Really trying to find a pinot in the $15 for regular consumption. I just can't stomach shit wine anymore and we open several bottles a week. Have a decent stock of better wines but don't like to open them to eat with casual weekday meals. Closest thing I have found is Coleen Clemens that I was able to get for about $20 a bottle and really enjoy. Seems like $20 is about the bottom line for decent pinot anymore, which is unfortunate. Any other suggestions? Also will be buying more rose wines with the heat coming on this summer.
Underwood is like the Bud Light of pinot noir. There's not a whole lot to it but it is cheap and easy to drink and isn't offensive tasting.
Recently received a bottle as a gift and wondering if I should hold onto it for a while, or just open it next time special occasion I have. It's from Hamel Family Wines and is a 2013 Isthmus. Any advice? Anyone know anything about this wine?
When I know I'm going to buy as a daily drinker I just buy a case which usually nets 10% to 20% off. Planet Oregon from Soter is 18, Seven Devils from Carlton Cellars is 15, two vines from Lemelson is 16 and I have a host of other smaller vineyards that can be hard to source depending on your location.
Did not know there was a wine thread. I will join. Pretty well versed if you want an opinion of Washington Wines. I spend a large part of my day dealing with the Washington and Oregon Grape growing industries
Welcome. I'm a sucker for Walla Walla (and the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater which I still just choose to include in W2).
I want to like Meomi more than I do. Like a lot of people, I was a fan of the 2013. But it is such a big and heavy pinot. Drinks more like a heavy cab at times so not my choice for an everyday drinker.
Love Walla Walla region and Prosser. Won't say the best Bordeaux varietals in the world come from there (actually I might), but you will not find a better bang for your buck than a Washington Cab, Merlot, or Syrah. Can't recommend enough how feasible and high quality WA wines are due to the current climates and weather patterns in that area right now. Just give them another decade for some of these 10ish year old vines to develop some more mature tasting notes that are more prevalent in California.
I like California, and buy from there frequently, but its amazing how much more bang for the buck you get in Washington. Zins first piqued my interest but Napa Cabs and Oregon Pinot really got me in to wine. I started to explore Washington hoping to find better value than Napa (and I did) but my trip to Walla Walla to explore Washington cab/merlot ended up getting me hooked on Syrah. That has become an expensive habit as I'm now on lists for Horsepower/No Girls (waiting on Cayuse), Reynvaan, Gramercy Cellars, Rotie Cellars, Abeja, and Rasa. For some reason it is easier to add your name to lists/clubs than it is to quit them. I did just let my spot on Leonetti Cellars fall off though because it didn't feel like as good of value as other options.
Ok I got scared because I shared the tour with a man and wife who demographically could have been you so I got shook. Yes I did and it was awesome. Thanks for the rec. We loved the wine but shit ain't cheap, tour was worth it but that drive is no joke. Did palmaz today which is another one out of my pay range but was crazy. Weirdly the reds were only average but the whites were great. Super high tech fancy set up built by a guy with endless funds.
I might be really late to this thread, but I heard Meomi sold their label. And now it is being produced in a cheaper way? Does this sound right? And whoever mentioned Planet Oregon is dead on. A great wine.
I mentioned it recently in here, but my mom recently got back from Sonoma and brought back a bunch of stuff from vineyards. Palmaz was one of the one that she went to. She didn't fully understand it, but it seems like an extremely cool high-tech set up. That huge dome with all the metrics projected on it looked amazing.
Yeah it was amazing but quickly became clear making a profit was not intended to happen, it's literally a hobby for the guy and his family. Said they hope to have the business break even in another 25 years or so.
I kinda figured with how amazing their facilities sounded. My mom gave everyone a bottle that she brought back for Easter as a little gift. I have 2 nephews who are 3 years old. So apparently Palmaz, because they have children, makes grape juice with the grapes form their vineyard. So my mom got two bottles for my nephews. A complete waste, but I thought it was interesting. Spoiler
Another one I have found to be fantastic at a great price is 720 Wine Cellars. I found a local wine shop sourcing small batch, aged Oregon Pinots at the ~$20 price point and theirs stood out to me. 2012 Croft Vineyard Pinot for $22 that tasted almost as good as my $60 Bergstrom Croft expression.
Oh. Sweet coincidence then. I am in alabama wishing i was in napa. Glad you enjoyed it. Hard to beat late fall with the fruit on the vine and those views
Also for those Boedecker fans on here, try "for a Song" winery. The Boedeckers are the wine makers and they make 1 Pinot under this label along with some different Washington Wine varietals.
