2006 Arkenstone Sauvignon Blanc- USA, California, Napa Valley, Howell Mountain (6/10/2012)
Wow. I didn’t want to like this wine. Heavy bottle, a punt that could house a small family of boat people, silly price…instead it was gorgeous. More white Graves than typical Cali Sauvignon blanc. Vibrant notes of citrus zest, white grapefruit, tobacco, clover honey, flint. Gliding, oily nicely balanced palate with a long, spicy finish. Blind I’m going Domaine de Chevalier same vintage (thus, i guess justifying the price!). Not many new world sauvignon blancs can hold on this long, let alone be this vibrant, nuanced and delicious. Very impressive. (93 pts.)
What do you expect them to charge? They used Howell Mtn vineyard land that could instead be planted to CS selling for $100/btl and aged in barrels, 30% new. I am not sure on the TPA difference of the CS to SB but figure that at 5 TPA for the SB and $45/btl, they may just be making the same as growing CS. Selling it for less makes no business sense at all when they instead could grow all CS.
Brian,
Your reasoning is sound but there is one other factor to consider; all of their competition sells for less. Not the case with Cabernets from that dirt.
Still, if they can make that business model work, I can only applaud.
Best, Jim
![[soap.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7ea1fffd3ef237e8f19d17a83270ad8452218ca.gif "soap"){kind=small}