2016 Pott Wine

The purchase window is open for the 2016 Napa Valley Pott Wine, has anyone had a chance to try it or any of the single vineyards coming up in the fall?

Have not tried the 2016 Napa Valley but the 2014s and 2015s did not last long in my household. It’s one of our favorites.

For 2016 single vineyards we tasted the Turf War from barrel earlier this year and it was coming together well already.

Hi, I’ve been considering this wine as well. Sounds like fairly positive reviews here and on Cellar Tracker. How does it drink as PnP?

Thanks,

Chris

In my opinion it drinks very well even young. That’s why it doesn’t last very long once we receive it.

I’m on the fence between this and the Di Costanzo cab that’s being released next week. Only ever had a Pott once and it wasn’t the Napa (it was an Actaeon, which was very good), and have never had a Di Costanzo, but I’m interested in checking out more value-priced Napa cabs as prices for some of my favorites drift higher. Any thoughts on one versus the other?

To my personal taste, I greatly prefer the Pott. It is an unbeatable value as well.

I believe the Di Co wine from Di Costanzo is from the new source in Oak Knoll. Curious if he made it in a more approachable style, as the 2014 Coombsville Cab I tried was irritated that I pulled the cork and not ready at all. I think I like where it’s going though.

Ordered my 12! Always great QPR.

I ordered this for the first time, decent pricing for boutique appellation Cab from Napa and the CT notes for previous vintages are very positive.

Shipping is my only challenge with this. Tough decision.

I like Aaron’s style and have enjoyed his single vineyard wines in the past. My last vintage was 2012 though and I have already spent a good amount on other allocations so far this year, so was hoping to see if anyone has had a sneak peek at 2016 to sway my decision. That and there are have been a lot of really compelling, affordable, 2015’s floating around my local liquor store with more 2016’s on the way. So it is harder to decide in the good growing years.

I like the Pott single vineyard wines I have tasted but I have limited experience. Price being the primary limiting factor.
So when the Pott Napa Valley appellation cab was up, I was intrigued.

As for the new Di Costanzo wine, I have not tasted that yet. It is $55 vs. $60 for Pott.

I have had the last three vintages of his Farella vineyard cabernets and find them to be excellent. Each vintage shows an elegance and purity to them. The 2013 reminded me of a 1994 Dominus.

Here is the info from Di Costanzo on the latest offer:

2016 DI CO Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
In 2016 we began the hunt for a new vineyard to add to the Di Costanzo portfolio. For this we looked to our dear friends Marc and Lauren Rafael, as Marc’s family has been farming their vineyard estate along the foothills of Mt. Veeder since the mid 1980’s. Being able to work with the original, 30+ year old plantings on this expansive, sloping site is what got us most excited. To find hillside Cabernet Sauvignon vines of this health and age in Napa Valley is the ultimate rush for a winemaker, and we leapt at the chance to make this wine.

At the onset, we decided that our first vintage would bypass the Di Costanzo label and we would find another home for it, giving ourselves the chance to enjoy a ‘dress rehearsal’ with the site for a year, to best get to learn the vineyard. We find it essential to learn exactly what the vineyard can and cannot do, and with that, determine how to go forward in making as complete and refined a wine as possible, before making a wine for the major leagues. Consider this vintage of DI CO a fortuitous sneak preview of the great things to come from the Rafael Vineyard. At this stage, DI CO will likely not be a wine that is offered every year, but rather only when we have something unique, experimental, and special in the cellar to offer our friends and clients. Take advantage of this offering of DI CO Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at 55 dollars a bottle, it will likely never pop up again.

Winemaking notes: The vinification took place over 20 days, using organic, isolated yeast and minute amounts of sulfur at crush. The wine was then drained and gently pressed to tank. Settled by gravity overnight and then racked to our favorite French oak cooperage the following day, sixty percent being new. Spontaneous malolactic fermentation occurred in barrel over the winter for stabilization. The wine was racked three times over the course of its 22 months in the cellar and bottled unfined and unfiltered, as is always our preference.

Tasting Notes: Aromas of blackberry, black tea, licorice and a pop of black currant resonate from the glass. Sophisticated, fresh, and complete, this single vineyard wine is held together by polished hillside tannins and boasts a savory, silken finish. Drinkable now, this wine is versatile and immensely pleasurable.
55 dollars per bottle
270 cases
100% Cabernet Sauvignon
Aged for 22 months in 60% new French oak
14.3% ABV
Debut vintage
Single, hillside vineyard

Went online to purchase, SOLD OUT. Snooze you lose.

750s release on Tuesday to repeat buyers. Notes from winery below. I’ve had all of the 16s and, as you’d expect from the vintage overall, they are fabulous.

Pott Wine Vintage notes on the 2016 Single-Vineyard wines being released next week.

In a small way (but valiantly!) we continue our struggle against the corporate Oak-a-Cola-ification of wine with the release our 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Single-Vineyard collection next week. Five wines from our favorite regions of Napa Valley. Each handmade with Aaron’s obsessive dedication to individuality and definition. Fermented with only their indigenous yeasts, and extracted using only punch-downs (no machines or pumps) they are never filtered, fined or concentrated so that we can preserve the beautiful typicitĂ© of these wonderful sites.

