I use a grouting sponge (really dense) in a pan of water and just "water the wine" regularly. You can get a little digital hygrometer for about five buck to make sure to keep the humidity up.

I did that in an old unit for a few years. It worked ok. My last cabinet had humidity control until the unit failed. Now it's more of a wine fridge than wine cellar. I am digging my offsite storage these days, though. With backup generators, I had no worries during the hurricane.

BSD said:

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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.

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We were staying at the the Villagio in Yountville,but they lost power. We were supposed to stay the last part of our trip at a beautiful house near Calistoga, but just found out it burned down. Currently at the Embassy Suites and looking to move once we get a handle on the situation.

We were supposed to have lunch with Chuck Wagner at Caymus today followed by dinner at Antica.

I've done some experimenting the past few days with my wine chillers and humidity using a couple of hygrometers.

The humidity in the wine fridge mostly mirrors the humidity in the room, unless you add pans of water in the chiller, and even then it only helps some. So, I use a room humidifier we have and that does the trick. Just a few hours a day of the room humidifier being on allows the wine fridge to maintain 50% or higher humidity. Which, honestly, for all but the most expensive wines cellared for the longest times is plenty.

I've opened many 8-12 year old bottles of wine straight out of my chillers and never had a dry cork.

I do have my Christmas eye on a Eurocave though!

Is anyone buying wine from Last Bottle?
https://www.lastbottlewines.com/

I used to buy from Wine Til Sold Out, which seems similar. It was a good way to try different varietals and producers on the cheap. There were good bottles and not so great bottles. Give it a go, the downside is minimal. Oh, and if they ever offer Petrus at $384, jump on it! My biggest wine mistake was passing on that offer.

Pott Wines release is today. I'm went in for a few.

Looks interesting. I wonder how they are going to get around the feds renewed prohibition of retailers shipping across state lines.

BSD said:

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Pott Wines release is today. I'm went in for a few.

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Odd. I tasted with Aaron (at Quixote) back in July, bought some last year, and didn't get the email?

Went in for 4 Winds and Futo 5500 this week. Nine Suns drops tomorrow and Fairchild's new Stones No. 3 next week.

My bad. I just read the letter again. Apparently they are offering in waves this year. They've typically gone on an allocation model. I think this wave is for a week so maybe you'll get one Monday.

Since I'm still on Parker's email blast and the Napa report is out, I checked in to see the 100 point wines that you can see for free. Here ya go:

2014 Paul Hobbs Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr Crane Vineyard
2015 Colgin Cabernet Sauvignon Tychson Hill Vineyard
2015 Colgin IX Proprietary Red Estate
2015 Dominus Proprietary Red Wine
2015 Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
2015 Morlet Family Vineyards Cabernet Franc Force de la Nature
2015 Plumpjack Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
2015 Realm Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Dr Crane Vineyard
2015 Realm The Absurd
2015 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon

Stagecoach said:

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BSD said:

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Pott Wines release is today. I'm went in for a few.

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Went in for 4 Winds and Futo 5500 this week. Nine Suns drops tomorrow and Fairchild's new Stones No. 3 next week.

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I'm out of the Napa loop, never even heard of 4 Winds or Futo or Nine Suns.

Some old school producers on that list, interesting

I just want to say thank you to this thread for keeping me in the loop on all of the vineyards the wife and I should try. We went out to a birthday dinner last weekend and I ordered a bottle of wine from a vineyard I had never tried before because of this thread and was floored. It was a 2014 Realm Beckstoffer To Kalon and it did not disappoint.

Yes, I've been buying on there last several months. I always Vivino any I'm thinking of purchasing and don't buy any that are higher priced than average price on there + <~3.7.

Can millennial winemakers fix wine country's 'Napathy' problem?

Interesting...

Realm arrived today!

Received a notice that my Pott allocation opens Monday.

I ended up passing this round. Did you pick up any Absurd?

I bought William & Mary cab today. I hear the 2015 is pretty good.

cecil77 said:

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Can millennial winemakers fix wine country's 'Napathy' problem?


Interesting...

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What I found interesting is that the first thing I thought of when he mentioned bucking the trend was Scholium Project, who he mentions as an inspiration. So I guess he's following the trend of bucking the trend? Im kidding mostly. (Scholium is a great restaurant wine. It goes great with food and doesn't break the bank even at the crazy markups)

Also, I'm all for an old school Napa cab but a $125 thin George III sounds awful to me.

All that said, there is a place for new wines and I wish them luck.

Allocated one Absurd and received one more on wish list

I think the guy sounds like the poster child of everything non-wine people think of wine people.

Finally got my Pott e-mail. Unfortunately, looks like the site crashed.

You guys may find this podcast interesting. It's all about the politics of wine shipping in the U.S.

As a Texan, it's quite infuriating. They even specifically talk about recent hearings in Austin addressing out-of-state retailer shipments to Texas. (I didn't appreciate the guest's attempt at a Texas accent.)

Some of you probably know all this stuff already but in case you don't, worth a listen:

Wine For Normal People: Tom Wark on the Messy Politics of US Wine Shipping

Thanks!

I use Last Blottle, though it isn't nearly as good as WTSO. I've bought some good wines off Last Bottle, but if I was going to give a recommendation, it would be Wine Exchange. Love their emails as they're very informative. Winex's strength is Europe.

Speaking of WTSO, I emailed them to ask if they were working on a way to get back into Texas. Here was their reply:

"Thank you for reaching out to WTSO. At this time, we are still unable to ship into your state. However, our executive team is looking down every avenue to try and resume as quickly as possible.

They are even looking into the possibility of opening a winery within the state to make shipping easier."

Ever heard of a retailer opening up a fake winery and using it as a distribution center?

I believe arrangements like that aren't uncommon.

So I'd like to do a wine trip through France with my wife for our anniversary within the next couple of years. I'm sure a few on here have done it, so looking for any input. Ideally, I'd like to find a company that does this kind of thing and we just show up....

Did it with my family this Spring. Rented in airBnB outside Avignon and hit up wineries all around Chateaneuf du pape, we did it all on our own. Bought food and wine while we were out during the day and cooked at the house at night.

Water Turkey07 said:

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Did it with my family this Spring. Rented in airBnB outside Avignon and hit up wineries all around Chateaneuf du pape, we did it all on our own. Bought food and wine while we were out during the day and cooked at the house at night.

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I'm too lazy to look, but you posted a bunch of really cool pics of that trip, right?

Affirmative, they are a few pages back. Posted sometime in May I think.

Water Turkey07 said:

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Did it with my family this Spring. Rented in airBnB outside Avignon and hit up wineries all around Chateaneuf du pape, we did it all on our own. Bought food and wine while we were out during the day and cooked at the house at night.

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those were great, great pics. Motivated me to put it on "the list" to complete with the wife when the youngest gets out of college (at current pace that is a long, long way away lol)

The pics are on page 129 of this thread. 6 months later - still jealous.

Thanks, gave me an excuse to go through those pictures again. Great memories!