2008-02-08
Wine Garage Launches
First Club Referral Contest
Wine Garage Launches First Club Referral ContestThe excitement continues to escalate at Wine Garage in Calistoga. Hidden next to a dilapidated ’40s-era former filling station on Highway 29, the Wine Garage is a unique wine shop in Napa Valley that retails all wine in the store under $25. Sound crazy? Its true. And now, founders and wine gurus, Todd and Joy Miller, have come up with an offer sure to excite any wine lover. Refer as many new members to the club through April 15, 2008 and the club member that has the most sign-ups wins:
• Four nights and five days lodging for up to eight people at the guest house at Tudal Winery in St. Helena – four bedrooms, four baths, pool, bocce court, hot tubs, sauna, gardens, decks, barbecue pits, fire rings, massage room, huge kitchen and great room – secluded near the Napa River, a private and peaceful setting. Stay in the room once slept in by Joe DiMaggio! (Air fare not included. September and October are black-out dates.)
• Winemaker barbecue, featuring Massimo Monticelli (winemaker) pouring barrel samples of Wine Garage’s amazing 2007 vintage, and Todd Miller of Wine Garage, manning the flames over perhaps a freshly shot wild boar or other yummy vittles. Enjoy all the wine you can drink from Todd’s private cellar (stuff that is too expensive for the store to sell) and hang out with your favorite Wine Garage employees. Try to drink Brooke under the table, trade Alaska fishing stories with Erin, ride a tractor with Laurie, paint a painting with Linda or chat it up with Joy!
• Receive two cases of wine that you personally pick out from the store shelves for your stay.
• Golf tourney (if you play) hosted by Todd at Meadowood Country Club (2 foursomes).
The Wine Garage staff can be your concierge and assist with activities during your stay, such as winery tours and dinner reservations. Check the website to have the rules and regulations sent to you via email: www.winegarage.net
Wine Garage
“There are a lot of winemakers here that can’t afford to drink the wine they make” says Miller. “That’s crazy, yes, but who can afford to drink a $65 bottle with dinner every night?”
Many people miss The Wine Garage on the first try upvalley, but the search is well worth it. Miller stocks wine from all of California’s wine growing regions including fifty Napa selections and 40 from Sonoma County. When he first sought out buying the initial inventory, “I enlisted a local farmer buddy and his 15-foot box van and off we went all over California hunting down the deals. I tried to seek out the small producers who didn’t have distributers so I could pass the savings on to my customers.” And Miller did just that. His store is stocked with high-quality juice all under $25 and all are unique. Most labels in the shop are unrecognizable – but all pass the same test; everything passes over Miller’s lips before he makes a buy. “If I don’t love it, I don’t buy it, period. Sometimes I will taste over a hundred wines in one day, load up the truck and haul it up to Calistoga, unload at the store, and maybe I will crawl in bed by 3 a.m. Needless to say my buddy bowed out of the deal after the second trip. I initially recruited him on a ‘hey lets go wine tasting in Santa Barbara’ until he realized how much work it entailed. Poor guy, he had to be at the farm at five in the morning.”
It is all worth it. Millers’ customers love him. He has a unique ability to hear a verbal description of a customers favorite wine and translate that into a recommendation for sometimes a third of the cost. “I have people all over the country that use me as their local wine shop. I ship right to their door – and the cost of the shipping is a drop in the bucket compared to what they save on the cost of the wine.
Miller gets deals on Napa wine too. “I have winemakers from small wineries stop in every week saying ‘I have something that will fit into the store,’ if they only have 15 or 25 cases of an end-of-vintage wine – I am the perfect outlet for them.”
So head up to the Wine Garage and check out the best deals in the Valley at 1020 Foothill Blvd (Hwy 29), Calistoga, CA 94515. For more information, call (707) 942-5332. You can also check out the website at www.winegarage.net.
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