Bordeaux Wine Enthusiasts

The only wine I bought last week was six bottles of San Felice 2010 Campogionanni Brunello @ $35.

JimHow wrote:Very nicely done, Rob, that 2009 Cantemerle is a beauty too.
I'm gonna order another 6 bottles of the 2010 from MacArthur's, a little more expensive than PC and some of the other places, but I like their really quick service.

Funny you should say that.
I purchased both there.
Yea a little more, but I have dealt with them for years.

Purchased a mixed case of the 2014 Boulay single vineyard (Mont Damnees, Clos Beaujeu, La Côte and La Comtesse) Sancerres mostly b/c I buy them year in and year out and 2014 is supposed to be an epic vintage in the Loire.

RDD wrote:Well our bdays are getting close. The weather is getting cooler . So it is shipping time. I have a bunch of 2009 Cantemerle, so got a bunch of 2010 Cantemerle. Been drinking it since the 1989.
And Susan and I got to know each other over a 1996.
Also sprang for some 2013 Strub Niersteiner Paterburg Spatlese.

Ooops. I didn't buy the 2009. Now I have a bunch of 2010. C'est la vie.

I picked up a mag of 2010 Lamothe Guignard for the kids for $44.

Hopefully they will like Sauternes, and have a party someday with that.

Picked up a case of the 2010 Pichon Baron from Sokolin for $149/btl on their Black Friday special pricing.

Nice jckba.

I bought some bottles of a wine I enjoy very much every vintage, the 2003 Rioja Reserva from R. Lopez Heredia.

Also some Barolo from Cogno, and at low price some 2010 Parcelles de Derenoncourt Haut-Médoc.

The plan is to buy a bottle or two of Bollinger rosé for next week.

Nic

jckba wrote:Picked up a case of the 2010 Pichon Baron from Sokolin for $149/btl on their Black Friday special pricing.

Second Nicklass. You did well JC. This is very top drawer. First growth quality and possible the best wine this estate ever made.

I just bought four bottles of La Mission Haut Brion 1979.

2010 Pichon Baron is an immense effort.

A half case of 2004 Haut-Bages Libéral for € 29,90/bottle. Fortunately, this impressive wine is still a classic Pauillac and in terms of quality not far behind the neighbouring Château Lynch-Bages. Seems to be underrated by many "experts".

A case of St. Innocent 2013 SVD PN. Cyber Monday deal, 25% off and free shipping.

Picked up a case of the 2012 Pegau Cuvee Reservee CdP for $59.99/btl from Zachys on one of their 12 days of Xmas sale.

The 2000 Petit Village magnums arrived Saturday.

Wine buying has been quiet for me of late, but I did snag a few bottles 1982 Magdelaine and 1982 Canon, and some 2007 Produttori Barbaresco Asili.

AlohaArtakaHoundsong wrote:The 2000 Petit Village magnums arrived Saturday.

Is this the delivery season in the tropics?

If by tropics you mean Colorado's Banana Belt, yes, apparently so. It was inadvertent but seems like they got here in good shape just as the cold snap abated. I won't be back in the actual tropics until the May timeframe.

AlohaArtakaHoundsong wrote:If by tropics you mean Colorado's Banana Belt, yes, apparently so. It was inadvertent but seems like they got here in good shape just as the cold snap abated. I won't be back in the actual tropics until the May timeframe.

Glad to know your on Mountain Time. There's a Denver offline in the works for January to introduce some winos who are new to Colorado, if you're interested.

Not the tropics but am going to New Zealand in mid-January.

Picked up a case of the 2010 Haut Bailly from Max at the Wine Connection for $1449 or $120.75/btl.

I may have purchased a few bottles of 1986 GPL but I sort of doubt it.

Well looks like I did.

Also a case of the 2008 Petit Village.

what kind of all in prices did you get?

$39.99 per from Wallys. Not a giveaway but I like the wine. I'm still wondering about the GPL though. $19.97 per at JJ Buckley's. Can they tell with a laser or something that all four are corked? I'm also looking at some back vintage "prearrivals" from there. I don't think they work on the same model as PC.

Powerball tickets!

If I win the big prize, I promise a very special gift to all attendees of BWE 2016 in DC.

I need to win a big Powerball prize to recoup my PC losses.

Couple of cases of odds and ends from 1994-2003, all from the right bank. La Grave a Pomerol, Clos du Clocher, Plince, La Croix de Gay*, Lafleur-Gazin, Grand Corbin Despagne*, Larmande, Clos des Jacobins, Cote de Baleau*

*denotes previous experience with chateau, if not necessarily specific vintage purchased.

But those aren't really Bordeaux, right Art?

Correct. I'm may start a site -- not a rival site mind you because it deals in a completely different subject matter -- called LWE.

Total Wine sent me a coupon for 20% off all Old World wines, I thought I could buy the 2012 Leoville LasCases (aka BWE WOTY) for the $129 less 20% that they say is in their inventory, but the wine is non existent. Every other wine I wanted was selling far above the markup. One wine caught my eye, not a bargain but would be fairly priced after the discount, only to be told at the counter that wines with a price ending in 7 are not included in the sale. WTF!!
Needless to say, I didn't buy anything, and Total Wine emails now go straight to the spam folder.

