Woot Wine : One Week, One Wine (SM)

You’ve got dreams. Despite it all, you’ve got dreams. And they certainly never involved sitting in this cubicle, under these flourescent lights, in this soulless office park. But you can’t just drop everything and run off to Hollywood, or truck-driving school, or the jungles of Costa Rica. Nobody walks away from a sure thing to chase some crazy, beautiful scheme. Do they?

Laura Zahtila did. After working for big high-tech firms like Cisco, she jumped out of her promising tech career in midstream to throw her life savings into a run-down winery in the Napa Valley. She’s worn more hats than the marquee section at Churchill Downs on Derby day, from sourcing grapes to collecting soil samples. She can crush, pump, rack, and bottle. Her boutique wines have scored gold medals up and down the West Coast. And she’s never had to punch a clock.

You can taste the passion and the hard work – and the freedom – in every drop of this Laura Zahtila Vineyards 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. With all the intensity and depth that put Napa Cabs on the map, this purple people-pleaser delivers aromas of raspberry and plum spiced with toasty vanilla. Earth tones and integrated tannins pile up on the palate in delicate layers. Don’t be fooled by Laura Zahtila’s current unsavory association with Wine.Woot. Judging by this wine, she’s done pretty well for herself since leaving Silicon Valley.

Still, there must be moments when Laura wonders. When she thinks about all she gave up when she walked away from that steady paycheck and those fixed hours and those stock options. When she feels the slightest twinge of regret.

Yeah, right.

read more...

You know we’re all about connecting the drinkers of wine with the makers of wine. There’s nobody we love more than a winemaker who’s willing to get down in the forum trenches, to share the bounty of their knowledge with our almost-equally-knowledgeable audience. Laura Zahtila, maker of both this Chardonnay three-pack and the original Zahtila offer, has been an exemplary, uh, example of this. We’re all better off for the way she’s graciously made herself available in our forum.

Except…well…there’s such a thing as being too helpful.

It seems that Laura, unaware of the arcane code that we at Woot live by, spilled the grapes on this week’s second deal. We can’t blame her, we suppose. Our ways must seem strange to outsiders.

If you’ve been watching the forum, you won’t be surprised at this deal. It’s a three-pack of Laura Zahtila Vineyards 2006 Napa Valley Chardonnay, as promised. But it doesn’t need the element of surprise to knock your tongue off its feet. Sourced from various vineyards in St. Helena in Napa Valley, these grapes were transformed sans malolactic fermentation into a sunny, crisp, tropical Chardonnay. A hint of mineral adds a little backbone to its brightness.

So no hard feelings, Laura. If we were responsible for this pale yellow gem, we’d have trouble keeping it a secret, too. Maybe we can all learn something from this episode. If you’re in a position to know what the next woot is, and you reveal it on our boards, we’ll forgive you…as long as you make something as delightful as this Laura Zahtila Vineyards 2006 Napa Valley Chardonnay.

read more...

Step right up, step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and feast your tongues on a viticultural spectacle the like of which has never before been tasted! First, the management requests that all children, pregnant women, and the infirm be removed from the premises! Today’s startling presentation is not for the young or weak!

Now, from the wilds of the Willamette Valley in far-off, exotic Oregon, presenting a palate-pleasing panoply of Pinot pulchritude, the celebrated Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Noir Triplets!

This titanic triad of towering taste teases and titillates with the pure Pinot personality of soft, juicy mouthfeel and sweet, ripe tannins! But don’t get them mixed up: each triplet is wholly its own wine, playing its own vibrant variation on a classic Pinot theme!

There’s the elegant 2007 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley, turning a bewitching dance of tart red fruit, earth, and spice flavors with a soft, silky finish! Wait’ll you tell the folks back home about this one!

Then there’s the wine that was fermented in whole clusters – and lived to tell the tale! The daring 2007 Pinot Noir Whole Cluster Fermented performs astonishing feats of flavor! You’ll “ooh” at the explosive rose, cherry, and wild strawberry aromas! You’ll “aah” at the soft, round, juicy mouthfeel! You’ll “mmm” as you pour another glass!

