Gård Vintners

Gård Vintners Altruism Riesling 6-Pack
$59.99 $̶1̶0̶3̶.̶0̶0̶ 42% off List Price
2010 Altruism Riesling, Columbia Valley

Gård Vintners Altruism Pinot Gris 6-Pack
$59.99 $̶1̶0̶3̶.̶0̶0̶ 42% off List Price
2010 Altruism Pinot Gris

Gård Vintners Dry Riesling 4-Pack
$57.99 $̶9̶5̶.̶0̶0̶ 39% off List Price
2010 Dry Riesling, Columbia Valley

Gård Vintners Mixed White Case
$123.99 $̶2̶1̶7̶.̶0̶0̶ 43% off List Price
2010 Freyja
2010 Altruism Riesling, Columbia Valley
2010 Dry Riesling, Columbia Valley
2010 Altruism Pinot Gris

Phew. You once again failed to sell the Freyja on it's own. I would have been in on that, but can pass on the rest. I all very decent wines, nice QPR, but I prefer the Freyja the most.

EDIT: Just noticed the $25 increase in the price on the case offering. Take that, plus the sales tax and that kills a lot of the QPR here. Not to mention the blow-out they just had on their website for the previous vintage where some wines were sub $50 for a case.

North316 wrote:Phew. You once again failed to sell the Freyja on it's own. I would have been in on that, but can pass on the rest. I all very decent wines, nice QPR, but I prefer the Freyja the most.

Glad to hear you like the Freyja as much as we do! We'll have to talk to our friends at Wine.Woot about offering it soon on its own. Sorry it wasn't included this time as a stand-alone.

Thanks for having Gard Vintners back on Wine.Woot! As always, be sure to check out gardvintners.com/woot for detailed tasting notes, technical info, etc. You can also give us a shout at wine@gardvintners.com if you have questions. As the Norwegians say, skål! (Cheers!)

lisat5 wrote:Glad to hear you like the Freyja as much as we do! We'll have to talk to our friends at Wine.Woot about offering it soon on its own. Sorry it wasn't included this time as a stand-alone.

Just noticed the pretty significant change in the blend of the Freyja from 2009 to 2010. Any specific reasons for this? How would you compare and contrast the two?

2009 Freyja
•Blend: 49% Roussanne, 42% Riesling, 9% Pinot Gris

2010 Freyja
•Blend: 78% Roussanne, 17% Pinot Gris, 5% Viognier

North316 wrote:Just noticed the pretty significant change in the blend of the Freyja from 2009 to 2010. Any specific reasons for this? How would you compare and contrast the two?

2009 Freyja
•Blend: 49% Roussanne, 42% Riesling, 9% Pinot Gris

2010 Freyja
•Blend: 78% Roussanne, 17% Pinot Gris, 5% Viognier

We changed winemakers between those vintages to Aryn Morell, so the revised blend was a reflection of that. And in fact, the Freyja is evolving into a Rhone blend entirely - the 2011 has a higher proportion of Viognier/Roussanne, and the 2012 (which we're bottling this month) will be 80% Viognier/20% Roussanne. We're a relatively young winery, so we're tweaking the Freyja program a bit, and feel the Rhone route will be where it finally finds its home.

You can see full technical data and tasting notes to compare the two at:

2009 Freyja: http://www.gardvintners.com/2009_Freyja.pdf

2010 Freyja: http://www.gardvintners.com/2010_Freyja.pdf

lisat5 wrote:Thanks for having Gard Vintners back on Wine.Woot! As always, be sure to check out gardvintners.com/woot for detailed tasting notes, technical info, etc. You can also give us a shout at wine@gardvintners.com if you have questions. As the Norwegians say, skål! (Cheers!)

Your website is showing a new location for your Woodinville tasting, and says opening in March 2013. I presume that you are moving to a location, though not at all far from where you were before.

Also the location shown for the new location appears to be right next to the Shake and Go, the aroma of which is pretty overpowering. I drove by your previous location yesterday, and the Shake and Go "aroma" was still quite noticeable at that distance. If the location you show is correct I would expect that odors from Shake and Go to often be overwhelmingly powerful for winetasting.

