“The Hartford Family makes wines under two marks, one of which is Hartford Court. Hartford Court bottlings are small lots of high-personality single vineyard Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays that express the distinctive qualities inherent in each vineyard’s terroir – the interplay of soil, slope, exposure and climate. The fruit is sourced from the Russian River Valley, Green Valley and Sonoma Coast appellations.”
Perhaps this was destined for a Hartford Court bottling but they didn’t like it enough to put the name on it? Price is a match, single vineyard is a match, historic house I think is a match as well. Not well distributed, advertised, or awarded.
Another thought – there may be a sleight of hand in the wording of this sentence: “they offered up their signature Zin that fetches $40/bottle, $480/case under its original label. After some brief negotiations, we’re elated to offer this beauty to the members of this list for over 65% OFF”
So they could have offered DN their signature Zin (which does go for $40), DN negotiated and got one of the single vineyard ones instead, and is now offering it at “over 65% off”
@S1m0n_b, I bet that wine is a RRV Zin blend (multiple vineyards, hence the cheaper price). All of the Single vineyard Zins on their website are $65+, have higher alc% and lower time in barrel. And the “Hartford Court” wines appear to be even higher priced.
Agreed. That’s where the sleight of hand comes in. DN does not say “We are offering their signature Zin as this bottling” In fact, it wouldn’t really make sense for that to be the case, as this is apparently a single vineyard offering. I doubt many places have enough of a single vineyard wine for it to be their “signature wine.”
They instead say that their source sells their signature Zin for $40 (true for Hartford), they briefly negotiated and ended up with “this beauty.” They don’t actually say “this beauty” is the same “signature Zin.” My guess is that this was a single vineyard that was seperately vinified but they planned to blend it into the $40 RRV Zin blend, but they made too much of it, and it wasn’t good enough to be worth charging $65 and selling as a single vineyard under their own Hartford Court label. That would also explain the lack of review scores. The lower time in barrel is a big question mark though.
Edit: They literally do say “they offered up their signature Zin” at the top of the page. So maybe ignore all that I just said? lol.
Another guess, but not sure if this fit the “historic” places bill. Wilson Artisan Wines has been a guess of previous dN wines. Their only winery in RRV is called Matrix and produces a ~$40 single vineyard Zin. I’m not sure if it is there “signature” and also have no clue on aging and alc%.
I enjoy the debates on this thread so my opinion is that since “this beauty” was used right after the signature zin reference in the previous sentence, the wine being offered is the signature. The % of discount from the $40 source price is 66.9% so to me that is further evidence that they are the same. I passed on this offer, mainly because I have access to better discounts and / or known wines.
Re-read the Wine Spies copy closely. It’s marketing speak to lead you to the conclusion they want.
“Guess where all the wine went?” (They left out the answer: The bulk market)
And a small bit of the highest quality fruit went to Adversity’s 2020 Catastrophe.
The case production is lower than the sum of the parts for Adversity, before adding in all the other brands and vineyards RB works with, which is like 14 labels and even more vineyards.
Also, it’s easy to forget that B Cellars is not B the man. B Cellars is majority owned by his ex-wife (I believe), and B’s new label is Adversity, which for @JDutko, are not produced at the same facilities as B Cellars.
IMO, the current 20% off sale is a good excuse to buy another case of the Aussie Shiraz.
I think the QPR on both the single vineyard Barossa ($15) and the McLaren Vale ($10.5) are fantastic. Both compliment summer grilling nicely, especially after a decant, and at this price, invite the neighbors and open a second (or third) bottle.
I don’t follow who you mean by “everyone using the best/same barrels”
I thought we were talking about 1 of 14 producers making wine in 2020, and a small amount of bulk wine?
My guess is that less than 5% of the grapes RB had access to were made into retail wine. Of the 14 labels he produces for, the only one I know of to release a retail wine is Adversity, where they released 1 SV and Catastrophe, a fraction of their usual 1,000-1,500 cases.
So some small percentage of grapes were picked and vinified (the rest villified), and some small percentage of that went retail, the rest got bulked out. That is very selective imho.
Yep, it seems that farming is hard. No matter what the crop.
Nature, markets, et al.
Farmers are said to be the world’s biggest gamblers…
Thank you and wishing for much prosperity to All the farmers! I really like your delicious food and beverages.
I noted my comment was based on the conclusion I thought they intended that all of the highest quality fruit went into the Catastrophe since the entire section reads: "so guess where all his other coveted fruit sources went? Per the couple, this Cabernet is “a combination of the highest quality vineyard-designate grapes sourced from south Napa and Oakville that were not affected by the devastating fires of 2020.” Not just available to anyone on the bulk market. I realize that terms like best quality, declassified, etc., are subjective allowing lots of wiggle room. If you know the volumes involved and there was plenty to go around, that’s fine.
