is this the label?
no mention of to-kalon on the label, odd…
14.7% !
Maybe Graeme will at some point jump in on the price. I think it is fair to say he is still fine tuning his pricing and juggling the realities of small production, expensive land and wanting the wines to be obtainable. I do think this wine is as good as many others at $200 and over price points but this wine in my guess will not be anywhere near that. Sadly because of the aforemention realities I mentioned it is not going to be $50 either. I will leave the rest to Team MacDonald…
yikes, it will be $200+ 
- Graeme says that production of the 2009 was only one barrel and it will not be released along with the 2010, which I think he said was four or five barrels. He said what he was going to do with the 2009, but I just don’t remember.
- I do not know. My guess is north of $100, because he has to deal with “paying” for his own grapes because not all the family members are involved in the winery. But that is just a guess. Others may have discussed price with him last night, but I did not.
- Graeme said that there are three groups of vines on their property, 20, 40 and 70 years old. This wine is made from the 40 year old vines. I did not ask why he did not use the 70 year old vines, which omission I now regret, since I would like to know the answer.
To answer some general questions gleaned from the tasting and visit I did @ Macdonald earlier this year.
RELEASE OF THE 2009
From the tasting I did with Graeme and Alex last winter, they told me the 2009 will only be offered to the first people on the list (as there were only 22 cases produced). 2010 is a F13 release, and I think the 09 will go at the same time.
PRICE
Price point is something they shared with me, but I decided it was not my place to announce it ahead of their release, even though they didn’t request it. If that is keeping anyone from signing up for the list, I’m sorry that you may miss something I believe is quite special. As a critic, I don’t generally write full page introductions for wineries being reviewed for the first time unless the backstory is especially meaningful to the wine and the people involved, I did this for the first review of the premieres of Scarecrow and VHR if you want any precedence.
VINE AGE
As far as age of the vines, the oldest block (shown on the cover of my report) was planted in 1954 and were the first to go into Oakville after prohibition. Other blocks were added over the last 40 years.
LABEL
I tasted out of shiners. The brothers showed me a mockup label that looked different than the one on the TTB paperwork. Beyond that I have nothing to add.
It isn’t common that there is this much leadup to a launch of a wine. I knew about the project for about a year before tasting it and completion of the notes happened to coincide with my North Coast issue in February so I went ahead and published.
Jay, thanks. My guess is that the vineyard fruit is probably leased in sections and the 40 year-old vines happen to be what was available for Graeme’s use.
At 40 years old (planed in the early 70s), these vines still would represent some of the older living cab vines in the state (probably also the world).
Here in CA, JJ Cohn (Scarecrow) was planted in '39, although I don’t have information on replanting. Some of the vines at Monte Bello date from the late 1950s. Cathy Corison’s Kronos Vineyard I want to say was planted in the late 60s early 70s?
Many of the vineyards planted after Mondavi reinvigorated the valley in the mid-60s (Martha’s, Eisele, etc.) have subsequently been replanted.
Mike, I thought JJCohn (old men) went in the ground 1945 planted by John Daniel (inglenook)?
Doug, you could be right, '39 was a date that I have, for some reason. Have you walked that vineyard? Do a significant portion of the old vines still exist?
Sorry, but I can’t look at the title of this thread without having this pop into my head:
Mike, the story as it was told to me is after WW II, increased planting was a priority for Inglenook. John Daniel planted the St. George vines in 1945 directly in front of the summer house of JJ Cohn, Inglenook’s neighbor directly to the South. Those vines comprise what are known as “The Old Men”. N 38.44731° | W 122.434° should get you pretty close to the head pruned block. I walked the vineyard in December 2005 when I was there with a few others to do the first tasting blind against some other top tier valley producers and wrote the first review in March 2006. As far as I know, the vines are still hanging in there, but I have only been back a couple times since then, and I no longer review it.
Overall I agree with Jay’s comments-- these wines are really excellent! There is a pure sense of the classic cab fruit that I think is due to the moderately reductive style (minimal racking). The oak, while new, does little to obscure this quality. While the wine is quite accessible now with a long decant, I suspect that these wines will age extremely well. Graeme’s family is lucky to have some of the most special terroir in Napa, and we are lucky that he’s making the wine.
I’m very curious about this as well.
I sent Graeme an e-mail about the choice of vines and he responded as follows:
Regarding your question: I changed the trellis and pruning on the 20 year old vines (our west blocks) over these past three years to a V shape (which I think is better than the Vertical Shoot Positioning which overexposes the fruit to sunlight and sunburn) I also lowered total buds to around 10-12 per plant (which is very low but more balanced even though we are on wide spacing 8’x5’). I wanted to wait for the vines to acclimate to the changes before including them in the blend. They are already excellent quality and the wines are slightly more fruit driven and less austere but as powerful and intense as the 40 year old East block. The original 70 year old vines make up our south block and I have been resurrecting that block with careful cover cropping, compost, better pruning and replacing missing or entirely dead vines. I have been spending a lot of time with my friend Tegan from Turley Cellars and seeing how they have resurrected some of their old vine vineyards back into production. I will be making some of that wine for the first time this year to assess quality.
Thanks Jay. Regarding the 70-year old vines, Graeme has the right advisor in Tegan. As indicated before, 70 year old cabernet vines are precious indeed and worthy of respect and special care. I look forward to tasting wine from that South Block.
The price is $150. Mailed Alex and asked.
Of all the nerve!
I know 
I’m in for two bottles at that price, if I get an offer. Signed up last week.
I always get a good, solid chuckle when the lofty price of a wine is justified b/c other wines that may or may not be good are priced higher. Good stuff.
First time release Napa cabs that come out of the gate at > $100 are a ridicule worthy category to be sure. I find them equally knee slapping as high-end Bordeaux and Burgundy.
That said, this wine is sourced from an iconic site and mature vines, is made by people with ties to the vineyard - and comes with the recommendations of folks I trust. I hope I get offered!