Tough for me to pull the trigger at that price point on an unknown entity, not knowing who the winemaker is, etc
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I have been happy with their Sleeper Reserves for the price level, so even though this was a step up I went in on two of these to try.
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Youâve gotta love the marketing hype on sites like this:
âPlease know that we have almost NOTHING of this to sell, and it will go in a FLASHâ
âŚmeanwhile itâs still there a day later lol. Thatâs not to take away from the wine, I know nothing about it and $99 is a great price for a BTK cab (if itâs well-made), but itâs an expensive flyer to take, regardless of the urgent language.
Youâll probably see it again in a future marathon.
I agree, 100 bux just because it comes from To-kalonâŚ
I know its a great vineyard⌠So is Meteor in Coombsville
$100 bottles is just not a place I fuck around and find out given the proven awesomeness of so many wines at that price. Fully agree, just would need more information. You wouldnât want any wine I made just because itâs from BTK. Also, this is the first time Iâve ever noticed the abbreviation shares the initials of an infamous serial killer. BTK: serial killer of wallets.
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Lawsuit against BPW.
Sleeper Cabernet???
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Well, it looks like FB messed up on this one. Unless there is some broad claim to be made regarding legality of growers controlling usage of the vineyard nameâthis seems unlikelyâFB is going to get rolled by Beckstofferâs legal team. You can be certain the original grape contract had various stipulations on naming rights and minimum bottle cost, neither of which the negociant wine Sleeper will have met.
Interesting, and youâre certainly right the contract had all kinds of restrictions, but thatâs a problem for that grape owner, not Last Bottle, which wouldnât be a party to the original contract between Beckstoffer and whoever sold the wine to Last Bottle. Whether this is a trademark violation I do not know, but I wouldnât be surprised if Last Bottle had decent defenses. Whether itâs worth fighting it is a whole other matter.
The original buyer is definitely going to be hammered. They wonât be doing business with Beckstoffer in future vintages, at minimum. Big $$$ Napa growers absolutely enforce use of the vineyard name as a trademark and the vineyard designation would have been licensed only to the original buyer.
Itâs true that LB is not party to the original contract, but their marketing copy certainly makes it sound like they knew they were crossing a line. If LBâs contract with the original grape buyer gave them permission to use To Kalon, that would be interesting, since the original grape buyer would not have had the right to re-sell the trademark license. The NDA didnât require obfuscation of To Kalon, at least, perhaps the deal went further than that since âbulkâ wine with a special name-place would sell for a higher price.
There could be a very fascinating turn of events depending on how the negociant contract was framed!
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It is not that simple as itâs not just a matter of contract law but also various statutes â see the complaint, linked in the press release. As a litigator the following portion of the marketing copy gives me hives. It is absolutely the kind of thing that becomes Exhibit 1 in the (unlikely) event of trial to show knowledge of infringement.
âThereâs a lot more secret stuff we CANâT tell you aboutâŚbut really, we already let the cat out of the bag when we typed âBeckstoffer To Kalonââno doubt our legal counsel is furiousâŚnot to mention the all-powerful To Kalon Illuminati.â
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Damn, I wish I didnât miss this bottle. Has anyone tried it?
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Anybody had kanpai? Steve Matthiassonâs project. Curious how it compares to the Matthiasson napa cabs
Pulled the trigger on the Montalbera Piemonte Rosso Fuori Catalogo 2020 - I havenât had it but it seems like a great combination of styles I like, and the price was right.
I still have 1 bottle of the 2016 Rosso Fuori Catalogo. Pretty good, especially at the price point.
When is the next marathon madness sale?
Sometime around April 1. âSpring Marathonâ
Probably a question best left unasked. My preferred response would have been, they just had one last week. Nothing but a big time waster IMO. Tiny amounts of anything worth buying so you have to pounce within seconds.
Todayâs mystery Pinot is:
- 2019 Chev Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley
Final answer.
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