That's funny, since it basically replicates my experience a day or two ago! Got my coupon -- which superficially seems interesting -- and then roamed around the store. But there are so many exclusions that it ends up being worthless. They do have a handful of wines they are competitive on, but I think it depends on the local market, especially what our local Costco is doing. (For example in my area they will often have Roederer Estate for $17 and NV Perrier Jouet for $30, which are both about as low as one will find) Those are regular, don't need to buy 6 or 12, prices.

Anyways the only thing that looked reasonable to me was a few ports, and the coupon condition (on mine) required purchase of a mixed case of 12, so I walked out empty handed. I had not been in the store for 4-6 months even though its on my commute, and that'll probably be my pattern of visiting.

The manager saw me inspecting the sign claiming they will honor all competitor coupons, so he walked over and we discussed it. (He probably thought it was weird to ask so many nitty gritty questions) He claimed people can even take a picture of a price at another store, and they'll match that. Also said print or email coupons from others they will match. Maybe they start off with high enough prices, and have an inventory set unlikely to line up with others (they have lots proprietary direct imports) that they can make that promise without getting called on it, or having it hurt profitability.

But overall I don't think emailing people thin value coupons helps, in fact, it probably damages the customer relationship.

Maybe folks on these kinds of boards are the wrong customer for them since they generally know the 'inside' price for big ticket wines.

However their business strategy must be getting some traction, since they have opened up 3 stores here in the last 7 years. It's nuts.

Similar experience with Total Wine here. I've bought a few things from them - Champagne and Bordeaux on the lower end of the price spectrum, and a few mid-range Bordeaux on sale. Usually they are higher than the DC or better California stores or the the now-extinct Premier Cru offers.

I do believe that their clientele tends not to be the most price-sensitive or geeky. They also sell a lot of store-label imports, and suspect that's where they make the largest margins.

Most of the time, my visits there have been closer to Total Waste than Total Wine.

All from Grapes:
Running low on Champagne to drink with the Sarasota sunsets
Billecart Salmon Brut Rose 2btls
Dom Ruinart Brut Blanc de Blancs 3btls

And on Chablis with stone crab legs:
2012 William Fevre Chablis Vaulorent 4btls

No Bordeaux

TW pushes their high profit and questionable quality imports and other exclusives. The Bordeaux prices in Reno are way high and sad to saythey have the biggest French section for hundreds of miles.

They do offer an amazing selection of beer and spirits and spirits on sale can have compelling prices.

When the first CT TW store opened in Norwalk, CT in December 2012 they had outrageous pricing on just about everything from everywhere including Bordeaux but as time passed the special pricing (which seemed better than what one would imagine wholesale even looking like) disappeared and reverted back towards the average TW prices.

I would say that their direct imports can sometimes be ok (not really any different than K&L or somebody) IF they got a reasonable review. We had a 2006 Terre di Talamo Tempo 'Riserva' [Morellino di Scansano] from TW tonight that was ~$15ish with some gnocchi and ragu sauce. It was pretty solid, good acidity. I think it was lows 90's pts from Monica Larner. It was solid, but I wouldn't go out of my way to acquire again. Spain and Italy are where I'll mildly experiment.

Bdx and Rhone I'm somewhat more suspicious of doing that. They seem to have great love for the Cambie lineup in the Rhone. (He's sort of like the Michel Rolland of that region). At the end retailers that want to offer a lot of proprietary / house brands need to have good ones, or they just end up damaging their overall firm. Costco has made Kirkland Signature something people have no issues buying/using, while Walmart's President house brand isn't something people are excited about. It's what ends up in the food donation bins at holiday times...

While I'm tapping away, my cat has pounced up on the table here, and stuck its whole snout into my water glass, and just helped itself. I get up to go get a new glass of water, and it has stolen my chair.

I was in Paris last Thursday, which afforded the excuse for a dash down to burgundy for a drive by/smash and grab/hit and run to fill my boots with a few cases of Daniel Rion Cote De Nuits Villages, various iterations of Nuits Saints Georges and Vosne Romanee and some Clos Vougeot and Echezeaux. I also brought some Anne Gros Haut-Cotes De Nuits, some Huddlot-Noellat Bourgogne rouge, some Comtes Lafon Macon and some Clotide Davenne premier and Grand Crus Chablis. All in all 87 bottles. Some of these are mid-week quaffers. Should keep the wolf from the door.

Comte Flaneur wrote:I was in Paris last Thursday, which afforded the excuse for a dash down to burgundy for a drive by/smash and grab/hit and run to fill my boots with a few cases of Daniel Rion Cote De Nuits Villages, various iterations of Nuits Saints Georges and Vosne Romanee and some Clos Vougeot and Echezeaux. I also brought some Anne Gros Haut-Cotes De Nuits, some Huddlot-Noellat Bourgogne rouge, some Comtes Lafon Macon and some Clotide Davenne premier and Grand Crus Chablis. All in all 87 bottles. Some of these are mid-week quaffers. Should keep the wolf from the door.

How do you, as a practical matter, schlep that vast amount of stuff back home? Are you taking it on the train?

4 bottles from Clos Saron. My buying will be heavily reduced this year.

Picked up a case of the 2008 Pichon Baron for $89.99/btl on a Winter Clearance Sale from MacArthur Beverages.