You have used groupon before, right? No? It’s a daily deal website where you buy the “deal” in advance. So in this case, pay $10 now, get the coupon, and then take that to the store for $20 worth of product before the expiration date.

The deals change daily so make sure you jump on it now if you’re interested!

So, my question for you today – when you read Vinotrip, what are you looking for in your local wine coverage? Are you counting on us to identify the best deals in Maryland wine? Are we putting in enough reviews? Sound off in the comments!

My personal take is that we already have enough Wine Spectators in the world, and that our local coverage here on the special interest issues is what makes us unique and valuable for Maryland wine lovers. Do you agree?

Cheers,

-Matt

Heard on @fiorewinery

21% off a case, serious stuff. None of this 10% nonsense that we’re normally accustomed to. Nor is it a sham where a store raises prices, then discounts from those inflated prices. Pick up a case to stock your cellar throughout the holidays. Better yet, if you’re in sales or some other job that requires you to thank a bunch of clients so that they continue to shovel you business, grab a case and hand them out as gifts. Fiore, you may have heard me say, is among the best values in Maryland wine.

The path of the wine collector is littered with cases of remorse and magnums of regret. These missteps pile up in a subterranean warehouse in San Francisco and sit in the friendly confines of perfect storage conditions. Neglect comes from many factors: case purchases that weren’t as good as advertised, mailing list buys “just to keep my spot on the list”, piles of Aussie Shiraz waiting quietly for the boom in prices that will never come. The solution is unclear; the owner is torn. He is paying storage fees on wine, but getting unwanted wine shipped to him is hardly worth the shipping fees that FedEx will gladly charge.

Enter Vinfolio Marketplace. You, dear reader, can now buy this regret at a steep discount. Personally, I like to pair remorse with a Ribeye steak or some cola-braised Lamb Shank.

What is Vinfolio Marketplace? First, some background.

Traditional wine purchasing goes like so

winery -> distributor -> retailer -> you

This works fine, but the price you’re paying has been marked up along the way. Plus, it is hard to find old bottles, rare bottles, and straggler bottles.

The secondary market

wine owner -> stuffy auction house -> random bidding war -> you

This works fine too, if you’re the type that can drop $5,000 on a case at Sotheby’s. I’m not there yet. Plus, you’re at the mercy of what is offered. Looking for that one vintage of Latour to plug up your vertical? You have to scan the catalogs looking for it until one comes up, then you’re competing with everyone else on auction day.

Vinfolio Marketplace

wine owner -> (Vinfolio Inspection) -> you

The path of least resistance is here! At Vinfolio Marketplace, people list their wines for sale. You browse the site and buy those wines. Vinfolio serves as the intermediary of a person to person transaction (the actual legal definitions are, I’m sure, phenomenally complicated). You can search for some rare bottles, some stuff you had five years ago and really liked but can no longer find, or go bargain hunting and try to shore up your cellar with values. Some people haven’t found much success, though, with bids being mostly ignored by would-be sellers.

There are several critical tips that make this easier. Using them will help you score finished sales and better prices on your wines.

Search for wines marked for sale. This may be obvious to you, but it isn’t obvious that “Marketplace” encompasses all wines in the Vinfolio user universe. These wines may not exist, may not truly be for sale, may not be anything. If they’ve been marked for sale, at least you know you’re working with someone who wants to play ball.

Filter/sort on wines with where the seller has specified an asking price. Sellers don’t need to list an asking price, but if they do, it’s a further clue to you about their willingness to sell should you make an offer. Plus, making an offer on a wine without an asking price just feels like a lowball move.

Filter for wines already in Vinfolio storage (Location -> In Vinfolio Storage). Inertia is in your favor. Here’s the workflow for a purchase of a wine from a seller’s personal storage.

Accept bid -> go through personal storage and find the bottle(s) -> rummage around and find a box to ship the wine in -> Pack the wine -> Go to FedEx and ship the wine -> EDIT: See comment thread about shipping costs when selling through the marketplace -> Wait around for Vinfolio to receive and inspect the wine -> Finally get paid.

Lame. Let’s see what happens if the wine is in the owner’s storage account.

Accept bid -> Vinfolio inspection -> Receive payment

Hey! That’s super easy! If you were a seller, which is easier for you? Easier for the seller means cheaper for the buyer. I’m glossing over the nitty-gritty mostly because VInfolio has done a good job of putting up tutorials, blog posts, and FAQs surrounding the Marketplace.

For a few weeks now, I have been taking advantage of the Marketplace and scored some good wines at killer prices. I get to drink some old stuff that isn’t available in wine stores, and the owners get to unload unwanted wines out of their storage account. Winners all around!

I waited to write this blog post lest more buyers enter the pool and drive the market up. But, my buying spree is tapering off, and my readership isn’t yet (ever?) broad enough to create a Tulip craze. Go get dirty in the Marketplace and search for some wines that you may have thought were previously out of your reach. Good luck!

