Local wine shop apparently has a lot of 3 and 5 L 2014/2015 ken wrights. Specific bottling in photo. Anything that’s a decent deal or must grab at these prices?
Two ways to look at it:
This comes out to about 60 bucks per “standard“ bottle if you do the math. So, is the wine worth that in the first place?
Also, that size bottle can be lots of fun for a crowd, so there may be value to that.
On the flipside, I find I buy large format bottles more than I use them. You really need a certain sort of occasion to break them out. If you think you will do that, and you like the wine and the producer, go for it.
No
Brian said it well with no but honestly so many better Pinot producers than Ken Wright. Always find them about a 90 point score however if it was the 2008 Shea then buy but it is not.
And while 2014 and 2015 were viewed with excitement at the time, they were both very warm vintages. At $60/bottle, I’d prefer to buy something from 2016, ‘17, maybe ‘18, or ‘19 unless you know for sure that will love those wine.
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I would also likely pass. As others have said, both 2014 and 2015 are hotter years so they’re riper, plusher wines. Vintage generalizations are always dangerous, but for me, the 2014’s I’ve had tend to be plusher and lower acid than 2015, so if I was going to buy, I’d lean towards the 2015, but I’m not looking to back fill either vintage at this point.
As for whether there are better producers, Ken Wright doesn’t always make wines in a style I like, but he’s been a highly respected winemaker here for over 30 years. He’s made some legendary wines under his own label as well as for Panther Creek and Domain Serene back in the early 90’s. When I say I would pass on these, it’s based on price and vintage. If you’ve had his wines and like them, and 2014 or 2015 is a year of significance for you, I could see buying them.
If you have a group, I’d consider Freedom Hill or Canary Hill.
Everyone loves a big bottle. As for pricing the glass itself is north of a hundred bucks to buy the large format in the first place, so there’s that to consider. Ken makes an accessible, consistent style of wine. You may as well get some.
I think that the pricing is normal or OK. If I had to buy one, I would go with the 2015 Carter. Ken has noted that the Carter vineyard is most age worthy.
I will add that one of the more recent Ken Wright vintages (13 - 16) was not well received in the Charlotte market. Bottles were returned to the local distributor. I think that it was 2014, but that’s been a few years ago.
But do they really? There is a thread somewhere asking about big bottle formats and the recurring response was that people buy them and than rarely have occasion to open them. At one time, I had 50 magnums and several double magnums. They all went to auction. I always found it more fun to open multiple different bottles rather than one big bottle. The occasions when I thought it better to open a big bottle were non-existent. But I know that Champagne thread is always raving about magnums. Especially for lunch.
when you say ‘not well received’ and ‘returned to the local distributor’ do you mean flawed/cooked?
The winery is selling ‘futures’ for their 2021 vintage. For 3L bottle, it is $215. They have everything from 375’s to 9L bottle. They seem to also have all the vineyards- and there are a lot. 2021 was a warm vintage, but almost all of them are now.
Breakfast large format for day drinkers…
Yes, the bottles were perceived to be flawed. I did not taste the bottles in question. Perhaps the bottles were in a weird phase due to bottle shock, but if I remember correctly, maybe overly acidic or a second fermentation type thing. Some local shop owners requested vintage substitutions.
I imagine there are a lot of folks that stock up on large format bottles - kind of like the FOMO purchases. I only buy large format bottles for Thanksgiving and Christmas when I know there will be a large gathering of family - and I only buy one Mag for each event, never anything larger. Cheers!