Suncé Winery Mixed Case
$159.99 (Normally $360.00) 56% off List Price
3 2010 Petite Sirah, Napa Valley, Capp Vineyard
3 2009 Syrah, SF Bay, Field of Dreams
3 2010 Mourvedre, Lodi, Ripken
3 2009 CabShiraz Blend, El Dorado Co Pleasant Hill
CT links above

Winery website

Previous offers:
9/5/11
4/19/11
12/27/10
9/7/10

Summer shipping is in effect so don't worry about your wine.
Every winery needs a separate license from each state which is why your state isn't listed.

For discussion threads on the Plus Deals use the following links:
Sapphire Hill
Vina Robles

Talk about information overload! In a good way, but still.... It all sounds so good, but I really wish this had been split into smaller offerings. No room at the inn for that many at once.

Courtesy of CJ:

cjsiege wrote:Seems like everybody's BBQ'ing!

Upcoming Woot Wine Gatherings…All The News for the week of June 17th.

June
6/23: Colorado #4: BBQ
6/23: NYC #20: BBQ/Summer Wines

July
7/23-25: RPM's History Tour, Part 1
7/25-29: RPM's History Tour, Part 2
(Dates set. There is room on both tours for more people!)
TBD: NorCal #13: Wheelbarrow o' Wine

Pending
TBD: NorCal #12: Volcanic Terroir and/or Eastern European Finds
TBD: Arizona Verde Valley Winery Weekend
TBD: Dallas #11

Looking for some helping hands:

• South Florida Interest Thread
  
• NorthEast Florida Interest Thread
  
• Missouri Interest Thread
  
• Central NC Interest Thread
  
• Albuquerque Interest Thread
  
• Lake County/Chicago Interest Thread

No events in your area??? Start one! Create an interest thread in the World of Wine Woot Community Tab!

So join or create a WW Gathering!

Wil Wheaton just tweeted about this. I wonder if there are enough wine lovers among his 2M twitter followers for this to sell out?

prosperouscheat wrote:Wil Wheaton just tweeted about this. I wonder if there are enough wine lovers among his 2M twitter followers for this to sell out?

Oh dear boy. I'm so glad you didn't ruin this Woot before I got to make my purchase ;)

Would it be wrong to open these up sooner than later? If anyone has an idea of when these should be opened, would love to hear. Thanks.

So should I buy based on Wil Wheaton's suggestion or wait...

Wil Wheaton's Tweet

I bought a case of Sunce wines when they were on Woot! back in April 2011, and my girlfriend and I liked them enough that we made a point of visiting the winery while we were in Sonoma and joining their wine club. While I haven't tried these specific wines, I have yet to try anything from Sunce that I haven't been thrilled with.

In for one.

Might have been in for a 4-bottle sampler... but I don't really need a case. I think with Woot's new affinity towards bigger offerings of 6-12 bottles, we should maybe organize a thread for regional splits. Not sure if I'd definitely be interested in this one or not -- gotta check my tasting notes from last time around, but just a thought!

That's not Sunce it's Sun-say, with an accent grave over the ay.

I had a terrible experience with this winery the last woot offering. The entire case was bad, and when I e-mailed the winery to try to remedy the situation, I got no response. I've still got 3 or 4 bottles left and am not holding out much hope for them. Every single bottle I've opened from the case was either corked or full of sediment.

rnatalie wrote:That's not Sunce it's Sun-say, with an accent grave over the ay.

As in John Bigboote (boo-Tay).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTLKfI8VToI

msummers wrote:I had a terrible experience with this winery the last woot offering. The entire case was bad, and when I e-mailed the winery ... Every single bottle I've opened from the case was either corked or full of sediment.

No, no, no .... You're just being negative - dude. Didn't you read that "summer shipping is in effect."? You are under instruction NOT to worry about your wine.

Now snap out of it. ;)

rnatalie wrote:That's not Sunce it's Sun-say, with an accent grave over the ay.

So that's an accent grave, eh? Interesting.

