Who Needs a Sale When You Have Empire Wine?

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I stopped and visited New York Retailer Empire Wine last summer on our way to vacation in Michigan. What an operation. Located within a large strip mall, I never would have thought to stop in if I wasn't aware of their reputation online. I couldn't believe the volume of wine they were pushing through their registers on a summery Friday afternoon.

One thing I want this site to be about is helping friends find better wine values. Part of that is finding outstanding retailers who sell wine on razor thin margins. As I'm writing this I'm imagining co-workers and cousins looking for specific retailers to order from, and specific wines to get started with. I think 6 or 12 of the wines below would make a great stash of wines for the holiday season.

With deals swirling around this weekend I thought it would be a good opportunity to peruse their selection and make a few recommendations:

1. Cakebread Cellars Zinfandel 2010 $23.95
   $23 for what's sure to be a delicious red from Cakebread? Sold.
2. Failla 'Sonoma Coast' Pinot Noir 2011 $31.95
   Great producer. Love the ~$30 price point for high quality California Pinot Noir.
3. Snowden 'The Ranch' Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $37.95
   Not the prettiest label in the world but this one over delivers for its price point.
4. O'Shaughnessy 'Howell Mtn.' Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $74.95
   Bumps the price up a bit over the Cakebread/Caymus/Silver Oak ~$60 level, but it's worth the splurge.
5. Beaurenard 'Boisrenard' Chateauneuf du Pape 2010 $69.95
   97WS, great vintage. Getting harder to find these 2010s.
6. Soter 'North Valley' Pinot Noir 2009 $24.95
   Soter's a great producer and I'm looking to try more 2009 Oregon Pinots before they disappear.
7. Marcel Lapierre Morgon 2011 $23.95
   People love this producer and I'm hearing good things this 2011 Cru Beaujolais.
8. Belle Glos 'Meiomi' Pinot Noir 2011 $15.93
   Stunningly low price, even when shipping costs are included.
9. Educated Guess Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $16.95
   Tasty fruit forward Napa Cab at a great price.
10. Ridge Vineyards 'Estate' Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 $34.95
    Hard to go wrong with Ridge and priced in the mid-$30s this is a nice value.
11. Bodegas Volver 'Tarima Hill' Monastrell 2009 $8.95
    I always like including a bargain Spanish Monastrell to round out a case. Original referral on this one came from The Capital Grille. Big and bold.
12. Bodegas Borsao Tinto 2011 $5.95
    Robert Parker called this "Possibly the single greatest dry red wine value in the world" and rated it 90 points. Plug this into the WWP QPR Calculator (what's that?) and you get 3.36: Very Good Value. I've enjoyed other Borsao wines before and I'd bet this one is good too. What do you have to lose at this price point?

Wine Retailers: Do you have an e-commerce site I can peruse and build up a similar list? Drop me an email and let me know.

I'd love it if you subscribed to The Wellesley Wine Press to receive email notifications of new posts. I'm working on some great stuff in the coming weeks.

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Groupon: 6 Bottles of Cameron Hughes Wines for $59 Shipped

Groupon is offering 6 assorted bottles (all white -or- all red) of Cameron Hughes wines for $59 including shipping. Choose from one of these two options:

$59 for a Cameron Hughes red-wine bundle ($99.99 list price)

• Two bottles of 2009 Lake County syrah (Lot 224)
• Two bottles of 2009 Napa cabernet (Lot 257)
• Two bottles of 2010 Mendoza, Argentina malbec (ot 258)

$59 for a Cameron Hughes white-wine bundle ($99.99 list price)

• Two bottles of 2009 Santa Barbara County pinot grigio (Lot 264)
• Two bottles of 2010 Atlas Peak chardonnay (Lot 324)
• Two bottles of 2010 Russian River sauvignon blanc (Lot 270)

A quick scan of wine-searcher.com seems to support their claimed list price of $99.99 and since the offer includes shipping I consider this deal "good to very good".

They cannot ship to: AL, AK, AR, DE, HI, KY, MA, MS, MT, ND, OK, PA, SD, UT, Canada or Puerto Rico.

Massachusetts friends: Here's a deal you can take advantage of

Use this link for more more information and to take advantage of this offer

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20% Off $250 at Blanchards: Six Wines to Buy Now

Blanchards Wine & Spirits is offering 10% off $100 orders with code CYBER10 -or- 20% off $250 with code CYBER20. Discount applies only to non-sale items (prices end in "9"). Full offer details here.

