What a great post!
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I hope this doesnāt sound like faint praise, itās not meant to be, but one big strength of Carlisle is the very high floor. Everything is at least good, there never seem to be corked or flawed bottles, the value proposition is always favorable, and they drink well at most points along their aging journey.
I canāt think of a time I ever opened one and thought āthatās just not a good bottleā or āthat wasnāt worth what I paid for it.ā
You never have to worry when you open one, you can relax and be confident.
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Short article in the Chronicle on the decision to close. I only have access via Apple News so canāt post a link.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/carlisle-zinfandel-mike-officer-19577890.php
Really good article.
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This is another passing trend.
Well, I just learned this news.
My first response was āOh no. Poor me.ā
However, as an old guy who is now well into his second decade of retirement, I congratulate the Officers on hitting the finish line. The best is yet to come.
Back to my wallowing in self pity. Now where am I supposed to get any Pagani Ranch Alicante Bouschet?
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A couple things stood out to me in that article, which largely mirrored what was in the Wine Spectator piece - perhaps expanding just a bit. Paraphrasing a little: ā The winery has continue to do well financiallyā¦ multiple interested parties offered to buy Carlisle but ultimately shutting down felt like the better optionā¦ Wary of the scenario heās seen play out with other winery acquisitions, where the brand is driven into the ground and trashedā.
The piece of data that caught my eye was 85% of sales are DTC.
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This was the first thread that I have ever started or really posted on here outside of Berserker day. Thanks for all of great comments.
I first fell in love with drinking Zin back in college when they has a wine class for seniors. I remember about 25 years ago when I first had a Turley zin that was way over priced at a las vegas steakhouse. When I bought a house 13 years ago that had an empty wine cellar, I found a new hobby. After reading about Carlisle in Zinfandel Chronicles, I signed up for their wine list. It took several months to get my first offer, but when I did I jumped in and have not looked back. I have never opened a bottle of Carlisle and said it was bad. Always consistently good, sometime great and an even better value. I am glad to know it will take a few more years to wind down. If anyone from Carlisle reads this, Thank you for your great wines.
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Well done, Stephen. 
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Does anyone know what is Carlisleās annual volume in cases?
Bedrock?
Or is that considered to be proprietary information?
Phil Jones
Carlisle makes around 8,000 cases annually.
Going from memory, I might have waited 3-4 years to start getting Carlisle allocations?
But I might be confusing that with something else.
Iāve hardly ever taken a spot on a multi year wait list before, if Iām remembering that correctly, that might have been the one time I did that for that long.
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Based on this from a couple of years ago in an article about the Shebang label, Bedrock looks like around 30k cases.
They said for 2024 they would drop down to like 2500 cases too, as they were only pulling from specific vineyards.
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Zinfandel chronicles was where I first heard about Carlisle as well. Found a lot of fantastic stuff off that blog.
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Iām happy he is going to go out on his own terms. Carlisle is the producer that really sent me down the rabbit hole of wine. While we donāt drink as many as we used to, I have fond memories of visiting with Mike and sharing lots of bottles of Carlisle with friends.
Mike is a super nice guy, and he deserves a lot of credit for helping to preserve many historic vineyards.
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took me 5 years before getting my first allocation from Carlisleā¦Discovered their wines during a visit to Sinoma many years ago. wish them all the bestā¦
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For all the joy and deliciousness theyāve filled my table with over the years, I wish them a very fulfilling retirement. Canāt believe no one has stepped up to purchase.
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It may come as a shock to those who have been around here for a LONG while, and/or back on Parkerās forum, but I immediately picked up some bottles of Carlisle Zin - '18 Montafi and Piner Olivet - as I have discovered through blind tasting with local friends that I actually really quite like Carlisle winesā¦Iāve come full circle from my āraspberry mochaccinoā days, in a big way.
As many have said, Carlisle will be missed, but they are going out in style, to be sure. Out on top.
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