ATL Aggie said:

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cecil77 said:

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Cellartracker is a bargain to track your collection.

IMO it's most valuable to help determine if I want to open a bottle now, or not.

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I am bad at keeping my cellar tracker updated.

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Me too. Mine's a good 2 years out of date.

That's assigned to the wife. She asks prior to tossing bottles. But I only track collectible ageable bottles.

bularry said:

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Chipotlemonger said:

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Good addition cecil. Estate bottling is handy but it does not mean in and of itself that it's wine that is produced within walking distance or even sight of the winery as it may sound to the lay man. It does add a little extra credence to the wine, but it's minimal for me.

For example, depending on grape/grower contracts, the winery may have 100% control over the grapes they are receiving. E.G. Winery A has rows 1 through 50 on the vineyard, Winery B has rows 51-100 on the vineyard and pays for the work in the vineyards for their rows. Winery A has their grapes managed by a 3rd party but handles winemaking once picked. Winery B manages everything they just don't own the physical land but are paying for the grape rights. In this instance, I believe A cannot say estate wine, but B could. Does this add any consumer value? Perhaps. But it could also be meaningless.

I made this example up and I'm not a lawyer, take it FWIW but this is all my understanding of it.

TLDR: There are loopholes in the term estate when it comes to wine, so it may or may not mean much.

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but estate does mean owned production, and that same fruit was fermented and bottled by that winery and the winery and the fruit are in the same AVA (I think). It is pretty rare for someone to own vineyards but to have the winery somewhere else... just too expensive in general.

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Depends on the winery. Some are definitely far from their owned vineyards/plots, if they do indeed own and aren't just sourcing.

To add a data point to the convo, currently listening to a winemaker podcast (very nerdy podcast), and the winemaker on this episode just went into brief detail about 4 estate vineyards all within about 4 miles of each other.

Some of the bigger players may own vineyard land/grapes farther away though, but you're right that is not as common. Think it can be gotten around by having multiple production sites, etc. Bottom line on those though is estate is selective to use, no one is forced to use it if the parameters are met.

Neat conversation here! Back to the root of it all, estate bottled does by itself lend credence to a little more ownership over the process than just saying "bottled by."

Good points. Dan has chosen not to use the Estate designation even when we could because the Vineyard was 15 miles away.

Happy Friday!

Got to try quintessa last year at a tasting at our club, it was delicious!

One of my favorite wines from one my the best vintages!

I know I'm a novice but I find you can get some great values in Italian wines.

Indeed, and '16's are great and I've been very impressed with some '19's I've tasted last fall.

FTAco07 said:

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One of my favorite wines from one my the best vintages!

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yeah, that's a great wine

bularry said:

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Indeed, and '16's are great and I've been very impressed with some '19's I've tasted last fall.

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Yes, scoop up all of the 2016s you can find. It's an exceptional vintage in Italy.

Anyone have any thoughts on todays lastbottle offering?

https://www.lastbottlewines.com/

ATL Aggie said:

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Anyone have any thoughts on todays lastbottle offering?

https://www.lastbottlewines.com/

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They have been pushing Petroni pretty hard. I bought some during the marathon but nothing received yet.

I am not sure what to think honestly . . .


That said the Sleeper Cab Franc I bought from them made me pay more attention to Last Bottle.

Not much info out there on these particular Petroni wines. Weird considering how long they've been around. I suspect that LB acquired all or most of their unsold inventory. The property is on the market:

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sonoma/990-Cavedale-Rd-95476/home/2389348

BigAg95 said:

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Not much info out there on these particular Petroni wines. Weird considering how long they've been around. I suspect that LB acquired all or most of their unsold inventory. The property is on the market:

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sonoma/990-Cavedale-Rd-95476/home/2389348

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Good find. Definitely sounds like some liquidation.

Objective Aggie said:

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ATL Aggie said:

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Anyone have any thoughts on todays lastbottle offering?

https://www.lastbottlewines.com/

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They have been pushing Petroni pretty hard. I bought some during the marathon but nothing received yet.

I am not sure what to think honestly . . .


That said the Sleeper Cab Franc I bought from them made me pay more attention to Last Bottle.

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I've seen Sleeper several times but passed everytime. Was that a mistake?

BigAg95 said:

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Not much info out there on these particular Petroni wines. Weird considering how long they've been around. I suspect that LB acquired all or most of their unsold inventory. The property is on the market:

https://www.redfin.com/CA/Sonoma/990-Cavedale-Rd-95476/home/2389348

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Interesting.

QBCade said:

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Happy Saturday!!

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Mannnn, I love the chenin Blanc they make. I've had it twice and it's so dang hard to find m.

Orozco05 said:

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QBCade said:

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Happy Saturday!!

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Mannnn, I love the chenin Blanc they make. I've had it twice and it's so dang hard to find m.

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didn't even know they made a chenin blanc.. interesting. I love some chenin blanc

bularry said:

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Orozco05 said:

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QBCade said:

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Happy Saturday!!

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Mannnn, I love the chenin Blanc they make. I've had it twice and it's so dang hard to find m.

