polarbear22 wrote:Any chance that you will be shipping to CT, or anywhere in New England, next year?

I see Cesare beat me to it with our NH distributor. In fact, he and his wife were just here Monday, and as a result we'll be adding a couple of limited production wines there.
Also, new this year, we have a Massachusetts distributor, Baystate Wine Co., in Hingham.

SonomaBouliste wrote:I see Cesare beat me to it with our NH distributor. In fact, he and his wife were just here Monday, and as a result we'll be adding a couple of limited production wines there.
Also, new this year, we have a Massachusetts distributor, Baystate Wine Co., in Hingham.

I get to NH a couple of times per year. I did not see, but it looks like it is only in a few locations. I will have to check it out.

And I will also check out the distributor in Hingham. If I am lucky, they will distribute to the store I use in MA for my futures.

Need my Wellington fix, since I doubt I will make it to CA for a couple more years. And there are only so many Woot offers.

Happy Thanksgiving Cesare and SonomaBouliste.

polarbear22 wrote:
Need my Wellington fix, since I doubt I will make it to CA for a couple more years. And there are only so many Woot offers.

But there is the Wellington wine club.

ddeuddeg wrote:But there is the Wellington wine club.

For you, not for me. Since he can't ship to CT. First wine club I wanted to join, and how I learned how strange the shipping laws are.

Corrado wrote:Vermont too small a market? From what I've read, the permitting requirements aren't that unreasonable, but regardless it takes more than a few cases to see ROI.

IMHO, Finding distribution is the single most difficult aspect of this business.

SonomaBouliste wrote:IMHO, Finding distribution is the single most difficult aspect of this business.

Indeed, especially for smaller wineries. I've talked about the problems with Mario at some length over the years. I've often thought of forming a small distribution company just to get the stuff I want for myself into CT, but it's unfortunately rather expensive to get labels into CT.

SonomaBouliste wrote:I see Cesare beat me to it with our NH distributor. In fact, he and his wife were just here Monday, and as a result we'll be adding a couple of limited production wines there.
Also, new this year, we have a Massachusetts distributor, Baystate Wine Co., in Hingham.

There's a little specialty wine shop in Lincoln NH (down the street from Loon Mtn) where we found some Wellington wines this summer. I checked a couple of the NH state stores we tend to use to stock the wine shelves (when wine.woot isn't fulfilling our needs to overflowing) in Nashua & Woodstock, but hadn't had any success there. Good to know we *can* get our hands on SB's product!

SonomaBouliste wrote:IMHO, Finding distribution is the single most difficult aspect of this business.

Anything in MN? Two small kids, a dead car, and a major repair on the other car has me strapped too much for direct shipment, but I could use a bottle to drown my sorrows...

auggie24 wrote:Anything in MN? Two small kids, a dead car, and a major repair on the other car has me strapped too much for direct shipment, but I could use a bottle to drown my sorrows...

Working on some leads

Corrado wrote:Not that it helps/matters for distribution, but a coworker who bought in on one of the woot offerings came up to me asking where he could get his hands on more of the Syrah he opened for his (Italian) family at Thanksgiving (they had homemade ravioli, no Turkey).

If there's anything I can do from a 'feet on the street' perspective here in Vermont, PM me.

Looks like Vermont is roughly the same size as Sonoma County. You could drive next door to NH once in a while and stock up unless there are revenuers at the border waiting to bust you for carrying young Cabs across state lines for immoral purposes.

SonomaBouliste wrote:Looks like Vermont is roughly the same size as Sonoma County. You could drive next door to NH once in a while and stock up unless there are revenuers at the border waiting to bust you for carrying young Cabs across state lines for immoral purposes.

Lebanon/West Lebanon NH right off 89. There ya go.

Corrado wrote:yeah, I know the area well. Driving 90 minutes one-way to the nearest outlet to see what they've got in stock won't be happening on a regular basis.

My folks live a bit closer, so maybe I can bribe them to clean out the West Leb liquor store during one of their case sales.

That's the beauty of wine cubes - you can stock up so you don't need to go on a regular basis

Corrado wrote:yeah, I know the area well. Driving 90 minutes one-way to the nearest outlet to see what they've got in stock won't be happening on a regular basis.

When is Vermont's phone system supposed to be finished? ;-)

andyduncan wrote:When is Vermont's phone system supposed to be finished? ;-)

Great post. The best part is it took a second to get the joke.

