Napa Valley, CA
84% Merlot from Napa Valley, 11% Cabernet Sauvignon from Lake County, 5% Syrah from Carneros; 14.5% ABV
$6 at the Berkeley, CA, store on 5 July. Only a few bottles left on 11 July.
I’m a little late to this review, and a number of positive comments have already been made here, but if you can still find this wine, it’s a good bet you’ll like it.
The wine shows ripe, tangy fruit of dark red cherry, red / purple plum, blackberry / blueberry, and a little dark chocolate, with a good amount of acid of black raspberry and hibiscus tea. I will make a couple recommendations for this wine that are unusual for me. First, gently tumble the bottle end over end so the sediment is well stirred; IMO, it’s richer and tastier with the sediment. Second, it doesn’t need any airing time, but doesn’t fall apart with air, either. Although this wine is far from being as substantial and impressive (to me, at least) as the 2008 Beaver Creek Zinfandel, it is pretty good stuff.
The magical world of wines from Grocery Outlet 
Thanks BargainWhine. I’ve got a basement and while the last bottle I had was still quite good, exhibiting many of the qualities above, I’m not going to linger. Of course I’d also like to try the Fernz Pinot and the Bordeaux at the Richmond store. Time for some strategic drinking.
I opened a bottle of the Bordeaux a few days ago. It is a nice wine for drinking over the next couple of years. Good balance, oak is way in the background, some fruit, tastes like Bordeaux. However, my glass last night tasted a little bit green, which I had not noticed before, so I would not cellar it very long.
Thanks BargainWhine! I suppose I may have been a little overzealous in purchasing 7 bottles.
Sure wouldn’t mind seeing this wine and the Zin up north here in WA!
Thanks so much for your great forum here and the thoughtful comments on this site. With the recent opening of the Richmond store, I’ve found it to be a very useful tool. I was able to snag a few bottles of the Beaver Creek Mystery Red and am really enjoying it. Any thoughts on how long it will keep before it starts to decline?
Hi Eric and welcome. I haven’t had a bottle in a while, but my guess is it won’t be that long before this wine starts to decline. I’m even slightly worried about the bottle I have in my kitchen; I’ll report back when I open it. Certainly there’s no reason to wait to drink it.
Hi Eric. I opened that bottle last night and, while it was still very tasty, it was starting to decline a little, getting a slight hint of vinegar on the finish. However, my home storage now is just in a Styrofoam shipping case on the floor of my kitchen, which is south-facing and has good-size temperature fluctuations. (Temperature fluctuations are bad in that the thermal expansions and contractions of the bottle contents likely push air out and suck air in to the bottle, producing more oxidation than stable temperature conditions.) If your storage is more stable, your seven bottles may last longer, but still…
Interesting note, BargainWhine. It makes me appreciate my wine storage situation here in Santa Maria. We have a walk-in closet where I am able to store about a dozen cases on the floor without sacrificing my (or my wife’s) clothes storage capacity. Given that we live in a townhouse (where we share a wall on either side with our neighbors), that the adjoining room is north-facing, and that Santa Maria enjoys a very moderate climate, it makes for minimal temperature fluctuations. And while not as cool as a true wine cellar, our house generally stays around 68 to 70 degrees year-round. Oh, and I’ve had a couple of bottles of the 2007 Beaver Creek Mystery in recent days, and I think it’s still drinking very well!
Hi Tom. Thanks for your note contrasting our home storage situations and their results!