delicate and floral wine with pear the dominant fruit profile. First wine I've ever had that really made me think of flowers. super light in color it is really enjoyable. the crappy ones can be a bit too sweet, but the good ones are very tasty, dry, crisp and not expensive.

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Sounds like the perfect white wine for me. I need to look for this. When you say not expensive, how not expensive are we talking here?

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I would really like to have offsite storage, but not many options available and the ones that exist are really expensive, my little collection isn't worth enough to justify the costs.

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I'm about to look at offsite as well for about a year or two. One year to clear out room in the house and the other year to build a new house. Wanna split one?

Some mini-storage facilities have wine storage available, and I'm guessing it is considerably cheaper than using a place that specializes in wine storage.

Community Self Storage on Voss (Houston) is $50/month for a space that supposedly holds 20 cases. That is where I stored some wine for a few months as the collection was growing and before the fire-sale.

that is cheap. I looked at a place in sugar land, and for a pretty small little closet it was $90 a month. maybe I could have gotten 4 cases in the space (using the cardboard boxes I have the wine in from shipping). just wasn't practical for me.

If I could get $100 bottles in a $50 per month space I'd likely do it. I'll check that place out

Htown, I got one at Houston Wine merchant for $14 that I thought was excellent. There is an area of Piedmont that is known for these wines, but I forget what it is called. those from there might hit $30, but I think there is quality out there in the under $20 arena.

I remember it being more than that (~$80) but I called yesterday just before i posted on this thread and that is what she told me.

Heading back to Napa in Late April. What Oak Knoll and Coombsville AVA wineries do you recommend? I'm thinking places like Palmaz and Farella but what else would you recommend in Tre southern part of the valley? Also My wife and I are going to the Alpha Omega ERA party which we're excited about.

Harlan arrived today. Maiden only

I went ahead and got a storage locker today to clear up room in the house (get rid of wine cabinet for now until new house is built). I stuffed as much wine as I could in that thing and still plan to get some more '13 cabs in there.

You clearly have a problem.

I have a solution, if you're interested!

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You clearly have a problem.

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It aint a drinking problem! It's more of a buying problem. A lot of these are for the long haul and after Scarecrow, my buying is going to be very limited. I kept about 40 bottles at home for my wife to coravin throughout the year.

All they had left in this size ($50 locker) was two units on the third level...about 8' up, only accessible by ladder. There was more than once where I almost dumped a case of wine onto the floor. Those things get heavy after a while!

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I've been just keeping most of mine in boxes in an interior closet. not ideal for long term storage. I do have a couple of smaller wine fridges but I mainly keep the drinkers in them.

I'm about to buy a Koolr wine storage fridge. They seem to get pretty good reviews and their price is really good. I'm willing to try one in the utility room and see how it does.

I would really like to have offsite storage, but not many options available and the ones that exist are really expensive, my little collection isn't worth enough to justify the costs.

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Checked out the Koolr website and their prices are indeed the lowest I've seen. I wonder it their shelving will fit the overly fat Pinot/chard/Syrah bottle shapes that are so popular now. The higher the price of the bottle, the bigger the glass. As a marketing major I get it, but it's still frustrating that many of the bottles only fit in custom racking.

Anywho...if you get one I'd love to hear a product review

Anyone been to Long Island wineries? Any suggestions?

Heading there after my daughter's graduation up that way in May.

Also, hotels, restaurants and anything else!

Spending about 12 days traveling through Italy in early June. Any recs on vineyards that are must stops in the area?

Italy is a big area!

Haha, yes it is, and we'll be all over it lol. I'm not doing the planning so don't have our full itinerary. But I do know we'll have a couple days in the Tuscany region alotted just for vineyards. Other than that, well be spending multiple days in Venice, Rome, Florence, Cinque Terre, Amalfi coast....

And ETA: our only firm plans are really the flights, so are still open to different regions/cities.

I liked the Brunellos of Montalcino. We visited Argiano, Altesino, Casanova di Neri, and Banff one day. They aren't set up like US wineries (except Banff) so contact them in advance. We visited Montepuliciano and it was fun but didn't really get out of the city centre. I did no planning in the Chianti area so we basically drove around and hit wine bars and restaurants. We literally couldn't find a winery. It was fun but if we go back, we are sticking with Montalcino.

We also stopped at a bar in San Gemignano and had the Vernaccia (local grape there) as we looked out onto the town and its towers. That was nice.

Nicer restaurants will have good selections. We had a wonderful Amarone the night before we got married that I still think about to this day while having cheese at a small restaurant in Venice. Other than that, we drank a lot of house reds by the litre. We were young and broke then so we got a lot of wine for a few euro. Some wine shops will sell jugs of wine that have in barrels for like 3 Euro. We bought several of these jugs and took them to the house we rented in Tuscany.

Got back from Napa two weeks ago. Patland and Arkenstone were our stand outs. Patland is a very good experience but may want to get a driver going back down the mountain.

Had myself a dry Riesling with some spicy homemade Mexican food last night. For y'all that like to pair food and wine, it's a good combo.

Just a typical wine, nothing fancy.

Key word, dry.

Amarone

Lail Vineyards J. Daniel Cuve Napa cab arrived today

Off-dry to sweet Riesling is a very common pairing with spicy food. It's a perfect pairing with spicy Thai food.

As is demi sec champagne...

Picked up 2 bottles of 2011 Realm at Specs Downtown Houston. Only had 2 bottles left so I got the allocation discount, cash discount, and specs card discount.

Nice! Which Realm was it?

This was excellent

BSD, The Tempest from the To Kalon Vineyard.

Also bought a Janzen from To Kalon. Have you ever tried it? I made my way to the Beckstoffer website and saw their list of wine makers they sell their grapes to. Amazing how so many wine makers achieved such high ratings from these vineyards.

Just starting to wet my whistle on all these wines and trying to learn as much as I can. I've been to Napa/Sonoma twice in the last 2 years and taking my wife again for her 40th next month.

Expensive hobby to say the least, but I'm truly obsessed at this point.