Wines to Buy at 3-Day Sales Event

At WTSO.com 

The 3-day sale with rotating stock starts today.

It is a case sale, with all wine offered at $150 a case with free shipping

The wines ordered ship the next day

And for those uncomfortable with math: The per bottle price is $12.49!!

Explores the sale at http://www.WTSO.com (Wines ‘Til Sold Out)

What I’m buying:

2018 Château de Ribebon  AOC Bordeaux Superieur (70% Merlot, 20% Cabernet, 10% Cab Franc)

2022 Chateau Lamothe, Bordeaux Blanc (Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon)

2020 Tresors de Loire Chinon (Cabernet Franc)

The two Bordeaux wines are extremely attractive.

The Chinon is an excellent example of Loire Valley Cab Franc, especially at 60% below retail

All three are rated 90+.

Don’t like these: There are several red wines from Lodi if you like that style.

Autumn Wine Deals

3 Retailers Making A Case for Case Deals

http://www.napacabs.com

http://www.WTSO.com

http://www.reversewinesnob.com

The 3-day sale from vintage wine estates, mentioned in my last post, was just the opening salvo in what is looking like a great Autumn for hunting wine deals.

But not a bottle here, a bottle there. Let’s focus on stocking up on wine, replenishing your cellars, and preparing for a long winter by buying wines by the case.

Free shipping, or 1 cent shipping on a case is possible and is a real big deal. It saves you about $40, the normal price for shipping a case of wine.

Then factor in special discounted prices, if they are real, and you shouldn’t hesitate. 

Great deals seldom last long for obvious reasons.

As for strategy,

You don’t need to be a genius or an expert.  

Go with what you like and don’t be tempted to try something totally unfamiliar by the case.

In other words: Don’t fall for some sommelier’s suggested rare wine from Greenland or the next cult Potato wine from Idaho.

Explore the most successful online retailers (not the wine clubs with their made up brands and labels) offer real wine. 

Wines that are bottled at the winery, and not trucked in tanker trucks 100s of miles to some custom bottling cellar.

Not custom made wines, or somebody’s leftovers.

Shop for Wines from proven wineries with track records. Wines from proven places.

Let’s get specific. Every friday morning, a website named napacabs.com offers

Wines by the case at serious discounts and free shipping. 

Here’s what looked good to me at http://www.napacabs.com  from the most recent offering, and prices are for 12 bottle cases:

• 2019 Old Vine Zinfandel, Ironstone Vyds, Lodi $139.97
• 2019 La Playa Estate Red (Syrah, Cabernet) Colchagua, Chile $124.97
• 2020 Malbec, Pascual Toso Estate, Mendoza $124.97
• 2019 Malbec Finca El Origen Reserva Mendoza $144.98
• 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Tree Fort, Paso Robles $174.97

These are fine wines selling for $12 to $15 a bottle for those of you not into math.

Ironstone, arguably, makes the best Lodi Zin and its Old Vine tops the list.

La Playa is one of Chile’s most reliable names, especially for red wines.

Both Malbecs are the real deal, and at $12 a bottle, are so much better than what’s available in supermarkets or online giants.

Cabernet from Paso Robles is a no brainer at this price.  A fellow wine writer wrote this in the Wine Enthusiast: “This is a fairly amazing wine for the price, competing with bottlings that are four times the cost.” Oh, and he rated it 92 points. 

Coming Soon:

Now that you’re curious, let’s move on to another big wine retailer, www.WTSO.com. This former flash seller now has a wide selection of wines to go along with the daily deals. 

So here’s the big news: from October 26 through the 28th, WTSO has scheduled a special case sale with wines selling for $120 a case, shipping included.

It’s worth emphasizing that WTSO also stocks real wines. Wines with a proven track record.

As I write this, it is offering several wines at extremely attractive discounted prices:

Such as

• 2017 Handley Cellars Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
• 2019 Los Haroldos Malbec, Mendoza 
• 2019 Calculated Risk Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County
• 2017 Peachy Canyon Westside Zinfandel 
• 2018 Van Duzer Chardonnay, Willamette Valley 

And this website regularly scores many fine values from Rioja, Chianti, and Bordeaux.

But I don’t know what specific wines will top the list over the 3 day sales. But each day there will be new wines in the mix.

Still hesitant to buy a case?  Okay, how about great 6 bottle deals, then?

Best site is one called reversewinesnob.com

I’ve been following this one for a long time and, overall, it gets high marks.

Shipping for 6 bottles is usually a flat $5.

Best recent example is the 2017 Canoe Ridge “The Explorer’ Cabernet from Horse Heaven vineyards for $13.33 a bottle when buying a 6-pack. 

