Not that I’m questioning your choice to buy or not, but.
I’m always surprised when people talk about '22 as being a poor vintage - maybe I’ve been super lucky, but every wine I’ve had from that vintage (and at this level of winemaking) has been quite good (Piper, MOWE, KE Heirothesion). Maybe not with quite as much aging potential maybe? They’ve been delicious and rewarding.
Bandwagon forces are strong. You can’t hardly give away '18 Burgs right now even though they are drinking great just because the concensus is it’s the worst vintage in the past 10+ years.
Passing due to: price, vintage, artificial pressure (2 hour head start), lack of transparency (2020 vintage).
passing due to: price, vintage (had many good 22s but moving more of my budget to 2023s), too many other purchases / have to draw the line somewhere
The 2021 took about a week & a half to sell out, so no surprise that this is still, and likely will be, available for a while. It wouldn’t shock me if this vintage didn’t sell out at all.
What is this in regard to? I don’t recall any hubbub, but it’s been a few years and my memory isn’t what it used to be.
Didn’t even acknowledge that 2020 had fires and smoke. It was as if it didn’t happen. Then artificial pressure to buy - get 2020 and have priority for 2021.
Ah, okay. I had forgotten about that.
My opinion is that if they felt the fires did not impact their wine, then why mention it and open the door to the possibility of an issue where one does not exist? No worries- you view that differently than I and that’s fine.
It was the 800 pound gorilla that vintage. Many high end wineries didn’t release, including those that source from Ecotone. At least explain why they made the decision to release. They were in the minority. Plus, I don’t appreciate the artificial urgency.
Deep diving, seems like they couldn’t even vineyard designate that 2020 bottle at Ecotone since it was only 65% from there and 35% from Macdonald. I don’t think they really hid it from their mailing list? Seems like it was harvested before the glass fire. Anyways, the value proposition is weird. To me it sounds like Ecotone isn’t always up to snuff and they are likely using the lesser MacDonald lots to make things work.
Its like brand name Cam X MacDonald at $225 a bottle. Tongue in cheek. I’m sure its great wine
You’re correct- the fact that the 2020 contained MacDonald fruit was not hidden- it was right in the offer.
Ecotone, I have to believe, is always up to snuff. It was the vineyard that Abreau used to make Thorevilos for a number of years. There are also many other high-end wineries that draw fruit from Ecotone, and the new owners of Ecotone have honored the existing contracts. In 2020, perhaps due to the existing contracts, perhaps due to vintage conditions and loss of fruit, they blended in MacDonald fruit. It is not a regular procedure- the 2020 was a one-off with the two vineyard blend.
Yeah makes sense. But I can see how the 2020 might have turned people off. It’s basically a different wine entirely. And I agree with everything else you said.
Didn’t Realm buy Ecotone?
No, it was purchased by a group that includes Jack Bittner. The Bettinelli family now does the farming at Ecotone, and might be part of the ownership group too, but I’m unsure about that detail.
Or just maybe its not easy selling a new wine priced $200+ out of the gate. Graeme has one big hit so far with MacDonald but beyond that he’s still relatively new on the scene. Rightly or wrongly a lot of the MacDonald success is based upon the vineyard and Graeme’s and Alex’s farming of it. He doesn’t have a long track record or big home run at another label/vineyard YET. As his resume grows he should have more star power. But for now this wine will battle it out with dozens of others $200+ wines made from top tier vineyards with top tier winemakers. It cant be easy especially in this economy
There’s definitely a hard starting point for new wineries and $200 is a tough price point to get people to buy your wines without ever tasting. We saw some of this in the Jasud thread and it was kind of mind blowing to me given the vineyard and Ketan’s other wines.
I would most definitely be a tough sale at a $200+ price point having never tasted the wine before. This where those who visit have an advantage and can make decisions based on what they’ve tasted v what they think or hear.
I also go back to that wallet fatigue saying. At what point are $200+ bottles of wine just too much?
Yeah, I have a trouble crossing that threshold for multiple bottles. I am honestly surprised the frenzy on the Beta/Jasud thread for that reason, but then again, it must be just awesome wine from samples.
Piling on the price sentiment on an untasted/new wine. I passed on the initial offer and subsequent offers simply because the price was too high to take a flyer on a 3pack without having a clue what it tastes like. That’s not to say I don’t buy wines in that price category, but it is a lot easier to do so with a producer I’ve tasted or in a region like Bordeaux where I have a sense of the chateaus style and can buy without tasting if I have a sense of how the vintage was in Bordeaux etc. Plus it’s a lot easier to get a taste of Bordeaux before making a big commitment.
When it came to beta and Jasud, i bought beta without tasting, but that was a lot easier for two reasons. Price for beta was much lower at around $100. I also knew I would probably like the wines when I saw Vare come out at like 12.5% ABV.
There’s just a lot of great wine out there for $200+ to take chances. I also worry less about FOMO these days as there always something else to buy. Missed the 001 release? Buy some PLL, Montrose, Leoville las cas, etc etc or hop on winebid for some discounted California wines.
I’ve had both the 2020 and 2022 001. Both are excellent wines. I found no smoke taint whatsoever in the 2020 by the way.
Can’t argue with you but he is certainly expanding his portfolio with Blankiet, 001, Brand, Palisades Canyon, and didnt he just start at Gandona too? And if I recall, didnt he buy a new mountain vineyard (Diamond Mountain???) that he may start selling?
His home is on Spring Mountain. Yes he has a few other projects and over time status will increase. He Is a great winemaker