Interesting. This is the backstory on For A Song (taken from a sales offering from Full Pull Wines), at least as it pertains to the Washington wines (It looks like there is a different winemaker for the Washington and Oregon wines: http://www.forasongwine.com/our-story/) "For A Song grew like a sapling out of the ashes of the dearly-departed Olsen Estates winery. The Olsen family had been growing grapes in the Yakima Valley for 40 years when, in 2006, they decided to launch a winery to feature their fruit and build the brand of the vineyard. That winery, which crushed grapes only through the 2009 harvest, was terrific, and the wines produced never lacked for positive reviews. The problem was never with grapegrowing or winemaking; it was always with selling. Entering a competitive market, in a recession, without a distributor, proved too great a challenge to overcome. When Olsen Estates went out of business, all their juice, in bottle and barrel, was purchased by their distributor (Vinum), who created the For A Song label as a house brand to find happy homes for all that quality juice. Since then, the project has been such a runaway success that Vinum has kept the band together. They have Kyle Johnson, the former winemaker at Olsen Estates, making the wines. Because of that connection, they still source beautiful Olsen Vineyard fruit (while the winery went out of business, the vineyard operations have continued uninterrupted, and there’s no denying that the winery project did indeed raise the profile of the vineyard, which sells fruit to Gramercy, Betz, and Maison Bleue, just to name a few)." That first vintage of the Washington Syrah was absolutely killer. It was a $15 bottle that drank like a $30+ bottle. From my experience it is still good but not at the same quality as when they were buying the distressed assets of a closing winery.
My brother was given a case of Waters wine from Walla Walla about 10 years ago through work. We were 23 and 26 and drinking this great wine with Pizza playing FIFA. Living the dream. Really loved the syrah. I don't know how much it costs....maybe 30 bucks? Need to get more from that area. Thanks for the inspiration guys.
Visited in-laws this weekend. Started with staglin family Chardonnay Saturday night before my FIL opened a magnum of this bad boy with dinner: http://m.wine-searcher.com/wine-971...yards-575-ovx-cabernet-sauvignon-oakville-usa Chased it with plumpjack.
Waters is great. They are very much like a Gramercy Cellars in style (lower alcohol, earthy wines) but a little less consistent from my experience. I think they're in the $25-70 range. The winery was sold a year or two ago and when that happened they sold their estate vineyard (Forgotten Hills) to Gramercy. The vineyard lies in a low spot so it is at risk of frost damage and it only gets ripe enough to produce a vineyard designate quality wine in warm vintages (2007, 09, 12, 13, etc) but when it does it is absolutely killer.
To reply to myself and brag, I have a bottle of the 100pt 2013 reserve cab and was able to get 3 of the 2014 reserve cab. 2012 and 2013 were 100 pt Parker wines. Hoping for 2014 to be as good!
Nice. I drank one reserve 2013 already. It's hard to get more than 3 unless you subscribe to a really big package, and I split the 27 bottle one with a friend.
I count 4 reserve cabs but can't read years because I'm in my phone. You have any Cab Franc? I only have a bottle of 2014 left but it's great. Tough to get from them.
My neighbor at work has been on the list since the early 2000s. I buy a bottle of the Reserve Cab and Claret off him each year and occasionally the vintner's select. Its mutually beneficial. I get good wine without an ongoing commitment and he maintains his spot on the list with a smaller financial commitment.
I don't get the Claret in my package. Should I? Not a huge fan of them in general. Ask him for Cab Franc next time...
I don't have any of the cab franc on hand currently. I've bought it from him but drank what I bought and I don't even recall him offering it to me the last few years. I do love a good cab franc You like Cabs but not Merlot/Cab blends? That seems weird to me but maybe that is only because I like both and just assumed others do too.
Is that what they use in their Claret? Bordeaux blends can use other grapes. I'll have to talk to my friend about whether we can sub in some Reserve Claret this year.
It varies each year. "Our Reserve Claret is assembled from the most expressive wines our estate produces each year, typically in the ratio of about 60% merlot to 40% cabernet sauvignon." Looking at the last few years it has also included up to 5% Petit Verdot. The years on the Reserves was 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2014. The Vintner's Select in the back were 09 & 10 for Cab and Merlot and there is a lone regular Cab.
Everything I'm part of is annual or semi-annual outside for a local wine store that does a couple bottles a month for like 30 that I've kept for trying things I wouldn't think to buy on my own. Might end that though.
I'm similar. I have a bunch of wine clubs that ship to me or lists where I get allocations that I can buy from and that typically happens in the spring and fall. I also get email offers from a couple stores that aren't local that I can choose to buy from and then they ship when I accumulate a case and the temperature is appropriate.
I used to get one from Kermit Lynch that was pretty interesting. They still do it, but last I checked they didn't ship to Michigan.