Buy Wine: November 2010 Archives

One of the original counties of California, Mendocino County is located on California's north coast above San Francisco Bay Area and west of the Central Valley. Most notable in Mendocino are the distinctive Pacific Ocean coastline, Redwood forests and quality wine production.

Mendocino's history in winegrapes began following the California Gold Rush in the 1850's. Immigrant farmers, in lieu of riches in gold, turned to farming; choosing the slanted, roughed up, sun-drenched hillsides for winegrape growing. Production started small and then grew with successes.

The more southern markets of Napa and Sonoma proved to be tough competition. Their proximity to distribution channels in larger cities like San Francisco gave them an advantage over the locally sold Mendocino wines. Then, during Prohibition, wine production all but stopped in Mendocino. Only one small family vineyard kept production alive, until the 1960's. Mendocino winemakers had their work cut out for them!

Part of the fun of wine tasting is discovering new wines and wineries. But traveling to the California wine country isn't always easy--especially in tough economic times. Fortunately, TastingRoom.com offers an affordable way to bring the wine country to you.

How? TastingRoom.com teams with top wineries to deliver tastes of their best wines right to your door. The wine comes in packages of six taste-sized mini bottles (50ml) which are perfect replicas of the originals, inside and out. Each bottle contains 1.7 ounces of premium wine -- the equivalent to a generous tasting room pour.

And here's the amazing part: the wine samplers feature six wines from six different wineries side-by-side. These are top-caliber wines from established vintners like Grgich Hills and DeLoach or hidden gems like Storybook Mountain and La Follette. So, if you want to compare Cabernets from six Napa wineries, you can. Or if you want to explore a range of varietals in one sampler, you can do that too. They also have winery samplers so you can enjoy a flight of the best wines a single winery has to offer. There are dozens of wine samplers to choose from starting at $19.99.

Want to have that winery tasting room experience without the hassle of traveling to the wine country? Now you can. TastingRoom.com has introduced a one-of-a-kind product that actually brings the wine country to the comfort of your home.
 
How is that possible? Simple. They work with top wineries to create collections of award-winning wines contained in 50ml taste-sized bottles -- roughly twice the amount you receive in a typical tasting room pour. The wines are assembled in beautiful packages of six mini bottles - called wine samplers -- and shipped right to your doorstep.

Once your wine sampler is delivered, you can have a wine tasting experience right in your home. Just pour the wine into six glasses and swirl, sniff, and sip to your heart's delight. Heck, you don't even have to take off your fuzzy slippers.

And here's the best part: you can taste six fantastic wines from six top wineries. Do you like Cabernet? You can taste California Cabs from six of the finest producers side-by-side. A Chardonnay fan? Compare Chards made using different winemaking styles. They've got well known wineries like Grgich Hills and DeLoach and up-and-comers like La Follette and Carol Shelton. And they've got hundreds of wines to choose from. All this for as little as $19.99.