OK, this deal was so good that we’re emerging from our hibernation to tell you about it…Clos LaChance is in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, an AVA that I hold near and dear to my heart.  Owners Bill and Brenda Murphy started Clos LaChance in their Saratoga, CA backyard in the late 80’s, and have built it up to quite an operation, with three tiers of wines and a plethora of varietals offered each year.

The ‘06 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is a solid California Cab…  a nice dark color, dark fruits and berries and a hint of leather on the nose.  Flavors of dark berries laced with with oakey vanilla hit the palate nicely, with a good balance and decent finish.

This wine was originally released at $35 a bottle, but apparently the ‘07 vintage is pushing the ‘06 out the door at just $12.99.  This is seriously a STEAL. It’s almost impossible to find a wine of this quality anywhere close to this price.  It’s currently available at all K&L locations as well as on their website, but at this price it won’t last.  Buy several if you can.

I’m a little late in mentioning this, and I don’t take pleasure in reporting a winery in trouble, but if there’s a good wine deal to be had I have to pass it on. Because of financial trouble, Havens Wine Cellar has closed and as a result, their 2006 Napa Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are being liquidated for crazy prices. The Havens website simply says: ” Havens Wine Cellars is no longer operating at 2055 Hoffman Lane, Napa CA 94558. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”

The winery was established in 1984 by Michael Havens and its wines received much accliam before it was sold in 2006. Now just over three years later, the winery is no more.

K&L had the Cabernet for $9.99 a bottle (normally $35) and it sold out faster than I could reach for my corkscrew. They just got a bunch of Merlot in and are blowing it out for $6.99 a bottle (normally $20). It’s a tasty, elegant, understated Merlot, with nice, dark red fruit and notes of spices and cocoa. I mean, seriously? It’s Napa Merlot for $6.99… Nothing else can touch it, and it won’t last. If you live near one of K&L’s 3 locations, give ‘em a call, otherwise go to the website here and buy a bottle or two or a case.

Yep, it’s Earth Day, and we’re certainly all about saving the planet here at WineExpedition, so that the planet can keep producing wine grapes. And on Earth Day, I’m blogging about the wine I drank last night…

If you live in California, Nevada or Arizona, you may have heard of the new Fresh & Easy chain of neighborhood markets. It’s kinda like Trader Joe’s with slightly wider aisles and no cashiers (you check out yourself). Mind you, I’m not touting one over the other, I love the Trader Joe’s and now that a Fresh & Easy has popped up in my neighborhood, I’ve become a big fan.

Fresh & Easy is big in the packaged meals department; great for picking stuff you can quickly grab and quickly prepare for tonight’s dinner or tomorrow morning’s breakfast. Ready-to-eat salads, breakfast burritos, side dishes or main courses abound, and their meat/seafood department is chock full of good, well-priced options as is their produce department. And of course they have a nice, inexpensive wine aisle.

…Which brings us to our Earth Day theme. Fresh N’ Easy carries the 2008 One Hope California Sauvignon Blanc for the whopping price of $9.99. This wine was put together exclusively for the chain by wine maker David Elliot and Fresh N’ Easy’s head wine dude Phil Reedman. One Hope is all about conservation of the planet and pledges that 50% of the profits on each bottle of wine sold goes towards sustainability and the conservation of the planet. In the case of the Sauv Blanc from Fresh & Easy, 50% of the profit goes to American Forests, where every dollar they raise plants a tree. So I’m thinking that by the time I finish this bottle of Sauv Blanc, 2-3 trees are being planted.

And the wine is part of a lovely Fresh & Easy meal. I picked up a fresh bag of organic herb salad, some fresh cilantro dressing (no preservatives), a four pack of Roma tomatoes and a tasty tuna poke (if you’re not familiar, tuna poke is sushi-grade raw tuna, doused in oil, soy sauce and onions. It’s incredible).

The One Hope Sauv Blanc washed it all down like a champ. A nice light straw color, with aromas of citrus and melon swirling around in my glass. On the palate, crisp tropical flavors filled my mouth and finished smoothly. 10 bucks? Let’s buy a case and call it earth month.

May your Earth Day be productive and may it include some wine. For more info on the One Hope/Fresh n Easy connection, check out this article at PRNewswire.

Writing a wine blog is more difficult than you could possibly imagine.  It’s a regimented writing schedule that requires me to open a bottle of wine and taste just about every day.  I have to really focus on the flavors, the nose, the finish… and then I have to write all of these things down.  A lot of typing is involved, and typing with one hand (while the other holds a glass) is very difficult.   If I had a nickel for every time I spilled wine on my keyboard…

That’s not really true; I’m fairly careful around my keyboard, though I have spilled on several of my white T-shirts and my old steel-case desk has MANY circular wine stains from the myriad of bottles and glasses that have rested there.  All of that could be avoided if I only had one of these!    It’s the wine glass holder necklace, for sale at the Wine Enthusiast website.  I think this is a must-have for all wine bloggers and the Wine Enthusiast folks should send one to each and every wine blogger out there (complimentary of course, it’s good promotion)!

And it’s not just for bloggers… “…Keep your hands free at parties by keeping your wine close at heart! This clever little clip with adjustable strap holds a regular-size stemmed glass to your chest, giving you the freedom to snack and socialize as you sip…”  They are sold in sets of two and are on sale for a limited time for $19.99.   Hurry, operators are standing by….!

…and when I say WE, I mean WineExpedition of course. The question is, do you want a free bottle? All you need to do is sign up for our NEWSLETTER, and you’ll be entered for January’s giveaway (and all future giveaways). January’s contest will reward two lucky winners with a $50.00 gift card for K&L Wine Merchants where you can go and shop for your bottle. I like a lot of wine, but my favorite kind of wine is FREE wine….!

Steve Greer

2006 Artazu “Artazuri” Garnacha Navarra, Spain $10.99
Most producers who have 60-80 year old Grenache vines go for super-concentration, barrel fermentation and aging. But thankfully that is not what this Navarra producer went for. This wine is a pure expression of Grenache. Aromas of bright red fruit and a bit of spice in the background. On the palate there are fresh raspberries and blackberries, and it finishes with a bit of tannins and keeps going with heady ripe fruit. What a wine for only $10.99!

2005 Celler de Capcanes “Mas Donis” Barrica Montsant, Spain $10.99
If you are a fan of Cotes du Rhone wines then I would suggest trying this wine. Montsant is becoming one of my favorite wine-growing areas, providing affordable “Priorat-style” wines. This wine has a dark color with vanilla and red fruit aromas. On the palate it starts off astringent, but it is followed by nice focused red fruit and a long finish. (Steve has sold me this one, and it’s great!! Parker’s Wine Advocate gave it a 91!)

2005 Barrel 27 Central Coast Syrah $14.99
This wine is all about what a wine priced less than $15 can show when made well and balanced. It starts with a deep rich purple color and gives ripe raspberry aromas with a background of violets and spice. The lush mouthfilling fruit stays in check with good acidity as well as a background of anise and pepper. The long finish is all pepper and raspberries. Rich and seductive and all for $14.99.

2007 Pollerhof Grüner Veltliner (1L) $10.99
If you haven’t tried a gruner veltliner then this is the one to try. At only $9.99 for a one liter bottle, everyone gets a glass. And this wine is more than worth it. Pollerhof has been producing wine since 1920 from roughly 37 acres in the Weinviertel region of northern Austria. All the grapes for this wine, and all Pollerhof wines, are picked by hand and gently treated. This wine provides the peppery flavors of gruner that remind me of peppery salad greens like arugula. With beautiful ripe fruit and a creamy texture that is balanced by acidity, I am sure you will fall in love with Pollerhof’s Gruner Veltliner.

2007 Neil Ellis “Sincerely” Sauvignon Blanc South Africa $9.99
With all the grapefruity sauvignon blancs made in the southern hemisphere, this is a refreshing change. This “grassy” styled wine is filled with plenty of herbaceousness, but also some wonderful minerality and a background of lemon-lime. Plenty of acidity, but with a creamy texture suggesting some lees contact and and a long finish.

This morning as I was checking my email and sipping my first glorious cup of coffee (the other liquid consumable that I’m obsessed with), I stumbled across a message from our friend Michael Brill at Crushpad. (I don’t actually know Michael, but I love their concept, hope to try it someday, and thus I’ll call him friend).  The fine folks at Crushpad are offering their own version of a bailout for those of us watching our 401K’s slide down the hill.

For those of you who don’t know about Crushpad, check ‘em out.  The San Francisco based company allows folks like you and me to produce their own wine (they do all the heavy lifting, provide the grape choices, push the corks in the bottles, etc.).  It’s a brilliant idea.

And those same folks are bringing us Bailout Wine. Here’s the skinny:

They’re selling bottles of the “2007 Bailout Napa Valley Cabernet” on this website for $39/bottle.  They’ll record the closing value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average the day that you buy the bottles.  Then for every 100 points the Dow drops from your starting point, you get $2 off each bottle.  They’ll bottle the wine on August 14, 2009 and use the Dow closing level to determine your final price.  God knows I hope the market is doing better in fall of ‘09 (and so do the folks at Bailout/Crushpad by the way).

