Beth and I made our way back to Maui this past weekend for a 4-day sojourn with our friend Troy, who lives in a little bungalow above Wailea, in Maui Meadows. Along with sleeping on his screened in lanai, heading to the beach everyday and BBQing Upcountry, we had a fair bit of wine!
First of all, if you live on Maui or are heading that way (lucky you!), the best place to purchase wine is actually right near the airport in Kahului.
Hawaii Liquor Superstore, despite the misleading name, is not only the best wine store I've been to on Maui, but one of the best that I've ever been to, period. It has an incredible selection of wines from around the world, even giving some good rack space (yes, besides the display bottle, all are horizontal) to Chilean and Argentinian wines. I'm used to this over here in the Bay Area, but I know that is not common across the US, much less on the islands where Maui has only two dominant wine distributors. The prices are very comparable to what I've seen at home and some Californian wines were actually cheaper. They even have back vintages of some wines, like one of my favorites, the
2001 Galante Vineyards Blackjack Pasture Carmel Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
In one of the most surprising developments in the wine world since Ravenswood Winery infiltrated NASCAR, I recently found out that Maynard James Keenan of the hard alternative, industrial-tinged rock bands Tool and A Perfect Circle (and the new band, Puscifer) has started his own winery and vineyard [info courtesy of Rasputin Music's Infamous, Incredible Newsletter].
The endeavor has actually been going on for 6 years, meaning that Keenan is already producing wine from his own vineyards in the Phoenix, AZ area.
Keenan has named his winery Caduceus Cellars, after the ancient Greek symbol of commerce (and somewhat inaccurately for medicine in North America). His estate vineyards are named Merkin Vineyards (no comment on that name, look it up for yourselves!).
Read on for more! 
One of my favorite things about wine is its ability to encourage a very communal and sharing atmosphere. Yes, the alcohol in wine can, of course, kick the social aspect of a gathering into high gear, but I'm speaking more about the inclination for wine lovers to want to share their favorite bottles with friends and family.
I have many great bottles in the "cellared" portion of my 
and many others that are ready in the near-term, yet I rarely open those bottles on a normal weeknight. People save bottles of wine for special occasions all the time, it's one of the main things you read about around the holidays in all of those adds for 