I just finished a visit with Ketan Mody at Jasud Estate and here are my notes, some with his words and some wine notes with my own. Please note I’m not trade, nor media. I’m just a guy who buys more wine than I should but I fully support Ketan’s projects and love his wines. This is the 3rd year in a row I’ve been able to visit and taste with Ketan.
I made a list of questions and here are the answers.
Per Ketan:
None of the backend wine software packages are great for smaller wineries. The software isn’t their world. He got locked out of his email for like 8 hours before this last release. There’s like 2 winery software packages used and again they don’t work well for Beta-Jasud.
Entirely gratifying to sell out wine. He is hoping people can’t catch on that he doesn’t know what he’s doing.
“I’m so thankful that people care. No one wants to sell more wine than me.”
We started with the Placida Chardonnay which was grafted over from Chuy vineyard chard. Chuy was ripped out and no longer exists. This is drinking quite nice. Glad to taste this after buying yesterday.
2020 is just a zero on the balance sheet. Been a tough one and just so thankful that people care about the wines and getting better at what we do.
Jasud Estate: 150 cases v 50 in 2019 for 22-23 but still nothing for what this place can produce. The blocks are currently all blended together. They all work better together. There is more of a harmony…but!!!
There are currently 5-6K people on the list.
For Beta: He was just making wines and trying to sell them. Since we’ve had so little wines we took the people off the Beta list from the top for the Jasud release.
As more Jasud comes online more people will have access. We will always support the people who supported us the longest. Allocations should increase with more wine coming, both Beta and Jasud.
RE the high shipping: It’s not anyone’s problem, we make enough money to keep this going but no one is getting rich here.
If he can get costs down he will. Give me a chance to do better and I will. Not trying to fuck someone over. Shipping is insane. Costs are high and he’s not big enough to eat them.
12’ Montecillo
Open for business. So so good. Drink now, yes it can age longer.
16’ Vare
Very soft, in a really good place. Ketan says he hasn’t tried in 6 years. Really proud and excited.
For harvest they drive their own grapes down the mountain, 45 minutes away in Sonoma. Working for permit to do work on site. 18-24 month permit process, could be longer.
To be a great winemaker you have to be somewhat stupid. We’re on a path of freedom and expression and driven by more of what we do than what we don’t do.
18 Monty 300- also open for business. Really varies per day whether the wine is open or closed. Drinking wonderful today. I think this was a magnum only release. Served from a 750.
RE price increases in Napa: There’s not the value in those wines anymore. Wines shouldn’t be too expensive. People don’t drink those wines at the aspirational price points. They hold them and then when open they’re not as good as the price point.
We’ve got 15 years in the game and we struggled a bit but I feel this wine (Jasud) is worth it. I’d rather under promise and over deliver. I wish all these wines were a lot cheaper.
Napa sales are down like 40% in that price range. This was regarding the expensive wines in Napa.
19’ Lupina
Hope you got an allocation. 200’ feet from Monty. Very different wines. Good acid, needs to lay down. This was open for business last year and is closed now. Hold hold hold.
Ketan likes to drink Rayas, Piedmont and Barolo + White burgundy and red burgundy. Trying to drink the classics. We’re still listening to Led Zeppelin. Really likes Morgen Long as well.
It’s about honesty, land and people. Nature puts its boot on your neck and puts you in your place.
14’ Vare .
Feminine, not as big as the 13’ Vare I opened last year. Drink the 14’ before the 13’.
Jasud notes; the vineyard was sitting in fog for 3 weeks last June 23’ and lost 50% of the crop.
21’ - 22’ - 23’. 23 not the vintage of the last decade. Everyone wants to skip 22’ up here. The vines are tired and had a tough patch. It only started to get colder in 23’ and people had heavy crop loads that couldn’t get ripe. Jasud had the opposite problem. Had 6 tons. Had half the grapes on the cluster. Up here it was fog and drenching wet.
23’ was all over the place but couldn’t figure out why.
Not often we taste Jasud. The Jasud just sits in barrel. Ketan may taste when he tops off barrels. He’s not going to make a lot of choices. He’s pretty hands off. We’re not tinkerers. We’re not trying to solve problems that don’t exist. We already did that in the vineyard.
22’ Jasud
Chewy. Tannicky. Rose water and Turkish spice. A little more exotic. 12.7% alcohol. Fully ripe. All the things we’re looking for in wine. Youthful. None of these wines should be fucking great out of the barrel. You can see they need a lot more time. Will see 2 more years before we bottle. Revisited, better cold.
1 release of Beta a year. Didn’t want to do all the releases at once. Not sure how future Beta releases will look. No new vineyards coming online.
21’ Beta maybe next fall or spring, undecided and subject to change. Haven’t even bottled 21s. People might not hear from us for a while.
Won’t sell 22’ Jasud for 2 years. This isn’t coming to movie theaters anytime soon.
21’ Beta. Only one wine ready to bottle now and others are not.
We’re not gonna sacrifice what’s right for our bottom line.
23’ Jasud
23’ in a better place now than the 22’. May be due to the heat. The bottle also was out in the sun and after putting on ice tasted much better with a revisit. 23’ Jasud felt like pure expression mountain fruit.
Ketan has Rayas cuttings: it may be 1-2 years before planted, stay tuned.
Only a barrel of Own Rooted.
23’ Jasud Own Rooted - my notes and excuse my language.
HOLY FUCKING SHIT
Ketan’s notes: This is purity on another level. It’s a Ferrari and you have to know how to drive it. It’s stupid singing. This will be a magnum only wine per Ketan. 1 barrel.
Pruning, suckering and picking are the 3 most important aspects in the vineyard. They’re still learning. Going to make the mistakes but also want to learn to continue getting better.
Ketan had William Kelley up last week so hopefully WK will jump in and post some reviews or notes on Jasud. Maybe he’s got an article coming down the pipe?
The Jasud label is not fully complete yet. He did show me a rough draft mock and they’re working to finish it.
We had several off the record topics and I’ll just say the man is entirely grateful for the support and the business. He wants to make the best wine possible and continue to improve. As a customer there’s no BS with Ketan. He has my business as long as I can afford to buy wine.
