We were approached recently by one of the mainstay families of the wine business who, having recently divested themselves of their last winery (over the years they have built and sold several), were keeping their Oak Knoll vineyards and contemplating their own “virtual” brand. Sidetracked by a growing wine barrel business, they offered us the wines provided we buy as much cabernet as we buy merlot.

No problem we say, let’s taste the wines…well you all know what comes next…we loved the wines, blah, blah, blah, bought them all, etc., etc. Luckily for you, we bought these last December when prices were vastly lower than they are in today’s environment. Current pricing would put this wine closer to $18 under our program and $35-40 under other folks.

Lot 75 2006 Oak Knoll District, Napa Valley Cabernet ($13) hails from the new Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley. Given “District” status in 2004, Oak Knoll is located just south of the Yountville District and, as such, is considered the coolest climate is Napa next to Carneros. To read more about the district please click here and for an at-a-glance map of all Napa Valley’s appellations click here. Oak Knoll is HOT, but not in the temperature sense, and much like its neighbor to the east, Coombsville/Tulocay, is seeing greatly increased demand for grapes but not from the big guys; rather, demand in Oak Knoll is from small winemakers crafting elegantly powerful expressions of Napa Cabernet.

Again, the style here is more iron fist/velvet glove than Betty Boop and Lot 75 reflects those same values. Made in a high-end custom crush facility from perfectly ripe 2006 fruit (great vintage– click here for more on 2006 harvest in Napa) Lot 75 saw only about 33% new French Oak and is more an expression of fruit elegance than oak. The tannins are well integrated into the wine which is extremely well-structured and, like Lot 35, well built for the cellar.

In comparison to Lot 35, I would say this is the superior wine from a better vintage combining more up front fruit and better overall musculature (about a point higher in Alcohol at 14.5%). Purple fruits on the nose with more chocolate and mocha/espresso flavors on the palate. The wine is huge structurally with a long, sustained finish despite being tightly wound. A bit more open at this stage than Lot 35, Lot 75 probably has more in common with Lot 73 off of Chalk Hill. Just coming out to play, this wine has a long life ahead of it.

Ummm… did I mention this wine happens to be an EXCEPTIONAL VALUE? No way in heck you are gonna find cabernet this good for $13. Speaking of awesome deals, our good friends at Costco will have this wine available to them. I know some has already hit San Diego and should be soon hitting NorCal and LA regions. I am sure Texas will get their share (though there never seems to be enough Cabernet for Texas) and hopefully Illinois as well.

Stay tuned as well for our Lot 94 2006 Oak Knoll Merlot to be released here in a few weeks.

Our new Sampler, October Opulence ($164), is available now!  The theme is big, opulent reds.  With the hot weather finally starting to die down, big red wines are making their way back into season!

Included are four bottles each of Lot 67 2005 Russian River Syrah, Lot 73 2006 Chalk Hill Cab and Lot 99 2004 Lake County Cabernet Franc.

Lot 67 has been a crowd favorite at recent events in San Francisco and Austin.  It’s got a unique minty nose with chocolate on the palate.

Lot 73 is just starting to unwind and has potential to be a Lot Series legend.  It scored a 90 point score recently from Wine Enthusiast.  It is full of black fruits, mocha and dark chocolate.

Cam’s palate continues to impress me, as I wasn’t expecting much out of a Cabernet Franc from Lake County; I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted Lot 99.  This big red has a beautiful nose full of vanilla and roses with cassis and blackberries on the taste. It demands pairing with red meat.  Decant these wines to get the best flavor profile.

Remember, shipping on all samplers is Free! Order now!

Dear Friends,

Before I get too far into this let me just say a few things:

1. This post concerns easily the best chardonnay we have ever produced.
2. Lot 73 is starting to loosen up and it just got a 90 score in the Wine Enthusiast (click here to find stores near you)
3. If you haven’t had Lot 67 and you like either California syrah or Aussie Shiraz, you gotta try this wine. Online only.
4. Lot 33 is still sleeping, don’t touch.
5. Lot 91 oak is just on the tail-end of integration.
6. If you like big, fat, rich oaky reds with plenty of maturation and ready to drink now, look no further than the Lot 99 2004 Lake County Cab Franc. This small production will release to NorCal Costco’s in the next month or so, otherwise it’s online only.

OK – onto the good stuff!

Having fallen in love with Margaret River Chardonnay during our last trip to Australia, I started to poke around the region and see who might want to make some wine for us. One lead in particular brought us to an American owned grower group that, while they hadn’t any grapes or wine to sell, they did have an ultra-premium concept project of $30 chardonnay that hadn’t gotten much retail support – it was bottled in shiners would we take it off their hands? We were a bit skeptical of 2004 chardonnays but what the heck, we’ll try anything.

