fredrinaldi wrote:hey woot, my brithday was yesterday where's my coupon????

hiten900 wrote:My birthday is in a few days. I did not get any discount codes last year, maybe this year?

WootGod, hope you are listning.....

Okay. The birthday code is not for your actual birthday. I'm not 100% sure, but it's for the month of your first purchase or the month you joined woot.

invisibleinsane wrote:Some of it? Not as suspicious as I am of California Riesling, which in my (admittedly limited) experience have been saccharine and flabby.

I don't know where you live, but if ever you get a chance to go to Anderson Valley (Mendocino County), I highly recommend doing so. Terrific aromatic white wines and Pinot that holds it's own.

invisibleinsane wrote:Some of it? Not as suspicious as I am of California Riesling, which in my (admittedly limited) experience have been saccharine and flabby.

There's some good stuff out there. Ty Caton's Riesling was nice to my tastes - dry to slightly off dry, big flavours as Ty is wont to do. Scott makes at least two - one from Napa and one from Mendocino - more in the German style than Ty's efforts. I prefer the Mendo since cooler climate Riesling is more my thing.

Also I love a good Gewurtz, but can't go in for logistical reasons. If anybody in the bay area wants to give up a bottle, let me know.

I tried so hard to resist. Yellow button, you win again.

keithnowak7 wrote:BIRTHDAY COUPON
I am sorry to bring so much attention to this, since I am unsure if your "birthday" is truly the day you made your first purchase, but I think that is the consensus. If not, it is the day you joined woot, or possibly the day you sign up for the newsletter. That is the absolute most important part:

Sign Up For The Newsletter! This is the part that gets you the coupon. You can be on woot for years, have hundreds of purchases, but if you don't click that little "Newsletter" box in your settings, you won't ever get the coupon e-mailed. Also, I believe the coupon is pretty generic, and anyone can "enter it" but the system knows if you are eligible for that month (I believe it only lasts for a month. I used mine before that.)

The other coupons are Deals.Woot. At least, I am pretty sure of.

Yes, they are. There are coupons are given out:
a) for activity on deals
b) these activities are based on internal criteria
c) this criteria changes frequently

If you haven't gotten a birthday coupon (which is the month of the anniversary of your first purchase at wine.woot, at least it was in my personal case, so yes, December) and you are subscribed to get emails, or have any questions about those, email service@woot.com and we'll make sure any problems get taken care of.

Now getting back to the wine - I do like the label art - Lucas, who did the art for this?

inkycatz wrote:Yes, they are. There are coupons are given out:
a) for activity on deals
b) these activities are based on internal criteria
c) this criteria changes frequently

If you haven't gotten a birthday coupon (which is the month of the anniversary of your first purchase at wine.woot, at least it was in my personal case, so yes, December) and you are subscribed to get emails, or have any questions about those, email service@woot.com and we'll make sure any problems get taken care of.

Now getting back to the wine - I do like the label art - Lucas, who did the art for this?

I did. I do all of our graphic design in house. Occasionally I will farm out an illustration to a pen/ink artist, this was one of those labels. The packaging design is mine, but the actual illustration in the label was by an artist that did a few commission illustrations for us in 08/09/10.

This may be my first buy....looks interesting for a white!

klezman wrote:There's some good stuff out there. Ty Caton's Riesling was nice to my tastes - dry to slightly off dry, big flavours as Ty is wont to do. Scott makes at least two - one from Napa and one from Mendocino - more in the German style than Ty's efforts. I prefer the Mendo since cooler climate Riesling is more my thing.

Also I love a good Gewurtz, but can't go in for logistical reasons. If anybody in the bay area wants to give up a bottle, let me know.

Hmmm. Interesting thought. I was thinking about going in but don't need all 4. Let me know.

klezman wrote:Also I love a good Gewurtz, but can't go in for logistical reasons. If anybody in the bay area wants to give up a bottle, let me know.

Winemaker participation, and my love for Gewürz got to me. Scott's decision to go in helped, too. It's not enough that I belong to 2 of his wine clubs, I'll buy just about anything he recommends.
As you know, I'm not in the Bay area, but if you don't come up with one, I'll set one aside for you, in case I see you soon. Like maybe next month?

I highly recommend the Trefethen Dry Riesling as evidence that Napa can make good Riesling. (Woot, can you score some of this for us?)

Also, I noticed I'm almost out of Dry Gewürztraminer, so in for one of this, plus I'm drinking a Meeker Carignane with dinner tonight, so the timing is appropriate.

CAGrl wrote:Hmmm. Interesting thought. I was thinking about going in but don't need all 4. Let me know.

