$100 - $150 Range:

• [Napa] Mt. Brave - Great wines from Mount Veeder from Chris Carpenter
• [Sonoma] Arista - They offer stuff below $100, but some of their wines get over $100. Just did a tasting here and I love their Pinots. If you want to go out of the box on getting a bunch of Cab for people, some Pinot from here would be a great option.
• [Napa] Cakebread - The Vaca is in this price range, lot of Cakebread fans around here. I've had Vaca in the past and enjoyed it.

$300 - $400 Range:

• [Napa] Cardinale - Another Carpenter wine. Really good stuff here.
• [Napa] Brand - Great wines out of Pritchard Hill.

Others on here will have many more recs I am sure! Especially in that higher range. I don't have as much direct experience there.

Objective Aggie said:

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I like Hoopes quite a bit

I received a gift set from TurnBull last year that was rather cool.

What about Inglenook? Rivers Marie?



Also, wine.com lets you order anything and ship. Maybe not the fancy packaging.

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So going back to Turnbull, I do think they had gift sets at different price points. I received a nice cab, sparkling, and a dessert wine. It was really well packaged.

I do like the fact that you could get different kinds of wine just not one bottle because they may not be fans of California Cab.

I like don't love Turnbull but as far as gift sets this one stood out.

There are likely a number of great options. I would look into Joseph Phelps. Such a beautiful winery with a classic brand. They have nice looking bottles and I know they offer holiday gift sets. They have bottles in your price range including good whites, sparkling, and of course cabs/blends. Insignia would be a great higher-end gift bottle.

Are you restricted to Napa?

cecil77 said:

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Are you restricted to Napa?

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I imagine anyone would take his money, Cecil

Objective Aggie said:

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cecil77 said:

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Are you restricted to Napa?

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I imagine anyone would take his money, Cecil

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Of course, the question was really will he spend it on other than Napa?

Great point. A nice 2- or even 3-bottle gift may be fun to receive over 1 pricier bottle. Plenty more wineries come into play as well, and you can get a healthy variety of options.

Darioush makes good wine and they have a $100-$150 option and then Darius II as a high end option. Darius II is also one of the cooler labels every year if that kind of thing factors in.

cecil77 said:

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Are you restricted to Napa?

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No, I'm open to other regions.

I think, as far as client relations, a lot depends upon the recipient.

If the $$ impresses them (even if they're not wine people) then all good.

If they're wine people, finding something that they may not have enjoyed, still high quality and commensurate money, could make an impression. A super Tuscan or high end Spanish wine could be a real treat. So much in BDX to choose from.

Also, aged wines are a considerable bargain compared to new prices. Last year I bought a couple of 1999 Ch Montelena The Estate for much less than current list price. If you could find some quality aged wines, the customer impression ("wow, he went to a lot of trouble to find this") could be well worth it.

For example the current release price of Phelps Insignia is $365, Winesearcher shows 2012 Insignia at an average price of $287 and 2012 was a 95 pt vintage.

Great suggestion, but I dont have the time personalize 50-60 orders. I need to make it easy for me. I want to be able to send a spreadsheet with names/addresses and a credit card number and have the vineyard handle everything.

Some are wine people, but I am guessing that most are just impressed with an expensive bottle.

I do like the Inglenook suggestion as they seem to have a larger library and I can get bottles with 10-15 years of age.

ahhh... gotcha. There are probably brokers that could do it, but at some point it's no longer worth the effort.

Stags Leap Wine Cellars does corporate holiday gifts, including multi-bottle sets that go up to $500.

You've got Artemis at $100; Fay at $225; SLV at $275; and so on.

https://www.stagsleapwinecellars.com/wines/holiday-gifts/

ETA ... doesn't look like you can get older wines, though.

Angelus was here a couple weeks a go.

Chappellet has good options for this

Hosted the Pavie dinner tonight at Cdv, was surprised how well the wine showed.

The 2009 and 2010 were the crowd favorites, but I thought the 2016 was drinking exceptionally well.

Anyone have opinions on this?

Happy Tuesday

Building a custom wine display/cellar and am looking at cooling / humidity control units. WhisperKool and CellarPro are the names thrown out to me. Any guidance on which is better? Or, Pros / Cons?

TIA

I've got an opportunity to go to the Hilt and Jonata later this month. Anything I should be on the lookout for at either one of these wineries, or any places to visit between Lompoc and SLO?

WhiperKool split ductless systems are top notch. Get them to size it correctly and have you/your GC insulate with closed cell foam if you're able.

WhisperKool recently updated their compressor to more of a mini split style and supposedly works very well compared to the older unit.

WestUAg said:

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Hosted the Pavie dinner tonight at Cdv, was surprised how well the wine showed.

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Nice!

I got the offer letter through AOC but didn't pull the trigger. Pricing seemed pretty fair for the estate.

dsvogel05 said:

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I've got an opportunity to go to the Hilt and Jonata later this month. Anything I should be on the lookout for at either one of these wineries, or any places to visit between Lompoc and SLO?

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Yes, I can give you several to look at in the area.

First, go eat at Industrial Eats in Buellton, just east of Lompoc. If you are in wine ghetto area in Lompoc, call and taste at Chanin and Sandhi. Not far from there you can visit Tyler's Mae Estates and Spear winery, nice wines.

Stop off at Presquille in Maria Valley on way to SLO. Really pretty winery and good wines.

Tons of tasting rooms in Los Olivos that I can recommend if you plan to stop there to eat or anything. Liquid Farm, Storm, Stolpman, Story of Soil...

Hilt wines are well made, but very full bodied for pinot and chard, IMO. The others above have more finesse and higher acidity which I prefer.

Good recs here.

Wish that we were able to make it to Industrial Eats but it wasn't in the cards on our trip last year.

I really liked the wines from both Storm and Story of Soil. Actually just had some rose of Mourvedre from Liquid Farm the other day!

Dragonette Cellars was definitely our favorite wine from our Los Olivos trip a few years ago.

Warming up for tonite.

QBCade said:

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Warming up for tonite.

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The Colgin was one for the books. Such a mouthful, reminds me of Pritchard Hill fruits. BlackBerry. Leather, boisenberry. Long finish and very, very broad. Almost sticky to the roof of your mouth. I need more Colgin in my life

Edit - the other wine with dinner was a 2007 Insignia. Not a fair fight. Colgin smoked it.

Happy Saturday all.

It just so happens that we had Banh Mi over the weekend and my wife grabbed this Riesling out of storage from Story of Soil for us to have with it. Stellar pairing, great wine!