Glad we did – we were blown away at how these wines had held up, fresh and bright and drinking beautifully. If you have ever had Cullen Chardonnay then you will know what these wines aspire to: low yielding vines from the best blocks, carefully harvested, hand sorted, and chilled overnight before gentle whole cluster crushing. Only free run juice went into the 50% new, 50% used top quality French oak for fermentation. The wines were aged 18 months in barrel and then only the best barrels chosen for the final blend.

We have two wines, a small Lot of Margaret River Chardonnay (340 cases) and a larger production (1800 cases), Lot 97 Chardonnay Western Australia, a regional blend of sub-appellations Manjimup, Blackwood Valley, Pemberton and others. All of the wines were made in the EXACT same way (including use of new oak and ageing times) to preserve their typicity and make for the best blending components. The small Lot of Margaret River Chard will be website only as we only have about 300 cases, the larger Lot will find its way into super-demo’s in Costco’s around California but will be available online as well.

As I mentioned previously, Lot 92 2004 Margaret River Chardonnay ($14) is SPECTACULAR and, according to unanimous consensus in our office, the best white wine we have ever produced. Even if you don’t normally drink chardonnay, you ought to try this – winemaker David says this wine compares to burgundies at 5x the price. Gorgeously structured with perfectly integrated fruit and oak, utterly seamless. The nose soars out of the glass with elegantly rendered vanilla, almond and lemon verbena notes. On the palate the wine is full bodied but well supported showing spicy nutmeg, butterscotch and almond. What’s amazing about this wine is its structure, everything’s in perfect balance. Compare at $30-50.

Lot 97 Western Australia Chardonnay ($13) is no red-headed stepchild to Lot 92. A regional selection, these Lots were made in the EXACT same fashion as Lot 92 in every way down to their bottling on the same day. If Lot 92 is our best chardonnay, the Lot 97 is certainly among our top 3. Baked apple pie on the nose with notes of yeast and smoky gunflint (gunpowder?). Have you ever heard of botrytis? Clearly some of the clusters had botrytis and it shows adding additional sweetness and complexity to the nose. Carmel crust, apricot and toasty oak round out the mid-palate. Fantastic acidity and overall structure with, again, perfectly integrated oak – clearly, however, these lots come from a slightly warmer climate. An apt comparison would be the western reach of the Sonoma Coast appellation versus the slightly more inland Russian River Valley. Compare at $30-50.

That all for now folks.

Cheers!

Cameron

Just wanted to make a quick note to say thanks for all who came out to the Wine 2.0 event in NYC. We had an absolute blast! We’ll definitely be back very soon. Check out the pics from the event here.

Now to this week’s releases. Cam’s in Alabama… Alaska… or did he say Antarctica?????? He’s in some place that starts with an A, so he left it to me to tell you about two hot new wines: a brand new Meritage and, for the first time, a Cabernet Franc.

Lot 72 ($12) is a Napa Valley Meritage blend of 62% Merlot and 38% Cab. Silky, smooth Merlot is backed by Cabernet structure. It is full of black fruits and cherry upfront with chocolate and espresso on the finish. We tasted through a bunch of wines a few weeks ago and Lot 72 blew us all away. It’s drinking fantastic right now. Previous Meritage Lots have been some of the most popular wines we’ve released… Lot 72 will be no different!

We’ve come a long way since Lot 1; hard to believe we are about to hit triple digit lot numbers! Lot 99 ($10) is a Cabernet Franc from Lake County. This wine exhibits a beautiful vanilla fragrance with subtle hints of roses on the nose. It is fruit forward with luscious blackberries and cassis. This is a big wine that calls for big food! Throw those ribeyes on the grill or enjoy with a thick burger with blue cheese. Lot 99 is our first 100% Cabernet Franc and it’s a smokin’ deal at only $10!

Cheers!

Before I get started, a quick clarification on my comments about wine cellars and 55 degrees not being necessary (“hooey”, I think I said). What I did not mean to say was that the closet is an equal substitute. Properly cellared wines will gain complexities over time not possible in room temp or slightly below storage. What I did want to convey is that “cellaring” wine in your closet or basement is sort of “fast-track” for ageing that will improve the wines but not to the degree that slow ageing at temperatures around 55 degrees will.

Moving on….today’s releases have been on the website but never “officially” launched. Never one to pass up a legit chance to remind you that we exist, our online department (Paul) has been hassling me to get this email put together due to the short week. As a nod to the short week and everyone’s hectic schedule, I’ll make this quick ?.

Lot 70 ($11) and Lot 73 ($16) are two wines I would lay down a bit but for different reasons. We bought Lot 70 at the end of last year and put it into our own oak program until earlier this summer. I think the wine is at the tail end of integrating the oak and coming together so a couple more weeks and we’ll be good to go. I think this wine represents a throwback to the early days here at CHW where we were primarily sourcing second-tier varietals (think syrah, zin and petite sirah vs. cab and merlot) from second tier appellations (Lodi, Lake county, etc) that represented exceptional value.

