We are small. Our hands, our feet, our minds are in the wine. We make wine from vineyards that are distinguished sometimes by being ignored. Our wine often does not resemble other wines, but we are not renegades. We are students. Our projects are not always experiments-- sometimes we know what we are doing--but they are always acts of emulation, looking up at the work of others we admire.
We have begun our weekly, soon daily, visits to the vineyards. It is the time of fullness-- the grapes are round and taught, they have reached their full size and now all is about ripening. It is also finally a time of fullness in the midst of a drought of many years: there was a deluge of Spring rains, so much and so late that we worried that it might be too much-- but no, the soils absorbed everything and shed the excess. The vines all over Northern California have never looked so healthy; the fruit is abundant but also moderate in size. It is a special time in a special year.
At the same time that we now frequent the vineyards, we are also bringing wines out of the winery and into your hands. We bottle on August 25th, and have just finished assessing the wines and composing the blends. We have hit new heights with two wines, both red-- 1MN and the FTPZ. 1MN is ethereal and powerful at once; we have never made a wine like it. FTPZ shows the restrained magnificence that Zinfandel is capable of. The 2016 Prince is also at the acme of a distinguished line: like the 1MN, it is amazingly light and graceful, more than any other vintage-- yet it remains somehow a fierce wine, unmistakable.For the first time in years, we are encouraging you to put together your own selections of wines. We still offer compound packages of all of the wines at a discount, but you may once again put together collections of whatever you want. A case of The Prince only? Why not? Only light bodied red wines from old vines in Lodi? Help yourself. There are many reasons that we embrace now this: one reason is that we have brought more discipline to our winemaking. You will notice that there are not twelve wines in this release, but seven. Six of them are pillars. In every way, we get better at what we do. Take home what you like.
By the way, we will offer you discounts and reduced shipping on case orders; I just could not figure out how to build it into the shopping cart. We will look at every order and make sure you are rewarded.
2016 pergamos blanc
dick vanderkous solitude vineyard
2016 1MN
bechtold ranch
2016 FTPZ
kirschemann ranch
We have accomplished the daring and difficult Futurist aim of forcing bubbles into still wine. Blowout is all about speed, anticipation, audacity: it is a Sparkling Wine bottled and released only months after harvest and fermentation. There is no patience in the making-- or consumption-- of Blowout.
This is a selection of individual bottles, made available somewhat on the sly, and only for a little while. Thank you so much for going to the trouble to look for them.
2015 riquewihr
one full case!
2015 VLV reserve
one full case!
2015 1MN
one full case!
2015 stampede
one full case!
2015 FTPZ
one full case!
2014 the sylphs
one full case!
2014 pergamos
one full case!
2014 golgotha
one full case!
2015 1MN
one half case
2014 the sylphs
one half case
2014 pergamos
one half case
2015 VLV reserve
one half case
2015 stampede
one half case
2015 riquewihr
one half case