*almost* pulled the trigger when I noticed the considerably higher price. This is no bargain. Woot is sadly becoming just another store, and truly good deals are getting rarer. Perhaps it's an inevitable consequence of being part of a giant corporation, but Woot is well on the way to losing what made it special.

sf6864 wrote: ... This is no bargain. Woot is sadly becoming just another store, and truly good deals are getting rarer. Perhaps it's an inevitable consequence of being part of a giant corporation, but Woot is well on the way to losing what made it special ...

Yeah, but - let's also give credit where it's due. I rarely buy anything here any more, and don't miss it. (Used to be a daily thing - and during WO's, it was insane ...) Now I don't even notice Woot. As my cellar has tripled in size I think I've bought less than 1/2 case here at Woot. And other "departments" suffer from it - the cross-selling at Woot is sheer genius, but if I'm not stopping in for wine, I'm unlikely to see the other things, or pay attention to the email notices.

Back to giving credit, though. Bargains are relative. And perhaps the reason I don't shop Woot any more is the fact that other outlets (for wine, and for other things) have improved so much while trying to reach the bar Woot helped to set.

The competition has been fierce out there, and someone had to lose. Often, the one to lose is from among those who were on the "bleeding edge" of progress.

sf6864 wrote:*almost* pulled the trigger when I noticed the considerably higher price. This is no bargain. Woot is sadly becoming just another store, and truly good deals are getting rarer. Perhaps it's an inevitable consequence of being part of a giant corporation, but Woot is well on the way to losing what made it special.

You do realize this is a "wootplus" offering, which is specifically intended to be more like an ordinary on-line store?

noslensj wrote:You do realize this is a "wootplus" offering, which is specifically intended to be more like an ordinary on-line store?

The whole point of Woot used to be the unordinary. (if not extraordinary) An "ordinary" Woot is a Woot without purpose.

lisat5 wrote:...the 2011 has a higher proportion of Viognier/Roussanne, and the 2012 (which we're bottling this month) will be 80% Viognier/20% Roussanne. We're a relatively young winery, so we're tweaking the Freyja program a bit, and feel the Rhone route will be where it finally finds its home.

At 80% Viognier, why not just call it.... Viognier?

chipgreen wrote:At 80% Viognier, why not just call it.... Viognier?

Yep, we could just call it a Viognier at 80%, but the blend varies year to year and we don't always expect it to be consistently that high for either varietal so we'll just keep it as Freyja for now.

noslensj wrote:Your website is showing a new location for your Woodinville tasting, and says opening in March 2013. I presume that you are moving to a location, though not at all far from where you were before.

Also the location shown for the new location appears to be right next to the Shake and Go, the aroma of which is pretty overpowering. I drove by your previous location yesterday, and the Shake and Go "aroma" was still quite noticeable at that distance. If the location you show is correct I would expect that odors from Shake and Go to often be overwhelmingly powerful for winetasting.

Yes, we're moving near the Shake and Go to our own brand new tasting room space (our last space was shared with another winery and hidden deeper within the warehouse area). I've never noticed an aroma from the Shake and Go, but if you're concerned I invite you to visit on Sundays when they are closed. Thanks for driving by the new location btw, we're very excited for it and hope to be open by mid March.

This message may not belong here, but in response to some of the comments, I have to say that I love Woot (!) and enjoy having a look around the site. When they bring things back, well I have had time to decide if I really want it. Plus all of you offer helpful information, and I feel like I have made an informed choice!
It is nice to have company reps available to respond to comments (which are so funny and helpful). Lisa5 and the James Family are charming, knowledgeable and pleasant.
Things may be slightly cheaper at other sites but I doubt they are as much fun!

lisat5 wrote:Yep, we could just call it a Viognier at 80%, but the blend varies year to year and we don't always expect it to be consistently that high for either varietal so we'll just keep it as Freyja for now.

Thanks for the response. Hopefully the blend will get more interesting once again as the Freyja program continues to evolve.