I’ll give you a hint…he’s in the picture on this post. And his name is Henry.

But I’d like to get back into reviewing at least weekly. I’ve tried many wines while my wife has been pregnant/giving birth/raising the boy. Yeah, that’s right. I’ll say it. Wine stops for no child.

Anyway, that sounded wrong, but the point is, my wife and son are fantastic and I’d like to get one more review in before 2012.

So 2011 will go down as a quiet year for Wine Welfare, but not 2012.

Thanks for continuing to visit the site. I really appreciate it.

Stay tuned folks.

Cheers!

Wine Welfare

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Just kidding. I’m just out to show you cheap wines you may not know about and how to find them. However, as some of you may or may not have realized, this is a website, and when you run a website you should always track what your users do. I’ve been paying attention to what posts and pages people visit the most, and I wanted to give you a breakdown of the most popular posts of 2010 for WineWelfare.com. I’m not saying this will be awesome, just interesting.

Behold the majesty of 2010 cheap wine reviews:

10. La Granja 360° Tempranillo 2008

This was a Trader Joe’s find, if I remember correctly, and Trader Joe’s can be a baffling wine ordeal. The majority of their wine stock are labels you’ve never heard of before (and can rarely find anywhere online, dammit) so every little bit helps. The La Granja was a cheap Tempranillo, which is a find to begin with, and for under $10, I’m not surprised this was  a popular review. Plus, there’s a giant friggin’ pig on the label!

9. BV Coastal Estates Pinot Noir

BV Coastal Estates wines are synonymous with “I don’t know what to bring to this party but this label looks fancy.” Generally solid offerings for under $10 from a house that also produces some of the best Napa Cabernet ever bottled? Yes, please.

8. Zynthesis Zinfandel 2007

An extremely popular Zinfandel immortalized in the BevMo! 5¢ Wine Sale. Seriously, this thing is always included in that sale. I don’t even know how they make any money. It’s old vine Zin, deep and chewy. I reviewed in time for the 4th of July holiday, and it was perfect for a BBQ. One of those wines that is straight-up enjoyable.

7. Liberty School 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon

From the Hope Family Wines portfolio, a great producer that’s been around for quite some time in Paso Robles, CA. Granted I kissed a lot of ass when it came to their wines, but come on folks, they read a review I wrote and wanted more so they sent me some more of their wines. I’m not made of stone!

6. Challis Lane 2008 Sauvignon Blanc

This one was huge during the BevMo! 5¢ Wine Sale. It’s another producer that always has at least 3 varietals on offer there. The thing is, like most wines on special during BevMo’s sales, you can’t find any info about them online. Only reviews. I think it’s a conspiracy. I think those poor BevMo bastards in the green shirts are stomping Sauv Blanc grapes in the back instead of helping us out up front. That’s why there is only ever 1 person running a register.

5. What Wine Goes With Tacos?

I tried out a new post style this year for those of you looking to find wines that go with hard-to-pair foods. I tried to choose common foods that we all eat yet when the time comes we draw a blank as to what wine might go with it. It turned out to be a pretty successful group of posts. So why did I stop (for now)? Laziness. For this taco post, I broke it down by taco-type: Chicken, beef, pork and fish, then suggested 3 or 4 varietals that would work well with each. Seems that Mexican food is a notoriously difficult food to pair wine with, and I hope my post helped.

4. What Wine Goes With Chinese Food?

Another notoriously difficult food to pair wine with. The combination of salty and sweet sauces, oil and a huge variety of ingredients in each dish led me to break this post into 3 parts based on 3 of the most popular Chinese dishes: Fried rice, Lo Mein, and Moo Shu Pork. I received some complaints about not including things like Orange Chicken. Sorry folks, but that’s not exactly Chinese food. In fact, Lo Mein is barely Chinese food (but that didn’t stop it from being one of the most popular keywords my site appeared for in Google).

3. What Wine Goes With Chili?

The “What Wine Goes With” posts kept going strong right up to the end of the year, with chili coming in as the food most in need of wine pairing aid. The real traffic to this post didn’t kick in until Autumn, which makes complete sense. Cool weather, rain on the way; what could be better than a hot bowl of chili and a glass of wine. I suggested mainly reds, but was helped out by a commenter who suggested I treat it more like spicy Thai foods and pair it with a cool, slightly sweet white. Touche, commenters. Touche.

2. Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages

Beaujolais is one of the most popular wines enjoyed by Americans for the holidays. It’s cheap, tasty, slightly sweet and goes well with the big bird: Turkey. The Louis Jadot label is also already such a well-known brand that this post served as a real slam dunk. Still, I was surprised by the number of people who visited this post. Thank you, broken economy.

1. Merkin Vineyards Chupacabra and Arizona Wine

Easily the most popular post of the year, and it didn’t even appear until March. Maynard James Keenan, lead singer of Tool and A Perfect Circle, grew his wine brands Caduceus, Merkin Vineyards and Arizona Stronghold Vineyards even more in 2010, complete with a great documentary about the burgeoning Arizona wine industry called “Blood Into Wine.” To put it bluntly, the wine is delicious and Tool is my favorite band which makes this post being the most popular of 2010 a real score for me. I’m so proud! (wipes tear)

Pretty killer list, if you ask me. Thank you to everyone who reads and I look forward to creating more for you in 2011!

Remember to subscribe to get all the latest cheap wine reviews from Wine Welfare!

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I am going on a vacation. I know, I know, I don’t enjoy saying it as much as you all don’t enjoy hearing it. Somehow, I know we will survive.

It’s been far too long since I’ve been on one and I feel I deserve it, quite frankly. Not to mention that my one year wedding anniversary is coming up, and it seemed like the perfect time to travel the world a bit with my wife.

Wine Welfare is coming up on its 200th?post, plus there is the new Best of 2010 series I’m preparing for December. What better time to get out of town?

So dry those tears and let me tell you about where I’m going.

My wife’s family is from Northern Italy, the Lombardy region, and I have yet to meet all of them. Immediate family are all nearby in Southern California, but the extended in-laws have yet to bask in my pale white glow.

We’re heading to London first and then training it down through Paris to Milan, where we will head off to the town of Carpenedolo to stay. This is far from my first time visiting parts of Europe, but my first to this region of Italy (specifically the province of Brescia), and I plan to make the most of it, wine-wise. Going to try and hit what I believe is my personal wine Graceland: Piedmonte. The wines from this region have captivated me for years and to visit the region would mean fulfilling quite a dream.

So, with that in mind, I’ve downloaded the WordPress app to my crappy Blackberry and I’m going to attempt to upload some images and posts about the wine regions I see. Hopefully all goes well, but in case it doesn’t, there will still be regular reviews and posts going up for the two weeks I’m gone, so relax.

I have set up a special page for these vacation posts and images to appear, and you can find it here. Other than that, I suggest you hit up the Wine Welare Twitter page since I will try to upload the photos there in case the app doesn’t work. If that fails, you people are just going to have to deal with it.

Some of you have sent me questions pertaining to wines I’ve reviewed (fools) or requests for cheap wine suggestions. If you send me any in the next two weeks, I’m afraid I won’t be able to respond until November, so don’t get all upset with me, please.

Salud!

Wine Welfare

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If you can take a moment to stop absorbing my stunning wine-related prose and yank that bottle of cheap hooch from your lips, you might notice that we’ve got some new category links in the sidebar to your right. Structuring and strategizing the best way to get you winos to the various categories on this site has always been like the bits of cork floating in my glass of $20 Cabernet.

Since I’m not a website coder, I use WordPress, which means I use plugins. So far none of the plugins have done the job very well.  It’s still a work in progress, but I’m happy with it for now. So, check out the category links (note the fancy animated dropdown!) and pay no attention to the random half wine glass icon that I can’t seem to get rid of. There’s a reason why I’m not a web designer.

After all, we’re not about aesthetics here at Wine Welfare, we’re about making me money by clicking on…ahem…things (*winks, points to the right, cries at amount in bank account*)

Cheers!

Wine Welfare

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Cheers!

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Oh wait, it’s because the group at NationalWineDay.org couldn’t decide on a date (I wonder why…) so they just decided that it should be today, May 25th!

So everyone pop a bottle and celebrate this momentous new……holiday?

Cheers!

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Awhile back I wrote an article for Corkd.com.

Now I’ve written another one for them.

For those out of the loop, Corkd.com is a social media wine site where people can rate wine, talk about it, and connect with others who have a passion for the juice.

Check them out, or better yet, check out my Corkd.com articles!

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/08/sarah-palin-spoke-at-a-wi_n_530934.html

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Wine Welfare is officially on Corkd.com! We have begun contributing articles to a section on Corkd called “Corkd Content.” It’s a showcase of various wine writers, bloggers, and includes great news updates in the wine world.

