Can’t tell you anything about the wines itself; however, you can find it locally (Houston) at… Costco. It is under $70/bottle. Thought about picking one up the other day, but like you, I had never heard of it before.
The style is similar to Realm the Bard, or Turnbull black label if you had those before.
A lot of fruits, balance, can tell it’s nice wine, but a bit boring.
It’s a great wine. Big noses with cigar box type flavors. If you like that style then this is for you. Production isn’t at a boutique type level. Not sure why I didn’t buy a case today at Costco
Indeed, the only place I’ve seen this is Costco. It sounds like it’s a decent, but fairly fungible, modern Napa cab.
Back a long time ago when I used to visit Napa wineries, I remember we would often ask who the owners are and how they came to be making wine. The story was almost always some version of “the owner made a fortune as the CEO of this company, founder of that company, by selling the business he built for $ hundreds of millions, and then he and his wife decided to buy an estate in Napa and start making wines.” This certainly fits the bill.
been a bunch of signed bottles sitting in our local costco for $65.
Rich guy jumping in to ultra premium (initial vintages were $100 plus IIRC) wine business vanity projects dont interest me even if they are technically solid wines.
If you like the style it is a good value. The owner has followed his father’s model and not let his accountants drive the price to what the market will bear.
I’ve had the '15, '16 and '17 Estate and they are all quite good (the '17 is a small step back from the other two). They have a very identifiable “scorched earth” note that I get from Saint Helena wines. Made in a big Napa style, but not over the top, and something about them is quite unique (I don’t find them generic at all). I’ve found it discounted to $60 and think it’s one of the best values out there at that price.