I had the 2013 Anthem Beckstoffer Las Piedras cab tonight. Solid. Good QPR at $60 from WTSO.

Had this tonight. It did not suck. Massive Syrah. I like the fruit structure right now. There's a mix of of black fruits and some very ripe red fruits. Finished long, drying tannins, mildly aggressive. Wish I had more.

Htown will be coming to Inwood Estates for a Super Flight tasting this Friday at 3PM. Any of you that want to are welcome to join us.

Where: Inwood Estates 10303 US-290, Fredericksburg, TX 78624
When: 3pm Friday, October, 12
How much: $45 per person
What: An informative discussion/comparison of Inwoods top wines with Spanish comparatives.

Inwood City of Dallas Chardonnay with Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru (La Garenne)

Inwood Magnus (temp/cab) with Vega Sicilia Valbuena

Inwood Colus (temp) with Numanthia Termanthia

I'll also throw in some other surprises to taste. This will be a rambling discussion since Htown and all of you are knowledgeable wine drinkers. Should be a fun afternoon and I really look forward to it. Both wives will attend, so feel free to start a Hill Country weekend the right way!

Please do let me know if you'd like to come...

Cecil
cecil.inwood@gmail.com

Are these shareable? I'd like to do one of these one day, but my wife never wants her own tasting. We usually share as it extends the day.

jh0400 said:

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Are these shareable? I'd like to do one of these one day, but my wife never wants her own tasting. We usually share as it extends the day.

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Normally this tasting is not shareable (the regular tasting is).

But for y'all this Friday I'd be happy to.

By way of explanation, the retail value of the wine is over $900, and we buy the Montrachet, Vega, and Termanthia at retail.

Oof. CMS just ripped the pins from the latest class of Masters: https://www.mastersommeliers.org/press/court-master-sommeliers-americas-board-directors-takes-unanimous-actions-preserve-integrity

One of them was a Houston MS who was on the last test before resetting a second time. Brutal.

Friday I head down to South America for a couple weeks. I'll be spending some time in Santiago on the first part of my trip, any winery recs?

RangerRick9211 said:

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Oof. CMS just ripped the pins from the latest class of Masters: https://www.mastersommeliers.org/press/court-master-sommeliers-americas-board-directors-takes-unanimous-actions-preserve-integrity

One of them was a Houston MS who was on the last test before resetting a second time. Brutal.

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Thankfully they are only making them retake the tasting portion, and it's not the most difficult part of the test.

Lots of discussion on the "Wine Knerds United" Facebook group.

BigAg95 said:

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Well done!

We went out for a dry aged ribeye Saturday and took our own bottle - 2014 Outpost Howell Mountain zin. It was nice, had a lot going on for a zin - soft tannins, black fruit, licorice, tea, and pepper. It was also pretty subtle for a Napa wine (and particularly for a zin), if it were a blind tasting I would have guessed it was a bordeaux.

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Wife and I are heading to Napa next week, and I am really excited about my Outpost appt. Also doing Hourglass, Raymond, Quintessa, Cimarossa, and Failia, among others.

Anybody ever used Uber Wine?

Who is the go to for houston wine storage?

We have a cellar/fridge w/ about a 150 bottle capacity. We're over that so basically just rotating bottles in as we drink them. I'm debating taking some of our young cabs that will just sit in the cellar for 3 years minimum anyway and using third party storage to open some room.....

I'm in central houston.

I am also planning a Napa trip for November. Spoke to two wineries about UberWine and they've never heard of it. They told me many people use Uber, they are plentiful. But if you have appointments to make sometimes they are slow to respond. The majority still use limos and private driving services.

Problem with UberWine is it doesn't show up as an option on your app until you are in the region. So if you want to book a driver a month out I haven't figured out that it's doable if you are out of area. If you figure that out I'd love to hear about that. I think it would cost about half of what a driving service would, but the driver may not be as knowledgeable or interesting. You do, after all, spend a good amount of time with your driver. I think that's worth some money for a good one.

