Full Pull

Well, I thought I had this one figured out pretty quickly… But there’s one final detail that didn’t quite add up. Need someone who has access to all the usual reviewer’s text (Dunnick, Gregutt, Vinous, Bargreen, etc) to match or not with the review snippets in the offer e-mail.

Had a suspicion this might be a Lauren Ashton wine – given how many they’ve closed out via Redacted offers. Found that FP has offered 2 vintages in non-redacted form of the Proprietor’s Cuvee – 2009 and 2011. That matches the info in the e-mail. And the Cab Sauv %s of those wines were 69% and 80%, which also matches the info in the e-mail. And Redacted 13 wine was the 2014 Proprietor’s Cuvee, which was 50% Cab Sauv (which also matches the info in the e-mail). Seemed pretty clear to me at that point…

However, when I check the Lauren Ashton website, they indicate the 2018 Proprietor’s Cuvee is only 50% Cab Sauv (which does not match the info in the e-mail), and that it included wine from more than just 2 vineyards. I suspect the info on this page is not correct, but don’t know for sure.

https://laurenashtoncellars.orderport.net/product-details/0231/2018-Proprietors-Cuvee

Easiest way to verify is for someone to check the review snippets from the offer e-mail against the reviews of this wine from the major reviewers, and the review scores. Either they match one of them, and we confirm – or they don’t match any and the above is all just a crazy coincidence. But, for me, all the review text is behind the paywalls. I assume someone here has access.

Michael

Edit #1: The e-mail indicates the first FP offer of wine from the Redacted 100 producer was in 2012. That’s the year of the first offer letter I can find for Lauren Ashton. So everything matches so far, except the info about the wine on the producer’s website.

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That has to be correct @M_Mager Micheal. I reneged on a prior LA Redacted offer, based on previous “meh” tasting of another LA wine. I had bought the 2014 LA proprietors’ cuvee at $25 in 2020. I think I’ll take the chance on 2018 at $15.

I usually don’t even get the email before you guys have figured it out lol

Great work as always- thank you!

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Tanzer gave the 2018 LA Proprietor’s Cuvée an 89+ while at Vinous, with the following grape breakdown: 70.4% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13.3% Merlot, 13.3% Petit Verdot, 3% Malbec.

Any info on vineyard composition from the Tanzer review?

I had a friend supply the Dunnuck review, which pegs it as the 2018 Proprietor’s Cuvee. (Vinous site had simply copied grape percentages from prior vintages … and the L.A. website has been known to be in error before.)

While I didn’t have any hard data to verify it, that’s about what I suspected. If there’s any data element that seems to get misstated more frequently, it seems to be the varietal composition. Paul’s crew is usually pretty diligent in the accuracy of their offer info, so I’d guess that the 93% Cab Sauv is probably correct. And I’d also guess that the other review quoted in the offer is from Gregutt.

This one is probably a pretty safe bet to be a good QPR at $15/per…

Michael