The site also recently offered the much sought after Kukeri Pinot Noir from the Sonoma Coast. 

There you have it.

 I rest my case.

Binge-Worthy Rose Wines

Memorial Day sales brought several noteworthy wine deals.

For those ready to binge on Rose this summer, 

wine.com has one deeply discounted wine that is a terrific deal.

Here’s the absolute best Memorial Day deal from this mega-website:

Chateau La Nerthe Les Cassagnes Cotes-du-Rhone Rose 2018 for $9.99

Made from Grenache, Mourvedre and Cinsault, this is super spicy and silky.

www. vivino.com

As a lover of Roussillon wines, I find this too to be a super deal from the ever-reliable Domaine Lafage:

2018 Domaine Lafage Miraflors Rosé 201 Côtes du Roussillon · France

Also, selling for $9.99 (normally $25.00)

Not on a budget?

Try this exciting new discovery, a Rose from Tempranillo, offered direct from a small winery in Southern Oregon. http://www.peterwilliamvineyard.com

2020 Peter William Vineyard Tempranillo Rose, Rogue Valley $21.00

And then too wineaccess.com has one of the most highly rated French Roses for you:

2020 Château Miraval Rosé Côtes de Provence France, $24.00

Spring Wine Deals

Now that we’ve adjusted to the Spring forward time, let’s check out the best deals on wines to celebrate springtime. Or March Madness. Or whatever!

www.cawineclub.com

The California wine club focuses on small family owned wineries and here are my top 4 choices from its current inventory. All greatly discounted.  It also offers $1 on case shipping and an extra 10% discount to March 31.

2020 Madrona Vineyards Barbera Rose, El Dorado $11.99

2018 Testarossa Pinot Noir Cuvee Los Gatos $17.99

2018 Testarossa Chardonnay, Cuvée Los Gatos $14.99

2013 Retzlaff Cabernet Sauvignon, Livermore Valley, $15.99

www.napacabs.com

Napacabs.com offers more than Napa Cabernets. It continues to amaze me. Check out its case specials for yourself. Here are the super deals this week:

2018 Mount  Veeder Vineyards, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Veeder, Napa $26.97 per bottle for a three-bottle purchase.

2017 Aerena Red Hills Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon, $19.98

www.winespies.com

Here are two hard to find wines at super savings. Yes, $55 is a heck of a deal for

one of Washinton’ s top producers. One could argue Andrew Will is #1. But for now,

better to act fast, argue later. And the Sauvignon will thrill fans of the varietal.

2015 Andrew Will Champoux Vineyard Horse Heaven Hills Red, $55.00

2019 Jack Winery ‘Two Old Dogs’ Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc $19.00

www.wine.com

2014 Frescobaldi Chianti Rufina Riserva $19.97

You should also check out the “New Arrivals” section here. It includes many once “mailing list” exclusive wines, such as the full lineup of Kosta-Browne Pinots.

2021 Clearance Sales: A Great Start

www.napacabs.com

What’s in a name? Well Shakespeare fans, napacabs.com is a major wine retailer that now has a great sale going. And  the best deals are NOT from Napa and are NOT Cabs. Sure, it offers Opus One, Groth and Silver Oak Cabs.

But, wow, there are real wine deals from this major internet company.

Looking for special sites with clearance sales, I kept coming back to that one site, www.napacabs.com which despite its name, sells wines from all major parts of the wine world.  Based in Southern California, it has a solid track record for delivering what’s promised.

It has several wines from Raeburn, an up and coming Russian river star.

And it is especially strong in wines from Paso Robles and Oregon.

And right now, there are these 4 absolutely unbeatable deals:

2019 Raeburn Russian River Valley Chardonnay, $12.97 a bottle or $179 a case with free shipping. You cannot find a better Chard at this price!

2016 Two Sisters Pinot Noir, Lindsay’s Vineyard, Sta. Rita Hills, $14.97,  a 70% discount

2016 Cenyth Sonoma Red Wine Blend ( 50% Cabernet Franc, 32% Merlot and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon) $29.97

2018 Argyle Winery Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley $22.99

Free case shipping, it turns out, applies to 1,329 wines. Happily, it was easy to skip over the many supermarket wines like Cupcake, Josh, Yellow Tail,  Fat Cat and Fat Bastard. These along with the Kendall Jackson brands and 19 Crimes silly wines are pretty ordinary. 

But this is a great place to buy wines by the case to see you through the winter weeks. 

Yes, even a few napa cabs!

5 Wine Websites Showing the Way in 2021

Jaboulet Cornas, Calera Jensen Pinot, Larkmead Cabernet, DeLille D2, Beau Vigne Romeo Cabernet…find these and other once rare and restaurant exclusives wines at the top 5 online websites. 

