New at Wine.Woot: "Buy Now"
by Laura Duncan
There’s something new at Wine.Woot. Or perhaps we should call it something “now.”
Monday, September 15
Tuesday, July 08
Cruel, Cruel Summer.
by Laura Duncan
Remember childhood summers? Swimming. Sunburns. Scabs. That's all over now. The bliss of lemonade and endless days has been eclipsed by blinding heat and energy bills. If you're anything like me, one of the few things you have to look forward to now is that glass of expertly-curated wine from your favorite humorous retail website. And because we personally understand the sweet sanctity of a summer sip, we know how important it is to prevent the sky's big stupid nuclear ball from destroying your wine's molecular structure.
Commence Summer Shipping!
Your options are thus:- $8 standard summer shipping per order: We're adding a few bucks on to the usual $5 shipping charge, and adding some time into the process. Shipping orders to most of the country in protective refrigerated trucks isn't easy or cheap, or fast for that matter, but it'll be worth it to keep your wine from turning into soup.
- $10 "two-day" shipping per item: If your time is more valuable than your money, you can pay $10 per item for two-day shipping. By "two-day", we mean two days transit from when your order is shipped, which could generally take up to five days from when you place the order. For instance, we won't ship two-day orders on Thursdays or Fridays. Weekends sitting in a carrier warehouse is just no fun for a wine package. The gist of it is: you should get your "two-day" order within a week from when you place it.
If that section seems familiar, it's because I lifted it from the last summer shipping blog post with the updated pricing. Many of you are seasoned vino veterans and you know how all this works.
There are mundane logistical details behind the pricing. Fridges on wheels. Consolidation. Hubs. Styrofoam. It's blindingly dull, maddeningly complex, and irritatingly important.
When all's said and done, your wine will spend no more than 2 days in the FedEx ground system. The majority of its journey will take place in a temperature-controlled environment, which is certainly more than could be said of summer road trips in the family van.
So slather on some sun goo, throw on those shades, and buy without trepidation. We can't recapture the unbridled joy of your youthful summers, but we'll try to make sure your wine doesn't turn into gravy. That's how gravy is made, right?
Monday, November 18
The Ballad of Toothstejnn the Red
by wootbot
Hey, did you see what you can buy on our site? It's a brand-new wine until midnight tonight. Mortimer sings to you of its glories.
Buy Toothstejnn here!
Friday, June 14
Shipping of the Summer Wine
by winedavid39
Summertime is a great season for everything except ice skating, building snowmen, and shipping wine. But not here at Wine.Woot. Once again, to keep your wine from boiling over on its way to you, we're implementing our tried and true summer shipping policy. UNlike in years past, we're offering a two-day shipping option for those of you who'd rather pay a little more to get your wine a little sooner. The deets:
- $8 standard summer shipping per order: We're adding a few bucks on to the usual $5 shipping charge, and adding some time into the process. Shipping orders to most of the country in protective refrigerated trucks isn't easy or cheap, or fast for that matter, but it'll be worth it to keep your wine from turning into soup.
- $10 "two-day" shipping per item: If your time is more valuable than your money, you can pay $10 per item for two-day shipping. By "two-day", we mean two days transit from when your order is shipped, which could generally take up to five days from when you place the order. For instance, we won't ship two-day orders on Thursdays or Fridays. Weekends sitting in a carrier warehouse is just no fun for a wine package. The gist of it is: you should get your "two-day" order within a week from when you place it.
We're confident these measures will win the battle against the forces of heat and spoilage. Order like it's October, y'all! Let us know if you have questions or comments in the forum discussion below.
Sunday, April 01
The Secret of El Arenque Rojo, Chapter 4: The Fifth World Rises
by Scott Lydon
If you bought our Woot 2012 Calendar, you may have noticed that each month sports a different QR code. And if you've scanned that code, you've gotten a message telling you to wait until the first of the given month to read a new installment in The Secret of El Arenque Rojo. And then you probably wondered what we were talking about. Chapter 1 appeared in January on the Woot blog. Chapter 2 took Roy Odom and his prophetic slapstick quest to Home.Woot. In Chapter 3, Roy met tween cinema prodigy Evelyn Sayre at Kids.Woot. And now, here at Wine.Woot, we present Chapter 4..
Doctor Chamberlin Duke tugged absentmindedly at his goatee as General Duodenum snapped to attention before his men. At the back of the platoon, a private with a non-regulation haircut was hiding a grin. His uniform was a mess and his shirt was untucked. The General did not notice him, nor did he notice the pedal-truck full of pies arriving near the soldier’s mess. Soon, clearly, the mess would be on the officers.