Finally, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to direct your attention to the 2006 Pinot Noir Estate Vineyard, rising from the red, volcanic earth like an avenging, drinkable phoenix! Aromas of sweet wild rose, red and black fruits, clove and earth herald the arrival of flavors of black cherry, cassis, cocoa, vanilla and cinnamon! It’s medium-full bodied! It’s cripsly acidic! It lingers and lingers! Drink it now or anytime until 2012 – if you dare!

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen! If anyone feels prone to fainting after this overwhelming spectacle, please don’t fall on the bottles! And let’s hear it one more time for the Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Noir Triplets!

read more...

Ahem. Forgive us if we sound a bit strained. We’re currently exerting all of our willpower to stay calm as we describe these Truffle Cake and Tart samplers by David’s Cookies. Each one offers restaurant-quality slices of a wide variety of fruity or chocolatey confections so FREAKING DELICIOUS WE COULD SCREEEEAMMM OOH OOH IT’S LIKE ANGELS ARE BREAKDANCING ON OUR TONGUES TAKE ME NOW GOD I CAN DIE HAPPY TAKE ME NOW

Sorry. Lost control for a minute there. As we were saying, the Truffle Cake sampler features four slices each of Classic Chocolate Truffle Cake, Marble Truffle Cake, Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake, and Mocha Hazelnut Truffle Cake. The Tart sampler offers two-slice samples of Raspberry Almond, Lemon Flower, Chocolate Pecan, Cabernet Pear, Caramel Apple, and Mango Splash. With guaranteed Thanksgiving delivery to all 48 states, you’ll be sure to impress your guests but we WON’T LET YOU BECAUSE WE WANT IT ALL NO NO YOU CAN’T TAKE OUR CAKES NO DON’T TRY TO TAKE OUR CAKES WE’LL RIP YOUR TONGUE OUT

Again, we apologize. Of course we’d be glad if you bought these David’s Cookies Truffle Cake and Tart samplers. And so will your friends and family this holiday season. It’s the perfect cap to any holiday AAH AAH ITS SO GOOD OOH OOH SO GOOOOOOD IT’S LIKE BEING PUNCHED IN THE TASTEBUDS BY A FRUITY CHOCOLATE MONSTER MORE MORE WE’LL DO ANYTHING FOR MORE

read more...

Thinking about New Year’s resolutions yet? Forget about losing weight, or answering all your emails, or finishing that novel. You’re not that fat, some emails deserve to go unanswered, and the bargain bins and dumpsters of America are already stuffed full of unread novels. No, the best way to improve yourself and your world in 2009 is with this easy-to-remember rule: Always Be Classy.

Whether you’re mulling over your dinner options or stumbling dazed from the wreckage of a burning meth lab, ask yourself: what would a classy person do? If it helps, pick out a famous exemplar of classiness as you understand it – somebody like Barry White, or Arnold Palmer, or BBC political reporter Katty Kay – and visualize how they would approach the situation, if they were hungry or involved in a meth-cooking operation gone disastrously wrong. You’ll find the finer things in life naturally gravitating toward you. And in no time, you’ll be coated in a thick, mucus-like layer of pure class.

You can start, appropriately enough, on New Year’s Eve. Maybe you’re headed out to a party, or maybe you’re hosting your own. Either way, you owe it to your new self to imbibe something that doesn’t come in a keg, something appropriate to the occasion and not necessarily to the parking lot outside the Ohio State-Michigan game. That’s where this Mumm Napa Sparkling Wine Trio comes in.

You know Mumm Napa is classy because it was founded by Guy Deveaux, and French is the classiest of all modern languages. You also know because it’s been a popular Napa Valley destination and producer of superior sparkling wines for 25 years now, bringing Old World méthode traditionelle techniques to the exceptional fruit of Napa Valley.

What does all that mean? We’d rather show you than tell you, and we’ll start with the 2003 Mumm Napa Blanc De Blancs (note: French again). Uncommonly crisp acidity thanks to Chardonnay makes this a uniquely refreshing sparkling wine, with a rich palate of fresh golden apples, bread dough, stone fruit, lemon custard, and warm brioche. Think you can’t have wine for breakfast? This wine IS breakfast.

