Beware-Mayacamas supposedly issued a new Cabernet Sauvignon this year.
I found a nice “deal” on the 2016 mt veeder the other day. When I picked the wine up today, I discovered something else. The 2016 vintage 99 point Vinous/96 point wine spectator bottle you are looking for is the traditional looking mount veeder label. If it says “Napa valley” with a large red stripe at the top of the label, you are buying something else.
Anyone have any clue what this wine is? The store claimed that their sales rep informed them it is a new restaurant-only bottle not intended to be sold. Anybody familiar with this wine? Is it worth keeping?
That’s news to me. They are under new ownership as of a few years ago, so I guess changes like this are not so surprising.
I have seen wineries make a more moderately priced “only/mostly for restaurants” cuvee before. Kistler makes the Les Noisetiers, Kutch just came out with a Sonoma County bottling. With the price of their traditional Mt. Veeder cabernet having shot up to $140+ now, I could see them wanting a bottling at a price they could sell in restaurants.
Or at least sell in restaurants someday, when people are back in restaurants ordering wine.
There is a bottle up on WineBid right now. Listed as “2016 Mayacamas Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (Red Band)”. Mount Veder nowhere to be found so wherever you ordered from was misleading you.
You would likely need to contact the winery to get full details as to what it is but either declassified Mount Veder Mayacamas or purchased Valley Floor fruit to start this second label so to speak. Or a combination of the two. If the “store” purchased this through a sales rep and not through consignment then it is not possible that it is a “restaurant only wine not intended to be sold”. If that was the case the rep wouldn’t be able to sale it to the store.
In the current state of the wine market with most restaurants shut down quite a few formerly “restaurant only” wines are making it into the retail market including Total Wine and BevMo! Never thought I would see Kosta Brown at BevMo!
I’ve been curious about this as well. I saw that bottle on winebid a while back and knew something was up given the label, but can’t find anything on the Mayacamas website or anything else about this “other” 2016 cabernet.
I’ll say that the “real” 2016 Mayacamas Cabernet is a must buy. It’s one of the better young wines I’ve tasted. A bit reticent, but the texture in particular is really special.
Supposedly the sales rep “accidentally” gave it to the store. Their intention was to provide a case of the mt veeder, not this wine. Was told the wine has an msrp of $40 and Restaraunt’s are supposed to sell it for $80 each.
Just don’t know if it’s worth keeping one at the $40/btl I paid.
For $40? For that price I think it’s easy decision to keep & try…if you do would be very curious how it shows. The regular cab is ~$130 and the Merlot is $60+.
That’s a really good price for a Napa Cab from a quality producer. If it’s intended for restaurants, I’d expect a more approachable wine, as in less tannic and concentrated, than their estate. It’ll be interesting to hear what it is. Some of these wineries have traditionally bulked out some damn good declassified fruit, to keep their flagship as good as possible. As prices have shot up, that seems like less of a good solution, with making a second wine for restaurants a better use of the juice. Of course, it could be all purchased fruit, or some mix, or depend on the vintage (going forward). Or, maybe an anomaly, where this would only happen when there’s enough high enough quality declassified fruit. But, definitely worth trying. Placement in restaurants is a strategy to build up a brand.
The winery emailed me back. They said that it’s wine made from young vine mountain fruit as well as fruit that didn’t made the flagship wine. It was intended for restaurants only to be poured by the glass. The wine was never meant to be sold in retail or even sold by the bottle at a restaurant.