Last Call for Scoop the Spectator 2012 Entries

It's been a fun couple weeks seeing the entries pour in for Scoop the Spectator 2012.

A well-timed post by @EvanDawson over on Palate Press -- In Defense of the Wine Spectator Top 100 -- discusses the Top 100 list and has some interesting data on price increases for the winning wine.

the Wine of the Year does indeed see a sharp increase in price. Over the past decade, the average release price for the Wine of the Year was $67.60; the current average price is now $172.50. That?s an increase of 155%. But if we discard the past two winners, the Kosta Browne 2009 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and the Saxum James Berry 2007 Paso Robles, the price increase falls to 95%.
Dawson goes on to note that the price hike generally evaporates for the next vintage of the winning wine and that the price increases trail off quickly as you go down the Top 10.
How about the rest of the top ten? Turns out only the runner up wine sees much of a spike in price soon after the list comes out. The average release price for the runner-up wines was $68; today you can get those wines for an average of $100.50 per bottle, an increase of nearly 48%. The 10th-ranked wine has seen a price increase of 22%, which is not nothing, but not exorbitant in the higher-end wine market.
The piece goes on to mention our Scoop the Spectator contest and notes that you all have successfully predicted the winner each year the contest has been run.
Now, I used to think the entire concept of a Top 100 list was silly. This year, mine was the first guess on Dwyer?s site. As Dwyer explains, his contest is designed to help consumers. 
?The fundamental motivation for knowing the winning wine ahead of time is to provide an opportunity to buy that wine before the street price goes up,? Dwyer told me. How do you know that you can get the winning wine based on Dwyer?s contest? Well, so far, Dwyer?s contestants have sniffed out the winner in advance.
Have one of you guessed the winner already? I think so.

The Wine Spectator reveal starts Wednesday (pushed back a couple days by Hurricane Sandy). We'll keep the contest deadline tonight - November 9th, 2012 at 11:59 pm Eastern.

While you're waiting, jump on Grapes the Wine Co's wine offer email list. Despite being without power at home and at the store he's still been pounding the offers, with a particular focus on 2010 Rhone (How Could it Not Be 2010 Rhone?). Gotta love it.

Subscribe to the WWP for commentary as the wines are revealed next week

Thanks again to all who have entered. And good luck!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/BcZxyBEvH_o/last-call-for-scoop-spectator-2012.html

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Good News Spreads Fast

Word on the winners of the Los Angeles International Wine & Spirits Competition is spreading like wild fire! A preview tasting for the media last week in Beverly Hills has generated a lot of buzz that we are really excited about! Take a look at some more posts: http://gastronomy-101.blogspot.com/2009/06/event-la-wine-competition-preview-... http://thirstyinla.com/2009/06/19/2009-la-wine-spirits-competition/ http://lablips.dailyradar.com/story/los_angeles_international_wine_and_spirit... http://www.womenwine.com/posts/journals/18487-winners-of-the-2009-la-internat...

Source: http://blogs.fairplex.com/blog/wine/?p=90

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Who Needs a Sale When You Have Empire Wine?

Editor's Note: This site recently reached 700 subscribers! Thanks so much for following along - it means so much to me that so many of you find this kind of wine info useful. If you're not subscribed with an RSS Reader -or- signed up for email notifications of new posts you can sign up here.

I stopped and visited New York Retailer Empire Wine last summer on our way to vacation in Michigan. What an operation. Located within a large strip mall, I never would have thought to stop in if I wasn't aware of their reputation online. I couldn't believe the volume of wine they were pushing through their registers on a summery Friday afternoon.

One thing I want this site to be about is helping friends find better wine values. Part of that is finding outstanding retailers who sell wine on razor thin margins. As I'm writing this I'm imagining co-workers and cousins looking for specific retailers to order from, and specific wines to get started with. I think 6 or 12 of the wines below would make a great stash of wines for the holiday season.