The name of the 2001 Grande Année (see, more French – the class just doesn’t stop!) means “great vintage”, and Mumm ain’t just blowing bubbles. Y2K1 was a great year for concentrated, age-worthy fruit, in this case Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Four long years of yeast aging added layers of creaminess that make the honeysuckle, ginger and stone fruit aromas all the more complex. Same goes for the mid-palate, as full and round and fleshy as its apple and peach flavors would lead you to expect. That yeast aging shows up in the lush finish in the form of biscuit, hazelnut and nutmeg. As a certain classy blue-eyed song stylist might put it, when Mumm Napa was 28, it was a very good year.

Finally, the Mumm Napa Brut Rosé proves that pink can be a classy color, with a wide range of fruit flavors and a robust character that pairs well with any cuisine – the classier the better, of course.

Now for God’s sake, don’t start that insufferable whining about how much more expensive it is to live classy. Not when we’re offering these three bottles for less than you’d pay for a keg of gassy beer swilled from plastic cups. You moved out of the dorms a long time ago, remember? This New Year’s Eve, be a grownup. A classy grownup. Pour yourself a fluteful of class with this Mumm Napa Sparkling Wine Trio.

read more...

Never again. No more will we sit idly by while a silent massacre plays out in kitchens, dining rooms, and dens across America. No more will we countenance half-finished bottles of wine suffering in silence, their vital flavor essence leaking into the air. No more will we try to convince ourselves that the Cab we opened six days ago “isn’t that bad yet.”

No more. Not now that we have the Epicurean 7-Bottle Preservation System for Wine and Champagne.

In just seconds, this ingenious doodad seals in the flavor, aroma, and color of any wine with a natural vacuum seal. And the seal holds it all in for up to two weeks. A variety of seven different stoppers (2 for wine, 2 for champagne, 3 pour & seal) can handle any wine contingency. Anything described as “roto-ciprocal” could not fail to be awesome, and the included vacuum/pressure pump does not. Fail to be awesome, we mean.

You lock up your house, your car, your bike. Why not your wine? Time and Oxygen are a devious duo of cutpurses, eternally lying in wait to rob wine of its character, its taste, its very soul. The Epicurean 7-Bottle Preservation System for Wine and Champagne is your viticultural padlock.

read more...

France and Italy. Italy and France. Sometimes in the wine biz, it seems like that’s all you ever hear. Just because those countries essentially invented the modern wine industry, they think they’re so smart. Well, what if we took some simple descriptions of this Fortitude three-pack from Etude Winery and used an online translation program to translate them into French, then Italian, then back into English? Would they sound so smart about wine then? Let’s take a look…

The Fortitude 2004 Frediani Field Blend brings together several unusual varietals into a unique experience for red lovers. Primarily Charbono with some Carignane, Valdiguié, and Petite Sirah, it’s made from sixty-year-old vines grown in the Frediani family vineyard near Calistoga in Napa Valley.

Translation: Concoction 2004 of field of Frediani of courage collects many varietals little common in un’ only experience for the red sweethearts. Above all Charbono with some Carignane, Valdiguié, and small sirah, it’s fact beginning from the lives of sixty-year-old cultivated in the screw of family of Frediani near Calistoga in Napa Valley.

With a distinctive mixture of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Primitivo, Barbera, and Tempranillo, the Fortitude 2005 Shake Ridge delivers luscious, rich flavors of black fruit, earth, and spice built on a framework of structured tannins.

Translation: With a concoction symbol of Zinfandel, small sirah, Primitivo, Barber, and Tempranillo, the Ridge jolt of the courage 2005 delivery the succulenti and rich sapori of the black fruit, the earth, and l’ Spezia constructed on a picture of structured tannins.

Lively aromas of honeysuckle, white fig, and melon herald the crisp, bright Fortitude 2006 Semillon. Citrus and apple flavors with just a touch of minerality refresh and awaken the palate. This zesty wine is made entirely from Semillon from twenty-five-year-old vines grown in the Luvisi family vineyard in Napa Valley.

