Viña Amate 2023 Tempranillo

1 Reply

Rioja DOC, Spain, 14% ABV, agglomerated cork, $6.99 with second bottle for 1¢ (“buy one get one,” “BOGO”). Pretty recently arrived, decanted 4 – 4.5 hours, tastes of mostly fresh-fruited tangy dark red-purple cherry, grape, vague plum, some lighter red cherry with more liquidy character, slightly stemmy wood, hint of cinnamon, still with a thin layer of drying, chewy tannin. Dry, smooth and even, no faults, medium body. Should be good for the next year or so in non-hot storage. At the base $7 price, this is fine but unexciting; at $3.50 this is a nice deal.

Aorangi Road 2025 Single-Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc

4 Replies

Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, 12% ABV, screw cap, $8. My first impression of this wine was that it had a gorgeous nose of white flowers and light lime, but that on the palate it was quite lacking in fruit. However, it was just young (maybe 7 months old) and now, after a few days open in the fridge, the gently weighted fruit has come out. It has tasty flavors of white and slightly yellow / green melon, jasmine / gardenia / light honeysuckle, light lime, hint of lychee, melon rind / citrus pith minerality. Back label says, “apples, white nectarine, passion fruit.” I won’t disagree, with the qualifier that those fruits are all not very ripe. Pretty nice, distinctly New Zealand, and not exactly Marlborough.

Swiftsure 2022 Pinot Noir

1 Reply

Bannockburn, Central Otago, New Zealand, screw cap, 14.2% ABV, $7. On the first night open, decanted 4 – 4.5 hours, this wine showed lighter-bodied medium-red cherry / raspberry fruit that had a hint of richness, but it was still pretty inaccessible. It’s definitely Pinot and not bad at all, but will probably develop more nuance and complexity over the next year. Several days later, the saved 375ml bottle did indeed become more full and ripe, although hardly completely open, and without Californian sweetness. My wife and I liked this a lot for the price, so I got a few more in this weekend’s 20% off sale to see how they do over the next year, if I can keep out of them.

True North 2019 red table wine

4 Replies

True North 2019 red table wine, Columbia Valley, WA, 37% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, 18% Malbec, 11% Tempranillo, 9% Syrah, 5% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc, produced and bottled by Destination Wines, Pasco, WA, screw cap, 13.9% ABV, $6. Seemed to need about 3:15 decanted to mostly air to tangy dark red raspberry / boysenberry, cranberry sauce (neither the sweetness nor the acid, just the fruit flavor), Bing cherry / hint of blackberry / maybe blackcurrant, lighter red cherry, light caramelly mature complexity, stem / wood. Body is lighter medium. Balanced acid. A jumble of flavors, unsurprisingly I guess, but they work well together; pretty tasty overall. Not bad for a blend of leftovers. Drink it fairly soon.

WineObsessedRN posted a link to an info sheet for this wine here. Its tasting notes say, “Our 2019 DESTINATION True North red wine has a deep
rosewood color and a complexity of aromas including caramel, vanilla, toast,
tobacco and marionberry. The palate is smooth with chewy tannins and subdued
acidity that reveals dark cherry favor. The finish is velvety with a sweet
aftertaste.” I claim significant overlap, although that may be only because I listed so many flavors. 🙂

GO Fall Wine Sale Nov 3 – 11

51 Replies

Greetings everyone! The Grocery Outlet Fall Wine Sale will be Monday, November 3, through Tuesday, November 11. On the first two days, only users of the GO app on their phones will get 25% off. Customers without the app will have to wait until Wednesday, November 5, to get the usual 20% off.

As usual, please scan through the back pages of What’s New? to see what you might want to stock up on, if it’s still around. And use comments here to describe what you got, where, ask about wines that look interesting, etc.

