What’s this? An offer from Carlisle in October??? Believe it or not, yes, and a very special one to boot! 2017 was our 20th commercial vintage. To celebrate this incredible milestone, Kendall and I thought it would be fun to do something special. Being a Pinot-phile, Kendall immediately suggested producing a little Pinot Noir. After all, we have been known to make a little “love juice” from time to time for home use. I, on the other hand, suggested an old-school, mountain-grown Cabernet Sauvignon, something like those Bob Travers Cabernets from the 1970s that I drank in college. Back and forth we debated. Pinot, Cab, Pinot, Cab… In the end, we found a compromise. Make both!
For the Pinot Noir, we were lucky enough to source some incredible fruit from the immaculately-farmed Martaella Vineyard, situated half way between Montafi Ranch and Papera Ranch in the Russian River Valley. We used two clones for our Pinot, the tiny-berried Clone 96, originating from a vineyard near Chambertin, and the ever popular Pommard clone. The Pommard portion was fermented with 50% whole cluster while the 96 was fully destemmed. Aged in 40% new French oak, a single Boutes Grande Réserve barrel, known for highlighting terroir and fruit without adding flavors and aromas of wood and toast, and bottled unfined and unfiltered. Only 61 cases produced. What does it taste like? Red silk! Kendall always says she likes Pinot that tastes like Pinot, i.e., she doesn’t like Pinots with a lot of makeup (toasty oak and extreme ripeness). She likes structure and acidity in her Pinots but also expects them to be very red fruited, with a silken, caressing texture and only modest alcohol. Is Kendall a happy camper? You bet she is!
As for the Cabernet, once again Lady Luck (aka, a friend named Tegan) smiled upon us and we managed to secure a little bit of the highly sought-after old-vine fruit of Montecillo Vineyard. Planted in the 1960s on a series of steep terraces, the vineyard sits at 1725’ elevation on the Sonoma side of the Mayacamas Mountains, above the town of Kenwood and just 680 yards from the Napa county line. In the 1970s and 1980s, fruit from this vineyard served as the backbone for Kenwood’s much acclaimed Artist Series Cabernets. And how’d we do? Well, just as Kendall likes Pinots that taste like Pinot, I like Cabs that taste like Cab. I actually enjoy those classic herbal flavors and aromas that are so seldom found in modern day bottlings. Cabernet Sauvignon is, after all, the love child of Sauvignon blanc and Cabernet Franc, two very herbaceous varieties. I also like sound acidity, firm tannins, and low-ish alcohol, all to provide a framework for further development through aging. Did we succeed in accomplishing these goals? With Jay’s deft hand at winemaking, I feel we have crafted a traditional, old-school mountain-grown Cabernet that makes me recall my youth. Mission accomplished! A mere 92 cases bottled. Unfined and unfiltered.
But in making these “unicorn” wines, there was one thing we didn’t initially consider – selling them. With so fewer bottles than customers, how do we go about offering them? After much thought and discussion, we decided the fairest thing to do would be to simulate a drawing, a lottery of sorts. Hence, this will be a wish-only offer in which you can request up to 3 bottles of the Pinot and up to 4 bottles of the Cabernet. For every bottle in inventory, I will programmatically reach into a hat and randomly pull a name out. (In fact, the program I wrote is called “Names in a Hat”.) I will continue drawing names until all bottles have been sold. Customers in upper tiers will be given more tickets to throw into the hat but everyone has a chance, as proven by my test runs. We didn’t want shipping to be an issue if you ended up with a single bottle so we decided to offer $1 domestic ground shipping, regardless of the number of bottles in your order. Unfortunately, pick-up for these two wines will not be allowed. Wishes for the wines will be collected from October 14th through October 21st. On October 22nd, bottles will be allocated by our drawing and credit cards will be charged. Orders will commence shipping on November 1st for the upper half of the country east of the Mississippi and end the first week of December with Gulf Coast states. You can find your ship date after each line item on your invoice.
To automatically log into your account and place your wish order, please click the button below:
Alternatively, you can login to your account through our website and click "Order Wine".
As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
We hope you enjoy our celebration of 20 years in the wine business. What a wonderful, incredible journey it’s been!
Warm regards,
Mike and Kendall