Translation: Animated aromas d’ chèvrefeuille, of fico white man, and héraut of melone the courage that sgranocchia and luminous Semillon 2006. The sapori of lemon and just apple with a contact of minerality regenerate and wake up the palace. This wine zesty is made entire beginning from Semillon of the lives of twenty-five-year-old cultivated in the screw of family of Luvisi in Napa Valley.

Yeah, that’s not total nonsense or anything! Next time us “red sweethearts” need a “jolt of the courage” to “wake up the palace”, we’ll give you a call, Europe! In the meantime, we’ll be enjoying this star-spangled, all-American, red-white-and-blue-blooded Fortitude three-pack from Etude winery. USA! USA! USA!

read more...

Unhappy racecar drivers have known it for decades: pigeonhole Mario Andretti at your peril. He’s the only driver ever to win the Indy 500, the Daytona 500, and the Formula One World Championship. He’s won on ovals, on road courses, on dragstrips. He’s won on dirt and on pavement. He’s won races in five different decades and on five different continents. If it’s got a motor and four wheels, Mario’s won championships driving it.

So when he decided to pursue his love for wine by founding Andretti Winery, do you think he eased off the throttle? Not a bit. Even if winemaking isn’t a competitive sport, Mario Andretti didn’t get where he is by settling for mediocre. And as an Italian-American kid whose work took him to exotic locales all over the world, he knows a thing or two about what good wine is.

His first smart move was adding winemaker Bob Pepi to the Andretti Winery pit crew. Bob had made a name for himself by pioneering the Sangiovese grape at his family’s Robert Pepi Winery, and for developing the two-hearted canopy trellising system that everybody who grows Sauvignon Blanc uses nowadays. He’s the kind of guy you’d trust to select the best grapes from Napa, Sonoma, and the Central Coast for your Chardonnay – so that’s exactly what Andretti Winery did.

The result is the Andretti Winery 2005 Selections Chardonnay. The Andretti California Selections series is based on the premise that enjoying fine wine with every meal (OK, probably not breakfast) is a crucial part of a rich, pleasurable life. Makes sense to us, especially after we sniffed its bright green apple, citrus and spice aromas, with a twist of vanilla. That slightly buttery mouth and clean, crisp finish sent us scurrying to the fridge to see if we still had any roasted chicken or risotto.

But one thing puzzled us: why is this Indy-caliber wine available at NASCAR prices? Turns out the 2006 Chard is revving its engine at the starting line, and Andretti Winery needs to clear the ‘05 off the track. So you can buy enough to load up the station wagon for the holidays, please the wine snobs and the race fans alike, and still have some left over to spray in the winner’s circle.

read more...

Frankly, we wish we could hate Jeff Bundschu. No, not because he’s a jerk or anything. He actually seems like a pretty cool guy. And that’s the problem: we’re jealous. Not only is Jeff a 6th-generation vintner and president of a highly-esteemed winery celebrating its 150th anniversary, he’s also a talented and prolific blogger with impeccably hip taste in music and fiction. When he’s not overseeing Gundlach Bundschu’s award-winning wines, Jeff skis, surfs, mountain-bikes, or hangs out with his wife and two adorable daughters – his family looks like it stepped out of a Land’s End catalog. He grew up on a bucolic paradise of an estate vineyard, Rhinefarm, which is also so diverse he can grow amazing Pinot Noir and Cabernet on the same property. He’s able to laugh at himself. And he’s traveled extensively in Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. Come on, dude! It’s enough to make us shake our tiny fists and howl lamentations over the sheer unfairness of it all.

But it would be wrong of us to begrudge Jeff his awesome life. More importantly, we’d only be hurting ourselves. Because the sour taste of resentment is no comparison for the palatable pleasures of these three GunBun wines. Even pale, high-strung, shivering Morlocks like us can appreciate the supple mouthfeel and complexly layered flavors of the Gundlach Bundschu 2005 Pinot Noir, Rhinefarm Vineyard. This medium-weight Sonoma red announces itself with aromas of black cherry, dried rose petal, and black spice leading to juicy dark fruit and mineral flavors. Keep it around for three to seven years to taste it at its best.