Myself, aside from a few odds and ends, there’s nothing I really want to stock up on, although I hope new and interesting wines show up during the sale. A few things I’m contemplating: Terra Blanca 2019 Merlot (I haven’t posted on it yet because I haven’t opened a saved screw-cap bottle, but the summary is very nice Merlot that is still a few years from being drinkable, IMO. $8), Candelario 2022 Chardonnay Russian River Valley and Candelario Pinot Noir Carneros (haven’t tried yet, also $10), maybe more Bonpas Ventoux. I think the Poggio al Sale Chianti is still around, which I think could also use some more age.

GO Spring 2025 Wine Sale

86 Replies

People using the GO app on their phones will have a week of sale, from Wednesday, March 26, through Tuesday, April 1. After that, people without the app like myself will have a week of sale from April 2 – 8. My experience has been that most of the wines I want to buy are sold out in the first few days, so I will hope that more interesting wines come in during the second week. Either way, to gauge what you might want more of, please look back through the comments on the “What’s New?” page.

As usual, please use this page to describe what you got, where, and how much was left, notes on new wines that have come in, or any general reactions to this sale. Thanks, and happy hunting!

Fall 2024 GO Wine Sale November 4 – 12

120 Replies

Hey all! It’s time for the Grocery Outlet fall wine sale, but I am once again out of GO territory at this time. I admit that there are stores here on the East Coast that do also sell wine, with a surprisingly strong upgrade at my local Safeway, but it’s not the same as the fun of hunting for deals among the novel and cheap wines at Grocery Outlet, especially at 20% off already low prices. I had already decided that I didn’t really like how much I stocked up during the spring sale, because it meant I couldn’t try as many new arrivals.

So I’m fine with missing this sale, but for everyone else, please do your usual on this page. List what you’re anticipating getting, what you’ve found where at what price, and how much you left behind. You may want to scan over the comments on the What’s New page, which is where the non-sale discussion takes place these days. Please also give sightings and impressions of new wines that show up during the sale. If there’s something y’all are wild about, I may request my local GO wine guy to save a couple bottles for me to pick up when I return. 🙂 Happy hunting and tasting!

One final note: Sale prices are available November 4th and 5th only if you use the GO app on your phone.

Spring 2024 GO Wine Sale March 25 – April 2

86 Replies

The Grocery Outlet Spring 2024 Wine Sale starts in one week and runs for nine days. As usual, please look back over the last few months’ worth of your personal favorites and the What’s New page to put together a hunting list. Use replies to this post to describe what you’d like to find, what you’ve found, impressions of new wines (I hope a bunch will be showing up for the sale), and how much you’ve left where for the rest of us.

This sale, I don’t have anything I’m waiting to stock up on, so I’ll just be going to nab a few old favorites and try out anything new and interesting-looking.

Fall 2023 GO Wine Sale Nov. 1 – 7

46 Replies

The Fall 2023 Grocery Outlet wine sale, 20% off all wines, will be Wednesday, November 1 through Tuesday, November 7. I’ll get some Vireton Pinot Noir and Magistrate Cabernet, probably some other wines also discussed on the What’s New? page, such as Matchbook Petit Verdot or Malbec, Shale Oak KA red, Crasto Duoro Superior, and probably a number of others I’ll forget until I see them in the store(s). As usual, reply to this post with what you got where, what you saw that you left behind, what you think of new arrivals you tried out, etc. Cheers and happy hunting!

Spring 2023 Wine Sale 20% Off, April 3 – 11

204 Replies

The Grocery Outlet Spring 2023 Wine Sale will start Monday, April 3 and run through Tuesday, April 11. This is the first time I can recall that a biannual GO wine sale has run over one week. I hope this means more interesting wines will come in over the course of the sale, but we’ll see.

This year, I’m outside GO territory at the moment, and won’t be contributing to tasting notes. However, please do make use of this post, as usual, to describe what you have (or haven’t) found, where, how much was left, notes for new wines that appear during the sale, etc. I hope I’ll be able to get back for at least some of this long sale, but in the meantime, cheers!