Realm order in!

They must have known how tiny my dick is though, only 4 bottles in my allocation...

We actually bought a small wine cooler to keep the temperature consistent and at, from what I've read, a better temperature. We want to drink it next year when my wife graduates from NP school, or when we have our first kid, whichever is more appropriate.
We drank a bottle while in Italy and it was fantastic, we just want to save it for a big occasion! Appreciate the feedback!

Chillers are great. And, honestly, even the finest of wines are probably not quite as fragile as we treat them. As to temperature a good rule of thumb is that if you're comfortable, the wine is as well. Of course UV light is bad. Temperature delta is the real killer as it can loosen the cork. A steady 75 is better than varying between 50 and 70. Anything around 60 and it's about as good as you can do, I think. Humidity comes in to play, but only if you plan on laying them down for many years.

2014 Realm Absurd at $375. Ouch.

BSD said:

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2014 Realm Absurd at $375. Ouch.

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That seems....absurd.

BSD said:

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2014 Realm Absurd at $375. Ouch.

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I wasn't offered one. Didn't measure up.

But they'll sell out...

Only offered one Absurd. Wishlisted more but not getting my hopes up. Parker gave it 100 points (it's the only 2014 in today's release).

Drank a 2012 Tablas Creek Esprit de Tablas tonight. Showing lots of dark fruit and structure, and a tiny bit of oxidation. If you have any in your cellar, I'd open one and see how it's doing. Paired really well with Mongolian Beef stir fry.

The clearance buggie at Austin Wine Merchant has some pretty good deals right now. I got the last bottle of this, but there are some premier cru Burgundies for $45 in that buggie.

I am having the 2013 right now. An inexpensive little treat.

One of my few purchases these days: 2014 Macdonald is now ordered. Such a great wine and the Macdonald brothers are fantastic people.

Yep. Me too. Come from the wife's favorite vineyard in Napa.

Napa next week-
Friday and Saturday, staying in Napa proper
Members at chappellet so will be on Pritchard Hill Friday- any recs for that neighborhood? Ideally similar price points...
We were actually thinking of Sonoma on Saturday, any ideas there?

Thanks!

Joseph Phelps is right across the way, less than 10 minutes. Beautiful new facility, good range of wine. Their top end stuff is out of this world and needs to age, but they have a large variety. One of our favorite places.

Still on the waitlist for MacDonald, sadly. No offense intended, but I just visited JP with my in-laws at their request in July. Total waste we did the $75 tasting. PM if anyone wants specifics but it was dead last out of 8 private and 3 "paid" tastings during our trip. Dead. Freaking. Last.

Edit we did th $125 tasting.

I had a 2015 Kirkland Gigondas tonight. This wine is young and powerful, but has some elegance to it. It went really well with a rare flank steak, but it is a little harsh on the tannins to drink without food. Will be really interning another year. I'm headed back to Costco soon to get more at $15.

I've had some other 2015 Rhone wines and they have all been exceptional. Buy all of the 2015 you can afford now.

awesome, thanks for sharing. Love gigondas, like a baby CdP. Wish we had more posts with info/reports like this.

'15 supposedly great Rhone vintage, I believe.

Water Turkey07 said:

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. Wish we had more posts with info/reports like this.

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Then drink more and post!

I've opened two 2012 Napa wines this week (a Burgess Merlot and a Caravan cab). Both of these wines were really tannic, but still very good. If you have 2012 Napa reds that aren't Zinfandel or Syrah, I'd leave them be for at last another year.

Looking for a reasonably priced mixed case to order for the holidays. Since I've started buying, most of my stuff isn't quite ready to drink. I'm looking for a drinkable now case of 9/3 red to white, maybe 6/6.

Napa Cabs, West Coast Pinots, not picky on the whites since they aren't quite my thing yet. Would prefer a single producer to cut down on shipping costs.

Gracias!

Budget?

Good question. $500 give or take before shipping.

Venge Vineyards in Calistoga

Maldonado Clone Chard
Bone Ash Cab
Silenceix Cab

Reasonably priced. Nice wines. RP gave the 2013 Silencieux 98 pts. Might be some left at Republic or at the winery.

Lots of nice wine in that range.

For whites any of Mike Smith's.. His Myriad Semillon I really like. Quivet has a nice Sauv Blanc.

If you want to venture out a bit, our Inwood Estates 2014 Cornelius Estate Tempranillo is drinking really well right now. Retail is $49.50. 15% off on six. Inwood Estates

Or PM me and I can take care of it if you're interested.

Thriller said:

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Looking for a reasonably priced mixed case to order for the holidays. Since I've started buying, most of my stuff isn't quite ready to drink. I'm looking for a drinkable now case of 9/3 red to white, maybe 6/6.

Napa Cabs, West Coast Pinots, not picky on the whites since they aren't quite my thing yet. Would prefer a single producer to cut down on shipping costs.

Gracias!

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tough mix Maybe Ramey would fit that bill? not sure if they make pinot, though

Tablas Creek has a nice mix although not sure current releases would be approachable at this date.

Thriller said:

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Looking for a reasonably priced mixed case to order for the holidays. Since I've started buying, most of my stuff isn't quite ready to drink. I'm looking for a drinkable now case of 9/3 red to white, maybe 6/6.

Napa Cabs, West Coast Pinots, not picky on the whites since they aren't quite my thing yet. Would prefer a single producer to cut down on shipping costs.

Gracias!

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If you swap Zinfandel for Cab, Deloach would fit the bill.

I'd be up for that, but I'm going off what my wife has said for preferences of expected guests.

Cecil hit on this earlier but I need some help on wine storage. Our kitchen has a large wine fridge and it keeps the wines chilled enough that you can drink a white straight out of it (around 58-60). We just recently came into a good supply of nice cabs (2013/2014s) and some Oregon Pinots (range of years). Should we keep them in the wine fridge where they'll stay constant or put them in the back of a cabinet (not one near an appliance)? We plan to lay these down for at least one year, up to however many more we can wait for some of the bottles.

Wine fridge is perfect. If you've got it, use it! And if you fill it it's just an excuse to buy another...

Back of the cabinet woudln't hurt.

Until you get 5+ years out stable temperature no warmer than human comfort (75-ish) and no UV it's fine.

One year is pretty short for aging so throwing them in the wine fridge is fine. Even 5 years in there is fine (which is my minimum for a Napa cab).


Speaking of Napa...wow. The wine country fires are devastating. So much property loss, both personal and business. It's sickening to watch.

We are here right now, our first full day. It is bad. Word is a lot of wineries along the Silverado Trail were badly damaged. A lot of of the area is without power and all the wineries are obviously closed. The house we were supposed to stay at in Calistoga was evacuated. All the locals are very shook up and scared.

Left Houston for Napa and walked into another natural disaster.

BSD said:

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One year is pretty short for aging so throwing them in the wine fridge is fine. Even 5 years in there is fine (which is my minimum for a Napa cab).


Speaking of Napa...wow. The wine country fires are devastating. So much property loss, both personal and business. It's sickening to watch.

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I your opinion is there an aging period that's too long for a wine fridge.

I'm thinking "no", as long as humidity is monitored.

cecil77 said:

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I your opinion is there an aging period that's too long for a wine fridge.

I'm thinking "no", as long as humidity is monitored.

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That's the kicker. Humidity isn't controlled in wine fridges (cabinets like Eurocave are a different story). That's why I have all my good stuff in offsite storage. You can keep it in a standard wine fridge for a few years.

That's terrible. Where are you staying now? I've talked to several people out there and it is like you say...bad. One word I keep hearing is horrifying.