This makes 100% sense. To be clear, i was shaming those who were going after certain wineries on this thread for the text and aesthetic of their website. As for bad customer service, there are (almost) always constructive and thoughtful ways of complaining!
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I totally agree, particularly when the tasting is supposed to be a unique experience and the interaction is very personal.
My good friend here, Judd Finkelstein, owns Judd’s Hill with his wife. It’s at the bottom of the Silverado Trail. His parents were original co-founders of Whitehall Lane (they sold it decades ago). Judd’s Hill makes wines that are targeted towards the casual wine enthusiast, someone who is coming out on vacation, doesn’t want to pay a lot of money for a tasting, likes wine but doesn’t think too hard about it, and wants something that’s drinkable now, well-made, and is priced in a range that’s a bit of a splurge to make it special but isn’t shocking. In other words, this is very much a Napa winery that’s at the other end of the price spectrum from those mentioned on this thread.
They focus, above just about everything else, on insanely high-quality hospitality and service at all points in the process. Judd is kinda known for that. As a result, they’re highly-rated on travel sites and they keep their wine club members very happy. It’s how they’re able to distinguish themselves from the hundreds of other places slinging juice that’ll be happy to step into the fold.
Almost everyone is coming to Napa (or any other wine region) because it’s an indulgence into a lifestyle that’s almost certainly nothing like real life. They want and deserve to be pampered and treated right whether they’re dropping $1k for a tasting or $20 at the bar. Of course, not every employee is going to be perfect and there will always be poor interactions. But, it’s really freakin’ hard to sell wine, and the hospitality program exists for that very purpose.
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I enjoyed the 2001 JH, but had some dodgy older bottles of theirs with cork ‘coring’ problems.
Thanks for the background on what their hospitality experience is like, as mine were picked up on the used cab lot at 755 Skyway, Napa.
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There’s presumably more than one wine because there are different bottle prices so let’s say it’s 1/5th of a bottle, but I otherwise agree. It upends the purpose of a tasting.
My most generous assessment of what they’re doing is allowing you a taste of wine you already bought so that you can gauge the drinking window you want to enter on CT without needing to open one of your own bottles.
Yeah, they show up on WineBid now and then.
Lots of blends that are fairly easy-going, but we’ve had some late ‘90s Judd’s Hill cabs that are going strong.
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Found this thread too late but my god lol
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Just don’t mention the helicopter.
ROFL. Not that winery 
I’ve tried in vain to find that image of [I think it was] The Todd, standing atop a red Shelby cobra, shotgun on hip, slamming some Napa cab. What an image!
There is a thread in 2010 on Ghost Horse/Todd Anderson that has the image.
-Al
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Thanks, Al! My memory of the image was a little off, but close enough. So awesome.
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Like a Boss
Had actually forgotten that we have been here with part of this discussion before (apparently when the wine was launched)
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Nah, store it like you’re Malcolm Forbes and handle it like you’re William Sokolin!
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LOL. I don’t think I ever laughed so hard at a wine website.
Some classics here.about himself…
HEADLINE: Lawrence Fairchild is anything but a common man. A stand-out. Unexpected.
…Rocking vintage Valentino and David Yurman while he takes his clients to the most coveted wine plots in Napa…
…Outside of the exquisite nature of each bottle, member’s relationship with Lawrence is often the differentiating factor that draws the great appeal
…a Midwestern, agriculturalist-turned-politico-turned-culturally atuned anomaly. (my bold)
And the wine?
The lead? A quote about being different attributed to…wait for it…Coco Chanel.
But how does it taste?
…In it, one recognizes caramel, chocolate, and fire. Char and earth. Wilderness. The distant. The personal.
If you didnt know any better…you’d legit think it was an SNL skit, ha!
We did this in December 2021 and there was no expectation to buy. Interestingly, we walked away with 3 3-packs of Immortal and no Tusk.
No kidding. MacDonald was a highlight of our trip, but there was not a bottle for sale. He did give us all free hats!
I feel a few folks in here have met the guy and said he’s nice and a great host. But look, met him or not, nice guy or not, he’s a dick if he has a website like this featuring his enigmatic awesomeness. If he has the balls to put his cornhusker-Hermes-clad sac on the line for shit like this, me calling him a dick doesn’t even register. So, let me be clear, this website is made by dicks, for dicks, or people who just want to laugh at dicks. If you like it, they don’t care, if you don’t, they care less. It’s so close to satire it’s hard to believe it’s real. If it’s not satire, my comments are less insulting than wearing Hanes socks to the person who made this website.
Many of you can’t handle this. At our level, we spend an inordinate number of hours ensuring that the insults are unique and perfect. This can take years of. Properly insulting this level of douche baggery is extremely detailed, down to the 1% of the final blends. These are all 96- to 100-point insults, so we’re at the highest level of quality.
-also a dick
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