Then there’s the Gundlach Bundschu 2005 Mountain Cuvée, Rhinefarm Vineyard. Born of steep hillside earth, warmed by lots of daylight, cooled by sea breezes, it’s an alchemical miracle of toasty plum aromas and raspberry-cocoa flavors. Soft and round at first, meaty and spicy to finish, this pleasurable Merlot-Cab blend is only going to get better over the next two to five years.

The Gundlach Bundschu 2005 Merlot, Rhinefarm Vineyard completes the trifecta. Spiced black cherry, dark plum, and blueberry aromas and flavors wrap around a delicate layer of tea leaf. Broad but finely textured tannins keep the juicy, dense palate contained. As great as it is now, it should peak in another five or ten years.

As the lingering finish fades, we realize: anybody responsible for bottled joy like this deserves all the pleasure life has to offer. No matter how talented and successful Jeff Bundschu is, no matter how maddeningly nice he might be, no matter how much he enjoys his life, we just can’t bring ourselves to hate the guy. And as bitter and envious as we are, that’s saying something.

Speaking of saying something, if your German pronunciation is a little rusty, just say “Gundlach Bundschu” like this:

read more...

Come on, Pedroncelli. Fess up. Come clean. What’s your game? You expect us to believe that you’re offering single-vineyard, estate-grown Dry Creek Valley wines at this price – with no ulterior motive? Yeah, right. We didn’t just fall off the grape truck, you know.

And neither did you. You’ve been doing this wine thing in Sonoma County since 1927. Same family the whole time. Real successful operation. So we know it’s not a case of some mixed-up kids getting in over their heads and needing to dump a bunch of surplus juice. You didn’t get where you are today by making dumb blunders like that. Or like selling this high-class vino for ten bucks a bottle, before shipping.

There’s gotta be more to this than meets the tongue. You’ve gotta be working some kind of angle here. Your neighbors like Silver Oak, Ferrari Carano, Raffanelli and Lambert Bridge get a lot more per bottle for their award-winning Dry Creek Valley reds. Why shouldn’t you, for yours? Out of the goodness of your heart? Pour that story into somebody else’s glass, Pedroncelli. We don’t believe it for a second.

Let’s just look at the evidence, shall we? We’ve got a rich, complex 2005 Petite Sirah, lousy with blackberry, black pepper, and chocolate flavors, grown in a vineyard that’s been turning out Petite Sirah for 60 years. There’s a 2005 Sangiovese, grown on Pedroncelli’s hillside vineyards, with a full-flavored, medium-bodied array of cherry and berry flavors. Then there’s the classic Dry Creek Valley character of your 2006 Mother Clone Zinfandel. These grapes get their blackberry and spice aromas and jammy fruit flavors from the 100-year-old vines they’re cloned from. And don’t forget the 2006 Merlot. No, we wouldn’t want to overlook its lush, full-bodied fusion of plum and black cherry aromas and pepper and green tea flavors. Must be the Bench Vineyards where it’s grown, those natural terraces of rocky soil that flank Dry Creek Valley.

So there you have it. Four exquisite reds. Each bears the prestigious Pedroncelli name. Each boasts a Dry Creek Valley pedigree. And you’re selling the whole bunch for under $45, shipped. Like a broken calculator, it doesn’t add up.

Now, you might try to tell us that Jim and John Pedroncelli just aren’t the money-grubbing type. You might spin a yarn about how they’re more like farmers than ritzy wine moguls, and they’d rather sell a quality product at a reasonable price to a loyal following. Maybe you’d even point out how they’re third-generation winemakers who aren’t in it to become somebody’s trendy flavor of the month. Well, isn’t that a heartwarming little tale. But unlike your wine, nobody’s gonna buy it. You’re offering an awful good deal here, Pedroncelli. Maybe a little too good. And we aim to get to the bottom of it – just as soon as we get to the bottom of these four bottles of Pedroncelli wine.

read more...