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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Kendall-Jackson Humanizes Their Brand

It’s rare when network TV and wine come together but when it does I take a look. I’m not a regular viewer of Undercover Boss but might be after this episode at Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates. New President Rick Tigner works at the bottom of this organization and learns a lot. And he does the right [...]

Kendall-Jackson Humanizes Their Brand originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

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Columbia Crest Winery: New Vintages of Old Favorites

Columbia Crest, located in Paterson, Washington, has been one of our favorite sources of value wines for many years. In 2011, Juan Munoz Oca took over as head winemaker from Ray Einberger. Einberger had been at the helm since 2002 when he took the reins from Doug Gore who had been the winemaker since Columbia [...]

Columbia Crest Winery: New Vintages of Old Favorites was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

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Wellesley Considers Allowing Retail Wine Sales

According to this article in The Boston Globe, our fair Wellesley may consider allowing retail alcohol sales for the first time.

A petition put forth by the folks who own Fells Market suggests they'd like to see beer and wine sales allowed at grocery stores, including Whole Foods and Roche Bros. I absolutely love Fells Market and think it would be great if they were allowed to sell beer and wine.

I visited Fells Market this past weekend to grab a few sandwiches and chatted with Peter Katsikaris briefly - his family owns the store. If you haven't been to Fells and live in the area it's definitely worth a stop. It's classic old school Wellesley. When we were looking for houses in the neighborhood realtors would mention it as one of the reasons to buy a house nearby. At the time it seemed a little ridiculous to base a house purchase on a nearby grocery store but there's something special about the place I enjoy every time I visit.

So I'm fully supportive of beer and wine sales at Fells. And at Whole Foods and Roche Bros too. The timing of this proposal coincides nicely with new policies at the state level which allow retailers to hold more licenses in total than they were previously allowed. The article doesn't get into whether standalone liquor stores are included in the petition but I'd be in favor of those too - if they're done right.

Like I mentioned in this opinion piece on The Swellesley Report back in early 2012 a high quality boutique wine shop could totally be an asset to the town.

As an example of what I have in mind when I say that, have a look at renderings I recently received from Edward Spivak. He's one of the retailers going for a license in neighboring Needham. Here's what he has in mind for his proposed Craft Liquors. Gorgeous, right?

Rendering of proposed new store in Needham: Craft Liquors
(click to enlarge)


I'd love to see a couple retailers like this in Wellesley.

What do you think?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WellesleyWinePress/~3/xk67QFPxO9o/wellesley-considers-allowing-retail.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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California Cremant?

With all the uproar over Korbel “champagne” being poured at Monday’s inauguration, it’s time to wonder aloud whether sparkling wine from California needs a term of its own. Other French bubblies are known as crémant, Spain has cava, Germany has Sekt, even England has Britagne. “Sparkling wine” is incredibly anodyne as a term. Given all [...]

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

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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.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/G2HGzSDlbQM/

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