In case anyone is interested.
The Once & Future Library is Open
Release Essentials
All wines in the library release will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Volumes are small, so please note that wines may sell out quickly.
The offering will remain open, assuming the wines do not sell out, until Tuesday, October 20th at 11:59PM Pacific Time. If you are not allocated as much as you would like, please use our wish-list request feature in the checkout process. The wines are in short supply, but there may be some wine to redistribute.
Like our standard releases, we offer $35 pro-rated ground shipping on orders of 6 bottles or more.
Orders will ship as promptly as possible, weather permitting. If the weather is too hot or too cold to ship, we will hold the order until the weather is safe to ship. If you would like us to hold your wine until a later date, please let us know in your order notes.
If you have any specific instructions, please put them in the Special Instructions section of your order, or email info@onceandfuturewine.com.
If you don’t have a password or need a password for your account, please use the “Reset Password” function on the login page.
The Wines
Bacigalupi Vineyard Zinfandel, 2021
Frances Cuvée, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020
Bedrock Vineyard Zinfandel, 2014-2021
Dickerson Vineyard Zinfandel, 2019-2021
Green & Red Zinfandel, 2019 & 2021
Oakley Road Mataro, 2015-2021
Oakley Road Zinfandel, 2017-2021
Old Hill Ranch Zinfandel, 2018-2021
Palisades Vineyard Petite Sirah, 2014-2019, 2021
Sangiacomo Vineyard Merlot, 2017-2018, 2020-2021
Sodini Vineyard Zinfandel, 2017
Teldeschi Vineyard Zinfandel, 2015-2017, 2019-2021
Vogensen Vineyard Zinfandel, 2021
Napa Valley Zinfandel, 2021
Looking Backwards
Life Must Be Lived Forwards, But Can Only Be Understood Backwards
- Kirkegaard
When I began Once & Future Wine in 2014, I wrote as my mission statement, “Once and Future Wine Company is a return to the original vision I had for Ravenswood so many years ago. A project that specializes in wines from special vineyards made with a sensitivity to place and in a style I personally love and believe in. Wines that force me to dust off the old redwood vats and get out a new punchdown tool (my original is in the Smithsonian), wines that dye my hands that harvest shade of black/purple and sometimes force me to take an additional Advil some mornings. In short - wines of Sweat, Exertion, and Love.”
Back then, I thought I might have another 10 productive years of living the winemaking dream I began in 1972. I was wrong about that. Maybe it’s the red wine! A recent study noted that red wine drinkers live longer than non-drinkers or people who drink other adult beverages. Or maybe it is just that Bacchus has smiled on me, but for whatever reason I am still loving and living my work at 12 years and counting. As long as I can still dig out the fermenters post-fermentation and talk coherently about wine, I will keep at it. Fortunately it hasn’t required as much Advil as I might have imagined. I should also note that another recent study has claimed that wine drinkers smile more when having conversations versus drinkers of other beverages, so perhaps that contributes to my upbeat attitude about my work.
True to my founding mantra, I have been able to make the wines that I love, from vineyards I respect, in the most natural of processes that show off the beauty of each vineyard site. I am making wines from vineyards I have worked with for many years, like Bedrock, Old Hill, Belloni, and Dickerson, while adding some new locations to my repertoire, like Bacigalupi, Green and Red, Forchini, Sodini, as well as the first vineyard that I made wine from at Ravenswood, Vogensen.
Back in the early Ravenswood days, our sales were entirely dependent on wine brokers and distributors as well as our own efforts “dragging the bag” (calling on accounts, sharing our wines). As time went on, we developed a “snail mail” offering that was our first attempt, other than the tasting room, to interact directly with our customers. That mailing list had a limited reach because many states had laws that prohibited people from buying and shipping wine directly from a winery. In 2002, Direct-to-Consumer shipping (DTC) was either banned or overly cumbersome in 37 states. My business partner in Ravenswood, W. Reed Foster, was also the president of the Coalition for Free Trade, and was determined to remove these obstacles. Reed’s work and the work of many others led to the The Granholm v Heald decision. Granholm v. Heald is a landmark federal Supreme Court decision that struck down state laws prohibiting out-of-state wineries from shipping directly to consumers while allowing in-state wineries to do so. The 5-4 ruling declared this practice a violation of the Constitution’s Dormant Commerce Clause. This ruling was the beginning of the loosening of the restrictions to interstate shipping from wineries to their customers. It also happened that this was about the time that wineries were gearing up on the internet. Web page development was all the rage. The idea that you could now bypass the middleman and have a direct relationship with your customer was a powerful incentive to participate in this new sales channel. Wineries, including Ravenswood, developed wine club customer mailing lists to take advantage of the new internet reality. It was a very successful approach to getting wines to our customers who might not have access otherwise to our small-lot single vineyard wines.