Well, I'm definitely not going to be pulling the trigger myself - if you do then I'm game for a bottle.

ddeuddeg wrote:Winemaker participation, and my love for Gewürz got to me. Scott's decision to go in helped, too. It's not enough that I belong to 2 of his wine clubs, I'll buy just about anything he recommends.
As you know, I'm not in the Bay area, but if you don't come up with one, I'll set one aside for you, in case I see you soon. Like maybe next month?

Yeah, I know what you mean! The only bottle of Meeker that I've opened so far I quite liked (the Cab Franc) but it's going to be a few more years yet before I go to the next one. It's a monster! I've got the Grenache waiting in the wings for a try and I'm just going to give the Cab Sauv time now that I know the style.

I should look into potential plans for the icewine festival. Last I looked, flights were more expensive than I'd hoped to BUF.

keithnowak7 wrote:BIRTHDAY COUPON
I am sorry to bring so much attention to this, since I am unsure if your "birthday" is truly the day you made your first purchase, but I think that is the consensus. If not, it is the day you joined woot, or possibly the day you sign up for the newsletter. That is the absolute most important part:

Sign Up For The Newsletter! This is the part that gets you the coupon. You can be on woot for years, have hundreds of purchases, but if you don't click that little "Newsletter" box in your settings, you won't ever get the coupon e-mailed. Also, I believe the coupon is pretty generic, and anyone can "enter it" but the system knows if you are eligible for that month (I believe it only lasts for a month. I used mine before that.)

The other coupons are Deals.Woot. At least, I am pretty sure of.

All true. However, check your settings (a little hard to find, but click "[your username]" or "my account" at the top of the page. My settings managed magically to revert to "off" for the newsletter without my changing them.

texacaliali wrote:100% agree, Handley, Phillips Hill and Navarro are among my favorites. Also check out Davis Family's Rieslings, his St. Lucia Highlands is from the oldest riesling plantings in Cali.

I did like the Handley, and I've had some well-made and tasty CA Gewurzes from Gundlach Bundschu and many others. I suspect this is as good as the Handley, which is tip top.

However, 99% of the California wines seem to be in a dry style from warmer climate, and the resulting flavours are good, but often veer more towards the of profile of a standard "Chardonnay" than showing the grape's own special profile like a fine Alsace or Mosel Gewurztraminer.

Where are the blooming florals, those bright notes of blossom, that airy deftness of spring, the lightness of touch with complexity of a fine of-dry Gewurz? Now there should always be a multiplicity of styles made for any grape, because who wants all wines to taste the same? Nonetheless, I sense that this movement towards dryness adn warmer-climate growing is a way to sell Gewurztraminer to Chardonnay drinkers rather than make the most of the Gewurztraminer grape!

These Gewurzes seem much more like the excellent, but straighter dry Italians wines made with its parent "Traminer" (aka Savagnin) grape. I'd like to see some Gewurztraminer made from Michigan grapes, along the lines of the outstanding Jana Michigan Riesling from Scott Harvey, the cooler-climate conditions allowing for restrained alcohol and open aromatics in a Cote de Rhine style, as it were!

Anyone get their prosecco yet? I did... and they did a substitution.... unheard of.

bskuared wrote:Anyone get their prosecco yet? I did... and they did a substitution.... unheard of.

What was the substitution?

North316 wrote:What was the substitution?

Difficult to tell... same description, different bottle. (a diferent extra dry Prosecco) I can't find anything like it on line. It has the same name but is clearly in a different bottle. "Valdrobbiadene Prosecco Superiore"

richardhod wrote:Where are the blooming florals, those bright notes of blossom, that airy deftness of spring, the lightness of touch with complexity of a fine of-dry Gewurz? Now there should always be a multiplicity of styles made for any grape, because who wants all wines to taste the same? Nonetheless, I sense that this movement towards dryness adn warmer-climate growing is a way to sell Gewurztraminer to Chardonnay drinkers rather than make the most of the Gewurztraminer grape!

These Gewurzes seem much more like the excellent, but straighter dry Italians wines made with its parent "Traminer" (aka Savagnin) grape. I'd like to see some Gewurztraminer made from Michigan grapes, along the lines of the outstanding Jana Michigan Riesling from Scott Harvey, the cooler-climate conditions allowing for restrained alcohol and open aromatics in a Cote de Rhine style, as it were!