With discounted prices and home deliveries part of the deal, these are the places to shop in early 2021 for high-end collectible wines.

www.invino.com shocked me with the offer of the 2018 Tyrus Evan Syrah from Seven Hills Vyd, a rare Washington Syrah, for $19 a bottle. For Pinot Noir, it has Adelsheim’s 2015 Nicholas Vineyard. Best value: 2012 Formby & Adams Cab at $18.

www.wineaccess.com just listed my favorite luxury Washington Cab, theDeLille D2. It sold out quickly. But now there’s the 2017 Provenance Napa Cab at $39 and Foxen Pinot Noir from Bien Nacido Vineyard, a rare, and super wine.

www.thewinespies.com  worked their magic to secure cases of Larkmead’s 2016 Firebelle Cabernet. And toppped that with the ’17 Arietta Quartet. Zin lovers snapped up the Beekeeper Cellars Zins, but this is the site for Zin eyes.

www.lastbottlewines.com had the best price on the culty Beau Vigne Romeo Cabernet. It sold out in a flash.

www.wtso.com uncovered a hidden gem, the 2017 Gypsy Dancer Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, $19.99

5 Great Deals for Restocking Your Wine Cellar

When anyone can buy Heitz Cellars Martha’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon online with free shipping,  there seems to be no  end in sight for online wine deals.

All you need to buy one bottle of the Martha’s is $299.

The following personal picks are for normal people on a normal wine budget:

www.vivino.com

2016 Grgich Hills Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Estate $54.99

Normally selling for $70, Grgich’s Cabs age long and well. This is the Estate, not the pricier Yountville bottling. Vivino is not always clear on such details. At wine.com, this wine is listed for $69.99.

www.lastbottlewines.com

2018 Edict Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley $19.00

This is not Goldeneye Pinot in terms of depth, complexity and pedigree, but it is simply delicious Pinot from the Anderson Valley

www.wineaccess.com

2018 Joyce Tondré Grapefield Syrah Santa Lucia Highland, $30.00

From one of the rising stars in the Central Coast, this is intense Syrah from a prized vineyard.

www.wtso.com

2016 Château de Macard Réserve Bordeaux Supérieur $13.99

A well-known, reliable chateau, this is a terrific deal for a wine to enjoy over the next few years.

More Cab Franc than typical, giving it more character.

http://www.cinderellawine.com

2016 Wrath Fermenta Chardonnay. $19.99.

Wrath had been developing quite a following and selling from its Carmel Valley tasting room. This is part of the winemaker’s series exploring different techniques. For you geeks, fermenta refers to partial malo-lactic.

Best Daily Wine Deals

Ever wanted to act like a wine snob and drop a few famous names like a Puligny Montrachet or try a wine from Heidi Barrett,  Napa’s most celebrated cult wine winemaker?

Or perhaps you simply are curious and want to see what these wines are all about but couldn’t find them?

Either way, it is now time to act and explore wines that possibly won’t be available in the future. 

For obvious reasons,  the wine market has changed. For the moment at least as more and more cult-like, hard-to-find wines are being offered by specially online wine sellers. Usually these are one-time, daily deals.

Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet? No problem. It is now for sale on several sites. My guess is that this Cabernet which has been a featured item on high-end restaurant wine lists now needs to be sold by other means.

Whitehall Lane Cabernet? Well, it too has recently surfaced online. Until now, it was sold to tasting room visitors and wine club members. 

As was two of my all-time favorites, Pride Mountain Cabernet Franc and Nickel & Nickel Cabernet Sauvignon.

As restaurant wine sales grind to a halt, rare French wines like a Grand Cru Alsatian Riesling or a French red from Cabardes are now showing up.

Let me share my game plan for checking out and stocking up on a few normally hard to find wines.

These are the 6 best websites to view daily:

 www.wineexpress.com   Just added a Pahlmeyer Chardonnay for $99 to join other celebrities like Heitz Cellars, Nickel & Nickel and Pride Mountain. It also has the Enroute Pinot Noir from Russian River Valley. These are not widely discounted,wines just seldom available.

www.winespies.com  These guys just offered Heidi Barrett’s 2015 La Sirena Pirate Red.

www.sommselect.com  teased up all this week with a 1998 Puligny Montrachet ($120). And also a terrific 2017 Alsatian Grand Cru Riesling.

www.finalcase.com  is the first to offer the 2016 Whitehall Lane Napa Cabernet for $33.95

www.wineaccess.com  came up with an absolute gem with the 2015 Chateau Auzias, “Gloria Mundi, Cabardes for $32. This is a Syrah/Cabernet wine from a great vineyard most French have never heard of.

www.lastbottlewines.com  uncovered the 2014 Beringer Vineyards Napa Cabernet Sauvignon for $29.00.

