2009 Carlisle Sonoma County Syrah: Best QPR Ever?

Just when I was thinking "Hey it's been a while since Wine Spectator gave us a high QPR wine to chase after" they dropped a doozy on us yesterday. The 2009 Carlisle Sonoma County Syrah received a 97 point rating - and retails for just $25. Carlisle mailing list members were offered the wine for an even more incredible $19.50.

Carlisle produces Zinfandel and red Rhone varietal wines out of Sonoma. They've been cranking out high QPR wines for a while now so the name is familiar to wine deal hounds.

It's been a while since I fired up the wwpQPR calculator (what's that?) but I thought this might be the best QPR I've ever heard of. Using a baseline price of $30 (the point at which it is relatively easy to find 90 point domestic Syrah) the wwpQPR gives us a 6.05: Outstanding Value. I think that might indeed be the best value I've ever heard of.

Where to Buy

Well, that's the problem. With only 391 cases produced and mailing list that's been on to their reasonably priced high quality wines for a while this one is going to be tough. A quick wine-searcher.com search turns up a few retailers that claimed to have had it for $25 or under -- but when you click through it's all sold out.

Based on past experience with wines like these, we'll see the wine quickly evaporate at retail especially under $40. The wine will be available at high mark-up at some retailers and will be available on auction sites for $50 and up. At that point, it kind of wrecks the QPR. At $50 it's a 3.02 on the wwpQPR: Very Good. Still a nice value but not one to break your neck over.

What to Do Next

Jump on their mailing list. The pattern is clear with Carlisle - they're producing wines attaining incredibly high scores and they're holding the line on price. Sounds like the perfect mailing list to be a part of. Be prepared for a wait: I signed up a few years ago and haven't gotten an allocation.

Next, scour around wine-searcher looking for back vintages and other bottlings from Carlisle. This bodes well for their 2009 offerings and I hear their 2006s were also amazing.

It's interesting to watch the CellarTracker reviews come in for a wine like this. Prior to the Spectator rating coming out yesterday, the ratings are about what you'd expect for a $25 wine from Carlisle: 90-93 points. A note published yesterday after the Spectator rating came out? 95 points.

I've discussed this pheonomenon with friends before -- how CellarTracker is an excellent resource to consult when deciding whether to take advantage of a wine deal. But there is often a high rating/price correlation on CellarTracker since most regular wine enthusiasts like us taste non-blind. Throw in a little 97-point Wine Spectator bias and it often pulls the CellarTracker ratings up a bit.

Definitely a topic for further discussion. I'd love it if you subscribed to the site so we can continue the conversation.

And consider subscribing to Wine Spectator. You can even use airline miles if you'd like.

Question of the Day: Have you seen this wine available at retail? Any tips for buying this wine or similar offerings from Carlisle in the open market?


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/TvRPZqdvWv4/2009-carlisle-sonoma-county-syrah-best.html

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Corliss Estates and Tranche Cellars: Livin? Up to the Hype

Corliss Estates and Tranche Cellars burst onto the scene a couple of years ago and almost immediately received high praise from the critics. Located in Walla Walla, Washington, Corliss?s critical acclaim has not been limited to the confines of Washington State. In fact, their goal is to be considered one of the ?grand vins? of [...]

Corliss Estates and Tranche Cellars: Livin? Up to the Hype was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WinePeeps/~3/XiMK6qgML-k/

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Aldabra tortoise welcomes the guests to the ecological haven, Fregate Island Private

The marvelous Fregate Island Private is located on a tropical island of Seychelles, rather in an ecological haven to the east of Mahe across the row of cliffs in a spectacular natural surrounding encircled with white dazzling sand beaches and a gallery of various rare and endangered birds and animals. The collection of sixteen elegant [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vagablond/ysSN/~3/NrA_ajeZf3k/

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On Family and How I Came to Understand that Location Matters

My Dad, Lawrence F. Lefevere, died on Saturday, July 9th and was laid to rest on Wednesday, July 13th.

He was young, just 64 years old.

The last 10 months (to say nothing of the last couple of years), have been hard.  My brother, sister and I carried principal responsibility for ensuring appropriate care for my Dad as he slid into full vascular dementia, the accumulation of brain damage in stroke patients, with the same needs as those with Alzheimer’s.

Accordingly, regular readers of this site have probably noticed that my writing output has dropped off precipitously this year; the result of the increased responsibility with my Dad’s care, which itself coincided with new and demanding responsibilities at work.  I prioritized appropriately, and in so doing my creativity and inveterate curiosity in wine slowed to, if not idle, at least first gear, as did my available time. 

This public acknowledgement of the private challenges I’ve been experiencing should not be mistaken for a eulogy to my father.  I’m not able to quantify in mere words what the loss of my Dad means to me.  In fact, I haven’t come to grips with his mortality yet, still dealing with an open wound and flowers hither and yon around the house. 