I agree there is a definite trend here, but I wouldn't say that fermenting Riesling and Gewurtztraminer to dryness kills the aromatics and flavours. My main comparison for this was tasting wines in the Niagara Peninsula from 2000-2004 on a regular basis (and a few scattered trips since). Most wineries sold Riesling and/or Gewurtz, and of those, many sold them across the sweetness range. My recollections completely bear out the philosophy of making these wines in different styles. When you visit a winery and can taste Riesling or Gewurtz from the same vineyard that's been made into a) dry, b) off-dry, c) semi-sweet late harvest, d) late harvest dessert wine, and e) icewine it really shows you what the grape can do. I can honestly say that both grapes can shine at all sweetness levels (although no winery in Niagara ever made a half-fermented frizzante of the Asti style - thankfully!) and each lends itself to different pairings and occasions.

For spicy Thai food -> off-dry Gewurtz all the way! The spice and lychee go really well with the Thai flavours.

klezman wrote:I agree there is a definite trend here, but I wouldn't say that fermenting Riesling and Gewurtztraminer to dryness kills the aromatics and flavours. My main comparison for this was tasting wines in the Niagara Peninsula from 2000-2004 on a regular basis (and a few scattered trips since). Most wineries sold Riesling and/or Gewurtz, and of those, many sold them across the sweetness range. My recollections completely bear out the philosophy of making these wines in different styles. When you visit a winery and can taste Riesling or Gewurtz from the same vineyard that's been made into a) dry, b) off-dry, c) semi-sweet late harvest, d) late harvest dessert wine, and e) icewine it really shows you what the grape can do. I can honestly say that both grapes can shine at all sweetness levels (although no winery in Niagara ever made a half-fermented frizzante of the Asti style - thankfully!) and each lends itself to different pairings and occasions.

For spicy Thai food -> off-dry Gewurtz all the way! The spice and lychee go really well with the Thai flavours.

Thank you! I'd love to try some Niagara or Michigan Gewurzes. New York too, pehraps. Yet, I'd love to know which California ones do give off the wonderful aromatics. I've yet to try one!

I wonder if it's the warm weather dry Gewurzes which aren't letting the aromatics out perhaps. I'm no looking for super sweet ones, but mroe like off-dry as in Alsace: I like dry wines, but I really drink Gewurz for its fresh floral aromatics! None of that in thoe I've yet tried in CA. Maybe Carneros, or Oregon or Washington is our best bet.

I'd love to hear Lucas on this. Perhaps this has some decent aromatics, but I doubt to the level of the Alsace wines. Nothing wrong with that in itself if that's the best style for CA.. I'm just hoping for more in the aromatic style!

richardhod wrote:Thank you! I'd love to try some Niagara or Michigan Gewurzes. New York too, pehraps. Yet, I'd love to know which California ones do give off the wonderful aromatics. I've yet to try one!

I wonder if it's the warm weather dry Gewurzes which aren't letting the aromatics out perhaps. I'm no looking for super sweet ones, but mroe like off-dry as in Alsace: I like dry wines, but I really drink Gewurz for its fresh floral aromatics! None of that in thoe I've yet tried in CA. Maybe Carneros, or Oregon or Washington is our best bet.

I'd love to hear Lucas on this. Perhaps this has some decent aromatics, but I doubt to the level of the Alsace wines. Nothing wrong with that in itself if that's the best style for CA.. I'm just hoping for more in the aromatic style!

I think the closest I've gotten to that is Anderson Valley (Handly, I think, and a few others when I was out there a couple months ago). I suspect Monterey or the Santa Lucia Highlands could do it if the vineyards were close enough to the water, as could the ocean side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Just a guess, though.

I think in general, though, you're right that the warmer climate seems to tone down the lychee and spice that I value in a Gewurtz.

texacaliali wrote:I'm with ya here, I drink a magical number of Alsace and German wines each month. This particular Gewurz has a bit softer nose than the the European imports - (and very different from the Handley which has a wild layers of lychee fruit, ginger and white flowers on the nose). My initial thought after the first sip of this beauty was that it reminded me more of the dry Rieslings of Australia.

Ahh.. again warm weather again, in Oz. I haven't tried Gewurz from Oz but I haven't liked the Rieslings from there that I'd had. Still, I know that others do, so I'll give them another hearing another time. It's just that I can buy Chardonnay, Roussanne, Muscadet etc for rounded dry interesting flavours, and so far haven't seent he point of these grapes in these styles. But.. I'm open to persuasion if an old hand will do a tasting and lead us further through the Gewurz and Riesling styles! Again... I'm a cool-weather fan for those grapes!

New to Meeker wines; can't wait to try it!