“Do you see, Chamberlin?” young Evelyn Sayre asked from the smartly-professional black-and-wood couch. “Do you see the name of the pie company? Narcissus! Narcissus Bakery.”
“Yes, I do see, indeed. One moment...”
Saturday, October 01
International Saké Day: Made like a beer and sipped like a wine.
by Alison Smith
My first experience tasting saké was back in my sports marketing days. I was shown how to do a "saké bomb" while hanging out with the Oakland A's baseball team after a game one night at a home tucked in the curvy hills of the East Bay. FUNNO! Fast forward a few years and TexaCali Ali became known as the "Saké Ninja" due to representing a portfolio of family saké breweries from Japan. With some hesitation at first (due to my saké bomb morning-after experience) I fell head over heels in love with Junmai & Ginjo Saké! So to all those who are making the "bitter beer face" about right now, listen up!...
Saturday, September 24
Priorat, it's the Schist!
by Alison Smith
Si ets Priorati, de les pedres treuras - "If you are from Priorat, you will extract wine from the stones", or so the saying goes.
Handfuls of rocks filled my pockets, shoes and luggage during a brief 3-day visit to Spain's magnificent Priorat a few years ago. Beyond walking the vineyards, I had the special honor of breaking-bread with the pioneering winemakers and vignerons who lived in the tiny villages of Gratallops, Falset, Porrera, and the even smaller hamlet of Scala Dei that surround the region. I can still hear the kids laughing and playing outside in the middle of the village under the stars at night...
Thursday, September 15
Everybody's Wine.Wooting For The Weekend: Introducing Weekend Wine.Woot Sales
by Jason Toon
Get ready to get down, 7-day party people! This weekend will be the first weekend of the rest of your lives as Wine.Woot adds Saturday and Sunday sales to its weekly rotation. What does this mean for you, the cut-rate wine connoisseur?
Friday deals will only be available for 24 hours. Tarry no more, Wine.Wooter! You won't have the luxury of taking your time to decide on Friday's deal anymore, because it'll be gone by midnight. Buy or get off the carafe.
Labrats could strike on any day of the week, not just Friday. It's a brave new world for our test subjects, who might be called upon to post their volunteer wine reviews on any day, at any time, in any place. (OK, not really in any place. We just needed a third thing there.)
Your life will be approximately 40% better. With 40% more Wine.Woot deals every week, the math works out.
Remember, the fun starts this very upcoming weekend at the end of this very week. We hope to see everybody at the first-ever Saturday and Sunday deals at Wine.Woot: where every weekend is a lost weekend!
Wednesday, June 29
Pro-Am Tasting Invitational: Meeker Vineyard 2004 Cabernet Franc
Nothing beats wine advice from an experienced taster. But what if you're just stumbling into the wine game? Wouldn't it help to get a gut-level gut-check from a n00b's gut? That's the thinking behind our new series of Pro-Am Tasting Invitational. This second installment looks at today's Meeker Vineyard 2004 Cabernet Franc 3-Pack. Alison Smith of Wine Country Connect will provide the tasting notes with actual expertise behind them, while Jason Toon will provide the (let's say) outsider perspective. We'll let you decide which one speaks to you...
Wednesday, June 08
Pro-Am Tasting Invitational: Expression 44° Pinot Noir Willamette Valley
Nothing beats wine advice from an experienced taster. But what if you're just stumbling into the wine game? Wouldn't it help to get a gut-level gut-check from a n00b's gut? That's the thinking behind our new series of Pro-Am Tasting Invitational. Our first subject is today's Expression 44° Pinot Noir Willamette Valley Oregon - 2 Pack. Alison Smith of Wine Country Connect will provide the tasting notes with actual expertise behind them, while Jason Toon will provide the (let's say) outsider perspective. We'll let you decide which one speaks to you.
Part one: Alison "TexaCali Ali" Smith says...
Tonight's Expression 44 tasting was a great excuse to cook a welcome home dinner for my main-squeeze who spent the last few weeks in the Loire Valley & Germany. Riesling is his first love, but you know what they say, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, so tonight's dinner was a bit more fancy than my usual Tuesday-night-after-yoga meal of bird-feed (and wine). Here's how dinner and wine went down tonight in Cali (with the game sounding off in the background of course - GO MAVS!)...
