You forgot Carmenet Colombard from Saviez Vineyard. I sold pallets of that stuff in the day.
Many listed above I would agree with. I would add Lane Tanner for her nervy pinot noirs that aged well and also Pesenti for their zins. I remember when Turley bought the Pesenti property as my spouse and I stopped at the newly opened Turley tasting room. They were selling Pesenti zins side by side with Turley zins and I really really liked the spicy zins from Pesenti over the coveted Turley.
I saw this thread title and without opening it immediately thought of Guilliams on Spring Mtn and now see its the OP’s inspiration!
First bought Guilliams Cab from a local retailer back in the 90’s and loved it for $20/bottle. Kept buying the Cab, Cab Franc, Merlot whenever I would find it, excellent QPR. Kept calling John and Shawn every time I’d visit Napa to see if they’d let me stop by. They were making the wine out of their converted Garage! It was awesome! I brought a group of good friends through during the '12 harvest and they let us perform punchdowns in the garage. One of my all-time favorite visits in Napa. Only have 8 bottles left. Sad.
I’ve tried to track down bottles from the new owner, but they’re primarily sold in Asia and the grapes appear to be blended across many vineyards now.
Really wish they were still around.
I thought their mid-90s Cabs were even better than Montebello.
Villa Mt Eden. When i was getting into wine in 1991-93 I used to drink their $12-15 wines all the time.
SILO! Loved that wine in the 1997 vintage. I think that was their only vintage? Use to be Savannah-Chanelle…another defunct?
Drank a boatload of Savannah Chantelle pinots that a friend in the biz was blowing out 15 years ago, great wines. I think they are still in business?
No mention of Renaissance. Evidently you all didn’t drink the Kool-aid.
Mike Trujillo was the old wine maker for Karl Lawrence. He has had his own winery Trujillo for about 10 years now.
Originally the Saviez Columbard grapes were fermented at Chalone and sold as Chalone wine, then as Gavilan. I assume the vineyard has been replanted to something more profitable.
I have a great Renaissance story: they loved to trade wine and in 1991 or so they called me up to see if I would trade wine for barrels. Having just read some article about never shutting the door etc I said, Well, send me some samples. It helped that I already knew Gideon B. The samples were great, esp the sweet wines. The original winemaker was a German winemaker named Karl Werner, who had also been the winemaker at Mondavi. So his widow and others knew how to do it. An English wine merchant came by looking for some wine for a private label. He bought two containers.
Karl 's widow remarried and the family makes olive oil under the Apollo label from their own trees. It’s excellent.
There is Clos Saron, which some here are fans of. Same winemaker and some of the same grapes. Just bottled an OV Zin from grapes Renaissance used to source.
Savannah-Chanel is still around. I’d guess they just don’t need as wide of a net, with club and local sales. It’s been a few years, but they always had a well attended tasting room.
Kitchak
I sampled that at their first release party in Minneapolis and tried other vintages. Outstanding wines and in my opinion priced right. Marketing probably did them in as you need to get reviews from WS, etc. to get the word out. I thought they would score very well and advised them to send in some samples. It is hard to compete if the word does not get out.
Bellerose is now Flanagan, I believe. It was Everett Ridge for a while.
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Loved their wines. I have yet to try the label since they sold their vineyard. I see that Myriad and Vice Versa are making Cabernet from Steltzner Vineyard, but those are out of my normal buying range.
Breaker made some great cabs over the past 15 years.
Harrison - Clarke.
I wonder what became of their vineyard in Ballard Canyon.
Also used to like August Ridge in Paso.
Great stuff!
Those were special – very balanced and satisfying, I remember.
A friend scored a bunch of Long’s late harvest rieslings as they winery was shutting down. They were world class. I’m only sorry that I’ve drunk all of mine!
This thread coming back to life is great. A winery that I forgot to mention was Congress Springs. Some great Chards, Pinots and estate Zin. Now Savannah Chanell.
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