Kaliholmanok - Spring Mountain, Napa Valley. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Comes from the very top (2130 feet) of Spring Mountain and grows on the highly sought-after Aiken soils. Cabernet Sauvignon at altitude can be big, juicy and brooding. It’s easy to extract the density but the trick here is to give it plenty of time and opportunity to soften and resolve. We used a combination of open and closed-top fermentation - including 25% new oak barrels with the heads popped off - to melt the vigorous tannins, and a really long (45 day) maceration to forge them together. (We liken it to a DJ in a nightclub: Crank up the volume to get people dancing, then put on a slow jam to bring them together). All hand made, all punch-downs and gravity drained to Bossuet, Sylvain and Darnajou barrels. The 2016 Kaliholmanok is my wine of the vintage, with the classic hint of citrus that characterizes mountain Cabernet; black fruits too, cedar and tobacco, mineral, plum, red currant, coffee and toffee. Drink 2023-2050. 110 cases made.

Le Nouveau Western - Rutherford, Napa Valley. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Planted in 1991 by owner Reg Oliver (advised by Ric Forman and David Abreu), Star Vineyard in Rutherford is side-by-side rows of Clones 7 and Martha’s Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s on dead flat bench land of bale clay loam over very deep, gravelly beds that give the wines compact density and soft, silky tannins. It’s almost too easy, but the trick is that the freshness can be fleeting and hard to capture; miss the window and the famous green tobacco and blackcurrant flavors turn to prune.
2016 was a very moderate year heat-wise and the fruit had a wonderful purity which we maintained throughout the winemaking. The grapes were fermented in small, open-top wooden vats. 35 day maceration and then gravity drained direct to Taransaud and Bossuet barrels for malo with lees contact and stirring. The 2016 Nouveau Western has all the power and the plush texture of Rutherford with blackcurrant, green tobacco, shitake, wild cherry, tar and cola. Drink 2023-2045. 92 cases made.

Actaeon - Stags’ Leap, Napa Valley. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Three crazy things about this vineyard; Carl Doumaini the no-holds-barred original owner, the layers and layers of soils, and the highly unusual siting. Hillside sites are rare in Stags’ Leap but while most are west facing this vineyard faces east. It spans a compound of four different soil types (Forward, Boomer, Bressa and Dibble) which give the wines amazing complexity and – in other circumstances - massive power. But here the climate trumps the soils somewhat. The area sees an incredible diurnal shift in temperature and the cool nights retain the acidity that gives the wines their classical structure and make them sing more brightly. The 2016 Actaeon was fermented in a conical wooden tank with the top closed to preserve the secondary aromas. All hand punch-downs, no pumping or machines. Wild yeasts. 30 day maceration then drained to Sylvain and Bossuet barrels. Because of it’s slightly higher acidity Actaeon can be perplexing early on but its bright cherry, mint, green tobacco nose resolves in to cherry, leather, cocoa and walnuts. The ideal choice to fool your friends in a blind tasting of Bordeaux Premier Cru wines from the Left Bank. Drink 2020-2050. 140 cases made.

Her Majesty’s Secret Service - Stagecoach, Napa Valley. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
The red, iron-rich soils of the Pritchard Hill (Vaca) range yield wines that are densely colored and rich. Stagecoach vineyard above and just to the south is so far in to the mountains, and so vast, that nobody really knows what kind of soils they are, but they erode in to the Hambright of the world-class vineyards directly below. The fruit for Her Majesty comes from ten south-facing rows that slope gently and then rise again like the perfect chaise longue at about 1400 feet. The relative coolness of the 2016 vintage, combined with the ample sunshine above the fog, beautifully expressed the natural weight of the wine. We brought up the temperature during the fermentations to increase extraction while dissipating the alcohol. Aged in a combination of Sylvain, Taransaud and Bossuet barrels. The 2016 is aristocratic, but not aloof. It’s sultry, playful and very drinkable. Licorice, chocolate cake, plum, blackberry - layers and layers of richesse. Drink 2020-2040. 110 cases made.


Turf War - St. Helena, Napa Valley. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
All fermented in open top barrels because it’s such a small quantity. Pure Aiken soils in North West St. Helena. A rare possibility, right under Colgin’s Tychson Hill nose (well, above actually) 
 our foot in the door in Valhalla! This wine practically makes itself; the only key is to pick at the right time to capture that unique creamy character. The 2016 Turf War is pure perfection with wonderful weight, structure and balance. Maple, Earl Grey, beeswax and orange rind around a massive core of red fruits and plum. Drink 2023-2050. 12 cases made.

Opened my first 2016 pott cab last night and it was already showing great. All chocolate milk and blackberries. Here’s to finally getting some turf war after the missing out on the large format preorder! Phil- please don’t buy it all.

These are some of the best wines out there, I love them.

Call me a fanboy on this one! Nothing but adulation!

Great notes, Phil, thank you for posting them.

+100. Great wine and great people.

For a $60 Pott wine try this “Little Jesus in velvet underpants” single vineyard Coombsville Cabernet: https://www.missionliquor.com/product/barrel-ink-aaron-pott-and-invisible-creature-2012/19639

Ack!!! My phone won’t let me in!! I’m going when I can get to a computer in the morning!

Thanks for the tip!!!

Other opportunities for relatively inexpensive Pott made wines can be found on the Joseph Carr website. Do a little digging.

Also, a well-reviewed $42 Zin made by Aaron is available from Wingspan.

And don’t forget Blackbird Arise at $58.

Plus, Vivino has the 2010 Dylan’s Ghost Oak Knoll Cabernet for $54.

If you use WineBid: 2010 Lampyridae Vineyards Communication Block Cabernet Syrah blend is listed at $45; Pott 2010 La Carte et le Territoire Cabernet Franc is $65; 2009 Pott Wine Her Majesty’s Secret Service Cabernet Sauvignon is $70; and 2010 Pott Wine Actaeon Quixote Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is $90. Even with the 17% markup, the Pott Wine prices are significantly lower than the latest release.