Wine Thread

Chateauneuf-du-Pape tonight for me. Celebrating a last-minute steal of a deal trip to Steamboat tomorrow (booked today). Not much snow, but nothing beats a 3-night ski trip for under $1500! Also, just after I booked the flight, immediate upgrade text from United. What a win!

OC40 wrote

Not the biggest Camus fan, but picked this up for about $50.

Where the hell did you get a bottle of Caymus for $50!?!?! They cost high $80s in my neck of the woods.

cmyx6go wrote

Where the hell did you get a bottle of Camus for $50!?!?! They cost high $80s in my neck of the woods.

Ha! It was a holiday special at a local place here in Chicago. Normally, $69.99. It was $49.99.

OC40 wrote

Ha! It was a holiday special at a local place here in Chicago. Normally, $69.99. It was $49.99.

That’s still much less than the price here. It goes for $80-$90 depending on the liquor store. I don’t think I remember seeing it that low in the 15 years or so I’ve been a fan.

cmyx6go wrote

That’s still much less than the price here. It goes for $80-$90 depending on the liquor store. I don’t think I remember seeing it that low in the 15 years or so I’ve been a fan.

Costco is $76 around here and that’s the cheapest I’ve seen.

cmyx6go wrote

That’s still much less than the price here. It goes for $80-$90 depending on the liquor store. I don’t think I remember seeing it that low in the 15 years or so I’ve been a fan.

Alcohol can be relatively cheaper here. Especially, with the sales.

cmyx6go wrote

Where the hell did you get a bottle of Caymus for $50!?!?! They cost high $80s in my neck of the woods.

Costco has Caymus for between $65 and $67 around here. Total Wine has the 1 liter bottles for $100.

Took my wife to a Chris Stapleton concert at Hard Rock Live last night and we started at Council Oak Steakhouse for an early dinner. I didn’t really want to carry a bottle in and a full bottle was a bit much with the concert right after a 5 p.m. dinner. So we started with cocktails and I ordered a 2019 Quintessa in the rare 375 ml bottle. Had never tried it. Great wine and perfect (other than 300%+ markup) for last night.

We had some friends for dinner Saturday night. We opened the 1 liter bottle but didn't finish it until the next day.

For anybody near Napa/St. Helena, this is a Very Good Time.

Prices have gone up (like everything), but every time we've gone we've gotten a lot of EXCELLENT food and wine and had an absolute blast.

Highly recommended. Basically, they take a bunch of Culinary Institute of America (CIA) students, put them in teams, pair them with individual wineries and have them design a bite-sized food to pair with the wine.

Pro Tip: Bring a designated driver.

March 28, 2026. 6-8:30pm.

No affiliation, but from experience, it'll sell out. If you purchase now you get "early bird" pricing.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bash-2026-appellation-st-helenas-wine-tasting-food-pairing-competition-tickets-1982003565017?aff=email

I splurged and opened one of these tonight. It paired nicely with my can of pork and beans.

I think it was an October. I hear the August was even better.

Excellent.

sygazelle wrote

I splurged and opened one of these tonight. It paired nicely with my can of pork and beans.

I think it was an October. I hear the August was even better.

Excellent.

You talked about going out to dinner tonight in the "You Know You're Old thread" and I'm wondering where you went that serves a can of pork and beans. ;)

Esteban wrote

You talked about going out to dinner tonight in the "You Know You're Old thread" and I'm wondering where you went that serves a can of pork and beans. ;)

I wonder about me too!

My wine post was just to inject a little cheap wine humor into an otherwise high-class thread. In reality, I love a great bottle of wine now and again and I enjoy reading about forum members wine experiences. But, I'm just fine too with a bottle of inexpensive red now and again.

sygazelle wrote

I wonder about me too!

My wine post was just to inject a little cheap wine humor into an otherwise high-class thread. In reality, I love a great bottle of wine now and again and I enjoy reading about forum members wine experiences. But, I'm just fine too with a bottle of inexpensive red now and again.

I get it...

Was gonna say, that must be some fancy place you went to for dinner.

I knew you were kidding about the pork and beans, just thought I'd needle you a little.

Just a well-aired Chardonnay!

We had a nice dinner at Okeechobee Steakhouse on Saturday to celebrate our anniversary (which was the 29th). We brought our only bottle of Realm Levensohn Vineyard. Very enjoyable but not worth the price of admission relative to other options available.

