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Following Wines Til Sold Out: November’s Magnum Monday
Last Monday, November 26th, was Magnum Monday at WTSO (first event of this kind, if I’m not mistaken). During the period of 18 hours (from 9 AM Eastern until midnight), only large format bottles were offered for sale. There were total of 28 different wines offered, majority in the magnum size (1.5 liters, equivalent of 2 standard size bottles) with the exception of one wine which offered in the Imperial size (6 liters, equal to 8 standard size bottles). The most expensive wine was offered at $450, and the least expensive one was priced at $49.99. For many wines, free shipping was offered with the purchase of one bottle, and for some it was necessary to buy 2 to get the same free shipping. The very first wine offered was sold out within 3 minutes, and few other wines lasted only for 4 minutes.
Large bottles are very popular among wine collectors, as they considered to be better aging (better wine/air ratio compare to the standard size bottles), and the prices were good for many wines, so I would assume that the event made many people happy. Below is the guide to ratings and the table with all the information I was able to collect.
Guide to ratings: WS – Wine Spectator, WA – Wine Advocate, WE – Wine Enthusiast, W&S – Wine & Spirits, ST – Steven Tanzer, JHN – Jonathan H. Newman, RP – Robert Parker, JS – James Suckling, JH – James Halliday, WRO – Wine Review Online.
Enjoy!
| Time | Wine | Btl. size | Rating(s) | Orig. price | WTSO price | Min. # btls | % off |
| 11:35 PM | Burgess Napa Cabernet Vintage Selection 2001 Magnum | 1.5L | WE89 WS88 | $125 | $59.99 | 1 | 52% |
| 11:07 PM | I Balzini Black Label 2006 Tuscan Red Wine Dai Colli Della Toscana Magnum | 1.5L | WS92 WE92 | $130 | $59.99 | 1 | 54% |
| 10:45 PM | Barbaresco 2009 Michele Chiarlo Reyna Magnum | 1.5L | WE91 | $95 | $54.99 | 1 | 42% |
| 10:00 PM | Diadema Super Tuscan Rosso IGT 2009 Swarovski Bottle Magnum | 1.5L | WE93 JS91 | $250 | $99.99 | 1 | 60% |
| 9:25 PM | Brut Champagne N/V Piper Heidsieck #84 Top 100 WS 2012! Magnum | 1.5L | WS93 WE89 | $100 | $64.99 | 2 | 35% |
| 9:04 PM | Barolo 2006 Sarmassa di Barolo Roberto Voerzio Magnum | 1.5L | WA96+ WS93 | $620 | $449.99 | 1 | 27% |
| 8:53 PM | Piancornello Brunello DOCG 2003 | 1.5L | RP90 WS89 | $139.99 | $69.99 | 1 | 50% |
| 8:41 PM | Pommard Grand Epenots Pinot Noir 1er Cru 2009 ‘Clos de Citeaux’ Jean Monnier | 1.5L | JHN94 | $180 | $89.99 | 1 | 50% |
| 7:53 PM | Shingleback Shiraz D Block Reserve McLaren Vale 2004 Magnum | 1.5L | JH93 WS92 | $125 | 59.99 | 2 | 52% |
| 7:10 PM | I Balzini White Label IGT Rosso 2006 Magnum | 1.5L | WS93 WE91 | $130 | $59.99 | 2 | 54% |
| 6:24 PM | Burgess Cabernet 2002 Vintage Selection Napa Valley Magnum | 1.5L | $116 | $59.99 | 2 | 48% | |
| 6:15 PM | Barolo DOCG 2006 Fontanafredda Magnum | 1.5L | WA89+ | $250 | $99.99 | 2 | 60% |
| 5:30 PM | Sette Ponte ‘Oreno’ Super Tuscan 2007 Magnum | 1.5L | WE96 WS95 | $250 | $149.99 | 1 | 40% |
| 4:54 PM | Brut Select Champagne ‘Le Cordon Bleu’ NV De Venoge Magnum | 1.5L | WS91 | $120 | $62.99 | 2 | 48% |
| 4:17 PM | Belpoggio Brunello DOCG 2007 Magnum | 1.5L | JS92 WE92 | $199.99 | $99.99 | 1 | 50% |
