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The wine shop I run doesn’t have much of a mark up, but the new Wineberry boxes I just started stocking, are almost shockingly inexpensive. When it was packaged in individual bottles, the Moulin de la Roquille red Bordeaux had to be priced at roughly $17 for us to make our money back on it, but when you stop having to pay for heavy glass bottles and shipping for heavy glass bottles, you get a ridiculous deal.

A box of Moulin de la Roquille is FOUR BOTTLES OF WINE! Four bottles of Roquille would have cost $68 (4×17=68), but because of savings on packing and shipping, these same four bottles put into a box cost only $39.99. A formerly $17 “weekend-only” wine becomes a $10/Tuesday night/drink however much you like wine.

The best part is that, since it’s vacuum-sealed, it stays fresh up to two months after opening.

I love that now everyone gets to drink top-notch French wine any time they like. This is very much how the wine world should work!

Bordeaux, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Old World, T.B. Ackerson Wines | No Comments

Javier Castro, our wine-loving friend from Madrid, shows us his recipe for Sangria… using his favorite cheap, summer white- South African Sauvignon Blanc!

Sauvignon Blanc, South Africa, T.B. Ackerson Wines, Wine Reviews, Wine Videos | No Comments

Click here to get some “employee training” and watch while Cole helps Whitney get up to speed with some entry-level Bordeaux. Wine tasted: Barons de Rothschild-Lafite Reserve Speciale

Bordeaux, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cheap Drinks, Merlot, New World, Old World, T.B. Ackerson Wines, Wine Reviews, Wine Videos | No Comments

All the grapes in this bottle come from here!

Every bottle of Burgundy looks the same. I would even forgive someone if they couldn’t tell the difference between an unopened bottle of red Burgundy and an unopened bottle of white Burgundy! Tonight, I happen to be blessed with the opportunity to drink possibly the geekiest bottle of Burgundy ever produced (slight overstatement, but this wine label even threw me for a loop on first glance!) so I’m giving back to you by deciphering the label so that next time you’re staring blank-faced at a $30 bottle of Burgundy, you’ll be able to figure out at least a little about what you’re buying (or at least if the salesperson is a little qualified to recommend it to you).

Here’s what you need to know about any bottle of Burgundy:

The Appellation: The appellation is the “classification”/”quality” of a wine… and many believe it to be synonymous with the yumminess/awesomeness of a wine. The appellation (if you have a wine dictionary) will tell you almost everything you need to know… some people can decipher the appellation just from smelling a glass of Burgundy)… on this bottle we have “Fixin 1er Cru Clos Napoleon Monopole.”

The hierarchy of appellations goes as follows:

• Bourgogne, i.e., the grapes came from a mix of places within Burgundy.
• Village(s), i.e., the grapes came from a specific village in Burgundy, e.g., Gevrey-Chambertin, Volnay, Pommard, Mersault, etc. Red Burgundy basically (huge generalization) goes from most delicate/light in the south up to most powerful/brawny in the north.
• Premier Cru (written as 1er Cru)- this designates that all the grapes came from a top vineyard as judged by history/the French government. If you get a bottle of this, you’re almost guaranteed to have a good (but maybe not life changing) bottle.
• Grand Cru- this means that  you’re drinking some of the best wine in the world. No wine lover/snob/expert turns up their nose at a taste of Grand Cru Burgundy. Very few vineyards are designated as Grand Cru… many Burgundy drinkers can, off the top of their heads, all of the Grand Cru Burgundy vineyards, the vineyards they have tasted, and the vineyards they have not tasted.

So to breakdown what is in this bottle of Domaine Pierre Gelin Fixin 1er Cru Clos Napoleon 2004 Monopole that I’m drinking right now:

Red Burgundy (red Burgundy is 100% Pinot Noir almost always)… grown in the village of Fixin (fee-sin)… grown only in a top but not perfect Premier (1er) Cru vineyard… and here’s the kicker, grown in a vineyard only own by one producer, i.e., a monopole!

Most Burgundy producers share vineyard space with each other, but the “Clos Napoleon” vineyard is owned by only one person (”Monopoly”/Monopole) so there’s some serious reputation points on the line and in return some serious quality control.

It tastes like strawberry jam and stems, black cherry stems and leaves, and burnt salmon scales (grill a salmon and you’ll know the flavor… the happy way to say it would be toasted marshmallows)… it smells like carrots and beets. The finish is long enough that I’ve enjoyed the after effects of one sip for about a minute now, and the wine has gone from an 89 point wine to a 91+ point wine after two hours of breathing.

France, Old World, Pinot Noir, Wine Reviews | No Comments