A score at Grocery Outlet - for sweet wine lovers

It seems like I'm posting alot about Grocery Outlet these days as I go through the wines I've purchased there, but this one is a winner. 2009 Alpha Domus Leonarda Late Harvest Semillon "The Pilot" from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand is a wonderful bottle of wine at any price. At $3.99 for a 375ml bottle it is a stellar deal. Nose of apricots and honey, taste of orange, apricots, honey, nuts, and a slight bitterness at the end all in a sweet frame with good acidity, gives a delicious dessert wine. Brix at harvest 36.7. Residual Sugar 130 g/L. 12% alcohol. This is my first Hawkes Bay late harvest wine, and it is a winner. Info is available at viapacifica.com (but it doesn't have info on the 2009, but does have info on Alpha Domus).
This wine follows a really wonderful meal of locally line caught wild Pacific King Salmon (wow was that good!) accompanied by 2007 Racine Wine Company's Klee Willamette Valley Pinot Noir with its lovely cranberry and cherry flavors. A nice wine, and delicious with the grilled salmon and grilled zucchini. A nice wine night.

It seems like I'm posting alot about Grocery Outlet these days as I go through the wines I've purchased there, but this one is a winner. 2009 Alpha Domus Leonarda Late Harvest Semillon "The Pilot" from Hawkes Bay, New Zealand is a wonderful bottle of wine at any price. At $3.99 for a 375ml bottle it is a stellar deal. Nose of apricots and honey, taste of orange, apricots, honey, nuts, and a slight bitterness at the end all in a sweet frame with good acidity, gives a delicious dessert wine. Brix at harvest 36.7. Residual Sugar 130 g/L. 12% alcohol. This is my first Hawkes Bay late harvest wine, and it is a winner. Info is available at viapacifica.com (but it doesn't have info on the 2009, but does have info on Alpha Domus).
This wine follows a really wonderful meal of locally line caught wild Pacific King Salmon (wow was that good!) accompanied by 2007 Racine Wine Company's Klee Willamette Valley Pinot Noir with its lovely cranberry and cherry flavors. A nice wine, and delicious with the grilled salmon and grilled zucchini. A nice wine night.

I just wish we had a Grocery Outlet here. In Ky if a grocery store sells wine/beer/liquor, it has to have a separate entrance. That being what it may be, We would NEVER see that kind of deal. Keep the reports coming.

This reminded me of a local couple who started a upscale grocery store with a deli. They had the most fabulous smoked salmon (done on premises) I have ever tasted. I went there every two weeks just to buy some of that salmon. They also had great cheeses, and a very knowledgeable fellow who could talk with you about the different varieties, and how to use them.
The strange thing was, they also had a nice wine section, in the same room. But the entrance from the grocery/deli part was roped off with a sign telling you to go outside and enter from the outside door. This made it just dandy when you had already filled a cart or a basket with items, and had to go outside to another door. One quickly learned to get the wine first or not at all. They lasted only one year. It was sad because it really was a fine store and had a lot of potential. I never did get the separate entrance thing. There is not another store in Redding that does that. As far as I could tell, there was no cash register in there either.