merbill wrote:Twisted Oak? I'd be all over that.

Oaks deciduous not coniferous, but a great guess. Adds in the loopy, and verifies my "tree" guess. If it is, I'm out though, can't afford it. Sad, cause i missed them last time. Friggin honeymoon

bhodilee wrote:Oaks deciduous not coniferous, but a great guess. Adds in the loopy, and verifies my "tree" guess. If it is, I'm out though, can't afford it. Sad, cause i missed them last time. Friggin honeymoon

Figured WD wasn't a tree expert...

Your wife doesn't read what you write, does she.

merbill wrote:Figured WD wasn't a tree expert...

Your wife doesn't read what you write, does she.

Sometimes, she knows she married a jackass.

Winedavid39 wrote:opine for a clue ?

Pine Ridge (my mom's favorite winery). They make a lot and are probably hurting right now in this economy.

I wish I didn't have to miss the Mandolina offering, but times are tough, and I just can't justify the expense. Loved the wines the last time they were offered.

PetiteSirah wrote:Pine Ridge (my mom's favorite winery). They make a lot and are probably hurting right now in this economy.

Ooooh, that would be nice. Real nice.

Corrado wrote:Their Chenin Blanc/Viognier is a very easy-drinking white (and cheap, too, at least for Pine Ridge).

I agree- bought it for like 10/11 bucks and it was a great QPR.

So we are missing two rats here. blusky558 reported in stating that s/he received bottles, but we have yet to see the report. And there's a rat out there somewhere with the Freisa and Malvasia Bianca who hasn't checked in.

My deepest apologies for not getting this in quicker. I didn't get my box until yesterday, and trying to keep up with a 4 year old GS all evening.

2007 Muscato: one word YUM!
Slightly sweet to start, but after the 1st several sips, smoothed out to a creamy mouthfeel, and a slight bite to the back of the mouth. The color was a very light gold, and when seen thru the glass of the bottle, almost looked the same green yellow of the lable colors. Very pretty! Scents were not too heavy on floral, but more like apricot, pear and some citrus. Very easy drinker.

2007 Dolcetto: not my favorite, but still tasty. Strong, dry mouthfeel at first taste, probably should have let it breath a bit first. Got a good whiff of strong chocolate and something else earthy, color was rich purple. I had wanted to try this with some italian for dinner, but that didn't pan out (I think the 4YO was asking for hot dogs) so I did try it with a bite of dark chocolate, and that was very nice. I plan to try more tonight with some actual food to see what has changed.

Thanks WD for this rattery!

bhodilee wrote:Oaks deciduous not coniferous, but a great guess. Adds in the loopy, and verifies my "tree" guess. If it is, I'm out though, can't afford it. Sad, cause i missed them last time. Friggin honeymoon

Ummmm...
Deciduous and coniferous are not mutually exclusive terms. The Western Larch (locally, we call it "Tamarack") is a deciduous conifer, for example.
Are we far enough off topic yet?

At this particular moment I'm trying to discern why I purchase from Woot anymore when they take a week from order date to ship any product. T-shirts seem pretty easy but those take 2-3 days and have a delivery time of 1-2 weeks to Northern California, wine seems like it could be slightly more complicated but not so much to justify a week from order date to ship date(assuming they ship this tomorrow). I guess its been fun, the gimmickyness of the site is nice, and the deals are pretty good, but not when every other online store can ship items same day or next and they all sell far more than 1-3 items a day.

I just got my shipping information on this purchase this morning. I don't know what to expect, never having ordered from wine.woot before (although I have a jillion t-shirts and random electronic gadgets and toys).

What I'm wondering is, how is their packaging? UPS says it weighs 50 pounds. Has anyone ever received broken bottles, and if so, did w00t take care of the problem, or did you have to file a claim with UPS?

The last time I got something heavy from UPS it was a grill, and the UPS driver just dumped it in my driveway, even though I was already coming out of the house to help. Can the wine.woot packaging withstand rough handling?

Thanks for any replies. I'm leaving the house now, but will check back later.

