1 car.
3 people.
9 wineries.
50 tastings.
10:45am - Andretti
11:30am - Anderson's Conn Valley
12:30pm - Twomey
1:00pm - August Briggs
1:45pm - Frank Family
2:30pm - V. Sattui (Meats, Cheese, Bread)
3:15pm - Heitz Cellars
3:45pm - Rutherford Grove
4:30pm - Robert Mondavi
5:15pm - Alpha & Omega
6:15pm - Rutherford Grill (dinner)
A friend of mine knowing I was in the market for some Dr. Frankenstein grade laboratory beakers, sent me a link to the following website. This is some wild shit. How would you even clean it, as it most likely is not dishwasher safe. I think I will opt for a glass beaker instead. Still very cool.
White Zinfindel...
truly a "porch" wine
go to trader joe's
buy a case (for god sakes it's $24 for 12 bottles)
put a few in the fridge....
pour a glass and enjoy the last few hot days in Cali.
There are times when I drink wine like gangbusters, the past month has been one of those times. Tons of whites, tons of reds, tons of international varietals.
Today's selection is from one of our most blogged about wine company, Cameron Hughes' latest offering, Lot 73 Sonoma County Chalk Hill Cabernet. Here is what their website had to say...
Taste: This colossal cab hails from the Bordeaux like climate of Chalk Hill in Sonoma. It presents a bouquet of freshly picked roses and black cherries. Its smoky earthiness gives hint to the volcanic soil composition of the area. The first sip will slam your taste buds with dark chocolate and big ripe blackberries backed by silky vanilla from new French oak. This enormous cab will pair well with…or should I say…a juicy rib eye, New York, or your favorite porterhouse will pair fantastic with this delicious Chalk Hill Cab.
Cameron Confidential: This wine is a monster. When we first tasted the barrel samples we were blown away. The broker who brought us the wine said that the owner of the vineyard had recently broken free of a contract with another winery and the wine could be available to us long term. Done, where do I sign?!!
The grapes are sourced from one of the most beautiful vineyards I have ever seen (grapes always seem to grow best in beautiful places). It’s huge - spanning over 500 acres, several hundred of which are planted to grapes, almost all of which are hillside with little nooks and crannies that create a variety of microclimates. The vineyard is the source of many different grape varietals for something like 20 small, ultra-premium brands (though we control all the cabernet off the vineyard). The winery that was previously buying the fruit was putting it into their $60 cabernet.
The wine is contracted through the 2009 vintage so stay tuned for additional offerings in future vintages.
While pretty good, I don't agree with the monster description, also at $13.99 it isn't really price friendly for those of us balancing checkbooks, clipping coupons and unemployed. ha! From a company like Cameron Hughes, you tend to think you'd get better value for your money, while Lot 73 is good for $13.99 you think you deserve more for that money. Does that make any sense? I sure hope so. I don't know if I'd buy it again, if I could i'd check to for Lot 71 Alexander Valley for $12.99.
Up next is a 2006 Louis M. Martini Sonoma Cabernet.
What are you drinking these days?
Robert Parker put this in his Top 100 of 2007 and gave it a 90 point score. Not that someone elses opinion should matter all that much considering our unique palates but it's kind of nice to know that a wine you liked was also enjoyed by a douchebag like Robert Parker.
Besides a few Tuscan wines, a Chianti here and there and the ever so delicious house wine from Bucca de Beppo's, my knowledge of wines from the country shaped like a boot is fairly limited. While the name proves to be a mouthful, this is one wine well worth trying to pronounce. 
Medium bodied and fruity. Very pleasant, again my almost heathen ways of trying to express what i've just tasted in my wine makes all these descriptions really similar. To put it bluntly, I would buy this again and drink it again without hesitation.
I made an Italian flank steak and some capellini pasta using the tomatoes from the backyard. Was it a good pairing? Hell if I know, the food was sort of Italian and the wine was Italian, sounds like a pair to me.
Another good value at $10 from Costco.
Probably not Spanish but Catalan, at least in Barcelona. A quick rundown on 4 different Spanish wines i've had over the past few weeks.
Who can afford $20 California wines these days to drink on a daily to weekly basis? Times are tough, my Roth Ira ain't look good these days and 3% returns from Stability of Principal is not doing it for big Rich. Wheres a federal reserve bailout when you need one?
A Venta Mazzaron tempranillo. Smelled heavy on the coffee and tobacco, probably the first time I could actually discern those notes, tasted as such as well. A tad sweet and medium bodied but really good. 
A Vina Nora albarino. Supposed to be the queen white grape varietal in Spain. Not feeling this one, really acidic.
An Allende rioja. Don't remember too much but I do remember I liked it. Hope that helps.
A Juan Gil jumillia. Not feeling this one.
All wines purchased for about $10 at Costco.
Amazon Is Getting Into the Alcohol Business
by Don Reisinger on September 11, 2008
Amazon has again announced that it will start selling US-produced wine to its American customers by the beginning of October.
But before you start getting excited about buying wine online, there’s one catch: it will only be available to people in about 26 states due to interstate regulations, but the company is working with New Vine Logistics, a firm that specializes in interstate transactions, to avoid any legal issues that may arise in the process and attempt to increase the distribution of wine as time goes on.
Amazon is jumping in on the wine craze at the right time. Annual wine consumption is on the rise and the Stonebridge Research Group said American wine sales last year were between $30 billion and $32 billion. But e-commerce sales accounted for just 7 percent of those sales and few services online can connect wine lovers with US-produced wine.
Age restrictions will obviously play a major role in Amazon’s plan to sell wine and there’s currently no indication of how it will stop the sale of the alcohol to minors. Regardless, Amazon thinks it’s on to something with selling wine on its site and wants to capitalize on the growing market.
Amazon invested $30 million into Wineshopper.com in 1999, but that site lasted one year. Now we’ll see if this venture lasts any longer.
FREE SHIPPING??!?!?!!?
Cool article from Wired.com on how to open a bottle of wine when you are sans a corkscrew. Of course this all could have been averted if you rocked wines with twist off caps. HA!
Which reminds me that one of the corkscrews I had at my moms house broke leaving the screw sticking straight out the bottle, with the help of some pliers I was able to safely open the bottle and save the cork. I was also able to open another bottle the next day using the same set of pliers and screw part before I got a new corkscrew.
Here's a quick rundown of wines drunk/drank over the last 14 days or so between me and my fam from Playa del Carmen & Tulum, Mexico to here in Northern California...
Domecq Rose/Tempranillo from Spain
Some sort of Argentinian Malbec from La Linda Bodega Luigi Bosca Familia Arizu
Concha y Toro Sauvignon Blanc
Bella Sera Pinot Grigio
Fetzer Gewurstraminer
Trefethen Dry Reisling
Robert Mondavi Fume Blanc
Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Chardonnay
Gloria Ferrer Chardonnay
2002 Ridgeline Cabernet
2003 St. Francis Cabernet
Cameron Hughes Lot 71
Cameron Hughes Lot 61
Cameron Hughes Lot 56
A Greek Cabernet Domaine Skouras Aghiorgitiko
Santorini Greek White wine
Do not sleep on those Greek wines.
-Rich
