Bottles like this are why I love wine so much. I’ve had this in storage for about 3 years now and didn’t want to wait on it any longer. When Whole Foods runs a special on their bone-in rib-eye steaks, we always get one and have them split it since they are about 2 inches thick. I’m not sure which or if it was both, but I think Alton Brown and Guy Fieri both have always promoted using cuts of meat with the bone still on, as that is where the flavor is at. I totally agree and it still befuddles me every single time I see a person asking the butcher for filet mignon. Okay, back to wine.

I wasn’t in the industry when I bought this, but I was on a select email list put out by my mentor. I still have to do an interview / article with her, just hard to pin her down since she makes the Tasmanian devil look like the Dalai Lama in terms of energy level. I was intrigued for several reasons. One, she recommended it, which was a 90% guarantee that I’d love it, as our palates were well aligned. B, it was a wine with a production of only 23 cases. Read that again and do the math. Okay, I’ll do it for you. That means 23×12 which comes out to…wait a second…276 bottles. I don’t know what the rarest wine in the world is, but this is pretty dang exclusive. Trois, it comes from locals, Greg and Jennifer Hauck, who followed their hearts and are now living their dream. Lastly, it was aged in oak for two years, one in French oak and the other in American. This was something I don’t recall seeing a whole lot of, especially since they basically only made one barrel of the stuff. I’m not 100% sure of the price, but I think it was around $50? Current vintages of the wine are going for $48 on the winery website.

Aroma: OMG, I think I’ve died and gone to Alexander Valley heaven. It had strong notes of spicy espresso, mocha tinged pipe tobacco, black currant reduction and toffee. Sounds like something I might drink at Starbucks if they made wine instead of coffee.

Palate & Final Word: Rich, velvety, silky. All these and more were uttered as we drained every single little drop we could. It didn’t hurt that we were enjoying our salt and black pepper crusted steaks, along with some amazingly delicious roasted fingerling potatoes and sauteed baby bella mushrooms. The tannins were gone, providing what I imagine to be the soft and supple texture of the wine, which still had plenty of acidity to keep it from falling flat in the end. The deep, rich flavors of assorted black fruits were united with rich mocha, vanilla and espresso notes, with an underlying hint of fresh mint. I told my wife, wines like this are why I love wine so much. The only shame of it is that we don’t have more, but like I told my better half, we are two of a teeny-tiny group who will ever enjoy such treasures. Perhaps we’ll never have a First Growth Bordeaux or Grand Cru Burgundy, but we will have had this wine and in the end, that is quite alright with me. Without a doubt, an outstanding bottle and a great reminder that Napa Valley isn’t the only great California AVA for Cabernet sauvignon.

Oh yes, the photo of the back label. This is something I normally don’t include, but if you look closely, you can see where it lists the production at 23 cases. Bonus is, you can also see where they mention this as being their first red wine release. Now I feel even more giddy. Pretty cool stuff that only a real wine geek like me could appreciate.

Haiku
Local folk do good
Make rich rare gem from Cali
Applaud them I do