P.S. I didn't tell hubby about this purchase. I hope he gets over it pretty quickly!

runin2k1 wrote:At this particular moment I'm trying to discern why I purchase from Woot anymore when they take a week from order date to ship any product. T-shirts seem pretty easy but those take 2-3 days and have a delivery time of 1-2 weeks to Northern California, wine seems like it could be slightly more complicated but not so much to justify a week from order date to ship date(assuming they ship this tomorrow). I guess its been fun, the gimmickyness of the site is nice, and the deals are pretty good, but not when every other online store can ship items same day or next and they all sell far more than 1-3 items a day.

I wonder if it takes longer because they have to sort through all the orders from people who can't actually order it in their states and don't bother to read that before they click "I want one?" Also, I'm sure the wine takes longer to adequately package (I hope...see my above post).

kippyj wrote:I wonder if it takes longer because they have to sort through all the orders from people who can't actually order it in their states and don't bother to read that before they click "I want one?" Also, I'm sure the wine takes longer to adequately package (I hope...see my above post).

I just want mine to get here already!!!! I am on spring break and wanted to polish off a good portion of this wine while I had nothing better to do. It's definitely a reason for excitement that a whole case of wine is coming for us!

Just got my shipping confirmation... 50lbs of wine goodness coming my way! Can't wait.

kippyj: All my order have been packaged very well and I have never had a problem.

brutherford wrote:Broken bottles are few and far between. We do come across "corked" bottles but those usually come up with the warmer temperatures. If for some reason there is a corked bottle or it is flat out busted up, email us at service@woot.com and we can get a replacement bottle sent in your direction from the winery.

FWIW, I did have a broken bottle once. The break seemed to have little to do with the packing as it appeared to have been pierced (there was a round fifty-cent-piece-sized hole in the bottle). UPS even repackaged the box (maybe because of the puncture, maybe because of the soaking wet box, maybe because they drank it and wanted to get rid of some of the evidence); though UPS packaging was way crappy (woot's is good).

Wine.woot did take care of the issue. They replaced the entire order, even though only one bottle was broken.

brutherford wrote:Broken bottles are few and far between. We do come across "corked" bottles but those usually come up with the warmer temperatures. If for some reason there is a corked bottle or it is flat out busted up, email us at service@woot.com and we can get a replacement bottle sent in your direction from the winery.

Thank you for the information. I'm kind of surprised that this forum needs moderators, but happy about it nonetheless

wedenj wrote:Just got my shipping confirmation... 50lbs of wine goodness coming my way! Can't wait.

kippyj: All my order have been packaged very well and I have never had a problem.

Thank you,too. I feel much better about my first wine.woot purchase.

jwhite6114 wrote:FWIW, I did have a broken bottle once. The break seemed to have little to do with the packing as it appeared to have been pierced (there was a round fifty-cent-piece-sized hole in the bottle). UPS even repackaged the box (maybe because of the puncture, maybe because of the soaking wet box, maybe because they drank it and wanted to get rid of some of the evidence); though UPS packaging was way crappy (woot's is good).

Wine.woot did take care of the issue. They replaced the entire order, even though only one bottle was broken.

And, again, I owe thanks. It's a relief to know there are nice people here, too. The last time I came to this forum a couple of people were being very insulting about other w00ters (from w00t's other sites) and I decided not to stick around. It's good to know that the majority of wine.wooters don't appear to be snobs and are actually helpful.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I'll be around if you ever wander into a w00t-off and I'm always nice to noobs, so I especially appreciate you.

Winedavid39 wrote:HI, this "pack" is a challenge (we knew it would be). All cases either left yesterday or will leave today ( upper midwest is almost always a Thursday departure do to weather precautions).

thanks,

Got mine this morning!

Can't wait to set up and stock the rack.

bhodilee wrote:
SNIP
Ease of use: It was really easy to put together. No tools necassary, BOWTIES APPENDAGES LIVE TIL THE MORROW. Just kinda fits together really easy. I didn't measure
MORESNIP

After re-reading this review, I'm starting to wonder if I got a different rack from my fellow ratter; that was the first thing I tried out after opening the package, and I had a ... different experience, to say the least. None of the slots fit together, force was necessary for those that did (quite a bit of force, at that), and after attempting to put the first 5 slats in, I gave up and tossed the wreckage in a corner. Anyone else getting this, or should I re-think my handiness level?

Thank goodness the wine is good, but the rack was rather disappointing.

smagee wrote:After re-reading this review, I'm starting to wonder if I got a different rack from my fellow ratter; that was the first thing I tried out after opening the package, and I had a ... different experience, to say the least. None of the slots fit together, force was necessary for those that did (quite a bit of force, at that), and after attempting to put the first 5 slats in, I gave up and tossed the wreckage in a corner. Anyone else getting this, or should I re-think my handiness level?