They point out that even if the market does well and the price remains $39 a bottle, the wine is a great deal.  Bailout is a blend of fruit from premier Napa vineyards in Oakville, Mt. Veeder and Pritchard Hill that they say routinely go into $75 to $275 wines. And they’re using French oak: Taransaud, Darnajou and Seguin Moreau barrels.  The cab will be blended with Malbec, Petite Verdot, Merlot and Cabernet Franc.  Their team of winemakers and consulting winemakers has produced numerous “big point” wines (Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate 92-96 points).

By the way, it’s worth  mentioning that my 401K is non-exsistent.  I spend most of my spare money on…  well, I’ll let you figure that one out. Check out the Bailout video here.

Okay, stop calling me names… I’m just sayin’…

I was at the market, picking up some essential supplies (read coffee), and found myself in the wine aisle… And for some reason, I found myself staring at the Markham Merlot that was on sale (with my club card) for $13.99 (regularly $19.99. If you’ve been following the little wine blog here, you know that I like a ’sale’ item.

And then there’s my little supermarket trick…  So I’m looking at the bottle of ‘05 Markham Merlot staring me at the face. What do I do? I reach all the way behind to the back of the shelf, and pull out a lone bottle of ‘04 that somehow has been inadvertently pushed to the back of the stack sometime in the last year (or two?). Now mind you, I have no idea if the ‘04 is better than the ‘05, or if the fact that the bottle has been standing up for an extra year is harmful to the wine, but it makes me feel special. My little secret find. My bottle is aged in the bottle an additional year than the bottle that the next guy is going to pick up.

Still basking in the afterglow of my monumental ‘pulling the wool’ over the supermarket’s eyes, I came home and popped that cork and poured me a glass. What the heck, it’s a Wednesday night…

And I’ll be darned if that ‘04 Markham Merlot wasn’t a tasty glass of wine. A nice woodsy nose, with a rich, fleshy black cherry/plum taste on the palette and firm, round, vanilla-laced tannins O’ Plenty!!! What, are you kidding me? For 14 bucks?

And it was a MERLOT!!!! (Shhh…. Don’t tell Miles).

Thats right; save for the holiday break which was obviously a weekend of turkey and pinot, my latest wine phase has involved me cruising the Spanish aisle at K&L…

By now it must be apparent that I frequent the K&L in Hollywood as it’s conveniently located along my commute route. And it’s also probably apparently that I keep my eye open for good deals on wine, and right now, with the economy in a bit of a pause, I’m particularly all about wine deals.

With that in mind, there are definitely some values to be found on the Spanish aisle. To quote our friends on the GOOD WINE UNDER $20 blog “If you’re looking for value wines these days, I have one question for you are you looking in the Spanish section?”

Some noteworthy recent finds:

2005 Celler de Capcanes “Mas Donis” Barrica- 11 bucks and Parker gave it a 91… and I gotta tell you, it’s delicious; a grenache/syrah blend. An enticing, dark, fruity nose, lovely black cherry on the palate with a long, vanilla-laden finish. A nice drinker all by itself.

1999 Navarro Lopez Old Vines Gran Reserva- 100% Tempranillo, 24 months in oak, and that oak gives it a nice touch of tobacco which dances with the spicy berry flavors in my mouth. A tasty find for under 15 bucks!

A consistently tasty white is the Basa Rueda Blanca, which I can always count on to tastel like a cool, tall glass of grapefruit goodness, and a perfect balance of underlying acidity. Made from a blend of Verdejo, Viura and Sauvignon Blanc, I’ve always found it for $9-$13 (you can order it online from The Wine Concierge, linked above).

So there you have it. Try some Spanish wine… Comment here and tell us about your favorites…

…Apparently there are some sweet online Black Friday wine deals including 25% off wine gift sets and Cyber Monday deals like 1 cent shipping…

Wine.com is the reported purveyor of these internet wine deals, a refreshing break from yet another plasma TV or navagation system. And rather than having to wait in line in a freezing cold parking lot or have a shouting match with another customer in the digital camera aisle at Fry’s (I’ve done it… a great way to start the holiday season), these wine deals can be had in the comfort of your home office. Wine.com has a great selection, and with the shipping barrier being eliminated, I may be ordering some wine on Monday. Full story here at MarketWatch.com.