Pedro I concur with your list.the single vineyard Cristom Pinots are great. Bergstrom is also outstanding. Westrey is in my fridge waiting for the right moment. I have heard nice things about white rose and Carlton.

Beaux Freres, Domaine Serene and Soter are all also very good but tend to be a bit more expensive. I like the others I mentioned just as much (or more) and they're generally a little less.

The Oregon wine country is really great if anybody ever gets a chance to go. We stayed in McMinnville somewhat in the center of all of it and its an easy drive to get to any of the wineries. McMinnville has a really great little downtown with good restaurants, cafes, etc. and there's lots of lofts/b&b type places to stay.

Brick House does distribute to Texas, because my local wine shop carried it (before it closed). The bigger issue is wine stores in Texas don't dedicate much shelf space to pinot and Brick House ain't cheap, but it is a very good producer.

My guess is you could become friends with your local wine shop manager and see if he will order a 6 pack for you with minimal mark up. Some stores will do that if you guarantee you are buying it.

OK, not exactly "what's in your wine cellar" discussion, but please humor me,...

Wife has nixed Napa/Sonoma for anniversary this year. Boo. Instead wants to try Fredericksburg. (Me: So, you'll DRIVE 3 hours to a place, but not fly ~3 hours, where we can use FF mile? Her: yeah, I guess so. // God bless our females.)

I've already lowered expectations as far as wineries (as we've discussed previously somewhere in this thread I think). But what say you guys re: non-fru fru places to stay (was looking at Double Deer Ranch)? Also, is a limo for a day a good idea? Some of the "tour" companies seem to love bachelorette parties that (I'll wager) love Moscato.

So, any thoughts are welcome and appreciated.

When? Diana and I would love to take you to our favorites. We "know people" you know!

Ton of places to stay. What are you looking for?

Cecil: that would be awesome. First weekend in December. I want something peaceful, Hill Country-ish. No fru fru. Conducive to doing nothing or getting out/about. Sorta like Supreme Court and porn: I don't know what it is, but I'll know it when I see it. Not much help I know.

August Schmidt guest house is just outside Fredericksburg. We stayed there several years ago, and loved it.

Howdy guys. First off - thanks for all the regular posters to the thread. I majorly lurk this thread to see what's in y'alls cellar. I always feel unqualified to post here! That said - just wanted to share a nice bottle I had last night - 2010 POV from Robert Sinskey Vineyards.

I thought it was a lovely wine and the price point (seems to be about $35/bottle) makes it a good one to add to my modest collection. Am ordering a few bottles. Nice thing is the price at the restaurant was $65 - which I thought was great bang for the buck! Anyway - not sure what if any experience folks have with that wine / producer and keen to hear any thoughts/stories.

Visited Sinskey many years ago. Thought his stuff was good. Frankly, I didn't know he had anything <$50. I remember he walked around the tasting room in a head to toe velvet outfit like he was Willy Wonka. His then pregnant wife was baking pizzas in a wood fired pit.

Just snagged a Jarvis '06 Cab. Sadly, they don't offer direct selling anymore.

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I remember he walked around the tasting room in a head to toe velvet outfit like he was Willy Wonka.

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Halloween costume idea: Wine Wonka

Willie Wineka?!?!

HEB 10% off Napa sale, through Monday.

All Napa Valley wines 10% plus the usual 10% for six+ mix/match.

A couple I noticed:

2011 Antica Cab $32.50

2011 Chateaus Montelena $34

Caymus is $48, but this is kinda an off vintage for them.

Damnit, Cecil!

Wine.com has the Antica for$46, other online place +/- $50. I feel like it's an outstanding value at $32.50.

Will shop this weekend. I can't budget for the really high end stuff right now, but dang, 32 bucks is getting down into "everyday wine" territory!

Speaking of cheap wine. We picked up a bottle of Bogle Phantom at Cost Plus just for fun. A Zin/Petite Sirah blend for about $17. It was really pretty good...

Been a fan of that Bogle Phantom for a while. I think Bogle, as a whole, are good values across the board.

Crap. Now I gotta explain to the wife what the hell I mean when I answer her "you bought how much of WHAT at HEB?" question with "blame Cecil" as my answer....

Speaking of good value US wines, the H3 Columbia crest Cab 2012 fits the bill. It Should be widely available and it is a steal at $12. Along with Cecil's Bogle pick , it probably be a top 25 wine in the annual WS top 100.

Agreed again on the H3. Lots of it at Costco.

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Pulled a bottle out of the back of the chiller tonight for dinner at the local pizza joint. Got three of them for $30ea onlne a couple of years ago. A Spanish Grenache and really very good after a bit of a decant. From "Wine Advocate":

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The 2005 Mancuso was aged for 14 months in new French oak. It offers up a superb bouquet of toasty new oak, pencil lead, scorched earth, espresso, black cherry, and blackberry liqueur. Opulent, rich, and complex on the palate, this full-bodied wine has tons of flavor, nicely concealed ripe tannin, and a long, fruit-filled finish. Cellar it for 6-8 years and drink it from 2016 to 2030.' Jun 2009 96 points

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I got the Mancuso off WTSO and loved it

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Need a few Napa recs from you guys.

