Interview with Wannabe Wino (aka Sonadora…aka Megan)

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

As we often do when we have a new bloggerpack to shill, we’ve interviewed the blogger in question. Without further ado, the blogger known as Wannabe Wino — our questions are in bold, her answers are not:

When and why did you first decide to plunge into the crazy world of wine blogging? How do you fit it into your work day?

I really hated my first job. At some point in my 8 months of working there, well, really within the first 2 months, I literally reached the very last page of the internet. I swear it exists. Also, because they had eliminated my position at work prior to me even officially arriving, they literally had nothing for me to do, no one talked to me, it was pretty much my own living hell. So the blog was born of sheer and utter boredom and the realization, after reading every last thing about wine on the internet, that no one was talking about the wines I was drinking. Read more…

A New Bloggerpack: Summer Sippers From Wannabe Wino!

Tuesday, June 24th, 2008

We mentioned this was coming a while back. Like, a really long time ago, it seems.

After a bit of a delay in sourcing the wines, we’re happy to have finally gotten things together for our fifth wine blogger sampler pack, this time from Megan (aka Sonadora aka Wannabe Wino - how many aliases can a girl have? Sheesh!). Our release of the pack coincides with Wannabe Wino’s change in address, from a Blogspot hosted site to its own spot at Wannabewino.com. Big congrats on that milestone, Megan!

Megan has chosen her wines very thoughtfully, having visited each of the included wineries, making this an ultra-personal selection of wines. Additionally, she has chosen wines that are perfect for the season, and given that temperatures have already spiked so early on, it seems like she’s onto something. Read more…

Coming soon: bloggerpacks 5 and 6!

Monday, May 12th, 2008

Just wanted to give you a heads up that there are two bloggerpacks to be released imminently. They are:

Same grape/different place featuring Syrah, from Wine-Scamp
and
Summer Sippers from Sonoma, from Wannabewino, Sonadora herself

We look forward to revealing the details of these once they’re in stock. Though we’ve had a small hiccup regarding the availability of the Shiraz that Scamp had her eye on, we expect it to be resolved be soon.

get your wine on

2005 The Great Whatsit Syrah, Santa Ynez Valley

Our first ‘domaine547 selection’ is a deep, brooding and delicious Syrah, made by the fine folks at Stolpman Vineyards. It’s due to arrive very soon, and is on special at a mere $20 a bottle. Get some, open it up and drink it in. We’re super-excited to share it with you. What’s that? Whatsit!

2006 Vigna Senza Nome Moscato d’Asti

Gary Vaynerchuk called this one of the best Moscatos he’s tasted on today’s show. You know where to go to see his videos. But it you’re looking for a west coast source of the wine, look no further than us. We love it too and have had it in stock since the day we opened. On sale while supplies (11 bottles left) last$17 bucks in honor of Vaynerchuk

2005 Tenuta di Valgiano Colline Lucchesi Palistorti

We have a knack for picking Italian wines that score really horribly in the press. This one gets an 82 from the Wine Spectator — but we love it nonetheless. It’s a blend of Sangiovese, Merlot and Syrah that hails from a biodynamic estate outside of Lucca. It couldn’t be from anywhere else, unlike the 98 point yielding Super Tuscan blends that we’ve on occsasion mistaken for California iterations of Bordeaux varieties. This will probably end up in our six-pack prize of wines that will not make the Spectator top 100…$37 for 82 points (how’s that for transparency?)

freshly pressed

Corkage Week Announcement!:

The week of September 7th will be “Corkage Week” at domaine547! What does this mean? We’re going to devote the week to issues surrounding bringing your own wine to restaurants. Yay!

In the meantime, it would be nifty if any of you could email us (info at domaine547 dot com) with any BYO stories of your own, and maybe you’ll wind up on the front page of d547. In fact, if you go out in the next few days and decide to give corkage a try, send us a picture of the bottle you brought, the receipt with the corkage charge, and any stories you care to share. If your story is selected to appear in our hallowed pages, we’ll send you a gift certificate to d547 for the amount you paid for corkage (within reason).

And now, a quick tip for corkage etiquette: avoid bringing a bottle that is already on the wine list of the restaurant you’re going to. This can mean downloading a restaurant’s wine list online, or calling in advance to check for duplication.

See you in a couple of weeks for lots more on corkage!

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

The 89 Project
We’ve joined a group of bloggers (wannabe critics, some have said!) as part of “The 89 Project,” an effort to explore the complicated matter of the 100 point system of evaluating wine. Go take a peek at the 89 Project blog, which has apparently already started a bit of controversy (and we’ve yet to make a post!). It’s interesting stuff.

Read more…

d547 In the News! Pasadena Star
Just a quick link to another article about our little biz. This one is small scale but sweet. Thanks Pasadena Star!

Read more…