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No, instead, this is a brief rumination on wine and, more specifically, what I’ve recently come to understand about wine and the importance of place.

Over the last week or so more than a few people said to me, “Your Dad was ‘Old School’” and “They don’t make them like Larry anymore.” Or, “He was definitely his own man.”

They’re right.  He was “Old School” and damn proud of it thankyouverymuch; he was very much a throwback to a different era, a product of where he came from, the kind of guy that can’t be popped out of a cookie cutter mold and dropped into the suburbs.  My Dad grew up in a place that scarcely exists anymore – a Midwestern post-World War II middle-class clapboard neighborhood with both a tavern and a Catholic church within a stone’s throw of the front stoop.  He was raised by two working parents, one a laborer and the other clerical, neither of whom was educated beyond high school.  He was a Baby Boomer who went to Vietnam raised his family and worked 60 hour weeks for nearly my entire life.

My Dad smoked and drank and cursed; he was stubborn, principled, self-possessed, he spent little, saved a lot, paid tuition for all 16 years of his kids education (Catholic schools through high school and then college), was funny, loyal, loved Notre Dame football and was a complete and utter technophobe, never advancing beyond hunting and pecking on a typewriter.

And, to my knowledge, he never saw anything I’ve written about wine, much less understood my interest in something that didn’t come from Stroh’s brewery.  I am a “New World,” contemporary counterpoint to my Dad’s traditional ways.

Yet, my Dad has helped me come to a new appreciation about wine, at least wine that speaks of where it comes from—in sensibility and stridency.

Over the last several years, The Office of Champagne in the US has been on something of a long-term sustained warpath(Center for Wine Origins) in protecting the value of origins in naming i.e. Champagne comes from Champagne, France and nowhere else. Likewise, in this sensibility, Port wine can only come from Portugal. 

When it comes to this Champagne “Location Matters” campaign, I’ve always played both sides of the fence; never too with the Champagne and Port campaigns nor too against.  Kind of right down the middle, but leaning towards an arched eyebrow and the notion that there are more important things to do and spend money on then marketing and bleating about how, “Champagne only comes from Champagne, France.”  Especially when trying to undo 30 years of ingrained consumer habit.

As I celebrate my Dad’s life and fondly recall what a unique person he was, where he came from, what he lived through, how he was a distinct product of his time, place and environment—unmistakably unique in personality and ethos based on his roots and his life experiences, and ultimately buried just miles from where he was born, I’ve come to realize that location does matter.

I realize that he is the result of a confluence of circumstances that are unique to him, and not able to be duplicated.

As I’ve thought about my Dad’s life, as unique as he was, indeed, he couldn’t have come from any other place than South Bend, IN, just as I now see that dammit, yes, Champagne comes only from Champagne, France.

I get it.

My dad may have been an “Old School” guy that didn’t know anything about wine, but he posthumously taught me to appreciate the, “Old World,” as well.

Source: http://goodgrape.com/index.php/site/on_family_and_how_i_came_to_understand_that_location_matters1/

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Beaulieu Vineyard, Georges de Latour, 1958

I always relish the rare opportunity to taste a California wine from the 1970s, the era before rising temperatures and fruit bombs. But I recently had something even more rare: tasting the BV, Georges de Latour, Private Reserve, Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon, 1958. The wine was made by the venerable Andre Tchelistcheff, the “dean” of [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/ep1B6uuJoaU/

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First Impressions of Virginia Wine ? Wine Bloggers Conference

It was also fun to hear several references to the Napa Valley. Once again as in Washington bloggers conference a year ago everyone is shooting to topple the king. I don?t see any Virginia wines available where I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of it is consumed in Virginia and much makes its way to Canada and the U.K. Ther is much more to learn about Virginia wines as the wine bloggers conference rolls along. Continue reading

Source: http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/napablog/first-impressions-of-virginia-wine-wine-bloggers-conference/

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The wines from Pierre Usseglio I

Domaine Pierre Usseglio is first and foremost a maker of Chateauneuf-du-Pape but has also a couple of vineyards just outside the appellation. From these they make a good value Côtes-du-Rhône and a Vin de Table, where Merlot makes up 80 % og the blend.  I gave the 2006 Côtes-du-Rhône 2006 88-89 p. which makes it a good value. It’s a sort [...]

Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/44/wines-from-pierre-usseglio-1/

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Napa Valley ? What?s Happening in Downtown Napa, Visitor Center Battle Brews

We stroll the Town Center and have a look around. Boy, this place is void of people. We did find something the might become the ?Battle of Visitor Centers.? The Legendary Napa Valley folks pulled up shop at the Town Center last month and moved the Visitor Center to the posh and chic Riverfront Properties. Continue reading

Source: http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/napablog/napa-valley-%e2%80%93-what%e2%80%99s-happening-in-downtown-napa-visitor-center-battle-brews/

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