Looking for some additional vineyards around the Stuhlmuller Vineyard which is located at 4951 W Soda Rock Ln, Healdsburg, CA 95448, east of Healdsburg. Has anyone been to Storybrook Mountain Vineyards? Anything else over there?

Also has anyone ever done Palmaz?

Thanks in advance, I have gotten some good help from htownag98's threads that I searched.

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Proposed to my wife at Palmaz, great family, great wine, great views!

Friend recommended I try a French Malbec.

So, picked up a couple at Specs and tried one of them. Neither expensive. Had the Pigmentum ($11) and really enjoyed. Got better with time. Still have the Gouleyant ($12) to try.

Great bang for buck on a Saturday night, especially one not ruined by our current FB team,...

Spend some time at Inwood Estates (the 290 Fredericksburg location) yesterday.

For those of you who like Vinny at Hilmy, he's at Inwood now.

Dan Gatlin was there and we discussed (well, he discussed, I listened) wine/ grapes/Texas for half an hour or so. Dan is a smart guy and has a very different take on making wine in Texas, For him location and grape choice are the biggest factors. He feels that by proper vineyard management (canopy, trellessing, pruning, etc, etc) you can adjust to almost any climate. I'm sure he's a polarizing character within the Texas wine industry, and I'm not sure I buy into everything he preaches, but he makes the best Texas wines I've tasted.

Here's an interesting blog entry by Dan:Napa 2014: Will 40 years of wine-climate-marketing be unravelled?

Speaking of Hilmy Cellars, we started there for a pick up event. Our last as Erik changed some policies, and his wine has regressed, I fear he's overreached. Up to 15,000 cases per year, and much of it mediocre to bad.

We've felt the same way about Hilmy. In fact, might drop them soon.

The new HEB in Round Rock has two, possibly three bottles of 2009 Mollydooker Velvet Glove for $174/btl. If you buy enough other stuff to fill out a half case, the price drops to $157/btl. If anyone here collects that wine, go get it before it's gone.

Very interesting blog entry there, Cecil.

For the hell of it, I checked out the Yelp reviews for their place in Fredricksburg. Wow, talk about some bashing. Although I generally don't like Tempranillo (I can't seem to hear it without thinking of the crap they serve on United. Not fair, I know.), the guy sounds interesting enough to listen to him bloviate a bit, which I'll bet he can do,...

Wow. LOL on the Yelp posts. But honestly, the few times I've consulted Yelp, it's looked like that. I think Yelp attracts people who enjoy trashing places, or is full of shills. whichever.

I noticed the bulk of the bad reviews were about the bistro, having not been there, I can't say. However I also think that anyone who doesn't consider their wines at least among the best in Texas, has a decidedly different palate than mine. Yes, they're a bit over priced, but like I told Dan, the 2006 Magellan is very good, and I'm willing to pay him a little more for cellaring it for me all this time. He could have released it in 2009/10 at a much lower price, but it wouldn't have met his standards. I'm not 100% sold on his approach, but when he figured out that we knew a little bit already,and Vinny was happy to see us, and their original Inwood Estate was in their backyard in Dallas was in a location my wife was familiar with as it was down the street from the Dallas Jr League HQ) he was very affable and did take discussion/opinion from me just fine.

Yeah, believe me: I'm taking the Yelp reviews on the Fred. wineries with a grain of salt. When they start: "my boyfriend and I love sweet wines,..." I usually stop there.

My thoughts on Fredericksburg wineries are distilled down to:

For the wine:
Inwood Estates
Bending Branch

For the facility:
Grape Creek
Becker (because it's Becker)

For the people:
Singing Water

All the rest are pretty much meh... Some OK, some not.

You should add William Chris to your wines list. Their quality has gone through the roof in recent years, and they are making some pretty good wines.

I'll have to check them out again. Their "The Hunter" was pretty decent, but I didn't find much else. Been a couple of years. Nice folks...

A couple of years ago, I would have shared your sentiments.

HEB you're killing me!

This week it's all Cabs on sale. Same deal.

Several more coming up apparently. "All Pinots" and "all online".

HEB, in San Antonio at least, is having to compete with Total Wine, Specs, Twin Liquor, and Gabriel's. I was commenting to the wine director at my local store about all the sales and she said the competition is forcing them to have nearly weekly sales. I normally make two big purchases of cabs, at Christmas and the April sale. Now it seems like I can catch a sale whenever I need a few bottles; if I can't make the 6 bottle minimum, I just grab a $2.99 bottle of some cheap sweet wine and still get the discount.

On a side note, has anyone here insured their wine collection? I don't think it's too expensive for some piece of mind.

I guess I am going to have to check out the selection at HEB when I am in Texas for the Mizzou game. Sounds like you have access to a better selection than grocery stores on VA. We have a lot of choices as long as they are from the major brands Constellation, Gallo , St. Michelle, precept, cat us, ect.

Aaahhhh.....capitalism! Ain't it great.