| 4:00 PM | Corton Grand Cru 2007 Domaine Louis Latour | 1.5L | WS92 | $200 | $69.99 | 2 | 65% |
| 3:24 PM | Diadema Super Tuscan Rosso IGT 2009 Swarovski Bottle Magnum | 1.5L | WE93 JS91 | $250 | $99.99 | 1 | 60% |
| 3:15 PM | Barolo ‘Tortoniano’ Michele Chiarlo 2008 Magnum | 1.5L | WE92 WRO92 | $125 | $69.99 | 1 | 44% |
| 2:31 PM | Brut Champagne N/V Piper Heidsieck #84 Top 100 WS 2012! Magnum | 1.5L | WS93 WE89 | $100 | $64.99 | 2 | 35% |
| 1:55 PM | Roda Cirsion Rioja 2006 Magnum | 1.5L | WA95 WS92 | $600 | $299.99 | 1 | 50% |
| 1:09 PM | Burgess Napa Cabernet Vintage Selection 2001 Magnum | 1.5L | WE89 WS88 | $125 | $59.99 | 1 | 52% |
| 12:38 PM | Barolo Riserva 2004 ‘Roggeri’ Ciabot Berton Magnum | 1.5L | $200 | $114.99 | 1 | 43% | |
| 12:10 PM | Mont Redon Rouge 2009 Chateauneuf-du- Pape Magnum | 1.5L | ST92 WS91 | $125 | $59.99 | 2 | 52% |
| 11:25 AM | Phelps Insignia 2009 Magnum | 1.5L | WA93-96 ST94 | $429.99 | $314.99 | 1 | 27% |
| 10:40 AM | Shingleback Shiraz D Block Reserve McLaren Vale 2004 Magnum | 1.5L | JH93 WS92 | $125 | $59.99 | 2 | 52% |
| 10:24 AM | Silvio Nardi Brunello 2007 Magnum | 1.5L | JS95 | $175 | $99.99 | 1 | 43% |
| 10:13 AM | Grand Cru Burgundy White 2007 Corton Charlemagne Domaine Louis Latour Magnum | 1.5L | WS93 | $300 | $129.99 | 1 | 57% |
| 10:09 AM | Stormy Weather Cabernet Napa Valley 2006 Cellar Selection Magnum | 1.5L | 68% | ||||
| 9:52 AM | Barolo ‘La Villa’ DOCG Fontanafredda 2001 Magnum | 1.5L | WA94 W&S93 | $285 | $139.99 | 1 | 51% |
| 9:49 AM | St. Supery Red Wine ‘Elu’ 2005 Napa Valley Imperial | 6L | WE91 | $800 | $349.99 | 1 | 56% |
| 9:45 AM | Burgess Estate Cabernet Napa Valley 2005 Magnum | 1.5L | WE90 W&S90 | $100 | $49.99 | 2 | 50% |
| 9:03 AM | I Balzini Black Label 2006 Tuscan Red Wine Dai Colli Della Toscana Magnum | 1.5L | WS92 WE92 | $130 | $59.99 | 1 | 54% |
| 9:00 AM | St. Supery Cabernet Napa Valley 2004 Magnum | 1.5L | 91 | 50% |
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Rant-and-a-half, Wine Spectator Top 100 and more
Meritage Time!
Let’s start with the answer for the Wine Quiz #37 – About History of Wines and Holidays. First, you were supposed to identify the US president who signed the bill fixing Thanksgiving celebration to the 4th Thursday in November. In the second part of quiz, you were supposed to add a missing name to the list of great contributors, or may be even “founding fathers” of the California wine industry. I’m glad to tell you that we have a winner for the first question – wineeveryday was correct to answer C, Franklin D. Roosevelt – while Lincoln was the first president to officially issue Thanksgiving Proclamation, the holiday was floating until FDR actually singed the bill fixing the date to the 4th Thursday in November – here is the link if you want to read more.
The second part of the quiz was harder. Actually, the list of people, all of them been extremely instrumental in upbringing of the California wine industry, was taken from the Culinary Institute of America Vintners Hall of Fame inductees of 2007 – and the missing name was of Agoston Haraszthy, Hungarian immigrant who in 1857 planted some of the first European varietals in California on Buena Vista property.