With deals swirling around this weekend I thought it would be a good opportunity to peruse their selection and make a few recommendations:

  1. Cakebread Cellars Zinfandel 2010 $23.95
    $23 for what's sure to be a delicious red from Cakebread? Sold.
  2. Failla 'Sonoma Coast' Pinot Noir 2011 $31.95
    Great producer. Love the ~$30 price point for high quality California Pinot Noir.
  3. Snowden 'The Ranch' Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $37.95
    Not the prettiest label in the world but this one over delivers for its price point.
  4. O'Shaughnessy 'Howell Mtn.' Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $74.95
    Bumps the price up a bit over the Cakebread/Caymus/Silver Oak ~$60 level, but it's worth the splurge.
  5. Beaurenard 'Boisrenard' Chateauneuf du Pape 2010 $69.95
    97WS, great vintage. Getting harder to find these 2010s.
  6. Soter 'North Valley' Pinot Noir 2009 $24.95
    Soter's a great producer and I'm looking to try more 2009 Oregon Pinots before they disappear.
  7. Marcel Lapierre Morgon 2011 $23.95
    People love this producer and I'm hearing good things this 2011 Cru Beaujolais.
  8. Belle Glos 'Meiomi' Pinot Noir 2011 $15.93
    Stunningly low price, even when shipping costs are included.
  9. Educated Guess Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $16.95
    Tasty fruit forward Napa Cab at a great price.
  10. Ridge Vineyards 'Estate' Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $34.95
    Hard to go wrong with Ridge and priced in the mid-$30s this is a nice value.
  11. Bodegas Volver 'Tarima Hill' Monastrell 2009 $8.95
    I always like including a bargain Spanish Monastrell to round out a case. Original referral on this one came from The Capital Grille. Big and bold.
  12. Bodegas Borsao Tinto 2011 $5.95
    Robert Parker called this "Possibly the single greatest dry red wine value in the world" and rated it 90 points. Plug this into the WWP QPR Calculator (what's that?) and you get 3.36: Very Good Value. I've enjoyed other Borsao wines before and I'd bet this one is good too. What do you have to lose at this price point?
Wine Retailers: Do you have an e-commerce site I can peruse and build up a similar list? Drop me an email and let me know.

I'd love it if you subscribed to The Wellesley Wine Press to receive email notifications of new posts. I'm working on some great stuff in the coming weeks.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/WKnuBPmFcbM/who-needs-sale-when-you-have-empire-wine.html

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More New Wines from Tablas Creek Vineyard

Hey, we got some new wines to try from Tablas Creek Vineyard, and guess what? They?re really good!!! (Like we haven?t been saying that for how many years now??) Here are our impressions, starting with one that we’ve never had previously. (Click images to enlarge.) 2011 Tablas Creek Vineyard Vermentino Paso Robles, 100% Vermentino, 13.1% [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/gangofpour/uncZ/~3/9TlVlbIkKwM/more-new-wines-from-tablas-creek-vineyard

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Just how concentrated is the wine industry? [graphics]

Philip Howard, a professor at Michigan State specializing in food systems, has led a team to assemble a superb infographic that depicts just how big is Big Wine–and how few companies control choices at supermarkets. He’s put the graphics on his web site. Now you can find out just which brands Gallo and Constellation own! [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/GuSC/~3/AK2Xzc_hWss/

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Maryland Running Circles Around Massachusetts with Thoughtful Wine Legislation

This post is sponsored by Metro West Wines, serving Wellesley, Weston, and Natick MA delivering wine to your doorstop in under an hour.

If there's one thing Massachusetts fancies itself, it's as an enlightened population. So this report from Ship Compliant, which links to the Maryland Comptroller's thoughtful analysis of the impact of consumer-direct wine shipments in the state, should serve as a wake up call for Massachusetts residents and lawmakers.

The report found that since Maryland allowed consumer-direct shipments, the tired arguments against the direct shipment of wine haven't come to fruition. State revenue increased, adminstration costs were covered, consumer access improved, and local wine retailers saw increased sales.

The report even goes so far as to compare consumer access to Wine Spectator Top 100 wines before and after direct shipments were allowed. Sounds like the comptroller knows a bit about wine!

What strikes me about the report is its thoughtfulness. It really seems to analyze the situation rationally as opposed to the situation we have here in Massachusetts which amounts to non-action without explaination. Free the Grapes shared an update on the situation for 2013. I'll summarize it for you: Not much going on but expect a new bill soon.

Your call to action remains the same as it has for the past 3 years. Write your state representatives. Tell them the direct shipment of wine is important to you.

Don't know who your representative is? A list can be found here.

