In This Email:
Don't Miss the Super Sale 
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars on wine.com 
Great Wines 
Wine Team Picks: Laina Brown on Wines Worth Schlepping In 
The Incredible Expanding Tasting: The View from ZAP 
Watch wine.com TV 


Don't Miss the Super Sale

We're featuring tons of wines at up to 40 percent off -- and we're 
adding new ones all the time. This is a great opportunity to stock 
your cellar, fill your closet, throw a huge party, or start your 
Christmas shopping WAY early. 


Stag's Leap Wine Cellars on wine.com

Few California wineries enjoy the sort of status associated with 
Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. When its Cabernet Sauvignon won first place 
at a famous Paris tasting over several top French Bordeaux in 1976, 
it signaled to the rest of the wine world that Napa Valley had not 
only arrived, but had taken a place at the head of the table. 

Since that time, Stag's Leap's uncompromising and meticulous 
standards have bolstered its position among wine's most respected 
names. In addition to its prized Cabernets -- the seductive and 
voluptuous Fay, the classically structured SLV, and the legendary 
Cask 23, made only in the very best vintages -- the company now offers 
a wide range of wines including a highly regarded reserve Chardonnay, 
Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, and an assortment of accessible bottlings 
under the Hawk Crest label. 

Bearing all that in mind, wine.com is honored and privileged to 
announce that the wines of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars are now available 
through our site. Click here to survey the selections, but a word to 
the wise: We're talking about Napa royalty, so don't tarry. 

To learn more about each item listed below, simply click on its name.
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Great Wines

1997 Dominique Lafon Macon-Villages Petit Chapeau, Burgundy, 
France, $9.99
A new wine at a great price from Lafon, a legend in Burgundy. 

1997 deLorimier Merlot, Alexander Valley, California, $15.99
Get immediate gratification with this seductive Merlot. 

Virtual Vineyards Duet, $25.00
Double your pleasure with two bottles of Virtual Vineyards wines. 

1999 d'Arenberg Chardonnay The Olive Grove, McLaren Vale, South 
Australia, Australia, $9.99
Emphasis on purity of the fruit and minimal winemaking intervention. 

Club California
The spirit of California wine country delivered to your door monthly. 

1998 Punters Corner Chardonnay, Coonawarra, Australia, $19.95
Coonawarra Chard that's crisp, chewy, and chock-full of the tropics. 

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Wine Team Picks: Laina Brown on Wines Worth Schlepping In

Some people are more comfortable than others plopping down their own 
bottle of wine on a restaurant table, but a certain amount of "wine 
snob" labeling always bolsters the rationale. Still, if the only 
bottle you can imagine bringing is a 1947 Chateau Margaux, might I 
suggest a few gems with attributes worthy of schlepping in: they're 
unlikely to be found on a restaurant wine list, but they're 
guaranteed to enhance your dining experience. 

1999 Archery Summit Winery Vireton, Willamette Valley, Oregon, $26.00

1998 Baileyana Pinot Noir, San Luis Obispo County, California, $22.00

1999 Pfeffingen Gewurztraminer Spatlese Ungsteiner Honigsackel, 
Pfalz, Germany, $22.00

1996 Val Ribeno Crianza, Ribera del Duero, Spain, $29.95

1997 Wightman Winery Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California, $49.95

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The Incredible Expanding Tasting: The View from ZAP 

A recurring pattern characterizes the annual ZAP (Zinfandel Advocates 
and Producers) tasting in San Francisco. Every year the "people's 
grape" (aka "mystery grape" and "California grape") becomes more 
popular, and the tasting boasts more producers and consumers than 
ever before. The number of wines being poured, and the number of 
people waving glasses, seems to reach critical mass, swelling with 
such huge and boisterous crowds that it can't possibly get 
any bigger. 

The following year it increases by 50 percent. 

This was what happened again on the Saturday before the Super Bowl, 
the customary date of the tasting. A year ago, 6,000 tasters had 
flooded the Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason Center; this January 
(ZAP's 10th anniversary), the number was 9,200. For the first time 
ever, the event required two different buildings, where a total of 
500 wines were poured by 255 wineries. 

