Naked Wine

We couldn't leave here without another trip to wine country.  After all, the town of Napa is only a one hour drive.  This was the last extended family time we got to spend with Sarah before she left for New York.  (Can you imagine?  She wanted to spend a couple of weeks with her HUSBAND before she has to return to New Haven for the start of the final year at Yale.  I mean, REALLY!)  Just kidding....learned this summer visits are better than cohabitation with your adult child.  Don't get me wrong - things went swimmingly.   We loved being able to help her with a place to live while she kicked off her start-up.  We didn't make the mistake of expecting her to live in our handkerchief pocket, and we all enjoyed the time we got to spend together - the most in the past 10 years.  However, despite all the positives, it just felt like having a long term guest, and we missed our privacy.  Smooth spots went each way - Sarah got her laundry done, and she cooked for us whenever she got the chance.  She already knows more about cooking than I've learned in the past 40 years.

As a final fling, we just decided to take off for Napa and see if we could hit the downtown tasting rooms on a Saturday.  Thanks to Emily (friend of Sarah) we went to Naked Wines.  Drake had suggested we try to find a tasting room which represented more than one winery, and Sarah remembered the Naked Wine, a tasting room they couldn't get to when they visited Napa in January.  We settled into seats at our own table, and proceeded to taste a wide variety of wine.

We have been solicited to join the Wine Club at every single winery we visited out here.  Basically, they are a very bad deal.  Usual deal:  They pick the wines from their bottles and send them to you. They send you a case or at the least a half a case and charge shipping every month.  We didn't find a single winery where we enjoyed ALL their wines.  Plus, the prices were pretty steep even for members.

Naked Wine is a totally different animal.  They represent hundreds of small wineries.  Their 'club' members are actually investors in these wine makers and their wineries.  Naked Wine invests not only capital, but also bottles and labels their participating wineries output, so small vintners can get their product out on the market.  In return the "Angels" (investors) get first shot at the wine at reduced prices. Each Angel pledges $40 each month - which is less than our monthly wine expenditure.   The genius is there are hundreds of different wines to choose from out of over 1000 wineries from all over the world, and you choose when to spend the money in your account.  This is exactly what we've been looking for.

Hey, Emily, your sommelier classes just paid off....for us!  Thanks.