I got to try the Orange Dot and I will have to say----- Zin!

Alaska1 wrote:I got to try the Orange Dot and I will have to say----- Zin!

Winner! If a bit late.

andyduncan wrote:Winner! If a bit late.

Am I late??? just got to try it yesterday. I did not know there was a Time limit?

Alaska1 wrote:Am I late??? just got to try it yesterday. I did not know there was a Time limit?

I don't think there was an official time limit. WD said that the contest would be open for guesses on a certain date, but I don't know if he ever specified when it would be closed for guesses. The winners were sent winner certificates, and the losers were sent loser certificates.

Either way, the important thing is that you guessed correctly! Congratulations, you're better than most of us (except cesare, who got all three right).

andyduncan wrote:I don't think there was an official time limit. WD said that the contest would be open for guesses on a certain date, but I don't know if he ever specified when it would be closed for guesses. The winners were sent winner certificates, and the losers were sent loser certificates.

Either way, the important thing is that you guessed correctly! Congratulations, you're better than most of us (except cesare, who got all three right).

Wow thanks. That makes me feel good about my self. Cool!

andyduncan wrote: the losers were sent loser certificates.

You must have gotten a different certificate than I did. My guesses were all incorrect, but my certificate made no mention of "loser." Of course, neither did it seem worthy of being laminated and worn around the neck on a lanyard at a SoCal wine tasting.

Never got a certificate, was there ever an official list of the colors to varietals?

SmilingBoognish wrote:Never got a certificate, was there ever an official list of the colors to varietals?

just pinging to hope for an answer to the question above. if this is old old news to both of us, my apologies for repetition.

[edit]
actually, i was hoping for not just colors to varietals, but specific listing of colors and juices.

yep. that's right. more than 1.5 years later i realize i'm not included on the "official" list, even though i got my certificate. outraged, i am. hahaha. i've added my name

andyduncan wrote:Since the final verdicts appear to be out and there's not much mystery remaining, here's the wall of sh/fame:


RED (Obviously red sticker or marker, Bordeaux Bottle):
This wine was a merlot.
Winners: berrda, javadrinker, Cesare, auggie24, chad1323ross, eric9tx, bahwm

Losers:
Cab: polarbear22, jwhite6114, andyduncan, aces219, CpprCr8, ddeuddeg, gsandoval, paryb, dsapp (second guess), marekny7, cheron98
Zin: Corrado (second guess), Imagine4vr, vaaccess (second guess), mfelske, darlenee1, dsapp (official)
Syrah: nallie (official guess), nyesq54 (official)
Alicante Bouschet: jkwest, thrawn1020 (regretfully)
Chardonnay: vaaccess (first guess :-P)
Dr. Pepper: Corrado (first guess)
Not Merlot: Peter Wellington (according to berrda)

ORANGE (Burnt orange sticker or very light orange marker, Bordeaux Bottle):
This wine was a Zin:
Winners: Corrado, yathink2, Cesare, andyduncan, AjaxLives

Losers:
Merlot: jwhite6114 (second guess), jpkrause (speculating), richc7, mnwrasslin (second guess)
Syrah: ddeuddeg, nallie (color corrected), bahwm
Cab: thrawn1020, timbyrd
Grenache: mnwrasslin (official)

GREEN (Green sticker, Bordeaux Bottle):
This wine was a Cab:
Winners: pah53, cwillwood (official, now undecided), jrbw3

Losers:
Zin: polarbear22, Wigdog, ddeuddeg, bahwm, sanity, jwhite6114 (second guess), cheron98 (second guess)
Merlot: mewalk707, luckyinla, vquasarv
Syrah: jwhite6114 (official), mlhelm, cheron98 (official)
Grenache: Loweeel (official), jkwest, conroo (second guess)
Red Wine: conroo (first guess)

BLUE (Blue sticker, Rhone Bottle):
This wine was a Grenache:
Winners: Loweeel (color corrected), SmilingBoognish

Losers:
Syrah: AjaxLives
Pinot: timbyrd (In obvious defiance of reality)

PINK (Pink sticker, Rhone Bottle):
This wine was a Syrah:
Winners: nyesq54 (color corrected)

Losers:
Petit/e Si/yrah: tommythecat78
Merlot: timbyrd, AjaxLives
Grenache: mr2dave