Great idea! 50ml bottle sets

http://www.tastingroom.com/samplers/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I didn’t know these existed until I joined the Montelena list and they were selling them too.

Great idea!

No NY (Bad idea)
Maybe they’ll get clearence soon…


Cheers
Rip

This idea seems to be picking up a bit of steam lately, with more and more wineries jumping in and taking part. At Fess Parker, we used this for our annual Spring BBQ new releases - sending these to certain customers who were unable to attend and offering them for sale during that weekend. They were a big hit and we sold out fairly quickly.

I’m not sure how long I would hold these for, and I believe the 50ml sample size is too small to get a really good read on a wine (you won’t have enough to really sit with it in a glass for awhile and taste it too many times) but it certainly is a very good wine of allowing people to ‘try before you buy’, including retailers.

Cheers.

I, too, have visited this site often, Actually, have it book-marked. Great opportunity to try a winery’s portfolio to discover their style of wine naking. Thought it would be a fun wine tasting with friends. I would think retail stores would like to offer these as part of their tastings.

Unfortunately, they do not ship to Ohio! Otherwise, I would have purchased a few.

Can just see the marketing slogan: “Can’t visit our tasting room? Let the tasting room come to you!” Would imagine a profit is not made on the bottle set, but in hopefully converting a new taster to a future buyer?

I believe Donkey and Goat has in the past offered such samples.

can they “make” some DRC?
alan

Bet it would not be $19.99!

A quick note to share with the group –

• TastingRoom started shipping beyond CA to 11 other states just last week, and is expecting to be able to deliver to other many more states later this fall
• While the 50ml samples will “hold” for several months, they are meant to be enjoyed and tasted immediately…and can provide enough volume (1.8oz ea) for one person to get a solid taste for each wine, or (based on past “beta” studies…) enough for two people to taste enough of each wine to know if they’re interested in purchasing a bottle.

And yes, while physical winery tasting rooms can now virtually travel to your living room, one of the more exciting aspects of being able to “try before you buy” will be the ability to compare and contrast several wines that share a commonality side-by-side. So here’s a question – what would be most interesting to you?

• trying six different varietals from the same region/AVA?
• trying one varietal from six different regions/AVAs?
• trying a vertical of a single wine?
• six different varietals from a specific wine region/AVA?
• a “red” or “white” sampler?
• the ability to pick your own six samples?
• something else?

We’ve recently added several exciting new ones including Papapietro Perry (Pinots)http://www.tastingroom.com/samplers/1991137/A+TASTE+of+…+Papapietro+Perry, Carol Shelton (lovely zins) http://www.tastingroom.com/samplers/1991138/A+TASTE+of+…+Carol+Shelton+Wines, Ackerman (a mini Cab vertical) http://www.tastingroom.com/samplers/1991136/A+TASTE+of+…+Ackerman+Family+Vineyards, and an exclusive only available on TastingRoom.com: La Follette http://www.tastingroom.com/samplers/1900123/A+TASTE+of+…+La+Follette+Wines (a Pinot four-pack). And if it helps motivate anyone to give a wine sampler a try (please feel free to use “FREESHIP-EDW” as a special promotional code that will give you free shipping on your future orders.

~Douglas

Talley has a “six pack” of these tiny bottles with 3 PN and 3 Chard for $20.

For zins in particular, I’d love to be able to compare 6 of the same single vineyard designates from 6 different wineries (or two sets of 3 if it is difficult to source 6 different providers). For example, being able to compare the Papera Ranch Zins from Carlisle, Novy, and Williams-Selyem side-by-side without having to open 3 750 ml bottles would be awesome.

A friend who is on the purchasing side for a wine retailer says these things are really taking off. The sales person comes by and opens one of these little bottles instead of opening a 750ml bottle (or pouring out of an already opened 750). I saw these awhile ago at Montelena. Pretty cool idea, especially if they could get multiple different wines out in them for tasting across several vineyards/wineries. Unfortunately because they aren’t supposed to be stored for longer periods tasting across vintages looks like it won’t happen.

Taking off doesn’t begin to describe it

Re: tasting across vintages, simply not true, since the decant to 50ml can happen at any time down the road. Case in point: our new Ackerman Wine Sampler showcases two 50ml minis each of three vintages (03,04,05). Check it out for yourself: http://www.tastingroom.com/samplers/1991136/A+TASTE+of+…+Ackerman+Family+Vineyards

As a wine columnist, I get samples from a host of wineries, distributors and PR agencies. A while back I got two tiny 50ml bottles of Trefethen Double T Cab. Shortly thereafter I got a box with regular size bottles of Cab and Chard. The letter accompanying the box said something like, “the tiny samples were not up to our standard, so we are sending you our regular bottles.” Either the tiny ones oxidize too quickly or…

Anyone want to weigh in on this?

I don’t know how these things are bottled, but if they are going back to older vintages, I would imagine already bottled 750’s are being decanted and rebottled in the 50mL’s. Any time you do that you are introducing oxygen to the wine, no matter how careful you are being with sparging, etc. I would imagine that could be a problem for a more delicate wine in particular.

Yeah, saw these at Montelena in June. Not a bad idea, and not badly priced considering it was the estate CS. they have to be enjoyed right away, will not cellar.

Is this the same service offered by Crushpad?

These bottles are similar to the CrushPad ones, but the Tasting Room ones are shaped like tiny bordeaux shaped bottles - not test tubes as the CrushPad ones are.

Someone asked about oxidation - supposedly, both companies have come up with ways to minimize oxygen pick up during the transfer process from 750ml bottle to smaller sizes . . .

I’m curious about the winery that sent the message out asking not to drink these but instead to have the 750 - they either were not happy with the results of the process - or with the initial feedback they were getting from customers. Anyone have more info on this?

Cheers!

i was part of a beta-test for these bottle for a winery i worked at previously. the TastingRoom.com folks told us they had some type of NASA-inspired lab where they did the bottling, and assured us that it was a sterile, oxygen-free environment.