Retired, living in Western Mass. Enjoy music, cooking and my family.
Current cookers Weber Spirit 3 burner. A 22" Kettle with vortex SnS and OnlyFire pizza oven. A Smokey Joe and the most recent addition a Pit Barrel Jr with bird hanger, 4 hooks and cover. ThermoWorks Smoke 2 probe, DOT, ThermoPop and a Thermapen Mk4. Recently added 2 TempSpike wireless meat thermometers.
Now, I'll set the bar. I'm cheap.also I firmly believe you can purchase quality wine for under $20. And that's a lot. I'm sure there are folks who feel that I'm out of my mind i.e. wine snobs. I respect your opinions but I respectfully disagree. I purchase 80% of my wine online. Over the years I've used wine.com, wsjwines and finally, Wineinsiders.com. Now buy 6 bottles shipping free in the lower 48. Typical timing, for me in my location order by 300 PM,, here next day. Again, there wines are not high end whatever that is. I've only been disappointed a couple of time in my years of purchasing from them.
I have to go now to pour another glass.
Depends what you have locally, what you like, how much you want to try new things. I've drunk bottles worth... far far more than $20. Are they worth it? To me, sometimes but you usually have to age them for 15+ years and that's not for everyone. And yes, you can get a lot of wines for $20 and under that are quite good, esp if you don't care about aging them.
The other thing you can do is to look to keep the average bottle price at or under $20 but not each bottle. That way of somehing sounds really good to you but it's $25 or so, you can bring the average price down. And if you're buying 6 at a time, look for discounts. Often, shops will discount for a case purchase.
One thing I noticed on my trips to Texas is the price of your wines.
I was floored at the price of a bottle of wine.
I buy the majority of my wine at the provincially run LCBO. Prices star at $9.00 to skies the limit.
Since I'm less than an hour from Niagara wine country we do take side trips down there as well as the blossoming Erie north shore wineries. The boutique wineries are more expensive as they are selling they're vintage products.
Your wine snob comment has some merit. My wife's favourite wine is a Portuguese white that retails for $9.85.
I prefer reds that usually fall in the $10-14 range but will go $20 if something catches my eye.
I'm less than 5 mins to 4 wine outlets so have never done online buying.
Retired, living in Western Mass. Enjoy music, cooking and my family.
Current cookers Weber Spirit 3 burner. A 22" Kettle with vortex SnS and OnlyFire pizza oven. A Smokey Joe and the most recent addition a Pit Barrel Jr with bird hanger, 4 hooks and cover. ThermoWorks Smoke 2 probe, DOT, ThermoPop and a Thermapen Mk4. Recently added 2 TempSpike wireless meat thermometers.
My most expensive purchase and it was on sale from wine.com, I think $70, Silver Oaks 2006 Cabernet. It's been in my cellar up to today when I bought it in 08'. I have a hand full which go back to 2001. Hopefully I'll open them b4 my funeral. Otherwise I'll insist they're drank at my funeral.
Way spoiled here in California. I grew up in wine country and around the wine business. I've been taught how to taste and appreciate wine from some of the best growers and winemakers in our area. The biggest take home from ALL of them: drink what you like. In NorCal we have a chain of discount grocery stores called Grocery Outlet and their wine buyers are freaking awesome. In addition to the usual bulk wine that everyone sells, they grab small lots of very, very good wines that for whatever reason the winery is off-loading. Man oh man we can get some fantastic, boutique, hunnert dollar wines for ten bucks! Probably the last remaining benefit of existing in our once great state.
We have Grocery Outlets on this end of the state also. There's one less than a mile from our house. Now I have to check out their wine selection . . . .
Smokin-It 3D
Weber Kettle with an SNS
Masterbuilt kettle that I call the $30 wonder grill
Bullet by Bull Grills gasser
Anova WiFi sous vide machine
Thermoworks Thermapen and Chef Alarm
Total Wine, Costco and recent,y a wine club my wife joined. Pricing is pretty reasonale for a case. I think she said she pays $12-15 a bottle. There are more expensive choices, but she’s stays in the range.
Like CaptainMike, we're also spoiled living so close to many areas with great wine. We tend to get most of our wine directly from the wineries. No bargains, but we get access to many wines that aren't available retail.
We pick a place that is well stocked, tell them a max price, and then order a case and have them select a variety to full the case Buying a case also gets us a discount of at least 15%. Having them select the wines has always given us a good selection, especially of good wines that aren’t expensive. I would have skipped a lot of of them just because of the low price marked on the bottle. Funny thing is is that neither Kathy or I drink alcohol but we are always hearing from guests how good our tastes in wine are.🙂
Cooking gadgets
Weber Summit Charcoal Grill Center
Weber Summit Platinum D6
Blue Rhino Razor
Dyna-Glo XL Premium Dual Chamber
Camp Chef Somerset IV along with their Artisan Pizza Oven 90
Anova WiFi
Thermometers
Thermapen Mk4 - ThermaQ High Temp Kit - ThermaQ Meathead Kit - ThermaQ WiFi - ThermoWorks IR-GUN-S - ThermoWorks Signals & Billows - ThermoPop -ThermoWorks ProNeedle - ThermoWorks TimeStick Trio x2 - and a Christopher Kimball timer - NO, I do not work for ThermoWorks...I just like their products.
Other useful bits...
KitchenAid 7-qt Pro Line stand mixer
A Black & Decker food processor that I can't seem to murder
A couple of immersion blenders, one a "consumer" model & the other a "high end" Italian thing. Yes, the Italian one is a bit better, but only marginally
Instant Pot Duo Evo Plus 8-qt + accessories like egg-bite & egg holders
All-Clad pots & pans, along with some cast iron...everything from 7" Skookie pans to 8.5qt Dutch ovens
Weber GBS griddle, pizza stone, and wok
Knives range from Mercer to F. Dick to "You spent how much for one knife? One knife?!" LOL
I have wines shipped from 5 different wineries...a selection of NoCal & SoCal vintners. Like theroc mentioned, that gives us access to some wines that simply aren’t available anywhere else.
With the holidays just over, I think I’m down to around a hundred or so bottles. LOL Mostly reds.
That said, I will also pick up wines at the grocery store or Total Wine...mostly whites as those don’t generally need or benefit from cellaring like many reds do. I also tend to pick up 2-3 bottles of sparkling wine a week when I’m in town...not having a "real" job means that we can have brunch on any day.
Equipment:
Weber Genesis
Weber Spirit Special Addition, with Griddle and Grillgrates (just got)
Thermoworks Smoke (2)
Thermoworks Thermapen (2)
Thermoworks IR (1)
Maverick IR (1)
Penzey's Spice rack with loads of spices
Hobbies:
Cooking, wine, guitar, golf, beach, board games, travel, herb gardening
I like to explore when it comes to wine. I look for wines under $20 and even $15 in varietals I like or regions around the globe. I tend to go to Mom & Pop shops when I can.
Big outfits like Total Wine are making it hard on the small shops. But Total Wine, while carrying good brands, also masks their store brands with labels that don’t indicate it is a store brand. Their not bad, but that’s a little odd.
I did get a Christmas gift from my wife of 15 bottles from the NPR wine club. It worked out to $6 a bottle! So far they are pretty good.
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