Do It. BevMo!'s five cent wine sale.

You can count on the BEAT of young los angeles to let you know when BevMo! is having their periodic five cent wine sale. Yesterday, after a long Wednesday at the office, I thought a crisp glass of good rosé sounded perfect. I stopped by BevMo! to find their famous five cent wine sale going on. On certain (plenty good options) bottles of wine, when you buy one, a second is yours for just a nickel.

Needless to say (pictured above) I snagged two bottles for essentially the price of one. While I was there, I also got some pumpkin ale after Lauren's recent post about pumpkin products had me thinking about it.

I ended up having a Blue Moon/Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale instead of that glass of rosé after all, so I'm hoping when I do open my 2008 Turkey Flat Vineyards it will live up to the 94 points it got from James Halliday.

BevMo! is located at 7100 Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. The 5 cent wine sale ends November 8. Info: (323) 882-6971

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: the BEAT

Eat In. Buffalo Bill's Orange Blossom Cream Ale.

This is an amazing find by Ms. Leslie Anne Wiggins: Orange Blossom beer. While she wasn't keen on it because of it's strong orange flavor, I loved it even though I quite often I go for more yeasty, wheaty beers.

Buffalo Bill's Orange Blossom Cream Ale has a surprising and refreshing taste, and the "creamy" texture was very unique without being gross. The cute vintage box is a plus, although not exactly a deal breaker.

Buffalo Bill's who bottles this excellent brew has other amazing craftsman seasonals, including their pumpkin ale coming out in the fall, which is probably my favorite of their collection.

It is a bit hard to locate Buffalo Bill's Orange Blossom Cream Ale, although Ralph's and BevMo! will usually have it. One six pack costs about $8 at BevMo!

-- Lauren Williams

Eat In. Chilean wine [Thirsty Thursdays!].

Wine is one of tiny Chile's biggest exports, and after a little probing it's not hard to see why people are so crazy about it. It's been said that good grape that grows in Chile first grew in France, before a terrible plague in 1867 ravaged the vineyards of Western Europe and left Chile with the unique root of the carmenere.

Whatever it is, Chilean wine is fantastic. The first week my roommate and I had our apartment here and opened a cheap bottle of a white, the entire house was filled with the smell of grapefruit. I was astonished. In Chile wine is incredibly inexpensive, but here are a few bottles that shouldn't break the budget when cruising around BevMo!, although I'm not sure which of these qualifies for their 5 Cent Sale, which rolls around every once in a while.

In my short two months living here, I've found a few labels that are consistently spot on. Concha y Toro's Terrunyo cab is quite good, I've heard that their Diablo carmenere is tasty too, although I have yet to try it. Cousino-Macul has a very nice affordable cabernet sauvignon as well, pictured below. Cousino-Macul's vineyard is just outside Santiago, as are many vineyards that surround the city.

Cono Sur is also very good, devoted to sustainability this bottle can be spotted for the adorable drawing of a bicycle on the label.

As far as whites go, Undurraga has an exquisite (it's snobby, but really the only word that can describe the extraordinary flavor from this vineyard) late harvest white dessert wine. The term describes when the grapes were plucked, and one sip and you'll definitely be glad they stayed on the vine a bit longer. I'm not much of a dessert wine person myself, but this is wonderful, and not too sweet. Should you find a bottle of this excellent wine from the Maipo Valley, get it! It's dark color is a dead give away to the goodness that lies within it's bottle.

Drink up and enjoy!

-- Lauren Williams

Photo credit: The vineyard of Cousino-Marcul in Puente Alto.

Do It. BevMo!'s five cent wine sale.

As a young person still learning about wine, I usually opt for Merlot, most of which I like. This weekend I gained a new appreciation for Pinot Noir while at a friend's house for the Pacquiao-Clottey fight (what I assumed would be a purely pizza and beer kind of night). Two bottles of 2007 Monterey Pinot Noir appeared, and I had a glass of Pessagno. It had a sweetness to it, "impressive for the way the cherry fruit explodes in the mouth", according to Wine Enthusiast via BevMo!, that I wasn't expecting from a Pinot Noir.

On Sunday I went to BevMo! to find a bottle, and the five cent wine sale was going on. While the Pessagno wasn't part of it, Irony (the other bottle present at the party) was. One bottle for $15.99, and the second for $0.05, averaging to be quite a deal for two good bottles. I tried it later that evening, and it was just as delicious, fruit-filled and smooth as the Pessagno.

Check out the sale before it ends.

BevMo! is located at 7100 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood.

-- Leslie Anne Wiggins

Photo credit: www.bevmo.com