Thank goodness the wine is good, but the rack was rather disappointing.

My husband had a similar problem with a computer desk once. It turned out he hadn't read the directions. I hope this one comes with directions as I'm positive I'LL be the one putting it together just to save my own sanity

smagee wrote:After re-reading this review, I'm starting to wonder if I got a different rack from my fellow ratter; that was the first thing I tried out after opening the package, and I had a ... different experience, to say the least. None of the slots fit together, force was necessary for those that did (quite a bit of force, at that), and after attempting to put the first 5 slats in, I gave up and tossed the wreckage in a corner. Anyone else getting this, or should I re-think my handiness level?

Thank goodness the wine is good, but the rack was rather disappointing.

I had a similar experience with the rack. Many of the slots didn't seem to exactly line up. I had to use a good amount of force to get some of the pieces to fit together. I finally got it put together after about 20 minutes (although it seemed like it only should have taken 5). The best advice I can give is when you have one piece connected to another, make sure every connection point is pushed together as much as possible. If you don't do this, you'll have even more problems getting the slots to line up.

Every time I attached a new piece, I pinched each connection point. I also pushed the rack-in-progress against the table I was working on and if it didn't sit flush against the table, I knew that there was a connection somewhere that wasn't pushed in all the way.

Best of luck putting yours together, it can be done.

Weird: my orders for this and the Helios both have tracking info from UPS, but neither show any actual shipping info or expected delivery dates. Usually that just lasts a day or so, but it's been over a week on the Corison, and a few days here on the Mandolina. Anybody else having this issue?

Update: The Mandolina now shows delivery for 3/18, but still nothing on the Corison.

Went by Mandolina tasting room in Solvang yesterday. Had a great tasting. Cindy, the pourer, printed out the wine list from the w.w order and poured everything she had from the list. Two wines were sold out. The Barbera was by far my favorite, then the Sangiovese and the Tocato Reserva.
Great tasting.
And by tasting at Mandolina, you can walk down the street to L&L and taste for free.
Thanks!

Nostrom0 wrote:Went by Mandolina tasting room in Solvang yesterday. Had a great tasting. Cindy, the pourer, printed out the wine list from the w.w order and poured everything she had from the list. Two wines were sold out. The Barbera was by far my favorite, then the Sangiovese and the Tocato Reserva.
Great tasting.
And by tasting at Mandolina, you can walk down the street to L&L and taste for free.
Thanks!

Do you remember which wines were sold out?

smagee wrote:After re-reading this review, I'm starting to wonder if I got a different rack from my fellow ratter; that was the first thing I tried out after opening the package, and I had a ... different experience, to say the least. None of the slots fit together, force was necessary for those that did (quite a bit of force, at that), and after attempting to put the first 5 slats in, I gave up and tossed the wreckage in a corner. Anyone else getting this, or should I re-think my handiness level?

Thank goodness the wine is good, but the rack was rather disappointing.

I had to start with one edge and pop them in one at a time. I started with both ends to square it and filled in the middle. It didn't exactly fall together, but it wasn't all that difficult. I didn't try to line up all the slots at oncec, I literally did it slot by slot until the slat was in place.

rockdawg9 wrote:Weird: my orders for this and the Helios both have tracking info from UPS, but neither show any actual shipping info or expected delivery dates. Usually that just lasts a day or so, but it's been over a week on the Corison, and a few days here on the Mandolina. Anybody else having this issue?

Update: The Mandolina now shows delivery for 3/18, but still nothing on the Corison.

My wine is being held hostage in San Pablo, CA... It has not moved for 5 days, and Spring Break is over...

I just received this purchase (it's shorts weather for the UPS guys...yay!). I want to let people who, like me, may have been hesitant about ordering wine on the internet, that this was a very pleasant experience.

In my case, the wine went from California all the way to Michigan. The package was expertly packed, not a single bottle was broken, and I don't think any of them even corked (although I haven't examined every single bottle yet as I'm now going to attempt to put together the rack before my husband gets home). I want to surprise me darlin' for St. Patrick's Day so he'll be reminded why he's so lucky he married a redheaded witch of an Irishwoman ;)

Erin go Bragh, w00ters!

