Out-Take Pinot Noir Mendocino County 2023

In 2009, when the bubble burst and the market crashed, there was a big-time crisis in Napa. Other than the cream of the crop, every winery was majorly screwed. The bulk market crashed. Those who had cash and a broad sales channel cashed in on cheap bulk wine.

That was good for pricing, if imperfect for quality, as most of the bad winemaking mistakes are made in the 2-3 weeks before bottling. Wine was being trucked all over the valley, and particularly for Pinot Noir, a far more fragile variety than Cabernet, very good wines became just good Pinots, and good became average.

How is today different? Due to a confluence of reasons — three large harvests consecutively, dramatic decrease in traffic from SF to Napa and Sonoma, weakening demand for 80 dollar Pinot Noir and 100 dollar Cabernet Sauvignon, some of the best winemakers and wineries are stuck with expensive grape contracts and production costs that simply can’t be passed on through their sales channels.

In 2009, we bought BULK wine, trucked it around, sent it to custom winemaking facilities that were already overloaded with inventory, betting that the wine could be finished as it should have been. Now, instead of buying bulk, we are going to DIRECTLY to the wineries and THEIR winemakers, and buying the SAME wines that are selling in their tasting rooms…at one-sixth the price. Their wines. Their winemakers. HIS finishing touches.