New Wine - Maitre de Chai

I have not tasted these wines, yet. I do know the people involved and some of the vineyards and I am confident they will be very good.

A friendly reminder, I was the first to mention Sandlands and MacDonald Vineyards:

I would definitely recommend signing up for the mailing list.

You’re a bad man

ditto. I not need another mailing list… but I signed up anyway of course

just got the mailer but the website seems to have been taken down… also tried responding to the email and received a permanent send failure 550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable

Got the email, but clicked on the allocation link, only to find no allocations available.

You have to sign up for a membership, but I did not see any prices anywhere

I’m interested in the wines, but I’m not sure a wine club model is the best way to go for them.

I completely agree

I do no think you have to join the wine club to order. I ordered. Looking forward to trying these wines.

So I finally made it through a completely buggy website and signed up for the 6 btl wine club because of the 6 wines offered 3 of them said “only available to members of our wine club”. Now come to find out the 6 btl wine club (twice a year) only includes the 3 wines (2 btls of each) I could have purchased without joining the club? They billed my credit card, have sent no email with an invoice and 2 day shipping was $100.00? Add to that the website goes error 404 99 out of 100 tries to log into my account and I end up being completely frustrated and feeling taken advantage of.

I curiously went to the web site. It didn’t work well with Chrome but much better with IE. One curiosity I noticed; the “2014 Herron Sauvignon” (full name) is a Sauvignon Blanc (http://www.maitredechaiwine.com/store/detail?item=2014-herron-sauvignon). It’s only mentioned by full name once in the description although I guess one could figure that out by reading the full description.

You have not tasted the wines but can tell us they will be good. How might you know this. I expect you have much more inside info that you are letting on, perhaps even involvement.

I have tried iPhone, iPad, iMac all with the same errors (over and over and over). Totally transparency I do know of the project and the winemaker and the facility it was made in. I actually signed up because like sandlands I thought I maybe missing something if I didn’t taste through all the wines on release. I am more then willing to support “the new kid on the block” with my $s. This time, however, not so much.

Not unlike Ferdinand, this is a very closed book. Seems like there must be more to the story.

I’m not sure why anyone with no history with these wines or anyone mentioned having tasted them would sign up for a list. Am I missing something here? Is there that great a need to sign up for every list available?

Ah, I see your problem. Maybe try a PC Seriously though, considering the web site doesn’t work well with Chrome, and even worse on Apple devices, it appears the site was designed only with IE PCs in mind and totally ignored browser and platform compatibility issues.

Guys and gals, don’t sleep on Maitre de Chai.

They’re exceptional wines and I don’t think they’ll stay this accessible and QPR-y forever. The Zin from Stampede Vineyard in Clements Hill is by far the best Zin I’ve had from a US producer, if you like the lighter, old school style. I just opened the 2018 Cabernet from the Massa Vineyard and was equally blown away. Chalky, fruity, comes across as a little lighter due to no oak heaviness, but there’s power and huge length there.

This is my second favorite Cab this year after Enfields brilliant Waterhorse Ridge. Difference this is half the price, and still up in that same rarified air.

So glad you like them. They are getting better and better. I love the Zin also.

And David sorry I never answered your question Alex was Abe Schoener’s assistant for many years whom I have been friends with for 15 years. He transitioned from a Chef at The French Laundry. His partner Marty was a somm. I know them both and heard these wines were good from lots of people I trust in the winemaker community.

Ferdinand is made by Evan Frazier who is the manager of Kongsgaard.

Graeme MacDonald was Abe’s assistant before Alex and makes his wine at Kongsgaard. And guess who trained Abe, John Kongsgaard.

And I met Tegan 15 years ago on Abe’s deck where I also met Ketan.

So there you go that is why I the first to recommend MacDonald, Sandlands, Ferdinand, Beta, and Maitre de Chai. All great people making great wines*. I tasted all of them except Maitre de Chai and in some cases many times before recommending them.

I think a lot of people are happy they know about the wines.

*someone should write a story about John teaching Abe and Abe teaching all of these winemakers…

Yep, I’m struggling to sign up or even send them a message on my Galaxy. Bummer. Was interested in checking the wines out.

Picked up a red three pack bundle and can’t wait to try them. For those who are having access issues - the website linked above is not working great but they seem to have a new website, which I found on their Instagram profile: