Napa, Travessia, Storage and Values: Friday Odds and Ends

Friday, April 10, 2009

It was a busy week for me with a business trip out to California, but I wanted to get a few things out before the weekend. Lots of fun stuff to talk about:

Napa Visit

I got a chance to visit Napa on Monday of this week. I stopped in at:

  1. Cliff Lede
  2. Lewelling
  3. Wine Spectator's Tasting Office
Definitely look forward to future stories from these visits.

Travessia Vidal Blanc

I received my prize for correctly guessing where in the world Travessia wine was. I'm looking very forward to trying this one and to learning more about this unique Massachusetts Urban Winery.


Horizontal vs. Vertical Storage

We previously discussed diminishing returns with aging certain types of wine, as well as the importance of constant moderate temperature. A follow-up question in this area was vertical vs. horizontal storage of wine bottles- as in "How long is it safe to store a wine vertically?"

I reached out to Erika Strum on Twitter for her opinion. Erika is one of the primary contributors to Wine Enthusiast's Winston's Wisdom's blog (which focuses on really useful aspects of wine enjoyment). She's also a very helpful person. She took up the question in a blog entry this week:

Winston's Wisdoms #29: Get Horizontal

Thanks Erika!

Harvey Steiman from Wine Spectator has also weighed in on this subject, though you'll need a Wine Spectator Online subscription to see what he said.

Weekend Values

I've received a couple of hot value tips that I thought were quite worthy of passing along:
  1. Costco Waltham, MA:
    2008 Brancott Sauvignon Blanc Reserve Marlborough
    92WS
    $18 release price
    $12.99

    Great QPR here, and Wine Spectator liked this one even more than the ever-reliable Kim Crawford. I haven't had this one yet, but it's the perfect time of year to stock up on an affordable and delicious Sauvignon Blanc. Thanks to the reader who E-mailed me this tip.

  2. BJ's Danvers, MA:
    2005 Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve
    95WS
    $27 release price
    $23.99 (Note: I previously published this as being $19.99, however my checks revealed that the price on 4/11/2009 was $23.99)

    We previously discussed this wine in this blog entry. This is the first time we've seen this one in MA at such a low price. I have a couple of bottles of this I previously bought at a sale at Upper Falls in Newton. I think I'll crack one of them open to see whether I'd like to buy more- ratings on CellarTracker are looking quite good. Thanks for the anonymous tip on this one too!
I hope everyone has a great weekend!

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