We had a date night at La Frite in San Antonio Saturday, and the recommended pairing with the mussels plate was this pleasant little white wine "Don't be Shellfish".
Smooth, light and crisp, and paired perfectly with our dish. Plus after we got home we found out it's only $13 a bottle.

Here's another "No affiliation, but worth it if you're near Napa" event.

The price has been going up every year ($242/pp now), but we still tend to come out ahead-- I've lost count of how many times we've flown out for this and made a weekend out of it.

The wines are "mostly" Howell Mountain appellation cabs- and there are some *serious* heavy-hitters represented.

Dress is "Napa Casual". Food is provided. They hand you a glass (with a chardonnay poured to start you off, iirc) and you basically just walk around the Charles Krug grounds getting pours left and right.

The Silent Auction has been a " good but not great" deal the past couple of years-- do your due diligence before bidding. I've won a couple that were worth it, but you have to know what the price point you're bidding on is before putting your name down on the bid sheet. It's not all wines. There are balloon rides, B&B, tastings, etc. mixed into the packages as well.

The bidding auction after the tasting event is *definitely* worth staying for-- they put out a pair of (good) bottles on each table (and Bubbles are available!) so pre-select your seating based on the bottles. The auction is a charity event and most are too rich for my blood, but it's still fun to go to. There are a lot of bid lots of verticals, various library wines and/or a lunch/dinner/B&B at various wineries. We've won (and done) a couple of them, but they're usually something along the lines of "wine tasting and lunch for eight". But, there are dudes dropping $10k on a vertical. Who DOES that?

Here are the wineries that'll be represented. They're all for the most part small, boutique wineries that produce small volumes of wines that you'll never, ever see at Costco or BevMo:

ADAMVS
ALMACERRO
AMPL Wine
Aloft Wine
Angwin Estate Vineyards
Arkenstone
BACA Wines
Black Sears
Bravante Vineyards
Bremer Family Winery
CADE Estate Winery
Castiel Estate
Charles Krug Winery
Cimarossa
Clif Family Winery
Cornerstone Cellars
Dark Matter Wines
Davis Estates
Duckhorn Vineyards
Dunn Vineyards
Flora Springs Winery
GRO Wines
Haber Family Vineyards
HALL Wines
Howell at the Moon Winery
Howell Mountain Vineyards
Ink Grade Estate Vineyard
KIND Cellars
KrisTodd Vineyards
La Jota Vineyard Co.
Ladera Vineyards
Lamborn Family Vineyards
Mondavi Sisters Collection
Moone-Tsai Wines
Neal Family Vineyards
O’Shaughnessy Estate Winery
Outpost Estate Winery
Paraduxx Wines
Paravel Wines
Pestoni Family Estate Winery
Piña Napa Valley
Predecessor Estate Wines
Red Cap Vineyards
Red Thread Wines
Retro Cellars
Robert Craig Winery
Robert Foley Vineyards
Roberts + Rogers
Selah Wines
SPENCE
Stressed Vines Cellars
Summit Lake Vineyards & Winery
Tobias Vineyards
Tom Eddy Winery
TORCIA
Zakin Family Estat

If you go, you'd damn well better have a DD-- they are NOT stingy on the pours, and you can do serious damage when the winery is cracking open $200-300 bottles for tasting.

My credit card "winces" every time that I bring the Minister- I don't think I've ever made it out with receipts totaling less than $1k. Wine is her hobby, but I'd really rather spend the coin on track time.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/taste-of-howell-mountain-2026-tickets-1411111034089?aff=ebdssbdestsearch

R.

flybigjet wrote

Here's another "No affiliation, but worth it if you're near Napa" event.
R.

Howell at the Moon Winery - Best Winery name!!!

O’Shaughnessy Estate Winery - Easily one of our favorite Howell Mountain wines

For someone like me who doesn't like wine, I've tried this one, which is very smooth and pleasant. I've ordered a case of 12 bottles to keep at home!

Track/S wrote

For someone like me who doesn't like wine, I've tried this one, which is very smooth and pleasant. I've ordered a case of 12 bottles to keep at home!

Congratulations on joining the “obsessed with buying more than we drink” group.

Track/S wrote

For someone like me who doesn't like wine, I've tried this one, which is very smooth and pleasant. I've ordered a case of 12 bottles to keep at home!

Purchased where?