Hey everyone, the Woot Plus threads are open!
Sapphire Hill
Vina Robles

Anyone in the San Jose/Santa Clara area want to split some of this? I went in for one, but don't really have room for a whole case. So if you want a bottle of each for a 1/3rd of the price drop me a line. :D

sdbcmr wrote:No, no, no .... You're just being negative - dude. Didn't you read that "summer shipping is in effect."? You are under instruction NOT to worry about your wine.

Now snap out of it. ;)

Just so no one gets confused, neither of these issues would have occurred due to heat damage during shipping or otherwise. A wine that is corked is tainted with TCA and sediment is from the winemaking process and is likely a stylistic choice made by the winemaker (unfined and unfiltered wine is not uncommon).

Oh, I *so* would buy this if it were after money day for me! I *so* want some Mouvadre!

But I have nary a penny, so just picture me as the penniless ragamuffin with her nose pressed against the window.

Sigh.

Agree, every bottle was bad on the last Sunce order. The problem was I didn't realize it until well after the case arrived. Don't do this.........

kylemittskus wrote:Just so no one gets confused, neither of these issues would have occurred due to heat damage during shipping or otherwise. A wine that is corked is tainted with TCA and sediment is from the winemaking process and is likely a stylistic choice made by the winemaker (unfined and unfiltered wine is not uncommon).

Well if it's just buyers remorse - which is what it sounds like, then I'll kill my post. (But hey summer shipping IS in effect, always good to say, right?

Wine! It's a learning experience! Fortunately we've got a lot of varieties that it's likely everyone can find something they like.

Do not buy this. The last batch was ALL bad.

I also bought the last case of named vineyard Cabs and a Merlot. It was probably not a bad value. It seems as if all 4 of the wines had a strange note to the finish that was not unpleasant but distinctly odd. I would not buy those wines again.

Can the three of you who said the your entire case was bad attempt to describe or explain "BAD," please?

kylemittskus wrote:Can the three of you who said the your entire case was bad attempt to describe or explain "BAD," please?

There was a distinct odd note to the finish on all 4 wines. We drank the wine with food and it was not bad but atypical for CA red varietals.

I purchased the 12/27/2010 case and either the wines were corked/past their prime (i.e. tasted and smelled like raisins) or they were not to my liking. Worst purchase I have ever made on WW, so this is a non-auto-buy for me.

Ugh. There were only four comments, all positive, when I purchased this morning. Reviewing the previous WWs for this winery were practically universally positive.

I'm going to be sooo disappointed if this wine is corked or otherwise spoiled. Woot, are you on this?

jmdavidson wrote:I purchased the 12/27/2010 case and either the wines were corked/past their prime (i.e. tasted and smelled like raisins) or they were not to my liking. Worst purchase I have ever made on WW, so this is a non-auto-buy for me.

This is what I was trying to ascertain. Raisin-y taste and/or smell isn't a sign of either TCA taint (corked bottle) or of a wine being past its prime. The wines were just not to your liking, but they were not bad or corked or old.

tenoreprimo wrote:There was a distinct odd note to the finish on all 4 wines. We drank the wine with food and it was not bad but atypical for CA red varietals.

A-typicality doesn't make the wine bad, though. Again, just not to your liking. Using the word bad with wine generally denotes a flawed or damaged wine, not one you didn't like.

For the record, I have no association with this winery whatsoever. In truth, I don't much like them (never had the wines). I'm just trying to figure out what's going on for everyone's benefit.

kylemittskus wrote:This is what I was trying to ascertain. Raisin-y taste and or smell isn't a sign of either TCA taint (corked bottle) or of a wine being past its prime. The wines were just not to your liking, but they were not bad or corked or old.

This was the group in the 12/2010 offer:
2 2009 Viognier, Suisun Valley, Capp Vineyard
2 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, North Coast – W. Strycker Vineyard
2 2006 Malbec, St. Olof Vineyard, Lake County
2 2006 Zinfandel, Fountain Grove Sonoma County – “Young Buck” Vineyard
2 2006 Merlot, Reserve, Russian River Valley - Hedin Vineyard
2 2007 Syrah, Field of Dreams Vineyard, San Francisco Bay

To what would you attribute the raisin taste? They were not wines with a lot of bottle age on them.

kylemittskus wrote:A-typicality doesn't make the wine bad, though. Again, just not to your liking. Using the word bad with wine generally denotes a flawed or damaged wine, not one you didn't like.

