Riverain Reserve 2017 email

I bought 6 in 2016 (and have 5 left and keeping for a long time) and bought 12 regular 2017’s but gonna skip this reserve cause can’t justify it.

Anyone biting?

Dear Friends,

Needless to say we are in interesting times and completely unchartered territory. What we do know is that a lot of us are consuming some of the wines that we were saving for a “special occasion.” Well, no doubt these are special times, and therefore they deserve a special wine to replenish the cellar or to drink with family and friends.

The wine business demands patience and precision. One harvest, once a year, one shot to make the best. Weather, pruning, thinning, cooperage and dozens of other factors go into each wine. We are very lucky to have Thomas Rivers Brown to manage all of the winegrowing and winemaking decisions. In 2017, we avoided all of the challenges of the vintage and made beautiful Cabernet. In deciding to make a Reserve, tasting is believing for us. A cool Spring morning and an extensive barrel tasting with Thomas led to a small but supreme selection.

We decided to set aside four barrels to make our special Riverain Reserve Cabernet consisting of Clone 7 from our upper block matched to the very best Taransaud and Baron French oak barrels.

The Tench vineyard shines through and the quality is much like 2016’s Reserve-blackberry, plum, black cherry, iron, a hint of sage, incredible deep pure fruit and the silkiest tannins of Eastern Oakville.

The only limitation is that we have a mere 63 cases for sale. This year we also have a whopping 12 magnums available. We expect this to go fast as last year’s Reserve sold out in just 48 hours! So we limited the allocations but there is a wish list option for those who hope for more. Please note these are first come first serve.

Haven’t had Riverain before, not sure if I should start with the reserve. I have Vangone, Di Co, William & Mary, Theorem, and SVDs for Memento Mori to go. I do love oakville juice, so i can’t decide if I should pull the trigger on two and try one and let one rest…

The wine is fantastic. If you can afford it, pull the trigger.

If you love Oakville, you gotta get some of this:

There is a thread on it here:

How was the 16 reserve? I haven’t cracked any of mine open.

50-50 on the 17s for me.

Honestly, I am not the one to ask. I think it was great but it was a long time ago and I probably couldn’t tell the difference between most regular and reserves! I just don’t have the palate.

Haven’t opened my 16’s … 3 bottles and 1 mag of the “best barrel” reserve in 16

Today, I got 3 reserves and 1 mag reserve … will probably open the 17’s before the 16’s

At least I managed to read the Brand large format email today without ordering. To be honest, I probably would’ve if it didn’t come the same day as the Riverain.

Hoping to not sound like a shill, this was a fascinating process to make a Reserve in 2017. Like many of you, I was concerned it was a"difficult" vintage, which is true compared to 2016 and 2018 around it. 2017 required some lucky breaks to make great wine. TRB hangs a big canopy in our Tench vineyard to slow everything down and extend the hang time as ripeness is rarely ever a concern. That big canopy helped deal with the Labor Day heat. Then everything was picked and in the tanks before the fires started, so all the fruit was clean. I still did not think we would be making a Reserve though, but TRB and I went through all the barrels and the Clone 7 Taransaud barrels were fantastic, so we made 93 cases.

If you can make it to Napa, we are pouring this at a tasting.

Hope everyone is safe and well.

I am cutting WAY back, but picked up 3 so not to miss this one ! [thumbs-up.gif]

Thank you sir!

Not on the list but had these wines at FMIII’s Falltacular in February before the world shut down. Lots of wines and it’s tough for wines to stand out among so many great wines when you have unlimited access to all of them. These stood out among a handful that did for me. YMMV

Order in for 3 - thanks a lot, guys [snort.gif]

Hmmm. Wasn’t offered this one.

Email sent.

Don’t disagree, the 2017 had a lot of buzz at Falltacular and always does. Steve is always a generous supporter of the event along with all the other great winemakers.

let me clarify one point: the 2017 Riverain CS at FT was not the reserve bottling, just the “regular old kickass CS” that Steve makes.

When Steve had mentioned awhile back he was doing a reserve I (never afraid to weasel my way into a free bottle) asked “when do we get to taste it?” No go, sailor! He said “There isn’t much and we want it all going to the customers”

Tough not to appreciate that attitude.

Not true! I have a 187ml for you. neener

Even better