2020 DI CO and 2019 Farella on offer today.
Great people, great wines. I am really looking forward to trying these. (Though, I think I will wait 10+ years on the Farella!!)
Farella received 98 points from Galloni, and 93+ from Joe Czerwinski (Wine Advocate).
I feel like it’s a good sign for a wine when Suckling’s score is its third-highest.
Agree, great people and wines. Order in!
Order in for 4x Farella
Order in! Took everything that was offered!
Disparity of scores between Vinous/WE/Suckling and Czerwinski is interesting.
In for some Farella and DiCo. Happy to support the team and drink the wine!
Has anyone tasted or have insight into the 2020 DI CO?
Easy buy … mixed case of 6+6 order is in.
Bought some DI CO. The price of shipping is quite irritating.
Thanks guys, it’s been a fun day releasing the wines on our new sales platform. Really grateful for the response so far, it’s a balm in the harried days of Harvest 2022. Massimo and I have brought in our Moon Mountain Chardonnay, Bentrock Pinot Noir, Montecillo Cabernet and Rafael Cabernet. Right around the corner will be Charlie Smith Cabernet and Caldwell Cabernet. Grateful for clear skies and pretty grapes.
@Blair_Ridley very happy to shine more light on the 2020, both the style and the winemaking process and decisions we made in 2020.
Can elaborate on any specific points you might wish, but here’s my TedTalk: our source for DI CO is the southwestern flanks of the valley, at the base of Mayacamas Mountains, an area that has proven to be a home to an array of winning wines from 2020, due largely to the wind influences from the Pacific, we understand. We amassed lab data on all of our sites in 2020, and Rafael was the one site that continued to come back ‘clean’. Trusting the data and our instincts (it tasted great), we picked the grapes on 9/25. Two days later, the Glass Fire started. In an abundance of caution, we aged the new wine in once-used and neutral barrels. If any smoke were to pop up later, we didn’t want heavy oak to mask it. Also felt right not to risk brand new oak barrels in the event that the wine wasn’t clean. But it was. And it continued and continues to be well below lab thresholds for smoke, our personal sensory evaluations came back clean, and blind tasting group tests with fellow winemaking pals proved that we weren’t the only ones who loved the wine. The no-new oak regime works in this wine’s favor, I think. We were already moving in that direction with DI CO Cab, as this site imparts such wildness and structure all on its own. The milder oak program lets the fruit and minerality really shine, with a tannin profile that’s more polished in this vintage. The fruit is lush, as you might imagine in a warmer year. I’ve been pouring it here at the table for a few weeks now, both with a full day decant, and with as little as a 10-minute decant. I’m pretty candid about the history of the wine and the vintage in each tasting, and so far it’s been extremely well received, many times the favorite. We just wonder what a shame it would have been if we had missed out on this wine, just because the frenzy of that time had put doubt and fear into everyone’s minds. Our take away going forward is, if we have the chance to make a wine, we’ll do it. This wine is too good to have missed out on. Understanding that some folks will prefer to skip the vintage, no hard feelings there. But there are great bottles of 2020 Cabernet out there, and for producers like us who have so much riding on our integrity, we’ll only share wines that we believe in.
@Tim_Fleming Same… the price of shipping is irritating, we wholeheartedly agree. In years past we’ve subsidized the shipping costs when we can, taking a loss of up to $50 per case of wine just to mitigate irritation and soften the blow of the reality of wine shipping. Our shipping warehouse raised our rates 4 times over the last 12 months. Every winemaking and production expense increased for our winery (well, we still can keep our labor expenses low!) so this year we couldn’t subsidize shipping for our lowest margin product, as we had in the past. Thanks for the continued support. Grateful to keep sharing the wine!
Again, BIG thanks to all, we are so grateful for this community.
Sad to see this is the last year of Farella.
Massimo and Erin, however, have some new wines coming along - Chardonnay and Pinot - so that is exciting.
Plus their cabernet wines from the Montecillo and Caldwell vineyards have been quite strong.
I suppose having one less vineyard from which to purchase when I am trying to reduce overall wine-spend may not be a bad thing.
I’m assuming this is the vineyard in the Sta Rita Hills, right? Great to see more top notch folks working with fruit from our area . . .
Cheers
Erin…I know it’s not your fault, you’re just passing your costs on.
Thanks, Erin, that convinced me. In.
Top notch fruit, that’s for sure! Yes, 2021 was our first vintage with this site, releasing that in early '23. Massimo worked with Matt Dees and the close connection there just made sense. The '22 came in the other day, so gorgeous.
Glad I was able to get a good amount of DICO and Farella. Thanks again!
Thank you Zach! Really enjoyed our visit with you this summer!
Absolutely! Hopefully again sometime in the near future!
I’m way heavy on CA cabs, but when I get an email from Harlan Estate and Di Costanzo on the same day. I know what i will get.
In for a couple Farellas.