I'd love it if you subscribed to The Wellesey Wine Press to keep up to date on this situation.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/Y5JT8iudK3o/maryland-running-circles-around.html

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Finding Wine Spectator's Top 10 by Seeking out Dusty-Bottled Retailers Off the Grid

Looking to find wines from Wine Spectator's Top 100 list? Especially for wines in the Top 10 I've found Wine-Searcher.com -- usually the most convenient and efficient way to find specific wines -- to be less effective than usual due to listings that lag fast changing inventory. A better approach, I think, is to seek out dusty-bottled stores off the grid and make phone calls.

Some might call the pursuit of the Top 10 wines to be a fool's errand. I disagree. In choosing their Top 10 wines, their senior editors get together and taste a bunch of candidates wines and come to a consensus on the Top 10. This is different than how they normally taste whereby a single editor determine's a wine's rating. So you've got a lot of respected palates agreeing on the top wines, so as long as you don't pay a premium for the Top 10 wines you're getting some of the better values in wine today.

But how do you find them? You've got to act fast and, I think, you've got to employ unconventional techniques. You've got to look where deal hounds aren't looking.

A friend tipped me off that a retailer about 20 miles away had the #7 Shea Willamette Valley Pinot Noir for $44.99 before 15% off a case. $38.29. I wonder how he found it because the retailer does have an e-commerce site, but it's not listed on wine-searcher. Making matters worse for this wine, Shea supplies grapes for a lot of other producers so listings for other wines make it hard to perform a precise string match.

They did indeed have a listing on their site for 11 bottles of 2009 Shea Pinot Noir, but during the course of the week the listing changed to the 2010. Vintage variation being a real thing in Oregon I thought it was a mistake that was corrected after they got a lot of calls about the 2009. But they also had a listing for the 2009 Anderson's Conn Valley Reserve for the impossibly-low price of $23.99. I had to go down there and see what was going on.

So I get there and wouldn't you know it, there's 11 bottles of 2009 Shea Pinot Noir on the shelves for $44.99! I load up a basket and start eyeing other bottles to round out my case. The 2009 Anderson's Conn Valley was, sure enough, a listing for another wine - the Prologue. Good thing I didn't order a case for delivery and then have to get into an ugly discussion about returning it (including shipping costs).

Then I spotted a stack of 2009 Beringer Knight's Valley Cab for $21.99/btl before discount (not the reserve, but still a 91 point WS wine). High volume retailers are on to the 2010s by now so it was great to see the 2009 still for sale. Again Wine-Searcher doesn't turn this one up, but it's because the wrong vintage is listed on their site. They list the 2006 but it's the 2009 they've got stacks of!

I asked the wine director there what the heck was going on with the inconsistencies between the store and the website. He says he runs the bricks and mortar wine business and someone else runs the website.

So I'm thinking I may be on to something. Even for a retailer with an e-commerce site there's all kinds of hidden gems popping up because of inconsistent vintages being listed. Imagine the gems that might be out there for retailers without e-commerce sites. Heck, without websites! The way to find these wines is to look in wine shops off the beaten path. Off the grid. Away from Wine-Searcher types like myself.

Of course, just as I say this I happened to find a bottle of 2008 Shafer Relentless via Wine-Searcher at a nearby MA retailer for $35.99. A $60 release price wine, it was correctly listed as being Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year. But also, incorrectly, from France. (?) After some quick back and forth with the retailer we discovered quite a mix-up of SKUs. They actually had the 2009 Relentless (not the 2008) but it was $74.99. The $35.99 listing was for a bottle of 2008 St. Cosme Gigondas (hence the part about the Relentless being from France). Crazy stuff.

I don't get mad about mix-ups like these at this point. I actually find it interesting. So long as I don't get into a sticky situation where a jerky retailer ships me the wrong stuff then get contentious about rectifying the situation.

One strategy this makes me consider: Use Wine-Searcher to find retailers who list availability of back vintages who might not have updated to newer vintages yet. Then pick up the phone and call them. You never know what a retailer has, and neither do they it seems, until you have it in your hands.

Wine online: What a fun and chaotic circus.

Wine Spectator is set to release their Top 100 list today (in addition to their reveal last week of the Top 10). They have free site access through November 27th, 2012 so check it out.

Question of the Day: What tips and tricks have you found work well for tracking down hot wines like these?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/o87yBwuarrw/finding-wine-spectators-top-10-by.html

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