wine Archive
21 Dec 2025
Tip of the Day: Kirkland Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon
Everyone loves a good Costco wine recommendation (Costco wine tips are the genesis of John Dvorak’s tip giving segments). This is a good one for only $6.99 a Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon. Make sure to get the Sonoma County version with the maroon label, not the Napa County one with the Blue label. John Dvorak:
15 Dec 2025
Tip of the Day: Actually Good Grappa
John Dvorak thinks most grappa is pretty bad, but he reports he’s found a couple of good brands that are actually good and will make a grappa drinker out of you! It takes super skill to make it–Jacopo Poli. This guy’s grappa is always getting 98 or 100 points from all the tasters. Killer grappa!
22 Sep 2025
Tip of the Day: Free Exploding Moscato d’Asti
John’s got another Costco (well, sort of) Wine Tip! Apparently, Costco has put out a recall of its Moscato d’Asti sparkling wine because of the potential for it to explode all over the consumer. John describes Moscato d’Asti as a sweet, light sparkling wine. A terrific Summer sipper – great for the upcoming Indian Summer.
11 Sep 2025
Tip of the Day: Ginjo Sake in Blue Bottles
Dvorak started with a little lecture on Sake. Ginjo Sake is your baseline; it means it’s at least 100% rice wine and not distilled from other stuff. One observation Dvorak has made over the last thirty years is that when he buys sake from Costco or the local fish market, if it’s in a blue
03 Jul 2025
Tip of the Day: Kirkland Cabernet Sauvignon from Alexander Valley
John Dvorak has found another winning Costco wine buy. This time it’s the Kirkland Cabernet Sauvignon from Alexander Valley (a terrific wine growing region to visit by the way) for less than ten bucks! John: Normally, I don’t do wine tips often, but occasionally I do. I don’t do as many from Costco because, except
01 May 2025
Tip of the Day: Wine-Searcher.com
John Dvorak has another winning wine tip, this time it’s the outstanding WineSearcher.com wine portal. It’s an easy-to-use database on wines, wineries, reviews and places to find that specific wine you always wanted to get. John: Wine-searcher.com. This is a huge, monstrous database of wines—with all the reviews and all the stores that sell the
27 Apr 2025
Tip of the Day: Muscat de Beaumes de Venise an Outstanding Sweet Wine
Before naming this week’s Tip, gave a little tour of the sweet wines of the world; Rhones, Saturernes, Trockenbeerenauslese etc. But for this week’s tip, he landed on Beaumes de Venise, an appellation of wines from the eastern central region of the southern half of the Rhône Valley. John describes it as incredibly sweet, but
30 Dec 2024
Tip of the Day: French Wine Rating Stickers
John Dvorak is a proponent of French wine rating stickers. These are particular to French Bordeaux. Another popular wine rating system for buyers to consider are Parker scores from wine expert, Robert Parker. “When you’re buying wine, particularly Bordeaux, you’ll often see wines with little stickers on them that say things like 91 or 92
19 Sep 2024
Tip of the Day: Costco Bordeaux Wine Box
John C. Dvorak was ecstatic about this great deal at Costco. He’s been chasing great wine buys at Costco for years and this is one of the best yet. It’s four bottles of French Bordeaux for only $29.99! He explained that it’s better than much more expensive California wines. [Episode 1694]
09 Feb 2024
Costco Wine Tips
Costco is now offering four sub-$10 Bordeaux’s in a wooden box with the labels displayed clearly for only $29.95! Terrific products for the price exclaims John C. Dvorak. If you always see these Four-fers in a box, get them! For a little backstory, JCD revealed that Misa Imports is the wine buyer for Costco and
22 Feb 2013
Châteauneuf-du-Pape
Châteauneuf-du-Pape was mentioned very briefly while John Dvorak was discussing the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. He pointed out there used to be a feud between Rome and the French city that makes Châteauneuf-du-Pape wine.
26 Nov 2012
Thanksgiving Wine Tips
During the donation announcements, a producer asked John for thanksgiving dinner wine tips. John recommended a Beaujolais Villages from Jadot - a 2010-11 vintage is currently being sold at Costco or at wine.com. "Beaujolais goes perfect with turkey!" California Chardonnay also works great too.
28 Jul 2010
Juan Gil Monastrell
John Dvorak passed sent out this wine tip to @neoEdward who asked about a good red wine.
19 Jun 2010
Costco Wine Picks
Dvorak likes finding great deals at his local Richmond Costco. Here are two that he mentioned on TWiT #238 [March 7, 2010].