I'm just trying to figure out what's going on for everyone's benefit.

Follow up: If you go to the 12/27/2010 prior offer link, you can see the CT reviews.

CS: 2 good review, 7 bad. Comments: down the drain, bad wine, musty nose, not a good wine, from an otherwise disastrous mixed case from WW.
Malbec: only one positive review. Comments: corked, smells like feet, burnt faded color, tasted weird, brown edges, flawed, flawed, flawed.
Zin: mixed reviews, either good or bad. Comments: overall effect was flat, mixed case has not been consistent at all, over the hill, on its way down, if this wine had a prime it's past it.
Merlot: Comments: third Sunce down the drain, murky and sloppy, don't know what's going on with my first case of Sunce, but it'll be the last.
Syrah: mid 80's. Comments: musty wet cardboard, another flawed bottle.

So, I don't know what happened, but I think there was more to this case than it not being to my liking. I think I got a case of bad wine and so did quite a few other reviewers.

seamore2001 wrote:Ugh. There were only four comments, all positive, when I purchased this morning. Reviewing the previous WWs for this winery were practically universally positive.

I'm going to be sooo disappointed if this wine is corked or otherwise spoiled. Woot, are you on this?

Well, first, we hope that you do come back to the forum and let us know what you think when you get it.

Also, looks like kylemittskus is asking some pretty sharp questions to help narrow down issues - I personally don't have any experience with this wine so I'm not a huge help on this front. It does appear to be one of those more divisive offers, wherein some people really seem to like Sunce (including Wil Wheaton), and some clearly do not.

jmdavidson wrote:I purchased the 12/27/2010 case and either the wines were corked/past their prime (i.e. tasted and smelled like raisins) or they were not to my liking. Worst purchase I have ever made on WW, so this is a non-auto-buy for me.

I'm in agreement here. I split the case with a buddy and while he didn't seem to mind his portion, I wasn't thrilled with any of the six different bottles I tried. I think the Zemjlia's Blend (sp.) was okay but the rest was just boring and had no distinctness to any of them. I would definitely pass on anything from this winery.

I too got a lot of sediment in my bottles.

inkycatz wrote:Well, first, we hope that you do come back to the forum and let us know what you think when you get it.

Also, looks like kylemittskus is asking some pretty sharp questions to help narrow down issues - I personally don't have any experience with this wine so I'm not a huge help on this front. It does appear to be one of those more divisive offers, wherein some people really seem to like Sunce (including Wil Wheaton), and some clearly do not.

Just because I had a bad experience on an offer back in 12/2010, does not mean that all of their offers are bad. It just soured me on any subsequent offers on WW. Plenty of others like their wines and have had good experiences with the winery.

Interesting comments thus far, and thanks to Kyle for trying to 'navigate' into objective terms.

It certainly would be great if the winery were around to step in here and clarify stuff - that's for sure.

'Raisiny' wines can be caused by numerous things. When I think of the term, the first thing that pops up is pretty ripe fruit. Of course, if you're talking zinfandel, that descriptor is oftentimes used for a vast majority of them.

I will see that heat damaged wines can also sometimes come across as pruny/raisiny as well, depending upon the variety in question and a number of other factors.

In terms of truly 'corked' wines, the cork companies would make you believe that it would not be common to have that many corked wines in a small lot . . . Doesn't mean it cannot happen, and I've experienced TCA rates at over 20% at times during cork trials for another winery that I worked for. That said, I do believe it is important that when you say a wine is 'corked' you truly understand the terminology and what the real attributes are. I'm not saying those of you claiming 'corked' do not - just making sure.

One last point - did the wines have a metallic finish? This can be signs of either microbial issues like brettanomyces or perhaps TCA . . .

Lots of possible stuff here - but let's hope the winery steps in and clears things up . . .

Cheers!

Atypical: yeah, I've tasted maybe a dozen different of their wines, and they are emphatically not in the Napa/Sonoma mainstream. Not necessary a good or bad thing; just a very different style.