Alan Wastell, the manager of our tasting room and creator of some of the early “Snail Mail” direct to consumer mailings shared some of his memories of those early days, saying, “My recollection is that they were very simple notices of release, no graphics or embellishments, listing the designates available (Cooke, Dickerson, Old Hill) plus Pickberry and Sangiacomo Chardonnay. I started saving the newsletters when we began doing a more chatty, informative missive - articles about the tasting room, as well as new wines and merchandise (as well as the activities of Clackamas, the cat)…
The shift came about with the release letter for the 1990s (in 1992). Typically, the Old Hill was the most sought-after of the designates. The letter went out as usual, but as orders began to come in, there were several reviews published in the major wine rags (Robert Parker, Wine Spectator, along with some others) that each identified Ravenswood Dickerson Zin as the best Zin in California (i.e., the world). Suddenly, the demand for Dickerson took off, and the other two didn’t trail too far behind; all three sold out in record time.
Good news, of course, but this led to a somewhat chaotic situation where we were fielding calls and taking orders; while one of us was taking an order on one line, someone else was selling the last bottles of that wine on another line. Again, good but kinda messy…and thus the decision, the following year, to fulfill orders by “Lottery”. Orders were placed, as usual, but with the proviso that not all could be fulfilled. We stated that all orders were to be assigned a number and random numbers would be generated by computer, and those that were drawn would receive their desired selections (after we processed their credit card, of course). Those not selected would receive a consolation prize…. So the consolation prize was a T-shirt; Michael Umble, who worked in the tasting room at that time, suggested a sort of “Veni, Vidi, Vici" theme, along with the logo, and the words “I Entered, They Drew, I Lost”. We thought it was kinda funny and people tended to accept the results graciously…even proudly wearing their T-shirt on their next visit….”
Ah, the Good Old Days in the wine business!
When I started Once & Future Wine the DTC (Direct to Consumer) approach to sales was very much on my mind.
The quest started with the help of my son Morgan at Bedrock Wine Company, a master of the direct to consumer space, who was willing to share his ample customer list with me. I used that list for my first release.
Since then I have built on that base using my website as my customer outreach and enrollment platform. My current sales are very much a blended mix. I am able to sell about 40% of the wine I make via the mailing list, but still rely on traditional channels to sell the remainder to restaurants, out-of-state distributors, and even to some international accounts like Japan, Austria, and the UK.
It is safe to say that DTC sales have helped keep Once & Future Wine a viable operation. The direct sales at the beginning of each new vintage release tend to be a welcome cash flow infusion when grape payments and other production bills are coming due. So thank you to those of you who purchase wine from my direct wine offerings. You help make the next vintage possible!
This hybrid strategy, supported by my loyal customers who purchase from the mailing list, has given me the luxury of holding back some of the wines I have made at Once & Future to age in the bottle before their ultimate release. Some of you have been the beneficiaries of the wines that I held back for the Ravenswood Library. The time has come to release a portion of those reserved Once & Future wines with this fall release. The wines continue to get better with age, but unfortunately I am not getting any younger, and people do not generally age as well as my wines.
The wines span the years 2014 to 2021. This is a real opportunity to look backwards at the vinous history of the multiple vintages and vineyards that I have made at Once & Future Wine (the wines have been stored in ideal temperature-controlled conditions).
We will be setting up the release so that you can choose a vertical of your favorite vineyard, or a selection of wines from your favorite vintage, or a potpourri of your favorite wines from multiple vintages. When a particular wine goes out of stock, it will be removed from the list of available wines.
Thank you for your support of Once & Future. I look forward to sharing these wines with you!
Cheers,
Joel
