Price Check: 2006 Lang & Reed Cabernet Franc, North Coast

Monday, August 18th, 2008

I’d been planning to price check a couple of Chateauneuf-du-Papes I saw the other day at Bristol Farms. But those can wait, since I happened upon the bargain of the week today and thought you should know about it.

On close-out at The Wine Hotel on West 3rd Street in LA you’ll find a scant three bottles of the 2006 Lang & Reed Cabernet Franc, for a mere $9.95 a bottle. Beats our price by a long shot. Apparently it’s not to the taste of the new owners, along with some Mollydooker and some other wines that are priced Crazy-Eddie-low.

You can call the Wine Hotel at 323-937-9463 to snare these. Though, honestly, your chances are better if you show up to the 5800 West Third Street location in LA to pick these up in person, as they’re not really set up for phone orders (yet).

Oh, since this is a Price Check…here’s what others (including us) sell this for:

Wine Library: $18/bottle (damn you, Gary Vaynerchuk!)

Wine House: $20/bottle

d547: $23/bottle (drat! It’s Caronne-Ste-Gemme all over again)

Englewood Wine Merchant: $25/bottle

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Price check: 2005 Caronne-Ste-Gemme Haut Medoc

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

Today, we find ourselves the victims of our own “price check” feature. We had to pick a few items up at Costco, and as is our habit, we also perused the wine aisles. Sadly, we found ourselves in the position of Whole Foods, seeing one item in common with Costco that we’re far from competitive on from a price perspective. In fact, Costco not offers a better price. They offer a much, much, much better price. Like, ridiculously good. What some wine stores might bill in email blasts as “an out-and-out steal” worthy of a “five case buy!” Read more…

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get your wine on

2007 Breggo Cellars Pinot Gris, Wiley Vineyard

We’ve fallen in love with a Pinot Gris from Breggo, whose Rosé was part of the Sonadora (aka Wannabewino) Bloggerpack and whose wines we have the utmost respect for. The PG is classic cool climate, with a nice crisp acidity and plenty of aromatics. A scant 225 cases or so were made of this wine and we snapped this up while we could get it. Sure to sell out from the winery. Score some Scholium.

2005 Scholium Project Satripies of the East Red Blend

This is an enticing blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Petite Sirah. If our sources are correct, it contains fruit from Margit’s Vineyard, which is connected to Randy Hall of Wine Biz Radio. Yay for great wine with fruit from a great guy! Score some Scholium.

NV Louis de Grenelle Saumur Sparkling Cab Franc

Here’s one for both the wine geeks and for the masses - it’s fairly obscure (a sparkler made from 100% Cab Franc, from importer Jon-David Headrick) and it’s delicious. It’s got some sweet-tart red fruit and great texture. And it’s affordable at $18 a bottle. Franc-ly, I’d like to try a sparkling Cab Franc!

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Bonus Bottle of the Week: 2005 Jack William “The King” Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley:

Last week we experimented with an incentive…order a certain dollar amount, and get a bonus bottle with your order. We started off with a bang (or maybe a shake) with some wines from Mollydooker. It was a great success — all the Gigglepot Cab is gone, though nobody really went for the sparkling Shiraz — so we’re going to make this a semi-regular thing. We’ve also decided to call this our “Bonus Bottle” program.

Here’s our offer for Bonus Bottle number two. We’re moving closer to home this week, with the 2005 Jack William “The King” Cabernet Sauvignon from the Alexander Valley. When we first carried this, it retailed for $37 a bottle and we felt it was a steal even then. We far prefer this wine to Silver Oak and Jordan, two Alexander Valley perennials that are more about hype and brand name than integrity of the juice.

A couple of weeks ago, we got the last cases available from our distributor and were able to lower the price to $27 as the vintage was being closed out. So the wine went from a great value to an even greater one. And you can make it an even better deal — in fact, a veritable steal.

Make a purchase of $85 or more, and use the code “king” during check-out to get a bonus bottle of this fantastic Cabernet with your order. In fact, the way our coupon codes work out, you’ll also be saving a penny off the total. Limited quantity of bonus bottles available. When the supply runs out, the code will stop working. So go get yourself some wine and a bonus bottle now!

Bonus Bottle of the Week: 2005 Jack William “The King” Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley

October 10th, 2008

WBW #50: Picnicking in October with Elio Perrone’s Bigaro

October 8th, 2008

Simon’s Pick 10/08: 2007 Cotes-du-Rhone Villages, Cuvee Jules, Andre Andrieux

October 5th, 2008

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.

Frizzante

March 29th, 2008

Scorekage

March 23rd, 2008

Rioja

March 3rd, 2008

grapewise

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!

domaine547