You will be glad you do if you get on the Becklyn list, excellent wine at very fair price. The reserve is special and even at $95 i think its great value
I’m sufficiently deep on just a few producers, dominated by Californian wines. The volume I decrease in domestic wines I will partially offset by exploring more European wines.
Dropped: Liquid Farm, I like the wines but have plenty of them and need to lighten the obligation to lists.
Considering dropping: At least one of the Mike Smith wines as we don’t drink much Cab, mostly Pinot or other lighter wines. Maybe down grade my WO preference since I have a lot of their wines. Would appreciate feed back on those since I really like both producers but space and budget are a concern. Maybe drop Cayuse since I have not been wowed by the wines and again we tend to enjoy a lighter style.
Somebody needs to create a service where somebody could just order a bottle or 2 from wineries that sell out on lists and put it together in cases for shipping purposes. At this point, I am off all lists but with the current prices I have found BB members who will share a part of their allocations because the cost of taking allocations have become so expensive.
I stumbled across Arista back in 2009 because nearby Williams Selyem was closed for a corporate function. I ordered for many years but stopped since I migrated to other lists (Kutch, Rhys, Peay). Last year at this time, I drank through some disappointing Arista 2011s and sent an email to Mark McWilliams expressing my displeasure. He responded with a very passionate email about their wines and wine making techniques. He sent me free of charge two 2013s (I am waiting until this year to try).
I then read in WS about winemaker Matt Courtney and him bringing Arista to the next level. I’m anxious to try again, especially since this is the first time I’ve read here that someone else wanted to be on the list!
This is a great idea. The challenge is that whoever the “aggregator” is would want to markup the cost of the wine so that they could make a profit. That said, I suppose folks might be willing to pay a small markup for certain wines if it would allow them to try new things without having to make a huge $$$ commitment up front.
The other issue is that for folks like me who live in TX, I can’t order from internet retailers unless it’s direct from the winery, due to laws that unfairly protect local distributors. I would immediately move off of lists if I could legally order from places like K&L, etc.
I’m staying on:
Ridge Z-List and ATP
Calluna
Rhys, but thinking about going all Chardonnay
Dehlinger
Littorai
Bedrock
On the fence:
D&R. I really like these wines, but do I like them 2X my favorite Cru Beaujolais? I can’t help but to think that every time I try one.
Sandlands
Wait listed
Saxum. Really want to get on this one, but I think I will be waiting a while.
Becklyn
I used to be on a lot of CA lists but went completely away from buying domestic wines for about ten years. I never regretted dropping any of them (including SQN and Harlan.). A recent trip to Sonoma got me interested again and some recommendations here have been very pleasant surprises.