Fair! I think both can be true at the same time (we may have slightly different connotations for “bruiser” - I don’t always have the best wine vocab )
#41 & #57 & #64 Bruisers!
#200 more elegant, less bruises…
$47. Martin Ray could peel the label off of that one and sell it as a dN Shiner for $38 and likely make the same profit. Which I guess everyone is suspecting is going on a bunch going forward
They literally did this. The 3 bottle shop “shiners” were Martin Ray.
200 is borderline bruiser for me. One man’s bruiser another man’s Port.
Matthew,
I would wager that there have probably been more than a few dN offers that were Martin Ray/Courtney Benham wines. Not saying they are bad wines, just saying that they may not be the deal that many were hoping that we would see since Cam moved on. With Cam, you could narrow it down to a few sources that all would have been worthwhile. Now, you have no idea what you are getting.
The Mountains are calling, I must go!
Next week or so
In a tent this time.
The ground gets Harder every year.
Will need plenty of dN, to soften the ground?
One could surmise part of the reason dN was bought was to get a well established outlet for large quantities of Martin Ray bulk wine.
Wine Slash just sent out the marketing email for the mystery wine above and confirmed Bevan (Boom Boom) as the winemaker. So my guess of Adversity Cellars is most likely correct.
I also didn’t realize that Harbison Estate vineyard is adjacent to both Tench and Screaming Eagle. Not that it matters much, but I wonder if dN lot 400 is Adversity Harbison instead of Bevan Tench! Could be, but most likely not since he actually put a label on Adversity Harbison.
Harbison is the house and plot of land between the two just off the Silverado Trail. IIRC, the only have the plot directly behind the house, thus may not be big enough for the hundreds of cases of N.400 that were sold.
Tench is on top, Screagle on the bottom
Cam told us 400 and 401 were from the same producer. 401 is Bevan Sugarloaf.
Ah yes, thanks for the reminder, although I see some shades of gray! What’s the definition of same producer if it’s made by the same winemaker and maybe even in the same facility? Does the name they were going to put on the bottle, but didn’t, matter?
I think I had another crazy theory about 401, that they could have mixed in some Morgado Sugarloaf as well (Morgado shut down operations).
Who knows!
Bevan himself said he bulked out his 2020 Tench. I dont think there’s much point to overthink it.
Just having fun while we wait
So no solid lot 490 guesses before it goes away? Darioush is an interesting match, although I highly doubt that it’s that, just like you!
Well, it is a little perplexing that there is so much 2020 to bulk out when yields were dramatically low and Wine Spies says it all went into the Catastrophe bottling.
John,
I remember seeing the Wine Spies ad for the Bevan wine but can’t find the review of it it right now. Maybe they took the review down to keep it quiet. I did end up buying the Bevan from Wine Slash so will let everyone know what it is - in code of course.
BTW, I’ve also noticed a number of wines on both sites but I have my doubts that they have the same owners. There can be quite a difference in price. To me it just seems that many of the wines they sell are just being offered on the market to a number of discount sites so they both happen to have the same wine some of the time. A tip I have for Wine slash buying is to buy quickly if the price is low. They will sometimes raise the price after a few days or more time has gone by. They can also sell out quickly if the wine is popular or well regarded.
Ok, first guess at lot 494 - one of the St. Francis single vineyard Zins, hard to tell which one since they have not released their 2022 vintage yet (from what I can tell), but I’ll guess Anacleto Vineyard since it is up by Healdsburg and would be “north RRV.” (It could also be Bacchi Vineyard).
From what I saw of the 2021 vintage on their website, they are all aged in French oak for 14-17 months (one was 15) and had alc % around 14.4 - 15.1%. And St. Francis certainly fits the “historic house” description.
However, website price is closer to $50 than $40.
The other “historic houses” that I researched did not produce any single vineyard Zins in that alc range and close to 15 months aging.
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