First sucker: trapuh
Speed to first woot: 1m 24.157s
Last wooter to woot: bradsbabe

Was waiting for some comment to sway me over the edge. Never came, but I jumped in for 2 anyway. Worst case scenario...it becomes a drinker for hot, muggy nights on the deck this summer.

bskuared wrote:Difficult to tell... same description, different bottle. (a diferent extra dry Prosecco) I can't find anything like it on line. It has the same name but is clearly in a different bottle. "Valdrobbiadene Prosecco Superiore"

Not a substitution. There were 3 bottles of each in the 6 pack.

Cesare wrote:Not a substitution. There were 3 bottles of each in the 6 pack.

True there were three bottled of each. But I did not get what the three was supposed to be. Lol. Pay attention

Thanks... got an email today explaining things..

Dear bskuared,

As a real classy type, you know that ringing in the New Year requires a beverage somewhat more elegant than Kool-Aid. That's why you bought the Villa Sandi Prosecco Italian Sparkling 6- Pack. Bubbly, refined, and no chance a giant pitcher is going to burst through the wall.

But if you've received your order (and if not, it's well on its way), you may have noticed another surprise. It turns out the winery ran out of the Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG Spumante Extra Dry. They substituted the Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superior DOCG Claxa for it instead. As you can tell from the word "superior", the new addition is both better and more expensive.

Sorry for the mix-up and late notice. We hope you have a great New Year's celebration and here's to a fantastic year!

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,
Woot Member Services

Back from the holiday travels and just catching up, looking over all the offers I missed.

I just have to say, Gewürztraminer has and always will be one of my favorite wines and I haz just a big ol'sad today seeing now that I missed this offering. I would have been in for and gifted as many as I could just so I could now go and collect them all and put them safely in my cellar where they belong. Wah!

My case of Meeker Gewürztraminer arrived yesterday, I hope it's good or it's a lot of wine to peddle off

I'll try out a bottle this weekend.

bsevern wrote:My case of Meeker Gewürztraminer arrived yesterday, I hope it's good or it's a lot of wine to peddle off

I'll try out a bottle this weekend.

Got mine today! Looking forward to everyone's thoughts on this.

I got mine today, sadly 2 of the 8 bottles had started to leak in the box. The seal is unbroken but I think their screw caps are not the best. I tried to screw the caps on a little harder and put them directly in the fridge to drink soon so hopefully they will still be good. When others receive your order make sure you open the box right away don't just let them sit in case you got any leaking ones.

We just received our order and had a chilled bottle last night with some Greek-style grilled chicken. It paired nicely with the heavy garlic, rosemary, oregano and lemon baste. Crisp, clean with a little acidity. Highly recommended.

It's pretty unlikely that the leak was caused by sub-par screw caps. Regardless of the quality of the cap (which is not really the issue here), leaking screw caps are caused by the initial seal being broken (a seal that's held in place by a pretty high torque thread pattern) by a variety of different things: massive temperature/pressure fluctuation, force applied to the rim of the cap itself, or even just a light tap at the wrong angle.

If you talk with Woot they should be willing to replace those bottles.

Drank my first bottle tonight. Drank it over a few hours. Upon opening from the fridge, it was crisp and not overly sweet like some Gewurtz and not overly citrusy like others. A very nice balance and as it warmed, it also had some backbone and did not get flabby. I really like this Gewurtz and you can't get any better than this great price too. Thanks!

This was quite different than the overly sweet style of this varietal that I've been used to! Started in on my first bottle tonight - most definitely dry and no overt sweetness. Paired it with a citrus/fennel winter salad with hot citrus fennel baked tilapia on top and it was perfect - really started to bring out some hints of pineapple and other aromas! Very happy with this purchase:-)

We tried a bottle a week or so ago. The fruit is good at beginning, and is dry as promised. I really did not care for the aftertaste though. It's very astringent, for lack of a better word, on the finish, and there is a taste there that I just didn't like. Glad I tried it though.

Wow. This was really nice. I had it with some Cod that was topped with S&P, Meyer lemons, and a splash of this, and some olive oil. Baked in a foil tent, and it worked so well with the wine.

For never having a dry version, whoever described it as a Cab/Zin/Whatever Big Red lovers white was spot on. It has a lot of stuff going on, still dry as can be (sure, the fruit tastes bring some sweet notes, but it is so dry and so lovely.)

I wouldn't have a problem at all with this being double the price what we paid for. A really nice wine with fish (and I am guessing spicy foods with that faux-"sweetness" that would cover it, and the acidity to cleanse the palate.) As far as bang-for-the-buck goes, I would put it in my top 3 woots. I am really pleased.