SouthTex99 said:

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I am also planning a Napa trip for November. Spoke to two wineries about UberWine and they've never heard of it. They told me many people use Uber, they are plentiful. But if you have appointments to make sometimes they are slow to respond. The majority still use limos and private driving services.

Problem with UberWine is it doesn't show up as an option on your app until you are in the region. So if you want to book a driver a month out I haven't figured out that it's doable if you are out of area. If you figure that out I'd love to hear about that. I think it would cost about half of what a driving service would, but the driver may not be as knowledgeable or interesting. You do, after all, spend a good amount of time with your driver. I think that's worth some money for a good one.

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That's great info, thanks STX. I saw some internet articles on Uber Wine, but was wondering why it hadn't been mentioned on this thread. Day 2 of my trip is winery heavy, so Uber Wine sounds like an intriguing option. If it works out I'll post about my experience.

Thanks. It was a great afternoon with you and the lovely Mrs. HTown! I hope it was a great birthday weekend for her.

So- is the winery yours or an investor? Very cool, nonetheless.

Cyp0111 said:

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So- is the winery yours or an investor? Very cool, nonetheless.

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Dan Gatlin is the owner and wine maker. I'm just a friend who gets to hang out there weekends the past three years! Also, get to be a cellar rat at times, punch downs, bottling, and (most importantly) barrel sampling.

Lot of shipping notices the past few days

Stagecoach said:

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Lot of shipping notices the past few days

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Yeah made me realize how much wine I bought and forgot about...

First two weeks in November set the tone for the season!!

And on a related note, I just joined what (they tell me) is the first wine club in Bordeaux. When we visited St Emilion in May Chateau Tour St Christophe was our last stop. Like so many Chateau now, it is one of several owned by a really rich guy. Nelty, our hostess, looked at Napa et al and their Direct to Consumer wine clubs. She thinks it's the first in Bordeaux. In May it had about 250 memebers, with 160+ being American. It's probably absurdly overpriced once freight is factored in, but I'll get a case just before Christmas and another in March. That was the initial commitment. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Shipping notices are like the first rumbles of the wine-valanche. An uptick in memberships followed by a downtick in consumption suddenly makes me think I may have bit off more than I can chew.

But then I think, "Hey, it keeps!" and all is right again.

Downtick in consumption?!?!?!

We are expecting. While I guess that doesn't rule me out, it's just not as much fun to open something interesting without a partner in crime.

FarmerJohn said:

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We are expecting. While I guess that doesn't rule me out, it's just not as much fun to open something interesting without a partner in crime.

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So true.

And congrats! Cheers to a healthy baby!

FarmerJohn said:

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We are expecting. While I guess that doesn't rule me out, it's just not as much fun to open something interesting without a partner in crime.

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Congrats!! And thoughts and prayers to your wine budget.

FarmerJohn said:

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We are expecting. While I guess that doesn't rule me out, it's just not as much fun to open something interesting without a partner in crime.

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Maybe it's just me, but I sense a cry for help. What are you opening, and what time should I stop by?

FarmerJohn said:

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Shipping notices are like the first rumbles of the wine-valanche. An uptick in memberships followed by a downtick in consumption suddenly makes me think I may have bit off more than I can chew.

But then I think, "Hey, it keeps!" and all is right again.

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I have never had this particular issue. The conversations around my house usually involve my wife blaming me for pulling the cork on a bottle that she was trying to cellar.

About 6 months ago, we bought a 80 or so bottle fridge that we were going to start cellaring some bottles in. Since then, we've been to Napa twice, and subsequently joined 5 additional clubs. I find myself out of room, already. I'm going to have to re-organize things and figure this out as a bunch of shipments will be here within the next few weeks.

We had been keeping just wines that we planned on drinking 5+ years out from now in the fridge, and keeping < 5 year wines in racks in a guestroom closet. May need another rack, another closet, or start looking into offsite.