…located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains on 117 acres, with a fully stocked 7 acre lake and a 3500sqft house.

It’s all salivating in a romantic, quit-my-job-and-start-a-winery sort of way, which is the angle they’re shooting for I suppose.

Realtor listing, with a ton of pictures, is here.

I’ve never even heard of the winery, anyone tried the juice?

It was only a matter of time that this invaded the world of wine. Crushpad sent an email to inboxes across the land this morning touting their new wine release: Bailout Napa Cabernet. Crushpad had some extra barrels lying around, perhaps having over-anticipated demand for boutique wine making… in….

wait for it….

these difficult economic times.

Yes! Awesome! Difficult economic times, you guys! Sweet.

Here’s the deal, the price is $39 per bottle and for each 100 point drop in the Dow between now and release bottling in August of 2009, the price of the wine drops $2 per bottle. And, you’re protected on the upside. If the Dow goes on a big run, you won’t be paying $100 a bottle.

Ooh, and there it is, right on the The Wine page

Plus, this is a great way for us to have a bit of fun in these dour economic times

Winner!

The kicker is that the price of the wine is $39 and the price starts moving with the Dow on the day you buy it. You can time this. Wait for a huge run up in stocks then sell your shares and go running to Crushpad to order your wine. Warren Buffet could buy up all the Bailout wine, move the market by himself, then have a sweet deal on his hands.

I have no doubt the wine will be good. I suspect that it’ll be closer in quality to $39 than the $75 that they’re hyping it up to be. Crushpad does have a history of getting some serious fruit. One wine maker in the Anderson Valley once told me that he “has no idea how Crushpad gets the fruit from the vineyards that they do.”

Bailout is a blend of fruit from premier Napa vineyards in Oakville, Mt. Veeder and Pritchard Hill that routinely go into $75 to $275 wines.

Sounds good to me, though not good enough to plunk down $100 for a two-bottle gift pack. I don’t think the Dow is going this way or that way with any resolve over the next year or so, so the odds of getting a steal are slim.

Bailout Wine product page.

Monday nights in October they’re doing Monday Night Flights. $49 gets you a antipasti, salumi, and long flight of wines based around a specific region in Italy. October 13th is Piemonte, the 20th is Alto Adige (which I know nothing about) and the 27th goes to the old workhorse Chianti.

But, that isn’t the best part of Cinghiale this month. Tuesday Night Cellar Raid features 50% off full bottles of wine from 5-7pm in the Enoteca. The deal is so boggling that I had to confirm with an employee that it is indeed 50% off ANY bottle in their encyclopedia-like wine list. There are a lot of winners in there, won’t be hard to pick one out for half price.

I’ve been to Cinghiale twice and I LOVE their wine bar. When I couldn’t decide between a glass of Brunello or a glass of Barolo, the bartender poured me a taste of both without even being asked (I decided on the Barolo, fantastic). The reds are chilled just so and the glasses are selected based on the type of wine you select. My wife reports that the cappuccino is very good as well.

Cinghiale
822 Lancaster Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
http://www.cinghiale-osteria.com/
Link to CityPaper review

Picked this up from the LA Times of all places: Both Brooks Robinson and Eddie Murray have lent their names and likeness to a series of commemorative wines that will be sold for charity. Brooks Robinson Chardonnay and Eddie Murray 504 Cabernet Sauvignon are both on sale now and will be shipped in mid-June. Perfect drinks for whenever the Orioles are tagging Josh Beckett in Fenway.

The athlete’s proceeds from the sale will go to benefit the Baltimore Community Foundation, an organization that sponsors grants and endowments for Baltimore City. Mike Schmidt’s Zinfandel benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, another organization near and dear to my heart.

Grapes for both are sourced from Paso Robles. I poked around but haven’t found anything about where they make the wine. I imagine the answer is “somewhere in California.”

Both wines can be ordered from Event Wines, a company that apparently specializes in this sort of thing: paring athletes with wine for charity.

Of course, what would a blog post be if I couldn’t sound off about the Maryland shipping laws? Neither wine can be shipped to Maryland, just as the Mike Schmidt 548 Zinfandel cannot be shipped to Pennsylvania. Contact your local state representative and try to persuade them to blah blah blah…

Who is in for a case? Link to product page.

Image is of third base in Nationals Park. CC licensed photo from Flickr user f1rstborn

Link to Wine.Woot.

Nevermind the fact that it’s almost impossible to find a Napa Valley Cab with a 90+ score for under $50.  Here’s your chance to get in at the bargain basement number of $30 per bottle.

No shipping to Maryland, as usual.  Ship it to your Sangria-challenged friend in Virginia.

http://wine.woot.com