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WINE COUNTRY THIS WEEK | WINE COUNTRY NEWSQuality Wines All Under $25at Wine Garage, CalistogaHidden next to a dilapidated ’40s-era former filling station on Highway 29 inCalistoga lies the Wine Garage. A unique wine shop in Napa Valley that retails allwine in the store under $25. Sound crazy? Its true. And the proprietors Todd andJoy Miller, have hit on a niche in the Valley that had been very missed by the localsthere.“There are a lot of winemakers here that can’t afford to drink the wine theymake” says Miller. “That’s crazy, yes, but who can afford to drink a $65 bottle withdinner every night?”Many people miss the Wine Garage on the first try upvalley, but the search iswell worth it. Miller stocks wine from all of California’s wine growing regionsincluding an large assortment from Napa and Sonoma counties and other Californiaappellations. When he first sought out buying the initial inventory, “Ienlisted a local farmer buddy and his 15-foot box van and off we went all over Californiahunting down the deals. I tried to seek out the small producers who didn’thave distributors so I could pass the savings on to my customers.” And Miller didjust that. His store is stocked with high-quality juice all under $25 and all areunique. Most labels in the shop are unrecognizable – but all pass the same test;everything passes over Miller’s lips before he makes a buy. “If I don’t love it, I don’tbuy it, period. Sometimes I will taste over a hundred wines in one day, load up thetruck and haul it up to Calistoga, unload at the store, and maybe I will crawl inbed by 3 a.m. Needless to say my buddy bowed out of the deal after their secondtrip. I initially recruited him on a ‘hey lets go wine tasting in Santa Barbara’ untilhe realized how much work it entailed. Poor guy, he had to be at the farm at 5 inthe morning.”It is all worth it. Millers’ customers love him. He has a unique ability to hear averbal description of a customer’s favorite wine and translate that into a recommendationfor sometimes a third of the cost. “I have people all over the country thatuse me as their local wine shop. I ship right to their door – and the cost of the shippingis a drop in the bucket compared to what they save on the cost of the wine.Miller gets deals on Napa wine too. “I have winemakers from small wineriesstop in every week saying ‘I have something that will fit into the store,’ if they onlyhave 15 or 25 cases of an end-of-vintage wine – I am the perfect outlet for them.”So head up to the Wine Garage and check out the best deals in the Valley at1020 Foothill Blvd (Hwy 29), Calistoga, CA 94515. For more information, call(707) 942-5332. You can also check out the website at winegarage.net.www.WineCountryThisWeek.com11