EWBC12 ? Tech Tools

Every year at the EWBC, I conduct a workshop on tech tools that you may, or may not, be familiar with. Some are right off the innovation line, while others, have been around for awhile but need a reintroduction as to how they’ve grown or changed. I try to make it as jam packed as [...]

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Spectator Surprises (almost) Everyone with Shocking Pick

Wine Spectator revealed their 2012 Wine of the Year today and I don't think anyone saw this one coming. The winning wine was the 2008 Shafer Relentless -- 96 WS/$60/3,300 cases produced.

It certainly hits the metrics we've been looking for (95+ points, < $100, 1,000+ cases produced) so why was it surprising? Why didn't we see this coming? I think there are several reasons...

First, Wine Spectator has now chosen a wine from California the last 3 years. Last year was the Kosta Browne Pinot Noir (Sonoma) and the year before that was the Saxum James Berry (Paso). Taking it further, the prior winner was also domestic - the Columbia Crest Reserve Cab. Taking it even further the year before that was the Chilean Clos Apalta. This makes it 5 straight years of new world wines. I think a lot of us thought it was time for an old world wine to win, and with the great vintages from France rated this year the timing seemed right. Further, there's been some speculation that Spectator likes to spread the task of writing up the wine of the year around their senior editors. Poor James Laube had to do the write-up once again! Oh well, I guess he gets bragging rights that he's selected the Wine of the Year 3 years in a row.

Second, I think a lot of suspect that they're going to choose a wine from a region whose story they want to tell. For wines released this year, that story seemed almost certain to be from 2010 Rhone. Or 2009 Bordeaux. But what story is there to tell from 2008 in Napa for a somewhat quirky blend like the Relentless? Not much. It seems to be a play towards telling a story from a specific winery rather than a category.

Finally, Spectator just rang the bell a couple years ago for a California Syrah blend with the Saxum James Berry nod. That wine is a Grenache/Mourvedre/Syrah to the Relentless' Syrah/Petite Sirah but still -- it seems strange to have another wine so similar to the Saxum just 2 years later.

I admit: I was stunned by the California selection. Didn't see this one coming. The only time I had the slightest hunch there might be a California wine selected was when I was watching their Top 10 videos and James Laube (their editor for the wines of California) only made one appearance for wines 10 through 2 for the Beringer Reserve Cab selection. But I didn't expect California to take the top spot this year because there hasn't really been an extraordinary category from California rated this year.

So, it was a well-played suspenseful list from Spectator. And a well-played entry from Scott B!

There's a Wine Spectator connection with Scott B. No, he's not an editor or employee so don't get your hopes up for a scandal - the prize is his. But after noticing he was the winner I recalled he'd written a guest post for us earlier this year on Wine Spectator's Las Vegas Grand Tour. Looks like he deftly used the event to refine his selection. ;)

I do appreciate the actionable nature of this year's pick. I bought the bottle I tasted from Wine.com of all places - not exactly a boutique retailer! Availability at the time of the announcement of the 2008 Relentless was limited to begin with since the wine was released and rated early in this year's cycle. And even the 2009 vintage (which I'd bet is just as good if I had to guess without having tasted the 2009) is vaporizing quickly.

Here are my tasting notes from CellarTracker on the 2008 Shafer Relentless from back in June:

For my taste, this is a gorgeous bottle of wine. A powerful, inviting nose of dried blueberries and black currant with supporting savory notes which translate seamlessly to the palate and finish. 75% Syrah/25% Petite Sirah. 15.6% alcohol. $60 release price. I can totally see my way to the favorable rating Spectator bestowed upon this one. Spectacular.
Somehow I forgot to include a numerical rating. (?) What's up with that? I love scores!

My recommendation would be to remain calm if you're looking for the 2008 Relentless. It's going to be very difficult to find and it's not worth overpaying for. For my palate, it's a nice buy at $50. But north of $60 my enthusiasm tapers off. Best bet would probably be to try it at a restaurant (they tend to go through highly rated wines at a slower clip because point chasers ability to devour the wines is stymied by overall high markups and meal costs). Or perhaps at retailer who doesn't have an e-commerce site. May the best searchers win!

And if it's like the Columbia Crest Reserve - the next few vintages won't be too exorbitantly priced after a while. You can find subsequent vintages of the CC Reserve happily resting on warehouse club shelves with no buyers even in the mid to high $30s. Do you really think the 2005 vintage of that wine was magical and subsequent vintages haven't been as good?

A better strategy, if you're looking to buy wines that tend wind up on Spectator's Top 10 list ahead of time, is to find a retailer who offers them before Spectator recognizes them. My thanks to New York wine retailer Grapes the Wine Co for this sponsorship of the contest this year (a $200 Amazon.com gift card!). If you're on his mailing list you'll note that he offered a bunch of the Top 10 wines in the weeks and months preceding Spectator's list. Well, at least the ones he thinks are good. :)

The fun had to end some time. My thanks to everyone's enthusiastic participation this year. We'll do it again next year!

So that ends the fun for this year. Back to our regularly scheduled programming. I'd love it if you subscribed to the site - we've got a lot of fun things to talk about in the coming weeks. I might even motivate and crank out my own Top 25 this year.

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Question(s) of the Day: What do you think of Spectator's Shafer Relentless pick? Have you seen it around at retail? If so, let us know in the comments!

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Inauguration wines: plonk and circumstance

Which corks will pop at the lunch immediately after President Obama’s second inauguration on January 21? With Charles Schumer as the chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee planning the inauguration festivities, wine enthusiasts could anticipate that New York wines would make a showing. Indeed, two appear on the menu: the 2009 dry riesling from Tierce [...]

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TMiW 1 ? Looking Back, Looking Forward

This is the premier episode of This Month in Wine, a monthly discussion about what is going on within the wine world from a consumer and insider perspective. Hosts: Tim Elliott and Jeff Lefevere Topics What?s up with Good Grape? Is wine blogging on the decline? Wine Trends & Predictions for 2012 Value Replaces Cheap [...]

TMiW 1 – Looking Back, Looking Forward originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

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Napa Valley Wine Train: To ride or not to ride

Every now and then a WCG reader will shoot us an email asking us for advice on taking a ride on the Napa Valley Wine Train that runs through the Valley. I?m sorry to reply to these emails that I … Continue reading

The post Napa Valley Wine Train: To ride or not to ride appeared first on Napa Valley Wine Blog.

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Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi

You need to shell out $142,000 per day to experience a vacation of a lifetime. Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi is offering this vacation package worth a million dollar. It is regarded as the most expensive holiday package of the world. The package is named as ?Around the World in 80 Ways.? It is in [...]

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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?

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