My wife and I went out to Napa to visit @Bobby_Moy, taste with him, and pick up our Berserker Day wines.
A couple of items of emphasis:
- Bobby is a truly gracious host, and I tell everyone I know who heads to Napa that they should hit him up. He’s truly a one-man show, so advance arrangements are essential. You won’t regret it. You’ll be one-on-one with the owner and winemaker, trying a broad array of California wines.
- If you’ve visited previously, he’s moved…literally right around the block, to a bigger production area.
Bobby offered us a sampling of his impressive breadth of wines. His labels include Brevity, Black Powder, and Chiron. Each label has its own focus.
For anyone not already familiar, just dive in to Bobby’s deep lineup. All his labels and wines speak for themselves, and have their own personalities.
Personal favorites included:
Brevity 2022 Chardonnay Napa Valley (this will scratch the itch for those wanting a more luxurious white wine).
Chiron “Nectar Dance” Chardonnay: Elegance is the name of the game, but it’s definitely Californian.
Chiron 2022 “Mind The Wild” Grenache, “Unfamiliar Truth” Grenache: I include these together because they are such striking contrasts from different sites (McGah vs Portico Hills Vyd.) Two completely delicious Grenache specimens, with flavor profiles that were fascinating to compare side-by-side.
Black Powder Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2021: Really quite serious and structured wine, with rigorous tannins. Would hold for a year or five, but it has the guts to go the distance.
“Candor” Cabernet (barrel sample…2024 I believe): Magnificent wine from an older vineyard in Calistoga. Old-school minerality, herbaceous, stately. Highly recommended.
Archival Wine
Bobby poured two wines from his new project, in concert with @mmeisner of Wine Spies. Long story short (from my recollection), he is buying premium wines from excellent sites, under NDA, and finishing and bottling them under his new label.
We tried his 2023 “Liftoff” Napa Cabernet (100% Cabernet Sauvignon), and the 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford. Both are detailed in his Commerce Corner posting.
We tried both at the winery, and took a bottle of each home as well.
These are very young, very good wines. Both benefited from a generous decant. The “Liftoff” has some strong tannins and big structure, blackberry and graphite. The “Rutherford” is more open at this point, with more up-front oak influence, mocha/cacao, more round and fruit-forward. Both would benefit from some cellar time (which is one reason Bobby is able to offer them attractive prices now).
These are truly age-worthy wines, at a very advantageous price.