With the heat spell hitting Napa/Sonoma, we were able to have a very special afternoon with the mad genius wine pirate, Ketan Mody. This was our first time meeting him despite loving his wines since the first release of Beta
With the heat on Diamond Mountain, Ketan first walked us about the property, which is own rooted with some amazing stuff and is just a beautiful landscape. He walked at a brisk pace and talked even faster, discussing how he allows the grapes to do what they will and really is hands off as much as possible. It’s clear that he has put his heart and soul into the property and his efforts are now bearing some truly amazing fruit
Next we enjoyed lunch at Charter Oak before heading to his facility in Sonoma.
We tasted through multiple barrel samples of 2019 and 2021 Beta and (crazy luckily) Jasud. He has some amazing stuff in the works and the Jasud wines were completely mind blowing. Like, crazy good. We started with chard from 300L and 600L barrels, which were both laser focused acid and precise. Next we moved to reds. The girls favorite wines from the Beta side were Maus, as they are a bit more voluptuous than the guys faves in the acidic and amazingly structured Montecillo and Lupina. He has, what we thought, was an amazing wine in barrel from a Vineyard that went to Mayacamas previously, but despite the entire group being in love with it, Ketan still wasnt quite sure, as anyone who knows him, knows that he isnt going to release anything less than perfect. Next we had the 2019 and 2021 Jasud from barrels. There isnt much to say beyond that the wines are absolutely insane and I hope to be able to own some
We finished with the 2018’s release and all I can say is buy em all and buy as many as you can! Haha
Ketan is an intensely passionate wine maker. You cant do what he has done and not be completely in love with it. He’s hilarious and is no bullshit on all aspects of life, most of all his wine making. Was an insane day with him and we feel super lucky to have gotten to experience this.
As Robert Dentice routinely tells the board, Ketan is bottling magic. We all know/knew this going into yesterday. But how refreshing it was to meet him and realize what a genuine, badass, wine cowboy he truly is. Massive thanks to Ketan for making it happen
Great write up and thanks for posting pictures! Looks like a fantastic time!
Did you try the 300L Montecillo that was bottles in Mag format only? If so, thoughts against the regular bottling? The release notes only say that it’s a more ‘reasonable expression’ of Montecillo, but Ketan also says it ‘stood out’. Curious what made it stand out.
Yea man! The 300L is the mag in the pic at the bottom. What is interesting is the 300L was more approachable and more opulent (used relatively as compared to other Ketan wines). The 750 was tight, precise, brick house and would say the 750 felt like it would need more time to rest than the 300 mag. Both incredibly good and both necessary purchases imo
I termed it as the “promiscuous sister versus the proper sister” in a bit more colorful language
I got allocated 1 of the mag and ordered it today.
I also have a mag of the 2015 Piko. I’m curious how (length of time & development) the magnums will age given that I would probably not drink any of the 750s younger than 10 years old.
I figured I would find some special occasion at 15-20 years on the magnums. Sadly I don’t have any “special”, i.e. mostly just birth year, vintages after 2014.
did you get Ketan to talk about potentially bottling different vineyard sections? We discussed this when I was there in February but the vineyard is still so new to producing it might take him a few years to separate out different areas for distinctness.
So I dont want to misquote Ketan or misinform here, so I’ll try not to speak to what I dont know
What I did gather is that currently everything is going into barrel together
However, there are a lot of different sites on that hill. For example, there is a southern slope that is about 10 degrees cooler than the hill top and has a more intense gradient. I bet it will produce some INSANE bottles once it is making enough fruit to harness it as an individual block
This is all speculation, so maybe we should ask Ketan next round or maybe someone could inform us more on the topic