The issue with Lot 73, which saw only about 20% new barrel (versus Lot 70 which saw a good punch of new French and Hungarian oak), is more one of highly structured hillside fruit than it is new oak. The big tannic structure of this wine needs more time to melt down and integrate so you’ll have to trust me on this one. That said, the wine has a solid pedigree as one of the key components (prior to our contracting the wine) in what is certainly one of Sonoma Counties most expensive/prestigious bottlings. I cannot state loudly enough my enthusiasm for this wine and how thrilled we are to have it made for us each year; however, please note that additional storage/cellaring is in order. I think the wine will loosen up towards the end of the year and begin to show itself. That said, probably gonna take another 12-18 months to really stretch out in the bottle. Remember Lot 47, the Diamond Mountain Cabernet? From a structural perspective it’s about as similar a wine as we have in our portfolio.

Full write-ups and tasting notes on both wines can be found here. The tasting notes for Lot’s 70 and 73 were written off of pre-bottling tank samples with significant oxygenation so the bottled product will need some time before it accurately reflects those tasting notes again.

Cheers!

No doubt these are two of our most exciting releases all year. The much-anticipated return of Lot 38 is incarnated in Lot 77 2006 101-Year-Old-Vines Shiraz ($18). We also have a Cabernet release from one of Napa’s most revered appellations, Mount Veeder, which is certainly a contender for the best Cabernet we have ever released. First, the Shiraz - I think Lot 38 100 Year-Old-Vine Shiraz was probably the most popular and talked about release last year. I anticipate Lot 77 will be the same even though it’s going to take a bit longer to get there. I’ll explain below.

The 2006 vintage in the Barossa is generally considered good to excellent depending on who you talk to. A late heat wave forced some folks to bring grapes in a little too quickly but those who hung on (like the good folks who made our Lot 77) found a cool spell allowing them to hang fruit well into the Australian Fall. This cool spell also resulted in wines with more classically styled tannin structures versus the ultra-ripe fruit of 2005. These tannins have contributed to an overall structure superior to the Lot 38 but the trade-off is one of accessibility – the 2006, even with 18 months in barrel and over 6 months in bottle, is still unwinding in the bottle. Flavor profiles are much the same, its just gonna take a few more months to get there. Look to crack these puppies later this year.

Moving early last year we were able to secure the entire production of 101 Year-Old-Vine Shiraz and double what we had last year. Hopefully, we will be able to carry on that tradition as we were able to get the price down as well from $20/bottle to $18/bottle. Yeah!

The Lot 84 2006 Mt. Veeder Cabernet ($19) is one of those scores that only come around every now and then and are not part of the usual truffle snuffling we do around the bulk wine market. My banker called me up one day relating an upcoming winery estate sale where the new owner would not be carrying on the brand but was only interested in the property. An hour later our winemaker was knocking on their cellar door looking for samples. He called me up a few hours later and, for the first time, I bought the wines sight unseen. It really wasn’t all that difficult a decision as the original winery was always one of my favorite places to visit in Napa. Especially easy given that pedigree and winemaker David breathlessly jumping up and down on his cell phone (which, if you know David, is a funny picture and sure to be terribly embarrassing for his daughters). I should also mention previous vintages of this wine retail for $60-80 and the 2004 and 2005 vintages have scored 92 and 93 points, respectively, in the Wine Enthusiast. Future vintages will not be available, this is a one-time deal. Tasting notes can be found here.

As you can see from the vintages these are both young wines. Both have about 18 months in barrel and are fairly well developed but, at the end of the day, they are born of hillside grown, elevation farmed grapes and that pedigree is reflected in their structures. Grippy tannins and peeking fruit are just beginning to give way to the savory, dark, oaky fruits at the core of both of these wines (both have exceptional mouth feel, even now, though decanting is still recommended). As well, both wines have excellent cellaring capabilities and are certainly amongst the best wine (aren’t they all) we have ever offered here.

We made about 2,500 cases of each wine though a fair portion of it is allocated to our friends at Costco so be sure to get your orders in quickly and use our Buy and Hold option (for $5) if it’s too hot to ship to your state.

Cheers!

Dear Friends,

A quick note here on a couple things…Hughes-Wellman 2005 St. Helena Cabernet just received a stellar write-up from Alder Yarrow on Vinography. Out of 10 stars, we received 9-9.5 stars! That’s a solid A (you can read more about Alder’s scoring system here).

Alder’s the new rock-star wine critic/blogger in the wine universe and with good reason – his website is one of the most dynamic places to learn about the world of wine, not only current events but Alder’s musing on the same are excellent. We have about 80 cases left so, if you are interested in first-class, classic Napa Cabernet, do yourself a favor and get some of this wine.

…and secondly, we are down to the end of Lot 71 2004 Alexander Valley Cab. All good lots must come to an end and there’s about 30 cases left on the website. Grab it before it’s gone.

Cheers!

Cameron