I’m hoping for, French Colombard from Bakersfield, Barrel Fermented in Tasmanian Oak Puncheons. 
Or, a Rutherford CS in ~100% new FO? 
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The round numbers aren’t the best, they are the best at what he has large quantities of. Not false advertising, it’s just smart marketing.
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90 + 92 > 100 …. and I keep peeking back at 80 thinking I need to add more of that before it heads to Bottle Shop
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I pull them and drink them all basically blind at this point and never remember looking one up as to what it might have been after the fact.
IMO just like ALL wine in general there is little correlation to price v quality here as well.
Styles…sure but quality nope. There’s a floor and a ceiling and for the most part they just fall in that plan, which is perfect for a $12-18 bottle.
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I also basically drink them blindly but thats cause I have no palate for wine. All are great. I try to drink the older stuff first, lol.
@Cameron_Hughes if there’s any way to reduce the use of cross flow filtration for some of these bad boy lots, I would appreciate it. I don’t want to lose out on those massive tannin polymers or other fun bits in the wine if it’s avoidable.
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I thought that was communicated in one of the email lot details?, but not sure how widespread that is for recent lots, or if thats the policy going forward.
Yes some good old unfined unfiltered would be awesome if you have a reputable enough source with good hygiene practices and can bottle as is.
Juat chiming in here - you do understand that the cross flow will not remove tannins from a wine - or aromatic compounds for that matter. These are all much smaller than .2 microns. Have you tried wines with and without this particular type of filtration? If not, you should - it’s a very very gentle way of filtration and it does not ‘beat the wine up’ as old school plate and frame filters tend to.
Just another data point here - don’t shoot the messenger.
Cheers
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Can’t say I’ve had a wine side by side with its non-filtered identical. If there’s concern of removing living organisms that will screw with the aging of the wines, I get it. Cam is moving these wines at some point and there must be a real concern for ensuring his own quality. I guess I’m not arguing that all his wines should be unfiltered, but rather that his very high end offerings should be unaltered as much as feasible, that’s all. Feel free to send samples for my scientific endeavor.
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Thank you for the reply, but what do you think the difference is between filtered and unfiltered wines. I believe that there is some conventional wisdom here that are simply not correct. As I mentioned, it’s pretty rare when cross flow filtering to remove TANNINS. In your understanding, what is removed in the process?
Just trying to add some objective information in here. And would love if. @Cameron_Hughes joined in the discussion as well.
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I can only read the technical literature which seems to suggest it removes small amounts of polyphenols, tannins, and solids but it seems like the trial data was pretty variable albeit low in the 1-4% range. The lit seems to suggest it can cause a bit of “bottle shock” but that any broken up large molecules somehow “recombine”. I’m an idiot when it comes to this stuff, just trying to reduce intervention that isn’t needed if possible.
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Iirc correctly there was some discussion about color loss in one lot (10 or 12?), and a couple folks mentioned a certain tartness that could the result of the bottle shock post filtering or the filtering process itself? But i’m very curious as well
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A little more technical info:
Passing the Filter: Because individual large tannins (1–3 nm) and even standard soluble colloidal groupings (up to 200 nm) are significantly smaller than 0.45 microns, routine membrane filtration does not strip or remove properly dissolved polymerized tannins from wine.
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I’m curious about the discussion and who was involved in it. Was Cam? Winemaker? Or just consumers who may or may not know much about cross flow filtration?
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This looks like a controlled-ish study that demonstrates that it definitely has an impact on wine. Color, brought up before seems to be particularly impacted. That would suggest it impacts cyanins and polyphenols. Like I said, I have no practical experience but it seems like there are multiple articles in “scientific” journals that suggest it does indeed have a perceivable impact on wines, even if it also provides long term stabilization.
I mean, I am an idiot. I don’t make wines, I just drink them. I don’t pretend to have winemaking experience. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. I do trust people with experience.
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Thanks for posting that - and note that the results were somewhat inconclusive - and this was a study done 10+ years ago and the technology has gotten better. It also clearly states that things like color were scientificalyl effected, at least in the short term, but that whether these difference were noted ‘sensorially’ is not clear (ie a machine said they were different but tasters did not necessarily feel that they were . . .
Cheers
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The Lot 12 color variance:
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Science. I’m gonna guess that like everything that has been proven. There are always outliers. I think if you don’t have to filter, you shouldn’t do it. I believe in Epistemological Nihilism. And a bit of therapeutic nihilism as well. If you don’t have to do something, don’t do it. I do have to buy wine unfortunately.
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Very interesting - and not common as well. Would love to hear from Cam if those color differences have remained - again, this is not a common phenomenon and I have seen hundreds of red lots go through the process . . .
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