Trust domaine547: Omakase Wine Packs (and a contest)
At Japanese restaurants, when you order the omakase menu, you’re putting your faith in the master, and choosing to trust the chef to give you an exceptional meal.
We hope to earn this kind of trust from our customers, and so we’ve devised a new category of items, and a little bit of incentive, for those who are willing to take the leap: domaine547’s first Omakase Wine Pack includes six bottles — hand selected by d547 — that represent some of our favorite wine finds over the past year we’ve been in business.
In exchange for trusting us, we’ll offer you the chance to win a bottle of 2006 Mollydooker Velvet Glove Shiraz, a wine that scored 99 points from Robert Parker, and 97 points from the Wine Spectator. The release price for the Velvet Glove was $175, but it’s now being offered by merchants for an average of $300 per bottle.
We have a limited number of Omakase Wine Packs available (two dozen), so your chances of winning the raffle are quite good (1 in 24 at worst, though possibly much better, since there’s no guarantee that we’ll sell that many of these packs). The drawing for the Velvet Glove prize will occur on May 28th (sooner should the packs sell out).
Included in Pack One are the following 6 wines (3 from California, and 1 each from France, Spain and Italy):
2004 Curran Black Oak Syrah or Sangiovese (please specify which you prefer at the time of order): Kris Curran is one of our favorite winemakers. ($30)
2006 Twenty Rows Merlot: A great producer, a great value, and a great grape variety that should be given more of a chance. ($20)
2005 Genuine Risk Cabernet Sauvignon: The winemakers said they took a risk in bottling Cab from California’s Central Coast. And we’ve taken a risk in stocking it, since this area is better known for Rhone varieties than for Cab. But this wine is excellent in all ways, a balanced effort and one that shows grace, personality, and true varietal characteristics. ($21)
2006 Le Jardin de Charlotte Bourgogne Rouge: The best value Pinot Noir we’ve found, and from famed importer Becky Wasserman. This is available almost nowhere in the US, and has not been scored by the critics. But we love it and we think it deserves your attention. ($19)
2004 Castellare Chianti Classico: This scored 78 points from the Wine Spectator, but we love it — this is really one case where we’re asking you to trust us. ($22)
2006 Rafael Palacios “As Sortes” Godello: This is our favorite white wine of all time, and our love for the wine was reaffirmed just yesterday, when we got to taste it again at the Eric Solomon Portfolio tasting in San Francisco. This has everything you could want in a white wine. No, it has everything you could want in any wine. It’s a little pricey but it’s so good we didn’t want to leave it out. ($45)
The total value of this pack is $157; we’re offering it for $150. Plus, you’ll automatically get entered into the Velvet Glove raffle, with a chance to win a bottle valued at $300. We’re betting that you’ll be happy with many — hopefully all! — of our selections. And to top it all off you also just might win a very high-end wine that you already know has the support of the conventional critics.
We can only ship wine to certain states, so please place your orders accordingly.
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get your wine on
2007 Ponte de Lima Vinho Verde, Portugal
Bring a little “green” to your life with the Ponte de Lima Vinho Verde from Portugal. It’s actually a white wine - the green refers to its youth and freshness. It’s slightly effervescent and zippy, giving you the sense of a warm summer’s day on a cold winter’s night. This one is very easy on the wallet to boot, at just eleven buckaroos! Buy Green Wine for Wintertime.
2007 Cortes de Cima Chaminé Red Blend
Yummy Portuguese table wine that’s a blend of Aragonez (aka Tempranillo), Syrah, Touriga Nacional, Trincadeira, and a smidgen of Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s just asking to be paired with winter stews of braised meats. A great value at $19 a bottle.Buy Cortes de Cima Chaminé
2005 Amavi Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Walla Walla: #42 Wine Spectator in the Top 100 of 2008!
OK, don’t screw the WS top 100! This came in at #42 and it deserves at least that. It’s the only reasonably priced domestic cab on their list, and we love it. It’s deep and rich and generous with the oaky vanilla — but not cloyingly so. Yay for #42 - just $28.
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freshly pressed
Cellartracker Embraces Twitter:
If you’re interested in wine and want a way to keep track of wines you’ve tasted, or bottles in your collection, a great place to do so is the site CellarTracker. Go over there and familiarize yourself with it. It’s really easy to use and offers the largest database of wines, along with a huge community of users who frequently post tasting notes.
Eric LeVine, the mastermind behind CellarTracker has recently become a Twitter user. You can follow him on Twitter here. And in a very significant feature addition to CellarTracker, Eric has just enabled Twitter functionality for all CellarTracker users, so that when you write a new tasting note, it will automatically post to Twitter with a link back to the CellarTracker data. Eric’s explanation and instructions can be found here.
This combo of two killer apps, a niche wine community with a Web 2.0 pioneer, could be a game changer.
(My apologies to Tim Elliott whose voice I seem to be parroting with this post!)
Cellartracker Embraces Twitter
The Year Ahead At domaine547
Around the Wine Web: Affordable Bubbles
wine jargon
Frizzante
From Wikipedia: Frizzante is an Italian wine term term for semi-sparkling wine (as opposed to Spumante, which is generally used for fully sparkling wines). Frizzante wines generally owe their bubbles to a partial secondary fermentation in tank. You might notice a light fizz or tingly sensation on the tongue with a Frizzante wine, compared to the more carbonated sensation that more fully sparkling wines yield.
Scorekage
Okay, so we made up this word yesterday after a great restaurant experience. We brought a bottle of wine with us, expecting to pay a corkage fee. But the restaurant either forgot to charge us the $15, or decided to be nice to us. We scored! Hence, “scorekage” has entered our lexicon. This can also refer to BYO friendly restaurants that don’t charge for corkage under any circumstances.
grapewise
Fabulous & Frugal!
Our friends launched a new site and domaine547 is a featured wine columnist in their premiere edition! Go check out Fabulous & Frugal for some fantastic lifestyle tips for living the good life during what, for most of us, is an economically challenging time. There’s much more than wine there, and we’re thrilled to be a small part of the start of what will surely be a successful venture. Congrats to Brandi & Steph for their achievement!
domaine547 In the Blogosphere! Imbibe Magazine Unfiltered
Check out this blog post where they actually refer to somebody from d547 as a “wine expert.” Shocking! In any case, the Imbibe blog offers a nice recipe to go along with one of our wine recommendations. Enjoy!
Fabulous & Frugal!
domaine547 In the Blogosphere! Imbibe Magazine Unfiltered
The 89 Project
August 1st, 2008 at 10:20 am
[…] and “the hippest possible order within your guidelines.” Reminded us a bit of something we’ve asked of customers: to trust us like you trust a sushi chef with an Omakase menu. It certainly goes against our […]