Three Ways to Get Out of the Expensive Wine Rut

When Dealing With California Wine:

The first way is to remind yourself there are other wines besides Cabernet, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Zinfandel.

Second, slap yourself around a little and explore wines from places other than Napa, Sonoma, and Santa Barbara.

Third, follow me and explore special sales, clearance sales, whatever sales as soon as they come up online.

Today, www.wine.com  is pushing sales of 40% below average price. Long list, but, hold on, there are many very good wines at great prices.

Here are our 3 suggestions to get you thinking like a good wine shopper again.

2017 Jacuzzi Primitivo, Lake County, $16.99

2016 David Girard Grenache, El Dorado Sierra Foothills, $23.99

2014 Wrath, No Fault Cabernet Sauvignon, Santa Cruz Mountains $27.99

What is Primitivo, you might ask?  Well, that’s the name of a grape grown in Southern Italy that likely originated in today’s Croatia. It looks, smells, and tastes like Zinfandel, and sure enough Zinfandel was brought into California from Croatia.

Jacuzzi has worked with Primitivo from Lake County for over a decade. This 2017 is an excellent example.

Santa Cruz Mountains may be small and not often in recent wine news headlines, but its reputation for Cabernet Sauvignon was established years ago by Ridge Vineyards. This is also home to legendary Cabs from Kathryn Kennedy, Mount Eden, and Thomas Fogarty,  A recent vintage of tiny Ceritas Cabernet from Santa Cruz went off the charts.

The folks at Wrath heard about the tiny, family run No Fault vineyard and created this typical powerful Mountain style Cab. Enjoy this wine and make any jokes about the Grapes of Wrath that come to mind.

No stranger to Zinfandel and Syrah, El Dorado also grows some of the best, richest Grenache found anywhere. Some people may have heard of the exceptional Grenache made by Withers. This one from Girard is similar in style and a super value.

for more wines go to http://www.wine.com

for more buying tips: http://www.bestonlinewineshopping.com

Three suggestions: carpe diem

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Author: robywine, norm roby

My career as a wine journalist/critic began in 1975 when my article about California Petite Sirah was published. My focus remained on California as I edited a monthly wine magazine and then moved on to The Wine Spectator in 1982. Over the following years, my column appeared under the banner of “Stormin’ Norman, and I also wrote articles about wine collectors and wine auctions. Without getting into a year by year bio, let me try to summarize here. During my time with The Spectator which I enjoyed immensely, I taught wine classes at a culinary school and at other venues in San Francisco. Before venturing into wine, teaching was my thing, English Lit and Rhetoric. After The Spectator I was the U.S. Contributor to Decanter Magazine, writing mostly about California, but also expanding into Washington State and Oregon. My Decanter years began in 1992 and after buying a summer home in France in 2000, I traveled throughout France and eventually published articles about St. Emilion, Castillon, Bergerac, Minervois, Roussillon, Luberon, Provence, and Alsace. Also, around 2000, my wife began working for Cousino-Macul in Chile, so we tasted and traveled our way through Chile and, of course, managed to fly over the Andes and explore and taste our way through Argentina. As travel lovers, we have also spent many interesting days visiting the wine regions of Spain, Italy, Portugal, Scicily, Greece, and New Zealand. And to come to a close, I was Director of Winesong, a Charity Wine Auction for 20 years, 1992-2000 that benefitted a local hospital. That brought me in contact with wine collectors and to the auction scene. And finally, I co-authored a book, The Connoisseurs’ Guide to California Wine published by Alfred A. Knopf. It went through 4 editions and sold over 500.000 copies.

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