Carlisle was the first ‘real’ wine I sought out and the first mailing list I joined. My gateway drug for sure. Still have fond memories of meeting Mike for the first time at the little house on the Carlisle vineyard property where they were living at the time to pick up wine stored under the house. This was prob the 2000 or 2001 vintage.
Too numerous to count bottles later, Carlisle is still the single largest proportion of any producer in my cellar with oldest a 2003 Two Acre. I know when I pull one of these bottles it’s always going to be good. And remarkably for all the bottles I’ve consumed never had one corked.
So thanks Mike for all the joy and memories. Best wishes as you head toward retirement.
No further speculation here - just happy for Mike, Kendall and Jay.
As I said to Mike, my dad had a love affair with Mike’s wines after I turned him on to them in 2006 or so. Got on the list and stayed on it until well after he was drinking regularly, pretty much until his death, and many of the wines were gifted to me and my brothers.
His wines made my dad happy, and for that, I am eternally grateful.
I’m shocked and saddened to see that they closing up shop esp. without having sold their brand or winery.
So many good memories of drinking Carlisle over the years, not sure how many but probably 60+ cases. The wines were always favorites when we had friends and family over.
No way this great brand and his vineyard holdings aren’t sold before all is said and done…Mike is just being a good businessman and is holding out for the best deal possible…My bet is that he will get a nice payday before he hangs-up his boots…
This is a bummer. I just got on their list! Haven’t even opened one yet… Happy for them though. I hope they, and we all, enjoy a long and healthy retirement.
I’m curious if someone like Constellation or Gallo or Treasury was interested since they are looking at DTC brands. Issue is, they seem to have deals where the owner needs to hang around and help the brand keep going. I know Constellation did that with Eric and TRB with Schrader, while Gallo has Petroski still helming the brand.
If the Carlisle team wants to really retire, I can see how this deal wouldn’t work.
I know folks have been talking about Bedrock, but curious if the Marietta or Limerick Lane folks would have interest…
Gallo also kept on the entire Rombauer winemaking and leadership team. The only substantive change was rolling some of the back end finance and admin duties under the Gallo umbrella. It took Gallo many acquisitions to realize the brands were the people, there are some outliers like Denner where it was more about the assets and location.
