A big thank you to Todd and the crew who make this happen.
Our further thanks to Thomas Rivers Brown and his team as they are constantly pushing viticulture and attention to detail.
We broke our offer into two components this year, the yet unreleased flagship, 2017 Tench Vineyard Cabernet and some very limited library Cardiac Hill Syrah. These are detailed below, but the essence is the Tench Cabernet is 20% off while the library Syrahs are 27% off. Please note the shipping is free but there is a three bottle minimum for any order (mix and match is OK).
Riverain focuses on single vineyard wines from great sources. Oakville Tench Vineyard Cabernet, Cardiac Hill Syrah from Bennett Valley and Yountville Sauvignon Blanc from Gamble Family (there will be a forthcoming Pinot Noir from Silver Eagle in 2018).
The wines:
2017 Oakville Cabernet, Tench Vineyard: 2017 was a warm year, marked by horrible fires and a blistering heat wave over Labor Day weekend. Luckily, we managed to make another great Cabernet. Everything was picked on September 26 about two weeks before the massive Tubbs’ fire broke out. We had a normal size crop and the resulting wine is dense, backward and reminds me of a combination of 2013 and 2014. We tend to keep a large canopy in our Tench Vineyard blocks to slow down ripening and allow for maximum hang time, that certainly helped moderate the heat that year.
2011 and 2012 Bennett Cardiac Hill Syrah - It sounds a bit strange that we have a “library”, but we are heading into our 10th vintage this year. I intentionally held some extra cases of these earlier vintages back to see how they would age. Several Berserkers have supplied some very nice feedback on these two vintages, so we are happy to dig deep in our small stash and offer these. Please note the quantities are very limited.
This is our single acre of North facing Estrella River Clone from Cardiac Hill (a site made great for me by several of Mike Officer’s Carlisle Syrahs from Cardiac Hill).
These two vintages are quite different. 2011 was very cool and has distinct Cotie Rotie style, more secondary and tertiary at this stage, with tar, sage, black olive, charcoal and blackberry. Very perfumed (30% whole cluster, no new oak) and medium bodied. 2012 was a “lounge chair” vintage in comparison, where Mother Nature required very little vineyard management. The nose explodes from the glass with blackberry, kalamata olive, cooked meat and a whiff of pine. Fuller bodied, but no new oak and 40% whole cluster. Still that Cote Rotie style, but a bit more CA fruit. Parker gave us 94 points on release for this and I think it is better now than then.
The Offer
Please visit http://www.riverainvineyards.com If you have not signed up previously, you will need to do so so your information is captured by the system.
Please use the promo code Berserker when you order to get this pricing.
Mix and match is ok on any of these offers, but please note there is a three bottle minimum.
Cabernet, (normally $125 per) is now $100 per.
Syrah, (released at $55) is now $40 per. Please note the quantities for these are very limited.
Free ground shipping is included on all orders but please note the three bottle minimum.
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http://www.instagram.com/riverainvineyards/
We will ship these in February and March as the weather allows.
Thanks, as always, for your interest. If you have any questions feel free to email me at steve@riverainvineyards.com