Do you guys cellar/keep chilled everything or just anything that's 5 years out? And when you have multiple of things, how are you spacing them out for popping corks? Any other way to look at organizing and storing them?

752bro4 said:

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About 6 months ago, we bought a 80 or so bottle fridge that we were going to start cellaring some bottles in. Since then, we've been to Napa twice, and subsequently joined 5 additional clubs. I find myself out of room, already. I'm going to have to re-organize things and figure this out as a bunch of shipments will be here within the next few weeks.

We had been keeping just wines that we planned on drinking 5+ years out from now in the fridge, and keeping < 5 year wines in racks in a guestroom closet. May need another rack, another closet, or start looking into offsite.

Do you guys cellar/keep chilled everything or just anything that's 5 years out? And when you have multiple of things, how are you spacing them out for popping corks? Any other way to look at organizing and storing them?

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I'm far from an expert so I'm looking forward to responses.

We have two fridges that hold a total of 85 bottles, plus a smaller one that holds the few whites we have. I intend to use on fridge for cellaring (sorta), and the other for drinking. The overflow goes into a closet to be fridged as we drink what's already there.

Also curious as to how to determine/decide whether to hold for 5+ years or drink sooner.

Several thoughts:

As long as the environment is temperature stable, anything room temp is fine for 5 year type storage. Temp delta is the killer. Expansion, contraction can loosen the cork. Given that, bottom of your bedroom closet is a good spot. Stable temp, dark, keeps wine out of your reach when you want that 2nd (or 3rd) bottle on a Saturday night.

For long storage, a chiller is best, of course, but not mandatory. One proviso of chillers for long term storage is to monitor humidity. Low humidity can dry out the cork. Anything above 40% is ok, official recommendations are more like 60-80%. For chillers w/out humidity control, I used a dense sponge (like a grouting sponge) sitting in a pan of water in each chiller.

As to "which wines to cellar?" - a couple more thoughts:
Most modern wine isn't gonna degrade over 5 or so years, the question is which ones will improve over 5, 10 or more years. Price can be an indicator, reviews probably a better one. And well aged wine is a different experience than (to channel Navin R. Johnson) fresh wine. Not everyone prefers it.

cecil77 said:

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Several thoughts:

As long as the environment is temperature stable, anything room temp is fine for 5 year type storage. Temp delta is the killer. Expansion, contraction can loosen the cork. Given that, bottom of your bedroom closet is a good spot. Stable temp, dark, keeps wine out of your reach when you want that 2nd (or 3rd) bottle on a Saturday night.

For long storage, a chiller is best, of course, but not mandatory. One proviso of chillers for long term storage is to monitor humidity. Low humidity can dry out the cork. Anything above 40% is ok, official recommendations are more like 60-80%. For chillers w/out humidity control, I used a dense sponge (like a grouting sponge) sitting in a pan of water in each chiller.

As to "which wines to cellar?" - a couple more thoughts:
Most modern wine isn't gonna degrade over 5 or so years, the question is which ones will improve over 5, 10 or more years. Price can be an indicator, reviews probably a better one. And well aged wine is a different experience than (to channel Navin R. Johnson) fresh wine. Not everyone prefers it.

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I think, living up here, humidity would be my biggest problem, but isn't that alleviated by storing the bottles laying on the side and keeping the cork moist that way?

For the inner end of the cork, yes. For the outer end, no.

and so the wine shipments have officially started... As for the convo I have ~42 bottles coming over the next few weeks and I have a 120 bottle fridge and I am going to have to get creative. Main point to show here was I love the detail from Realm in their designs. I open the box today and the foam has their logo cut out, how freaking cool?



Here is the "unboxing" album I did for the wife lol

https://imgur.com/a/dbXO17f

Very cool!

What part of the country? I told Realm to ship Dec 3.

That's why Realm charges so much for shipping. It's cool but after the first cool order I'd rather save the $50 and ship in box fashion.