I was in California in November. I wanted to visit Kinsman Eades, but they had no wine. Shae connected me with several places where Nigel makes the wine, including Bella Oaks, Impensata and Wheeler Farm. Thank you, Shae. All were impressive in their own ways. Impensata with its totally new vineyards on top of Howell Mountain especially so. None are particularly cheap, but they are more available than KE. My first KEs are the 19s so I have yet to taste one. Most of these, with the exception of the 17 Bella Oaks, were too young for me to judge.
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My favorite wine he makes after KE is bella oaks. Great vineyard and wine. Impensata is pretty good as well. I like their Las Posadas bottling.
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Bella Oaks and the JH Wheeler VHR are absolutely fantastic. I haven’t had any Impensata, but everything Nigel makes is gold!
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Member at JH Wheeler for the last year and have tried all the 2019 and 2021 bottlings. Outstanding quality! Really enjoyed the recent 2021 Diamond Mountain release.
First purchase at Bella Oaks was 2019 vintage but yet to taste. CT reviews are beyond great.
Impensata not had the opportunity to sample.
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Bella Oaks strikes me as the finest of the Kinsman projects, outside of KE, itself. We’ll see where Impensata goes with time–I think there is promise in continued improvement.
As for Bella Oaks, I have yet to try their Genie bottling (from their young vines) and am curious if anyone else has? The young vines bottling was immediately reminiscent of the messaging on Mascot. Price-wise, I think Genie is a bit higher than Mascot?
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I’ve had 2 recently. 2018 Bella Oaks. On opening it roared from the glass and the taste was a large scaled classic Cali cab. Really represented the valley and the vintage well. It did end up closing up a little bit so if you were going to pop an 18 soon I’d recommend a 12 hour decant.
2019 Wheeler George III. wowza. One of the best young cabs I’ve ever had. Incredible nose and to borrow terminology from Meadows it was absolutely Zen. A wine I couldn’t stop thinking about.
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I tried Le Genie last month with Martin (from Bella Oaks). Excellent wine for $160, honestly one of my new favorites in the $150-$200 range for Napa. And yes, to your question, it is higher than Mascot by ~$20 (if my memory serves me right Mascot was $140 for the '19 vintage)
I would put MacDonald as #1, except I’ve heard it’s going to be over $200 this upcoming vintage ('21).
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I’ve had a number of Nigel’s wines, and collectively he has become my new favorite winemaker.
I’ve had Accendo (Nigel does the red wines, Francoise Peschon does the SB), Impensata (I’ve had all 4 wines - Ecotone Merlot, Engelhard Prop Red, Las Piedras Cab and their new Sauv Blanc), Bella Oaks (Le Genie + flagship), and of course, Kinsman Eades. All are excellent in their own regards.
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Does Nigel make all the Wheeler wines?
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Yes!
Francoise makes the whites I believe
For accendo yes… For wheeler, Nigel makes all wines.
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100% agreed. Bella Oaks is my clear favorite non-KE wine made by Nigel, and it’s not a particularly close contest for me either. It’s a really special wine!
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I feel FOMO kicking in on Bella Oaks now…
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Waitong for the 21 release in the fall. Also heard la genie is good!
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Impensata’a Merlot blend is one of my favorite wines coming out of CA. Exellent stuff.
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Impensata is killer juice. Their SB is fire, more Bordeaux like than say NZ. More body and complexity vs linear acidity. During the Margaux hosted dinner last week, a few of us could not shake the feeling it was in the same vein as their Margaux Blanc.
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Agree. We went to TFL for dinner after tasting with Angela, and we took a '17 Ecotone Merlot as our bottle for the evening. The best domestic Merlot I’ve had. The price is the one hurdle, but once you try it, you can better understand why it’s priced the same as their Cabs.
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Not wine exactly, but Bella Oaks olive oil releasing at $195/3-pack…
All-in it was close to $270 with 3-day shipping. That’s unfortunately a hard pass for me. I’ll hold off to buy the '21 Bella Oaks flagship.
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I will likely pass. I much rather budget a bottle of wine than 3 bottles of EVOO.