Aston Estate?

Just got an offer letter from Aston Estate. I guess its Schraders Pinot label. $65 a bottle, which doesn’t seem outrageous by any means. Haven’t tried before. Thoughts?

I laughed inside just a bit when I read the Aston mail flyer from Fred Schrader which said, “As you move your way through the Waiting List for our Schrader Cabernets, we hope you will enjoy this delectable Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir.”.

I would much rather it said,“You buy this Pinot, you get on the next Cab offer.”. newhere

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My thoughts exactly.

Very big pinot’s, similar to Kosta Browne. The bottles are big and heavy too.

From what I have read they are too big for me. If it moved me up on the cab list though, I would be a buyer.

I’m thinking the same thing. My tastes are shifting away from KB style Pinots, but I love the Cabs.

I actually recently drank one of the 2012’s along side a KB Sonoma Coast and on any other day the KB might have seemed big and ripe, but the Ashton absolutely tilts the scales in that direction.

Well…is anyone ordering thinking this just might get them on the cab list?
Hearing a bit more about the concentration of these wines, I guess I’m a pass…

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Just dug this thread up after getting the email from Rivers-Marie saying Thomas acquired full ownership of Aston. I’ve never had the wines, but I figured I’d take a gamble on one 3-pack to see what it’s about.

#metoo

He mentioned they’ve ratcheted down the style and the ‘16 sounds great. I bit.

Thomas Acquires Aston Estate

In 2001 after finding a very intriguing 40 acre parcel in a remote part of the northern Sonoma Coast, I established Aston Estate with partners Fred Schrader (Schrader Cellars, Boars’ View) and Charles Sweeney (Vine Cliff). After planting 14 acres later that summer, we vinifed our first vintage in 2004 under the Aston Experimental label. As the years passed and the partnership evolved, the one thing that never changed was my commitment to the Aston Estate project. In the beginning, the style was a bit bigger reflecting what was currently happening on the coast, the unpredictability of the weather, younger vine characteristics and the logistics of hauling the fruit out of this remote site. As the vineyard matured, so did the area and that part of the world feels much smaller and closer these days. With better access to the site, more vineyard activity in the area and older vines, it has become easier to take the quality of the fruit to exactly where we want it out at the Estate. The established vines now ripen more thoroughly at lower brix which has tamed the style while still focusing on the more broad shouldered, savage style of wines from the Annapolis area. There have been a few turning points out here in terms of wine quality. After tasting every single wine we’ve made from the estate a couple months ago, it was clear 2009 and 2015 ushered in new eras of quality. We think we may see the same thing with 2017 which will be offered later this summer.

Earlier this year, I was offered the chance to own Aston outright. I knew immediately there was no way I could let this get away. After investing 20 years of effort into this now mature 14 acre plot of Pinot Noir, I’m proud to announce this will be part of the growing winemaking family for years to come.



Click Here to Join Aston Estate


We’d like to give members of the Rivers-Mare list the first opportunity to opt in to Aston and in doing so, the opportunity to purchase the two most recent releases, the 2015 and 2016 Aston Estate Pinot Noirs.

Same. Looks interesting. Why not just make these under the Rivers Marie label now though?

It would have increased the overall Pinot production under the RM label by over 50% and with it being outside of the Occidental-Freestone geographic band, we felt it would be a little confusing on the overall brand messaging. Aston has been producing wine for almost 20 years, it just hasn’t been consistently marketed which is something we look to change.

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Thought I would check it out also. My cart was pre-loaded with 4 each of the 3-packs and I could not edit the quantity ($900 subtotal). I’m not that interested… Cheers!

I bought a 6 pack of the 12’ several years back and have 1 bottle left. I will have to put that bottle on a drink list so I remember to sample it sometime soon.

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That was my first thought. I’d lump some into my RM pinots but not gonna commit to a 3 or 6 pack.
I was a buyer for a few vintages and just recently opened my last bottle.

Received this as well. Curious about the style, however.

That was user error on my part in setting it up. I had to tweak a few things to get the folks that were already on the list an offer and didn’t get one of the settings right. It should be fixed now.

I’m in. I like the R-M Pinots and I would venture a guess that Will wouldn’t assign his name to a label that, at least now in more recent vintages, didn’t well represent his style and the site.

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Will, would you venture to characterize the style of these wines as compared to R-M?

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