Now, let’s talk about interesting stuff. On November 19th, Wine Spectator published their 2012 Wine Spectator Top 100 list (here is the link). You can explore all of the Top 100 information freely until November 27th, after which date the information will be available only for subscribers. From that Top 100 list, I find the Top 10 group quite interesting (not necessarily a positive word here) – the cheapest wine is $40, and practically none of those wines are available anywhere in the country, and if they are available, it would be from a different vintage. Wine of the year is Shafer Relentless Napa Valley 2008 (96, $60) – should be a good wine, but good luck finding it. In the top 10, there are 2 wines from California, 4 from France, and 1 each from Italy, Oregon, Australia and Argentina. If you care to share it, what is your take on the Wine Spectator Top 100 list?
So by now, you probably already heard about invigorating review of Guy Fieri’s new restaurant called Guy’s American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square – but in case you missed, it makes quite an exciting reading. Guy Fieri is most famous as a host of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives ( triple-D) program on Food Network, which I personally enjoy watching. The review, which appeared last week in the New York Times, became an instant sensation, reaching 100,000 views/shares within the first hour. My friend Emil rightfully called the New York Times’ review a “rant-and-a-half” – it takes the form of an open letter and definitely worth reading – the amount of critique from this one review would be enough to kill 5 restaurants. Mr. Fieri came up with an answer, which is lame at the best in my opinion – and it seems that Yelping community concurs with New York Times’ opinion.
Considering that tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I still have a lot of things to do, this is all I have for you for today. Ahh, yes – don’t miss WTSO’s Magnum Monday on November 26th – should be very interesting.
Happy Thanksgiving and Cheers!
‘
Wednesday’s Meritage – Wine Quiz Answer, Judgement of Where?, Beaujolais Nouveau, Magnum Monday and more
Meritage time!
Let’s start with the answer for the Wine Quiz #36 – Stomping the grapes. I made an effort to simplify the quiz – I guess full uncertainty with the right answer, which I mentioned a number of times, greatly reduced the interest on the side of the participants. Anyway, I’m happy to report that we have a winner! Have you ever heard the expression “whistle while you work”? According to Wiki Answers, etymology of the “whistle while you work” goes all the way to the slave days – when salves were carrying food, they were supposed to whistle – while you whistle, you can’t eat. In our case, while you whistle, you can’t eat grapes, so you had to be able to whistle in order to get the job! Thus the winner of the Wine Quiz #36 is Pablo, who gets unlimited bragging rights. And if you have a problem with this solution – I will be very happy to listen to your version.
Moving on to the interesting stuff. Let’s start with the Judgement of … no, not Paris. Yes, of course you know about famous 1976 Judgement of Paris, which became pivotal moment for the California wines. Now we are going to talk, out of all things, about (bet you would never guess) … Judgement of Princeton and Judgement of Richmond! I learned about both events from the Daily Sip e-mail. Both events took place during this year and were modeled precisely after the Judgement of Paris, only one was done for the wines of New Jersey versus France, and in the second event, Virginia wines were compared with the wines from all over the world. You should definitely judge for yourself – my experience with New Jersey wines is extremely limited (and negative), so I can’t really comment on the results ( but would be very glad to try those great wines from NJ). I have much more successful experience with wines form Virginia, though I would definitely question selection of the world wines for the competition. If you will find time to read about the events ( or if you knew something about them already) – I would be very happy to read your comments.
This coming Thursday, November 15th, is the 3rd Thursday of the month – which means that 2012 Beaujolais Nouveau will be available in the wine stores near you! This year is the 30th anniversary of the Beaujolais Nouveau phenomena as created by Georges Duboeuf, so the event will be celebrated accordingly. For this celebration, Georges Duboeuf produced a special web site, called 30 Years of Magic, where you can watch a special movie and download a special application for your mobile device, so you can join the festivities, anywhere, any time. I plan to report on the wine as soon as I will be able to get a hold of a bottle.
Last, but not least – WTSO, one of my all times favorite online wine shops, has done it again! Well, to be precise, they didn’t do it yet – but Monday, November 26th, will be a brand new whole day event called Magnum Monday, where WTSO will offer for sale about 20 different wines, all in the magnum (1.5L) size. This is all we know at the moment, but if this event will be anything like WTSO’s past marathons, you better get ready (and get some space in the cellar), as this will be a no-nonsense event.
That’s all I have for today for you, folks. The glass is empty. Until the next time – cheers!
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