Today’s Mind Boggling Wine Deals

Today’ big decisions: should I buy the 2015 Lang & Reed Cabernet Franc, my all-time favorite for only $14 or should I go with another fav, 2015 Sbragia Monte Rosso Cabernet for $59.00 or the Robert Craig Merlot for $49? 

Oh wait, two websites are offering the 2017 Ridge Gerserville, a classic, another offers the new vintage of the rare Dominus and even a few wines from Rams’ Gate are available online. 

The choices are fascinating. But the real deals wont last long.

As winery and restaurant doors begin to open, the window featuring fine wines rarely offered online is beginning to close. 

With restaurants basically on hold now for 3 months, wine producers have been forced to find outlets for their often allocated wines. Mostly small wineries from California and Oregon have turned to online sellers. But also quite a few imports, usually favorite restaurant exclusives, have also been showing up online. 

Many but not all of the wines are discounted by 10% to 60%. A few are not discounted, but these are normally severely allocated.

Since it is crucial to act quickly, here are the best 6 wine sellers working hard to offer unusually great, often impossible to find wines during these most unusual times. 

The following are the current leaders and the wines /wineries I’m considering:

www.wineexpress.com Heitz Cabs, Silver Oak, Caymus Cab, Flowers Pinot, 2015 Bordeaux

www.vivino.com Sullivan Vineyards, Rams Gate, Chateau St. Michelle Ethos Reserve

www.winespies.com  Dash Cellars, Robert Craig, Spy Valley from New Zealand, Morgado Cellars

www.wineaccess.com 2015 Burgo Viejo Palacio de Primavera Rioja Reserva, and Cabs from Rudius, Anderson Conn Valley, Larkmead, Coho Headwater

www.wiredforwine.com 2019 Domaine Ott Rose, Booker, and Pinots from Big Basin, Anthill Farms and Cakebread.

www.firstbottlewines.com   Williams Selyem Pinots and Zinfandel, Ridge Geyserville, Bergstrom Pinot Noir, Von Strasser Cab, Turnbull Cabernet, Scherrer Vineyard Zinfandel and Dutton Estate Pinot.

Time’s up. I hit the “Buy” button.

And you?  Better get moving. You can thank me later.

Serious Red Wines at Super Prices

On “International Chardonnay Day,” the trending story within online wine sales was….great deals in bigtime red wines.

Seeing many collectible reds quickly made me forget about Chardonnay.

Researching many, many special offerings during the week leading up to Memorial Day weekend, I discovered the time was ripe to buy serious red wines not to sip, but to savor and stash away.

The background that helps make sense is that the closure of so many restaurants and wine bars has famous reds not being re-ordered. Producers and importers have seen inventories stagnate. 

So the leading online wine sellers are being offered rare wines that normally would not be seen online at discounted prices.

It hit me when I saw Paradigm Cabernet offered way below normal at winespies.com. Paradigm, Heidi Barrett’s longtime client, normally sells for big bucks and mainly to mail list clients.

Today, another site offered the 2015 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon for $109 a pop. 

Another featured a 2010 Chateau Lascombes, a coveted Margaux for $99.

Yes, culty wines usually snapped up by collectors and high-rollers are backing up in warehouses.

 So make room in your wine cellars and wait for the home deliveries to begin arriving.

Here are 10 great examples of serious red wines that caught my eye.

The web addresses are provided and represent the best sites for finding these or similar wines over the next few days:

2010 Château Lascombes, Margaux $99 at  www.wtso.com

2015 Beringer vineyards Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley $109.00 at http://www.lastbottlewines.com

2015 Robert Craig Howell Mountain Merlot, $49.00 at www.winespies.com

2017 Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, $36.95 at www.finalcase.com

2015 Anthill Farms Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast $40.00 at www.sommselect.com

2015 Seghesio Family Vineyards, Old Vine Zinfandel $29.00 at www.wineaccess.com

2014 Saxon Brown Zinfandel Parmelee Hill, $26.99 at www.vivino.com

2015 Domaine Du Grand Montmirail  Gigondas, Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, $28.47at www. wineExpress.com

2016 Cos Pegase Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley $29.99 at www.vivino.com

2017 Vina Robles Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon, $21.97 at www.napacabs.com

With wineries and restaurants beginning to open to some degree, the high-end red wines wont be offered at reduced prices for too long.

The window will soon be closing.

So act fast.

You can thank me later.