Purchasing port in LA in the summer

Jay Powers · Post by **Jay Powers** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:03 pm

I often travel from the Bay Area to LA for work, and have contemplated driving instead of flying in order to make some purchases while I am there. Any informatin as to what are "good stores" in LA? Wines I would like to get I have seen on Wine Searcher at Woodland Hills Wine Company, 20-20 Wines, and John & Petes Fine Wine and Spirits. Another which often comes up is Hi-Times. What have peoples experience been with these stores?

Also, it's about a 7 hour drive from LA to my house, and it's hot in LA now. Any ideas about driving cases of port 7 hours in those conditions? The car could be air conditioned. Thanks for the help,

Jay

randomguy · Post by **randomguy** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:06 am

Theres "The Wine Club" in Santa Ana. You might want to take the 101 south coz there are a few wineries along the way. There's one called Blackstone in Gonzales that has a pretty good Ruby Port (if they have any left).

Post by **Roy Hersh** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 1:07 am

IF you are going to make the drive with wine in your car ... air conditioning is a must. Also, take styro wine shippers down with you in the car. I'd bring a small chest of ice and keep some "chill packs" cold during your ride down. When you put the bottles in the cases, fill up about 9 bottles per case shipper and insert 3 chill packs into the empty slots in a diagonal pattern. Then close the tops and keep the car cool. You should be fine for 7 hours.

Jay Powers · Post by **Jay Powers** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 8:30 pm

Thanks guys! Anybody else have a good wine store suggestion in LA for port to recommend?

Jay

Post by **Andy Velebil** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 7:59 am

Sorry taking so long to respond, It's been a busy weekend.

Living in L.A. means hot summer weather, I take a medium size insulated ice chest, put several frozen water bottles on the bottom, put a towel on top of it then a row of bottles, then another small towel, a layer of those flexible bottle chillers, and more rows of bottles. Then throw the thing on your back seat and drive home...just don't put it in your trunk for a seven hour drive. I have done this when I can't get right home after a purchase. The bottles have always stayed very cold, works great and stays cold for hours.

As for stores. My favorite is Wine Exchange in Orange http://www.winex.com Always got the best prices around, but about 30 miles or so from L.A. in Orange County. Doesn't sound like far, but with traffic, at times can be a royal pain to get there from downtown LA.

20-20, http://www.2020wines.com has a good selection of old stuff, but is VERY VERY pricey, like WAY overpriced. Although, they are having a sale right now on the '97 Niepoort (see my thread in market place).

Woodland Hills wine http://www.whwineco.com is a good store too, check prices first, as you can get some good deals and not so good deals.

Hi-Times http://www.hitimewine.net is just down the freeway from Wine Exchange (in Orange County). A very good selection of ports. Again, prices can sometimes be a little high, but sometimes you can get good deals. Last time I was there they had a nice selection of older ports at reasonable prices.

I havent been to the Wine Club in Santa Ana http://www.thewineclub.com (just a short way from Wine Exchange also) But I know it is a reputable place from friends that buy there. I get their newsletter and their port selection does not appear to be very large.

Don't know anything about John & Petes, sorry.

Jay Powers · Post by **Jay Powers** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 10:37 am

Thanks Andy, very useful!

Jay

pgwerner · Post by **pgwerner** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:05 pm

There are Wine Club stores in San Francisco and Santa Clara. No need for someone from the Bay Area to go to Santa Ana for that.

Peter

Jay Powers · Post by **Jay Powers** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 10:19 am

Yes, I knew about the Wine Club here in SF, and like them quite a bit...I recently bought a half case of 2003 Passadouro and 2003 Niepoort from them.

But I'll still drop by in LA if I'm down there, because not all the ports they have on their web site are available in SF. It seems like the Santa Anna store may be their headquarters? For example 750 mL bottles of Quinta dos Canais are $33, and they have plenty of it, but not a single bottle in SF and it would need to be shipped

. Likewise the ports available in their SF store do not neccesarely show up on their web site, for instance the Passadouro I mentioned above, and also they had a large stock of 1999 Niepoort LBV for $17 in SF which does not show up on the web (my favorite LBV at the moment).

Besides, I like to shop for port in person, it's somehow more satisifying

Thanks for the info. Do you know of any interesting ports available in their Santa Clara store which don't show up on their site?

Jay

pgwerner · Post by **pgwerner** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 1:23 am

I wasn't aware of the differences in stock between different stores, but I guess that makes sense, considering that northern and southern Cal have different distributors. I've never been to their Santa Clara store – I just know they have one there.

Have you tried the Ramos-Pinto LBV that the SF store has for $14/bottle? Its the best deal in the inexpensive Port world. I still have yet to try the Niepoort – I'll pick one up along with the Ramos-Pinto next time I go to stock up. (Probably this weekend.)

Peter

Jay Powers · Post by **Jay Powers** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 12:50 pm

Peter

I don't recall having the Ramos-Pinto, perhaps I'll try to pick some up later this week. I highly recommend the Niepoort. It's unfiltered but I found that it did not need to be decanted as it's fairly young. I had the Niepoort 96 LBV (which I got at Weimax in Burlingame) and that needed to be decanted as it had quite a bit of sediment.

Jay

pgwerner · Post by **pgwerner** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 7:35 pm

The Ramos-Pinto LBV is also unfiltered, but doesn't throw a huge amount of sediment. If you didn't feel like decanting it, you could get as far as the last glassful before having to strain it through cheesecloth, though I typically decant for a couple of hours to open up the wine.

I'm going to pick up both Ramos-Pinto and Niepoort this weekend since I'm now out of my usual stock of LBV. We'll have to compare tasting notes for both sometime on this forum.

Peter