Where will it all end? Well, it finished off the 1990s by showcasing 
what many were calling the best Zinfandel wines of the decade -- a 
"spectacular" vintage in the words of Ravenswood's Joel Peterson, who 
went on to call it "the best-balanced, most complex vintage we've 
had. The wines have some of the fruit complexity of '91 and some of 
the strength and power of '95; they're aren't over-the-top killers in 
terms of alcohol, but they have stuffing underneath." 

Michael Dashe of Dashe Cellars agreed that '99 constitutes "manna 
from heaven. The wines are lush, concentrated, and intense, but 
balanced." Donn Reisen of Ridge Vineyards called them "awesome -- 
full of rich, ripe, beautiful fruit." Bill Easton, whose '98 Easton 
Estate was one of the best Zinfandels of that year, felt that the 
'99s have "a better fruit-tannin relationship," while David Noyes of 
Kunde Estate found them "surprisingly ready to drink -- I mean, 
they're big wines." 

Of course winemakers are going to say things like that -- but the 
tasting seemed to bear out their claims. In terms of quality, the 
1999 Zinfandel vintage surpasses even the vaunted 1997, delivering a 
panoply of balanced wines with full, approachable flavors that don't 
taste particularly alcoholic despite their ripeness. To Reisen this 
is evidence that "Zinfandel winemaking is improving along with the 
quality of the fruit. Obviously, people are respecting the grape." 

Perhaps too much so abroad, if you paid attention to some of the 
backstage scuttlebutt. Other than the beauty of '99, the talk among 
insiders at the tasting concerned a recent decision by the European 
Union (and expected agreement by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, 
and Firearms) to allow Italian winemakers to label wines made from 
the Primitivo grape as Zinfandel. ZAP has supported research into 
Zinfandel's European origins, resulting (among other things) in the 
scientific conclusion that it and the Primitivo di Puglia are the 
same grape. "The Italians called it Primitivo for a hundred years," 
noted Reisen. "But now that Zinfandel is so popular, they're trying 
to steal the brand." 

"All [the research] really means is that Primitivo is a clone of 
Zinfandel," said Ridge's president and winemaker, Paul Draper. "The 
Italian move is purely commercial. It's like what happened in the old 
days with Champagne and Burgundy and Chablis -- Americans tried to 
capitalize on names that the French had taken years to build. ZAP was 
created to promote Zinfandel, not Primitivo -- but when you get down 
to it, who really cares? If, with its climate and soil, Puglia thinks 
it can compete with the best Zinfandel in the world, more power 
to them." 

Leon Sobon of Sobon Estates is going the opposite way. In Amador 
County in the Sierra Nevada foothills, he's making "Primitivo" from a 
clone imported from Italy. Sobon reported that Primitivo is easier to 
grow than Zinfandel, resulting in "more of a claret wine with less 
berry character." If you want to find out for yourself, try the Sobon 
Estates Primitivo. 

In any case, ZAP is going on the offensive -- not with legal action 
against the Italians, but with "EuroZAP," its first international 
tour. As you read this, a series of dinners, tastings, workshops, and 
seminars featuring Zinfandel wines and winemakers is now taking place 
in England, Germany, and other European countries. The aim, explained 
ZAP Executive Director Rebecca Robinson, is "to educate the world 
that Zinfandel is grown in California and that it's America's 
Heritage Wine." 

To check out wine.com's entire Zinfandel selection, click here. 

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Watch wine.com TV

Join us on the next "Wine for Everyone" show on Wednesday, March 7, 
from 10 p.m. to midnight EST. Hosts Joleen Benoit and (wine.com 
founder) Peter Granoff will present a mix of wines and other features 
"Celebrating Spring." The program will also feature a guest 
appearance by Andrea Immer, author of "Great Wine Made Simple." 

Tune in on the ValueVision Television Network on DirecTV channel 370, 
Dish Network channel 228, or call your local cable operator for the 
channel in your area. 

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