Aaron and Claire Pott are releasing their estate wines shortly:
2016 20m3
2015 Incubo
2015 Space and Time
We had the pleasure of meeting up with Aaron today, and tasted some of his wines with him:
2016 20m3
A viognier. This has been both aged in amphora and sourced from his estate on Mt Veeder starting with the 2015 vintage. It is linear, mineral, and bright in tone.
2015 Incubo
2015 Space and Time
Didn’t taste! Aaron said these were “too rare”, “but they’re good.” The Space and Time, of course is the new entrant to the lineup, (“La Carte et le Territoire” was retired recently). The Incubo’s rarity is already known, although its production will be increasing somewhat with his newer estate plantings coming to maturity, although the total quantity will still be relatively small.
Space and Time utilizes Cabernet Franc that is planted on less than an acre of the estate, although it is on perhaps the “nicest” land in the vineyard. It “will have blueberry off the charts”. I am sure it will have great balance as well, as has been part of his consistent style.
We tasted other wines as well, but that will be for an upcoming thread.
It would be great to get your take on it if you get the chance! Although I’ll order some anyway, figuring he’s going to do a great job with it based on his other wines.
I’ve had a few Pott cabs (HMSS and Greer). Really enjoyed them although they were far too young. Always wondered about the Incubo. Love to hear from people who have tried it.
The release and allocations must be tiered. My email arrived Wednesday morning and opened it promptly but read that the Incubo was sold out. I assume those of you who were successful in ordering some of the Incubo received your allocation earlier.
Aaron did mention that Incubo would be coming to the large format ordering for the first time (don’t recall if that would be this year or not). Large formats have usually been the best way to get the rarer wines like Turf War.
It’s good to see that the Incubo production is up to about 75 cases now. I remember several years back it was closer to 12 cases. It’s hard to open those older Incubo bottles when they are so rare that you know you can’t replace them.
I have purchased Aaron’s wines since the 2007 vintage. I only started drinking the oldest ones within the last 6-8 months. I have enjoyed the wines and they are among my favorite from Napa.
I would not hesitate to buy these wines without first tasting them.
Aaron and his wife Claire are great people to boot.
By the way, notwithstanding my long tenure on the list I was allocated “only” 3 each of the reds. I sure that I would have gotten more if there was more to hand out. So I am fine with allocation.
Dang. Logged in on day one, but got dragged away at work and forgot to finish my order. Just went back and both reds (Incubo and Space & Time) are sold out. Need to focus better next year.