Here are six wines I thought were nice deals for one reason or another:

• 2010 St. Cosme Gigondas Valbelle $62.99 ($50.39 after 20% off)
  The regular St. Cosme Gigondas (95WS/$41) got all the attention, but this one was rated 97 points. Nationwide low price here. Buy buy buy!
• 2007 Le Vieux Donjon $64.99 ($51.99 after 20% off)
  Still some great 2007 CdPs around, and this is one of my favorites.
• Anthill Farms
  Ample availability even for their single vineyard Pinots makes me refrain from buying their wines mailing list. Check out their 2010 Anderson Valley bottling for $37.99 before discount to get a feel for their style.
• 2009 Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel $32.99 ($26.39 after 20% off)
  If there was a "quality never goes out of style" winery for me, it's Ridge. Or maybe it's more like "nobody ever got fired for ordering Ridge". Hard to beat this wine south of $30.
• 2009 Shafer Relentless $74.99 ($59.99 after 20% off)
  The 2008 vintage of this wine (96 points/$60) was recently named Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year. It was released quite a while ago and is very difficult to find. The 2009 was just rated 95 points and is still available. They have only a few bottles left so act quick especially on this one.
• 2009 Benton Lane Oregon Pinot Noir $22.99 ($18.39 after 20% off)
  An Oregon Pinot Noir recommendation here on the WWP? You've got that right! I've been on a roll with 2009s from Oregon lately and I've enjoyed Benton Lane south of $20 in the past. Grab this one as a filler.

Blanchards can only ship to Massachusetts addresses. Orders placed online can be picked up free at their West Roxbury, MA location.

Visit their website at http://blanchardsliquor.com to browse their inventory and place an order.

Don't live in MA? Here's an offer from Wine Library with wider geographical applicability.

The deals have been coming fast and furious this CyberMonday. Follow me on Twitter for more wine deals: @RobertDwyer

Question of the Day: What are some of the better deals you see at Blanchards right now?

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Liquor Stores excluded from AmEx Small Business Saturday?

By now, you've probably heard of Small Business Saturday from American Express:

American Express® Cardmembers can enroll an eligible American Express® Card to GET $25 BACK WHEN THEY SPEND $25 OR MOREat a qualifying small business location on November 24th. Cardmember enrollment in the offer is limited. Offer Terms apply to Cardmember participation.

Nice promotion, right? $25 just for registering your card and buying something at a qualifying merchant.

But Daniel Posner at Grapes the Wine Company noticed something that might affect wine deal hounds. Have a look at the conditions for participating merchants which exclude those that "promote...liquor":

For the purpose of this Program, qualifying small businesses include small, locally-owned storefront and online businesses with $10 million in annual revenue or less. Businesses in the following industries are excluded: government agencies, charities, non-profits, trade associations, shopping property management firms, political, religious and educational organizations. Small businesses that are part of a franchise brand with more than 100 stores are excluded. Additionally, if a franchise brand has more than 20 corporate-owned units, then the entire brand is excluded. Small businesses that promote any of the following are not eligible for the Program: pharmaceuticals, drugs, politics, pornography or sexual aids, diet aids, gambling, liquor, tobacco, firearms/weapons, or any sensitive topic with respect to current events. See Terms of Participation.

It sounds like AmEx is trying to distance themselves from controversial businesses, but it's not clear to me what "promoting" means in this context and further what they mean by "liquor". Did they intentionally choose the word liquor instead of alcohol? Liquor is a distilled beverage which contains alcohol. Wine contains alcohol but is not liquor. And what if a merchant sells wine and liquor - does that disqualify the merchant?

If you look at the Where to Shop Map you can find plenty of wine stores listed. I thought for a moment merchants with the string "liquor" in their name might be excluded but I see plenty of places included - including "Liquor Land" so that doesn't explain it.

All in all, I'm left confused whether my patronage of a local wine businesses will trigger a $25 statement credit.

AmEx: What's the deal? Are liquor stores excluded from Small Business Saturday?

Wine retailers: What are you hearing? Are you eligible for Small Business Saturday this year?

Consumers: If you shopped at a wine store today let us know whether that transaction successfully received $25 back.

Check back later for a roll-up of CyberMonday wine deals. Subscribe to The Wellesley Wine Press for email notifications of new posts.

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