I’ve been enjoying a free membership to Winery Insider, an online wine retail club that offers quality wines at discounted prices.

This isn’t the type of club where they send you 4 bottles a month. It’s more like a CostCo membership, except it’s free… the membership just gets you in the door in order to make purchases at your leisure.

Their emails are usually once or twice a week, so your inbox won’t be overwhelmed with too many emails. They have some really great looking wines that I would like to purchase if I had more room in my cellar. I have ordered twice, with several different wines in each shipment. I just opened the first one recently (French wine, around $18) and enjoyed it! – a blog post is coming soon on that one. Highly recommended!

You can sign up for free here, if you’re interested. Note – if you sign up through this link, I will receive a small credit towards my next purchase. You should know from the many “Next time – I’ll pass.” wine reviews on this site that I wouldn’t recommend this site if I didn’t think it was a good thing! You can also check out their website at www.wineryinsider.com to sign up.

Several people recommended that I check out this wine website. It’s called Wines Til Sold Out.

They sell wines that are closing out, so they’re discounted about 30-70% off the original price. They sell each wine one by one until it’s sold out, so a couple of times a day, I usually get their email with the next wine that’s on sale. They also have free shipping if you buy the bottle minimum that they set, usually 2-4 bottles.

I haven’t seen a specific wine I recognize yet, but some of them have sounded really tasty. I’ll let you know when I take the plunge!

Wines Til Sold Out – http://wtso.com/

In between getting ready for the holidays, here’s what else is on my to-do list:

Needless to say, I’m a bit behind on my wine blogging…  Coming up:

Leaping Horse Merlot
d’Arenberg McLaren Vale Arry’s Original Shiraz Grenache
Marlborough Pinot Noir
Obsidian Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon
Pine & Post Cabernet Sauvignon
Morande Pionero Cabernet Sauvignon
G’day Mate! Shiraz
Josef Schmid Gruner Veltliner Priorissa Alte Reben Fliegerin

Happy Holidays! Let me know what you’re drinking (and if you’d want to drink it again!).

*Disclaimer – link mania and celebrity chef gushing below!*

Another post with a long time coming, this Murphy-Goode Cab was thoroughly enjoyed with the Andersons (my future familiy-in-law!!) during our beach trip to Bald Head Island. After all of the big press and social media buzz around fellow Atlantan Hardy Wallace and his triumph in the Murphy-Goode – A Really Goode Job wine-lifestyle-blogger-job-from-heaven, I had more than a few reasons to try this wine -

1. Hardy is an amazing wine blogger (even before Murphy-Goode fame) – I’ve never met him in person, but I love the goofy photos and fun videos he does, and he’s buddies with Top Chef-ers Kevin Gillespie (Woodfire Grill’s chef/owner and THE bacon king) and Eli Kirshstein (of Eno)… seriously, how much fun can one guy have?! Whatever, I would love to hang out with all three of these dudes any day of the week!

2. The Murphy-Goode A Really Goode Job social media contest/innovation was really awesome

3. I was amazed to find this bottle at Publix!

4. I like their style – check it out:

Here at Murphy-Goode, we love making wine. Flat-out love it. we’ve won plenty of awards and plan to win a whole lot more. That said, we also love football. And family. And laughing ’til we can barely breathe. You see, the same passion we have for wine, we unabashedly bring to everything we do. We live every day as if it were the best day in our lives. And who’s to say it isn’t? Great wine, great family, great friends. That’s what Murphy-Goode is all about. So what do you say, are you in?

5. Best of all… the Murphy Goode Cab was Awesome :)

6. I can’t wait to try it again. And the other varieties. And maybe get to hang with Hardy… And Kevin… And Eli. Woohoo!

Origin: Alexander Valley, Sonoma County, California
Where: Publix
Cost: about $20
Next time: Get a case!

For the run-down of how ordering wine at a restaurant should ideally happen… check out this great blog post:
Wine 2.0: Ten Tips for (Getting) Good Restaurant Wine Service

If you’re new to wine, or want to improve your ability to taste and describe wine, here’s a great online site with some very helpful tips.

http://www.mywinesdirect.com/my-wine-guide/wine-tasting