Check out our first Wine Welfare article, entitled “The Starter Wine” right now over at Content.Corkd.com!

9XSTMANNDBV5

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Look, we’re human, and we have limits to our intake. Therefore, Wine Welfare is looking for more wine suggestions, comments and questions. And we’re looking for them from YOU, the Readers! There just isn’t enough time or liver available to try all the under-$20 wines out there, so we want your help! Suggest some great or crappy wine under $20 that you have had recently. Let us know how it went at info@winewelfare.com or in the comments section below!

We want our readers to become more involved, and we want you to contribute via suggestions and the comment section. We are planning on having actually contributors sign up to post their reviews, but in the meantime, send us those suggestions!

Anyway, thanks for reading and we hope you get more involved. Stop lurking on the sidelines, pansies.

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The folks at WineLibrary.com are apparently snowed in (store located in New Jersey) and have shut down for today. You might recognize the name since they are often the cheapest game in town for the wines we review on Wine Welfare. Makes me wish they had an affiliate program, dammit.

Anyway, due to the loss of in-store business, they are offering a ridiculous deal for today only:

Free Shipping on the 50 wines listed here!

Just enter the code “LOTSOSNOW” during checkout and you get free shipping!

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We finally have our “Categories” page up and running here on Wine Welfare! For months now the “Categories” page has only said, “working on it,” and so work on it we did. You can now browse through our entire list of categories. Simply click on the one you want and you will be taken to that category page. Some might still be empty because we have yet to write posts on them, but we’ve covered most. Also, more categories will be added as we discover great new wines under $20!

As a side note, I wanted to mention just how many people have requested this page in various and creative ways, despite there having been a “Categories” drop down menu on the right column for the past 8 months:

8/12/2009

Email: “I can’t find the type of wine I’m looking for. You’re site blows.”

Response: “Category drop down on the right. Thanks for visiting.”

11/4/2009

Email: “Dude, how about a way to find the crappy wine you’re writing about. You’re site blows.”

Response: “Category drop down on the right. Thanks for visiting.”

12/24/2010

Email: “I wanted to buy some of that Krug Chardonnay to bring to Christmas, but couldn’t find the article. Your site blows.”

Response: “Category drop down on the right, article archive below that, the article is still on the homepage, or go here. Thanks for visiting.”

1/11/2010

Email: “Have you seen Avatar yet??? Your site blows. LOL!!!11″

Response: “Thanks for visiting.”

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American Red Cross
redcross.org
800-HELP-NOW
Donations can be made online or $10 donations can be made by texting “HAITI” to 90999

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Happy 2010 to everyone! Just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has ever read a single word we have posted this past year. We may not always be 100% consistent, but we are 100% honest and we sincerely hope that we have enabled you to find some great deals on some great wines, thus making your 2009 a little better.

Lot’s coming up for 2010, as we look to add some new content/posting styles to the site and finally get that dang “Categories” page done. That thing’s been under construction for nearly a year. Blech.

Anyway, here’s to all of you out there, our readers, and we look forward to writing more wine reviews for you and helping you find the best wine deals around in 2010!

Thank you, from the bottom of our bottles.

Cheers!

Wine Welfare

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We just wanted to take this time to thank you for reading, following and supporting WineWelfare.com throughout 2009. It was a great year for us as we launched back in March and have been working (and drinking) our butts off since. We’ve loved every minute of it. We look forward to giving you more of the best under-$20 wine reviews online in 2010. Hope you continue to come back and enjoy!

Now that we’ve said that, we should let you know that there will be no “What Wine Goes With…” post this Friday because, well, it’s Christmas and we want to drink with our families. Ha! But don’t worry, we’ve got a great bubbly post coming soon for all the New Years celebrations.

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a very happy New Year!

Cheers!

Wine Welfare

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In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.

-Mark Twain

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Cheers!

Wine Welfare

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We here at Wine Welfare work hard to bring you some (what we think are) pretty damn good wine recommendations for under twenty bucks.

And we LOVE to do it.

That said, we’ve had some major issues with our site lately, mostly regarding navigation, making sure you all find what you want, etc. So we’ve decided to change the overall look of the site along with some behind the scenes stuff.

Now rest assured, this will not affect the functionality of the site, and we will be continuing on as normal with the under $20 wine recommendations.

That’s it! Just wanted to let you all know that the look of Wine Welfare will be changing shortly, so don’t be too surprised.

Hope you’re all doing great, and thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Wine Welfare

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