Update...

Okay, so I just put together the wine rack with my (gasp!) bare hands. A rubber mallet would have been nice, but me darlin' eejit appears to have taken it to work.

As for the rack, if that mallet doesn't do the trick, I'm definitely going to need some wood glue before I put 12 bottles of wine in it. Also, a word of warning...my house smells like some weird little pine forest out of a Grimm's fairy tale.

Other than that, I'm still extremely happy with my purchase. I didn't buy it for the wine rack anyway. It'll probably end up in my teenage daughter's room, painted purple and filled with knickknacks (I hope).

kippyj wrote:And, again, I owe thanks. It's a relief to know there are nice people here, too. The last time I came to this forum a couple of people were being very insulting about other w00ters (from w00t's other sites) and I decided not to stick around. It's good to know that the majority of wine.wooters don't appear to be snobs and are actually helpful.

Thanks to everyone who responded. I'll be around if you ever wander into a w00t-off and I'm always nice to noobs, so I especially appreciate you.

If it was during a woot off we like to mess with the people that come over here on the detours and say stupid guppy. If you're serious about wine we'll happily answer any and all questions you throw at us. We just have a low tolerance for the shenanigans (it is St. Patty's day)that occur at papa.woot.

kippyj wrote:Update...

Okay, so I just put together the wine rack with my (gasp!) bare hands. A rubber mallet would have been nice, but me darlin' eejit appears to have taken it to work.

Ha! I love how "me darlin'" went to "me darlin' eejit" in less than an hour!

Be sure to stick around and let us know how you like the Mandolinas!

bhodilee wrote:If it was during a woot off we like to mess with the people that come over here on the detours and say stupid guppy. If you're serious about wine we'll happily answer any and all questions you throw at us. We just have a low tolerance for the shenanigans (it is St. Patty's day)that occur at papa.woot.

Well, some of them probably are around 20 and live in their parents' basements...however, I generally only come out to play during w00t-offs...there are times when you just have to separate the chaff from the wheat. Otherwise, you might starve to death.

P.S. Yes, Gatz...I do realize this isn't a quality post...yes, Gatz, I do realize that he has FOUR more than I...no, Gatz, it's not a real contest...hahahaha! ;)

cjsiege wrote:Ha! I love how "me darlin'" went to "me darlin' eejit" in less than an hour!

Be sure to stick around and let us know how you like the Mandolinas!

Truly, since it took about 10 minutes to get all the tape off (it was yellow...I think some packager was just extra tape-happy that day), and only 11 minutes to put the rack together...he went to "feckin' eejit" in 21 minutes. I was just being nice.

rockdawg9 wrote:Weird: my orders for this and the Helios both have tracking info from UPS, but neither show any actual shipping info or expected delivery dates. Usually that just lasts a day or so, but it's been over a week on the Corison, and a few days here on the Mandolina. Anybody else having this issue?

Update: The Mandolina now shows delivery for 3/18, but still nothing on the Corison.

Mine was the same way. I just got my Mandolina but the Helios is in Ohio.

I'm opening a Mandolina tonight which means I have to decide which one to toss in the fridge at my office.

kippyj wrote:Well, some of them probably are around 20 and live in their parents' basements...however, I generally only come out to play during w00t-offs...there are times when you just have to separate the chaff from the wheat. Otherwise, you might starve to death.

P.S. Yes, Gatz...I do realize this isn't a quality post...yes, Gatz, I do realize that he has FOUR more than I...no, Gatz, it's not a real contest...hahahaha! ;)

The fact that I've managed five quality posts should tell you all you need to know about that system

smagee wrote:After re-reading this review, I'm starting to wonder if I got a different rack from my fellow ratter; that was the first thing I tried out after opening the package, and I had a ... different experience, to say the least. None of the slots fit together, force was necessary for those that did (quite a bit of force, at that), and after attempting to put the first 5 slats in, I gave up and tossed the wreckage in a corner. Anyone else getting this, or should I re-think my handiness level?

Thank goodness the wine is good, but the rack was rather disappointing.

It took a bit of force for me as well. As other wooters have said, make sure ALL the holes are lined up (which is a problem on the first few boards). The second is that rounding off the corners a bit helps due to some slight splintering which prevents easy press fitting.