And to my mind and palate, usually in a good way. I think the Croatian winemaker has quite an "old world" sensibility - but maybe in a Croatian / Central European vein (with which I'm otherwise not familiar), because his stuff doesn't exactly speak with a French or Italian accent either.

I first enjoyed the Apr '11 mixed case - the Pinot was just fantastic, others decent to really good including the very quirky Zemjla's (Nebbiolo/Barbera) Blend. Except I wasn't a fan of their Meritage (= Bordeaux blend), nor the one in the later mixed Bdx case - I might enjoy them more as fully mature wines quite a few years later, but they've seemed overly tannic to me. Not to a few colleagues though, who've found them deep, complex, and classy.

The Sep '11 Bdx case was, for me, more of a mixed bag. Again the Meritages I've left for others. The Merlot was freaking terrific, full of personality with some angularity/rough edges to balance its depth. Hint of dill, I thought, presumably from American oak? The cabs were quite acidic for CA - one just inside and the other just outside my personal border for what's enjoyable, and I generally prefer higher-acid, old-world wines. Again, some colleagues dug these too, finding them very complex and satisfying.

The other Sunce I recall offhand was a Cab Franc, which was one of my favorite bottles of a CA-grown Bdx grape. Nice balance and nuance; didn't try to overwhelm me with concentration at the expense of detail.

msummers wrote:I had a terrible experience with this winery the last woot offering. The entire case was bad, and when I e-mailed the winery to try to remedy the situation, I got no response. I've still got 3 or 4 bottles left and am not holding out much hope for them. Every single bottle I've opened from the case was either corked or full of sediment.

Most of Sunce's wines are unfiltered so they WILL have sediment - that does not take ONE BIT away from their great quality. If you are that bothered by the sediment run it through the Vintury with a filter. Only issue I see with ANY wine.woot at this time is shipments to the southern states which may result in heat exposure during transport, not something that the wine maker can truly control.

msummers wrote:I had a terrible experience with this winery the last woot offering. The entire case was bad, and when I e-mailed the winery to try to remedy the situation, I got no response. I've still got 3 or 4 bottles left and am not holding out much hope for them. Every single bottle I've opened from the case was either corked or full of sediment.

Same here. I have 10 bottles if rotten wine in the basement. The winery did not acknowledge the letter that I sent. Would not try anything from the vineyard again

tervel wrote:Most of Sunce's wines are unfiltered so they WILL have sediment - that does not take ONE BIT away from their great quality. If you are that bothered by the sediment run it through the Vintury with a filter. Only issue I see with ANY wine.woot at this time is shipments to the southern states which may result in heat exposure during transport, not something that the wine maker can truly control.

Agreed. Sediment itself does not mean a 'faulty' wine - at least not usually. And separating from the wine from the sediment is not too difficult - it's recommended to stand the bottle up for a few hours or even up to a day to allow the sediment to fall to the bottom of the bottle. Then pour the wine through a coffee filter or something similar to catch the particles.

That said, I can see how this would 'detract' from the enjoyment of the wines.

Besides the sediment, were there any other 'issues' that made the wines not to your liking? Curious to see whether these were 'faults' or just things you didn't like.

And as far as likes and dislikes, to me, that's what wine is all about - your enjoyment depends upon YOU only and NOT what others think or say about a wine.

My concern on the last point would be whether the wines were 'as advertised' or not . . . did the write up make the wines sound as if they would be totally different than they were? And if so, have you had other similar situations?

Curious to hear more . . .

Cheers!

lengelhart03 wrote:Same here. I have 10 bottles if rotten wine in the basement. The winery did not acknowledge the letter that I sent. Would not try anything from the vineyard again

Please define "rotten." Again, I don't care if you ever buy the stuff again. I'm just trying to figure out what's going on for my personal academic understanding.

As Sheldon would say, "Dayum you Will Wheaton!"

I bought two of the case offerings and have enjoyed all of them. But, what do I know. I always thought a little sediment was a good thing.

Normally, this would be an auto buy for me, but I'm on the fence on this one. I'm kinda' full on reds.