“Where’s Jon?” is back
August 31, 2010
After months on the road, I think its time to bring back a popular feature from our old web site...
Our in-house guessing game has a new home in the “Explore” section of the Garagiste website and the first puzzle is a tough one!
How it works:
Every so often, a photo is posted of a recent destination. Like Alfred Hitchcock or Waldo, I may not be visible in the photo but, If you think you know where the photo was taken, post your answer on the “Where’s Jon?” forum (there’s a link to the forum in the photo). The first correct guess wins a prize.
If you want to see where I’ve been in the past, previous photos (correctly identified by email list members over the years) are in a section called “Where was Jon?”
See if you can recognize where I am today. New winners will be showered with glory and adulation from their peers (in addition to a nice reward from Garagiste). It’s all in fun, so see if you can figure out today’s puzzle here.
Visit the Garagiste Forum for complete rules.
Good luck!
- Jon Rimmerman
Mystery Wine #8
Mystery Wine #8 is no longer available. Sign up to receive email offers so you won't miss out on #9.
August 26, 2010
Dear Friends,
Looking for estate Cabernet Sauvignon from a great vintage (2005) but don’t wish to pay the regular $30+?
Enter Mystery Wine #8, the cure for the cheapskate blues.
Let’s be serious – being thrifty in today’s economy hardly qualifies anyone for unique status – everyone is being reserved in their spending and looking for bargains. If you play your Mystery Wine cards right, you could end up with an entire high-end cellar with every bottle purchased in the $15 range. Regardless of your predilection, few would argue with that formula.
After Mystery Wine #7 (Oregon Pinot Noir), there was the usual outcry for more full-throttle Cabernet as it appears the demand for low-priced estate-level Cabernet Sauvignon is insatiable. While all of the Mystery Wine offers are popular, when Cabernet is involved – look out. We’ve had order requests for Cabernet-based Mystery Wine’s from as far away as Zanzibar so the bargain hunting is not limited to those of us in the lower 48.
With that...
Mystery Wine #8 is house wine revelry – an almost laughable level of quality for the price. A Gold Medal winner and wine that continues to improve in the bottle (I tasted it two years ago upon release and again last week), this 100% Cabernet defines why Washington State is so promising for Bordeaux varietals with a sense of elegance and class that sets it apart from growing districts in California. Explosive and broad on the palate (without losing any sense of harmony or finesse), this is the EXACT bottled and labeled wine as exists on the market. As I usually do, I toured a few boutique wine shops in Seattle to check pricing and it is on the shelf for $36.99 at one and $38.97 at another (I looked at the two lowest priced stores I know of so it probably sells for even more outside of the NW).
What I can tell you...
- 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
- outstanding 2005 vintage (this is not from an off-year)
- 100% estate fruit – Columbia Valley
- EXACT bottle, cork and label that exists on the boutique market (this is not a kinkos label – it’s the real winery label)
- we cannot reveal the wine or label – you will find out when you receive your fall shipping boxes (or pick up)
This wine is set to be delivered in mid-late October – it is in no hurry of consumption.
As with all Mystery Wine offers, even if you don’t like the 48 bottles you’ve purchased, I'm sure there are colleagues, friends, family and small nations that would be forever grateful for your kindness and generosity (“oh yes, I always hand out cases of limited production Cabernet at holiday time – don’t you?”). Of course, the price you paid stays between us.
Mystery Wine offers sell out quickly - everyone goes to the starting line together a la the Boston Marathon (Mystery Wine #8 is more limited than past offerings because it is from 2005)...
...get ready, set....GO!
FIRST COME FIRST SERVED up to 48/person until we run out
Mystery Wine #8 (Columbia Valley)
NO SALES TO RETAILERS OR WHOLESALERS
Thank you,
Jon Rimmerman
Garagiste
Seattle, WA
GARAGISTE LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE, INTEGRATES WITH CELLARTRACKER & GRAPESTORIES
Jon Rimmerman joins Robinson, Tanzer and Burghound with CellarTracker & Grape Stories “Channel”
SEATTLE, WA—August 9, 2010, Innovative Seattle wine retailer Garagiste (www.garagistewine.com) today announces the launch of its new website, as well as integration of founder Jon Rimmerman’s most recent tasting notes with CellarTracker (www.cellartracker.com), the world’s most robust wine database, and its sister site GrapeStories (www.grapestories.com).
Rimmerman joins wine world luminaries including Jancis Robinson, Stephen Tanzer and Burghound’s Allen Meadows in CellarTracker’s and GrapeStories’ roster of integrated professional wine review “channels.”
Until now, Rimmerman’s detailed tasting notes and stories have only been available via email to Garagiste subscribers and have not been compiled for easy access or referral.
The first installment in the CellarTracker Garagiste channel consists of over 2,200 of the most recent tasting notes dating back to 2008. Earlier tasting notes will be integrated in future installments.
Says Rimmerman, “Our new site is easier to use, more informative, and closer to the root of what we stand for, and we’ll continue to add features in the coming weeks. We are also quite proud to (finally) announce something that thousands of our members have asked for since 2003 – a dedicated channel link to CellarTracker. It will now be possible to read many of my writings and offers directly from CellarTracker. It’s a scary proposition for me that something I wrote years ago will now be so easily accessible, but I understand the excitement for our members and applaud CellarTracker founder Eric LeVine for the immense amount of work he’s done to make the Garagiste channel a reality.”
Says CellarTracker founder Eric LeVine, "I am very excited to collaborate with Jon Rimmerman and Garagiste. On a personal level, I am a very happy customer of Garagiste and feel that Jon is a unique, passionate and forceful voice for many of the things I care about in wine. Professionally, from the earliest days of CellarTracker in 2003, a large number of customers have eagerly suggested that we collaborate in this fashion. Community data shows more purchases are tracked from Garagiste than from any other retailer, and close to 1,000 wine collectors regularly enter purchases within minutes of Jon's emails. By automatically integrating, these customers will be able to continue to heed Jon's advice as they cellar and ultimately drink these wines."
About Garagiste:
Founded in Seattle in the 1990s by Jon Rimmerman, who is often credited with sparking the “email offer” revolution in fine wine sales, Garagiste is a small, independently operated purveyor of wine (and occasionally food), wisdom, and esoteric tidbits of travel and culture. There is no store — email is the only vehicle for sales. Most wines are largely unknown outside their local areas and not yet available in the U.S. Garagiste searches out the best wine and underground foodstuffs in the world and makes them available to its thousands of subscribers via one or more richly detailed daily email offers. garagistewine.com
About CellarTracker LLC:
Developed by Eric LeVine in 2003, CellarTracker.com is now the most broadly adopted cellar management tool worldwide with over 19.2 million bottles catalogued or consumed by more than 111,000 registered users. Users can report inventory by producer, vintage, varietal, drinkability, value, share tasting notes, print wine lists, and track bottle locations. To date there are more than 1.47 million community tasting notes available. CellarTracker.com
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