So… I was thinking about this today while stuck in LA traffic coming home.
A few weeks ago I was on WineBid and came across a few bottles of Cab Franc that sparked my interest.
It was 2001 Guilliams Cab Franc
Price seemed right…
2001? Good Napa Vintage, right?
Cab Franc? I LOVE ME SOME Cab Franc!
Spring Mountain? OK… Wow, this is getting better.
So, I think "Hey, I’m not familiar with these guys but I think I need to be. This is right in my wheelhouse"
I look them up on Google and on the search function on WB… and Poof, Sold. Gone.
It got me thinking, we know the winery business is a rough one. This board has a ton of knowledge, experience and a great memory.
Plenty of wineries have gone the way of the Dodo… share with us a few wineries where you think, “Damn, I really miss that juice!”
I remember I had a few bottles of Kelham MacLean Cab quite a few years ago and I thought it was great. I know they’re gone. Roessler was bought up by the Halls and re-launched as “Walt”. Plenty others have been sold, whatever.
Of course a lot of greats from the '70’s died and were reincarnated in Fred Franzia’s portfolio, as jug wines trying to live off the old reputations of once-good wineries–Hacienda, Grand Cru, and of course most (in)famously of all, Charles Shaw. In any meaningful sense, those original wineries are long gone.
A couple of older ones that I can remember are Roddis and Fretter, but as noted above, Tom Hill probably followed dozens of them from the very start–and to the very finish.
larry schaffer wrote:Garretson was a fave for many . . .
+1
So why did Matt get out of the winery business? He ended up going to back to MN to work for a distributor and that didn’t go so well. Great guy and I believe he is doing something with spirits.
Sawyer Cellars. The still sell wine but sold their vineyards to Foley Johnson a few years back. Heart of Rutherford off of 29, I buy them up whenever I find them. Great value.
San Permis. Found a bunch of this at JJ Buckley a year or two ago. Can’t beat a solid $35 wine for $8.