Most Talked About Wines Online This Week: French Bargains vs. Twisted Oak
Beaujolais, Gamay, Loire Valley, Mourvedre, River of Skulls, Twisted Oak
VS
There seems to be a battle brewing online this week for the most talked about wine(s) in the blogosphere. A few weeks back, it was all about the Rockaway (just Google that, we’re too lazy to find the myriad links). Now, it’s all about two unlikely competitors: Loire Valley/Beaujolais bargains from France vs. Twisted Oak’s new River of Skulls Mourvédre, the first “mailing list” allocated wine for the much blogger-celebrated winery.
It’s not quite a West Coast vs. East Coast match-up of bloggers, but the Loire Lovers do seem to reside on the Eastern seaboard. The River-dancers are more scattered about, geographically speaking!
Go here, here and here for more on the Loire wines…and here, here and here for just a few of the many River of Skulls reviews. Click here if you want to sign up for the mailing list.
Now, we realize that Twisted Oak sent samples out to bloggers…but we know of no such effort on the part of French Gamay producers (or Louis/Dressner who imports many of the wines). We do wonder, though, if Asimov, Brooklynguy and Dr. Vino might have dined together recently!
FYI, we’ve yet to try the River of Skulls but look forward to doing so. We had a chance just yesterday to taste the ‘06 Spaniard, and it was delish. So elegant and balanced, without going overboard with oak in a Jorge Ordonez kind of way. This leaves us very excited to try the Skulls. Also, check back soon, as we’re going to be stocking up on some of the Chermette Beaujolais which we agree, for the money ($16), is pretty much an unbeatable bargain.
8 Responses to “Most Talked About Wines Online This Week: French Bargains vs. Twisted Oak”
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get your wine on
2008 “Bebame” Red, El Dorado County, California
Cabernet Franc (65%) and Gamay (35%) from - gasp - California! And only 13% ABV, pretty modest by California standards. If I tasted this blind I would probably have said it’s from the Loire Valley. It has pretty much nothing in common with the full bodied iterations of Cab Franc coming out of Napa. Juicy, light, delicious quaffing wine.$18 a bottle
2006 Telegramme Chateauneuf-du-Pape Rouge
Really balanced and smooth, this is a bargain of a Chateauneuf. Yeah, the 07s are lauded but what would I prefer to drink? This! It’s the second label of Vieux Telegraphe, from the same property but from younger vines. And it’s a deal at $33 a bottle.2006 or bust!
NV Barcino Cava: LA Times Wine of the Week!
Delicious and just in time for New Year’s Eve…this is the LA Times Wine of the Week, and we have plenty in stock. Order online, pick-up in-store!$14 a bottle!
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Wine Retail and Social Media: Yeah, I Should Be Blogging…:
But I’m not. Funny, it was pointed out to me that domaine547.com appears as a successful example of social media in wine (juxtaposed against the Wine Spectator of all things) in this recent presentation (see slide #25). I guess they haven’t looked at the blog lately; it hasn’t been updated in weeks.
Really, in my internet-only days, I never understood why Brick and Mortar retailers didn’t take the time to blog. Now I know. They don’t have the time!
Seriously. Even in the downtime when there aren’t any customers — which, let’s face it, exists in decent quantity — there’s always something to be done at the store that takes priority…from the very lowly tasks, like sweeping, to the equally tedious but still mundane paying of bills, or putting price labels on bottles, to tasting wine with reps, it all has to get done. And I am here without support staff a fair amount of the time.
Suffice it to say, to all those out there giving speeches about social media and the importance of it to branding for wineries and wine stores, people, for the most part, get it. I know I get it! But finding the time is another story. And finding a voice? Even harder.
So at the moment, what I’m doing is tweeting (@domaineLA), because tweeting is very time un-intensive. A tweet takes a few seconds, and I think I get both my voice and my point (when I have one) across in these little quick spurts. I don’t know that it’s enough, but at least it’s something.
I really hope to get back to blogging soon. I swear, I do! But right now I have something very important to do, so you’ll have to excuse me while I go empty the trash can in the bathroom…
Wine Retail and Social Media: Yeah, I Should Be Blogging…
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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.
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Read more…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!
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domaine547 In the Blogosphere! Imbibe Magazine Unfiltered
September 24th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Nice post — I look forward to trying the River of Skulls, too.
But “Google” information about rockaway? I’m heartbroken. I must fire my marketing team, they’re falling down on the job
http://www.ablegrape.com/search.jsp?lang=en&query=rockaway
compare with:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=rockaway&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=
September 24th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Doug, we love Ablegrape. Sorry for not mentioning you. I think that Google has simply become the generic term for search engines. Please don’t go firing anybody for MY error in judgment!
September 24th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Oh crap–guess what I’m writing about on Friday? Uh-huh. Beaujolais. I hate following in Asimov et al’s train, but the post was written last week so I’m going with it! Are you omniscient? Premoniscient (spellin?)? Or is there some strange blogger world synchronicity…
September 24th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Hey Jill
Don’t forget here
http://anythingwine.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/my-skull-runneth-over/
cheers
John
September 24th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
This Rover of Skulls that you speak of, is it a good breed for families?
Oh… RIVER of Skulls… sorry…
Is that made by those Rockaway folks?
September 24th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Dr. - I think Gamay is on people’s minds now that fall has fallen upon us (sorry folks, I’m not such a clever wordsmith).
John, sorry - I didn’t mean to leave you out! Just picked the first three reviews I could remember off the top my head. Thanks for the link!
Dude - thanks for the punny comment.
September 25th, 2008 at 3:27 am
no problem Jill, just wanted to put it out there and add one more notch to the totem for the Skulls
September 25th, 2008 at 8:44 am
…I would have thought that the month for gaMay would have been just after gaApril…
(ba dum dum!)