You guys buying?
The Howell Mountain used to be a strong value. It was $75 or $80 when I started buying it.
Prices are 
2018 Outpost True Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon - $175 (JD 97)
2018 Outpost True Vineyard Immigrant - $125 (JD 97)
2018 Outpost Estate Cabernet Sauvignon - $108 (JD 96)
Ouch those are healthy price increases. Is this price increase from the new owners or from 2020 being lost?
I will be passing.
Are the allocations open yet? Someone just told me they were able to purchase. I haven’t even received my email yet.
Looks to be their first pre-release…
“Given your continued support of Outpost Wines, we are pleased to offer you the rare opportunity to gain access to the wines before our official release date of Tuesday, January 19th.“
Well that’s fancy. Thanks for letting me know. If anyone is passing please PM me. Would love to be able to grab some.
Like the wines, but, with the sale, easy pass.
Kind of feeling this way too. But they’re 2018s, and will be quite good, and my vertical would be interrupted blah blah blah. I am exactly the prey!
If I buy it won’t be much…
Still good juice. TRB still at the helm. In.
Price increase. (Even from last August)
True: $150- - -$175
Immigrant $115- - -$125
Estate $95- - -$108
Interesting I already got the 2018 true and estate back in October was still 150 and 95.
I’m curious if anyone has tasted these. In Galloni’s recent review of the 2018 Howell Mountain cab, he noted it was “marred by distracting smoke notes”, “very hard to taste”, and gave it 79 points. Dunnuck clearly saw things differently.
I’ve noticed this discrepancy between AG and JD a couple of times, most notably the 2017 Bevan Ontogeny, which JD loved and I think AG gave an 80 and said was near undrinkable. I liked the Ontogeny, though not as much as JD did. Odd that they are so out of whack sometimes.
My first offer of Outpost so I’m considering ordering the Immigrant in particular based on what I read on the forum.
Would someone explain why the sale of Outpost is bad? Is it the price increase or an expected decline in quality for some reason? Both?
It’s nothing bad and in MOST cases doesn’t impact the wine. As mentioned above, TRB is still the winemaker. Given the huge number of wineries out there and limited pocketbooks, it’s just based on personal preference of many WBs to support family run operations where they can rather than ones that owned by corporates and investors. Not saying its true in every case, but often the family run ones are in it out of passion rather than pure financial reward, have smaller marketing budgets, fewer distribution channels, etc. so buying from them can be meaningful to both parties.
If you like TRBs wines and want to support him and Frank (the prior owner of Outpost) then buy Mending Wall, which is the winery they co-own! Their wines are fantastic and pricing is more reasonable.
Been a buyer for a few years but really on the fence with this outpost release… True Vyd cab went from $135 prior to the sale to $150 and now $175.
And when I was buying (stopped in the 2015 vintage) the True vineyard would sell out in a day or 2. It’s still available right now.
This is true. I started in 2013, and you were lucky to get some. I think the 99-100 point scores had a lot to do with that. At $135 for True and $75 for Howell Mountain it was justifiable value. Hard now, with so great wine out there at lower costs.
I ordered only a few bottles because of the price. I really like this producer, or I did prior to the sale, and am hang on because TRB is still making the wine. I love their Grenache but pricing may chase me away. I will give Mending Wall another chance but was not that impressed at our visit a few years ago.
Mending Wall has gotten better. I skipped a few years but but on their 17’s and 18’s after my wife, who is picky with wine, really enjoyed their cabs. We like dark wines…typical Napa cabs.
I passed on the 2018’s. I’ve been buying since the 2014 vintage. The prices increases are getting out of hand. But the main reason I passed was the Vinous review mentioning smoke taint on the immigrant wine. That wine also gets some grapes from the True vineyard on Howell mtn. Jeb mentioned in his reviews to be very careful about buying wine from Howell mtn in 2018. Now the question is are the new owners more concerned about profits vs putting out wine with smoke taint?
With the wild discrepancy between the two scores, I’d be really curious to know when each of the reviewers tasted the wines - and if both were out of bottles or barrel samples.
The concern that we all now know from 2008 is that smoke taint can stay hidden for an undetermined amount of time only to emerge later on.
I’d love to hear from Ray or other winemakers up there and hear what they are hearing about this before jumping to any other conclusions. And I would find it hard to believe that a producer like Outpost would not take Antonio’s comments seriously and address them if there is something to address (which also brings up the question of whether anyone on here has reached out to them to ask these questions?).
Cheers
Jeb’s previous good review was from a barrel sample from Jan 2020. His latest review from bottle is a big difference.
88?
“There are three Cabernet Sauvignon releases. Starting with the 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate, this inky blue/purple-hued Cabernet gives up a smoky, meaty nose of classic Howell Mountain blue and black fruits, smoked tobacco, graphite, and crushed stone-like minerality. It hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness as well as beautiful purity of fruit. However, there are off-putting, chewy, coarse tannins that mar an otherwise outstanding wine. Odds are, there’s some low-level smoke taint here, and while this is unquestionably enjoyable (I followed the bottle for multiple days), I would urge caution as well as planning on early drinking.”