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didn't even know they made a chenin blanc.. interesting. I love some chenin blanc

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One of my co-workers is a big fan of it, but apparently it's doubled in price over the last few years. I believe it's over $70/bottle now.

Damn, that's pretty steep. It used to be $35, and was a good deal for a well-made white if you could find it.

This isn't a reflection of Chappellet, but Napa as a whole has priced me out. Prices seem to have doubled but the quality is still the same. I'll still drink them when offered, but I'm taking my money elsewhere for now.

HTownAg98 said:

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Damn, that's pretty steep. It used to be $35, and was a good deal for a well-made white if you could find it.

This isn't a reflection of Chappellet, but Napa as a whole has priced me out. Prices seem to have doubled but the quality is still the same. I'll still drink them when offered, but I'm taking my money elsewhere for now.

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Yeah, $300 plus cabs commonplace. You can find the same wines 20+ years old (and better wine IMO) for far less.

ATL Aggie said:

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Objective Aggie said:

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ATL Aggie said:

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Anyone have any thoughts on todays lastbottle offering?

https://www.lastbottlewines.com/

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They have been pushing Petroni pretty hard. I bought some during the marathon but nothing received yet.

I am not sure what to think honestly . . .


That said the Sleeper Cab Franc I bought from them made me pay more attention to Last Bottle.

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I've seen Sleeper several times but passed everytime. Was that a mistake?

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I believe Sleeper is their own label where they buy someone's wine sitting around and out their label on it. They have no correlation from one Sleeper wine to another. It's all someone's overstock.

The story went that the Cab Franc was excess wine for someone that limited production to x bottles so LastBottle bought the remainder and passed the savings onto you, the consumer! They implied it was $125 a bottle wine but they sold this one for $40.

Or something like that . . . .
In my novice uneducated opinion it was worth way more than $40 but the next Sleeper could be totally unrelated and be underwhelming l . . .

Correct me if anyone knows better.

I've bought Sleeper twice, and I was disappointed both times. The wines were good, but I didn't feel like the QPR was anything you couldn't get just buying wines that are known commodities at the same price point. They were probably worth what I paid for them, but I was expecting more because of the way they pitch them.

JCA1 said:

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bularry said:

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Orozco05 said:

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QBCade said:

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Happy Saturday!!

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Mannnn, I love the chenin Blanc they make. I've had it twice and it's so dang hard to find m.

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didn't even know they made a chenin blanc.. interesting. I love some chenin blanc

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One of my co-workers is a big fan of it, but apparently it's doubled in price over the last few years. I believe it's over $70/bottle now.

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Hmm, I can get Guiberteau and Huet and at that price and cheaper.... tough sell to me. Get some good CA chenin from Sandlands at $30 or so....

And the madness continues. Myriad Elysian at $295.

Makes you realize just how good the MacDonald Brothers and Roy piper are...

I cut off Myriad and most of Mike's a couple years ago. Was a tough decision because I always enjoyed them and the visits I've had with Mike....but the budget isn't unlimited

I still buy William & Mary, Rivers Marie, and some Realm. Realm is mainly just sentimental and I only buy a couple bottles.

If I ever get on the Macdonald list they'd be up there lol

Most Dr Crane wines have gotten stupid in the last few years. Unfortunately, that's my favorite Napa vineyard.

Same scenario for champagne. Luckily, I'm almost to the age where I'm done buying long term agers like BDX and Champs. But Napa is still going to be killing me for a while longer.

Same here, although I got on MacD year before last. Only 8 years on the list! I quit Realm four years ago, they ticked me off. Piper is my primary Napa Cab, although I'm backing off a tad. Also cutting back on Quilceda Creek. At 69 years old, I'm not interested in aging wine much. Too many great 20+ year old bottles available (mostly BDX for me) of great wine that's still at sane prices.

I see that Dr. Crane has significant blocks in Clone 4. That's probably why it's a favorite. Clones 7 (clone 8 is same as 7 but certified disease free), 337 are pretty common but make good wine. Clone 6 is older. Clone 4 is a superior clone, very small berries, very intense fruit.

Wife and I are planning an Oregon trip for our anniversary, will probably dedicate 2 days and nights to wine. Anyone have experience with the wines and/or tasting/tour experiences with the following producers? I buy a fair amount of wine from Big Table Farm, which is who gave me the list. Any of these a particular priority in your opinion?

Harper Voit
The Carlton Winemakers Studio
Bergstrom
Antica Terra
Soter
EIEIO
Walter Scott
Brick House
Patricia Green
Beaux Frres
big table farm

htxag09 said:

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I cut off Myriad and most of Mike's a couple years ago. Was a tough decision because I always enjoyed them and the visits I've had with Mike....but the budget isn't unlimited

I still buy William & Mary, Rivers Marie, and some Realm. Realm is mainly just sentimental and I only buy a couple bottles.

If I ever get on the Macdonald list they'd be up there lol

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I'm quitting all my memberships. Pricing has gotten out of hand and I can buy older vintages at auction for cheaper. Doesn't make sense anymore.

Bingo

Love Antica Terra wines and their approach to winemaking is very unique which could make for an interesting visit. That said, they are very expensive so not sure if that plays a factor in your decision making.