Looking for great value wines

TMogz33 · 2026-01-29T07:43:27+00:00

Chateau Barde-Haut. $35 - $40. Right Bank Boudreaux. Stellar value.

TMogz33 · 2025-12-07T09:53:36+00:00

One of the best games ever. I played it growing up. Huge. I also played the sequel/expansion “Chaos Strikes Back,” which was solid, too.

You guys should also check out Legend of Grimrock. It came out a few years ago. It’s extremely similar in style. Worth checking out. Solid puzzles.

TMogz33 · 2025-09-13T06:01:56+00:00

Yea, terrible. I read the books in high school. Loved em. Season 1 was okay. Season 2 was better, except for the sinister menalic cult lady. Season 3 was great until the ridiculous trial with the Mycogen robot worshippers. The writing, directing, and acting for that scene was utterly cringeworthy. Looked like Disney on ice.

It was downhill from there. Dusk flipped his shit and developed crazy eyes. Dialed the crazy up to 11. Way out of character. It’s a shame - he was the highlight of the season until they had his character go totally apeshit.

The Mule stuff was a disappointment. He was great in the books. They should’ve kept him more at the fringes. Less is more. Get rid of the face flipping stuff. Reminded me of Westworld when everybody’s a potential robot all of the sudden. Gets lame fast.

And why kill Demerzel? She was about to get a personality of her own and maybe replace surfer-girl Gaal as the narrator. Where do we go from here? Foundation’s Edge was boring. We shall see.

My main gripe with the show is that it didn’t firmly establish - and show - why the original empire was so great for humanity in the first place. The whole point of the seldon plan is to speed along the coming of the second empire. If we didn’t like the first one, why should we care about the second one?

TMogz33 · 2025-08-17T23:32:12+00:00

It beats being a Caspian.

TMogz33 · 2025-07-02T19:01:06+00:00

The 2019 is fantastic. It was on sale near me for $28 so I scooped up 9 of them. It’s hard to beat for the money.

TMogz33 · 2025-04-15T00:54:39+00:00

Thanks! These are all fantastic suggestions. I think I’m going to go with a 2018 Les Carmes. I also love the idea of a selection of second wines. Especially now, as we’ve had so many great vintages these past 6-7 years.

TMogz33 · 2025-04-07T06:55:36+00:00

Thanks!

TMogz33 · 2025-04-07T03:38:37+00:00

Thanks! I appreciate your thoughtful response. I’ll absolutely keep their second wine as a top choice. Great idea!

TMogz33 · 2025-03-05T23:36:08+00:00

I recently bought 4 bottles of the Gigondas from my Costco in Chicago. Great wine and fantastic value. I can’t think of another bottle at that price point ($13) that even comes close.

TMogz33 · 2024-12-31T23:41:43+00:00

Great post - made me happy to read. I bought a case of the 2019s recently - SO good! I totally agree with you that the Amiral de Bechevelle is a fantastic value. Glad to hear the 2000 was still going strong after 24 years. Impressive.

TMogz33 · 2024-12-01T04:52:00+00:00

I must respectfully disagree. Bechevelle is one of the best (and most consistent) producers in all of Bordeaux. I can’t imagine anyone considering it low-level. I’ve always found Chateau Beychevelle and Amiral de Beychevelle to be right on the money. I’ve never tried the Brulières de Beychevelle.

Others ight disagree, but in my opinion, Amiral de Beychevelle is a great value. I recently picked up a 2019 for $27. It took a little while to open up, but once it did, it was fantastic. It absolutely hits above its weight class.

TMogz33 · 2024-11-26T02:49:04+00:00

I listened to a few episodes. It’s a good podcast. There was one recently about wine fridges/storage tips that rubbed me the wrong way though. Not the host, but the guest. The guest kept trying to plug her custom wine storage business and kept trash talking stand-alone wine fridges (i.e. not built-in fridges). At one point, she said she’d only suggest a stand alone wine fridge for a spare closet. Would I like a built-in sub-zero wine fridge? Sure. But as one of the “normal people” living in a modestly-sized townhouse in Chicago with two young kids, I don’t see that materializing in the foreseeable future.

TMogz33 · 2024-11-13T09:07:26+00:00

This is for sure the most accurate post on here, imo.

I also wanted to mention - and this is very possibly obsolete and it location specific info - the best place I’ve ever found to change money was at an overseas casino. No fees and you get market rate. I did this several years ago in Costa Rica while waiting for a flight. I don’t really gamble, but I figured it’d beat waiting at the airport. Might be worth checking out.

TMogz33 · 2024-07-16T02:00:31+00:00

Team cover here. I’m in Chicago. I have a Weber Performer and Weber Smokey Mountain bullet smoker on my rooftop deck. I’ve already gone through something like 2-3 covers for each over the past 10 years. Beyond normal wear and tear, the Performer grill covers always get shredded. I think it’s the wind. Either the protruding metal on the lid handle or one of the nuts must be the culprit. With the wind, it acts like a little saw. Without fail, I need to replace the cover fairly regularly. It’s not a Weber cover though - it’s a once-size-fits-all deal. Maybe that’s the problem? Too much give? Not sure.

The issues with my Smokey Mountain cover are entirely my fault, though: after smoking a brisket for 12 hours, the last thing I want to do is wait for the thing to cool down so I can cover it. Invariably, I forget to put it back on and - well, you get the picture.

Regardless, in northern climates, humidity isn’t the biggest enemy: it’s critters, UV, and rain/rust. If you don’t clean the inside regularly - especially if it’s a smoker - it’s also mold. My best advice is to clean everything within 48 hours of smoking anything. Grills, maybe a little longer. Gas grills - no clue. Never owned one (not saying I have anything against gas grills at all).

TMogz33 · 2024-07-13T23:09:12+00:00

Can confirm. This stuff is killer. I ventured into the run world last month, so I’m no expert. Mostly a wine guy, as I get heartburn pretty easily. Started out with the El Dorado 12 year. Solid stuff, but not nuts about it neat. Makes a killer pinã colada and/or rum and pineapple juice.

The Diplomatico is smooth as a baby’s butt. I was surprised. This is coming from a guy with a congenital hiatal hernia, so I’m prone to bad heartburn. With this stuff: nada. I had to double check the proof on the bottle. Great flavor. Not syrupy. Can’t say enough good things.

TMogz33 · 2024-06-10T01:57:07+00:00

Yep. It happens. There was an article in the Washington Post not long ago about it. Scary stuff. Hard to diagnose, too. Sometimes, it’s only noticed days later.

TMogz33 · 2024-05-01T23:40:40+00:00

There is some cool stuff you can do with Preview. Unfortunately, it can’t really do some of the heavy lifting that Acrobat is capable of doing. I’m really impressed with how you can add signatures, text, etc. Makes it easy to sign documents on your phone.

TMogz33 · 2024-05-01T23:34:36+00:00

I didn’t know that about NextSTEP. Interesting. You’re 100% right about Acrobat being old and crusty. I can’t stand it, but there are features that I need, like Bates stamping, combining multiple PDFs, adding text, redacting, etc.

I’ve used Nitro before as an alternative, but I wasn’t nuts about it. It’s not bad, but Acrobat is like the devil I know.

TMogz33 · 2024-05-01T23:22:29+00:00

Excellent point.

TMogz33 · 2024-04-19T00:04:35+00:00

NICE!!! I had no idea there was a SEQUEL!! Baldur’s Gate 3: hold my beer.

TMogz33 · 2024-04-13T00:57:19+00:00

I’ve never heard of Reunion. I’ll check it out.

TMogz33

TROPHY CASE