Ladd Cellars - 4 great offers - Old vine Chard & Pinot + Primitivo!

I make Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from West Sonoma Coast, Sebastopol and the deep end of the Anderson Valley. I’ve also started making a bit of wine from the Sierra Foothills…higher elevation vineyards with interesting/complex soils, picked early for complex & refreshing wines.

I make wine in a balanced style, to pair well with food. I make wine that I love and want to drink, not for points or a ‘marketing plan’. I work hard to have wines that ‘make themselves’ cuz those end up being the most interesting.

Pairing well with food: A Michelin Three Star restaurant (14 in the U.S.) recently put 2 of my wines on their list. One of the wines is in this year’s offering, and the other was in last year’s. Since I don’t submit my wines for scores, this means a lot to me!

This year, I’m offering a couple of 4 packs, and a couple of 2 packs.

The Mixed 4 pack
One bottle each:
2011 Moore Ranch, RRV Pinot Noir
2012 Cuvee Abigail, Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
2012 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir
2013 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir

These are some of my favorite wines in their early stage of showing well. See the vineyard section below for more details.

The Cellar 4 pack
One bottle each:
2010 Moore Ranch, RRV Pinot Noir
2008 & 2010 Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
2008 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir

My current favorite wines with some age on them. All are still quite youthful and are better the second day (I recork the bottle and store in the fridge over night, removing an hour or two ahead the next day). Yet, the earth and other savory qualities are beginning to show up.

The Chard 2 pack
One bottle each:
2013 & 2014 Sonoma Coast Chardonnay

This Chardonnay is from a single vineyard of 40 year old vines out there on the coast. Both are Chardonnays of great acidity and a mix of fruit & savory qualities…everything I look for in a great chard.

The Foothills Adventure
Two bottles of
2015 Musick Sierra Foothills Primitivo

From a vineyard at 3000ft and is named for the soil…a soil I esp like. This was picked at 22 brix in the third week of Sept. Despite its low brix, the fruit was ripe and fully colored up…Zin, famous for it’s uneven ripening, would have a hard time being fully colored up and pickable at 22 brix. The result is a pretty and complex wine. Note: I also made a Zin from a similar area, picked early as well and made in a claret style, but I decided to hold it until next year.

Random thoughts about above wines/vineyards/etc:

Chardonnay
This is from a vineyard between Sebastopol and Occidental. 40 year old vines! Well old enough for the vines to show the terroir of the vineyard, and have ‘old vine sap’ (concentration due to vine age). The combination of old vine sap + terrific natural acidity is what I love about this. I make wine to show it’s terroir, and have an ‘old world’ balance, and this is it.

Moore Ranch
Located near Sebastopol on Occidental road. Thin topsoil on top of a rocky subsoil gives a savory/earthy/mineral quality to the wines, in addition to the red and dark fruit. Because of its cool location, these wines display a Sonoma Coast character in addition to the Russian River. Moore Ranch wines have a strong terroir signature, from the soil, location and vine age of course. Clones include Pommard, Swan, 115, 114, 777 and 667, planted in 1997.

The 11 Moore Ranch is a mix of Pommard, Swan, 115 and a little 114. 2011 was a famously cool vintage…cool enough that I decided to let the fruit hang a bit longer. Typically I’ll pick Moore Ranch in the low 23 brix range. In 2011, I let it hang to the high 23 brix, almost at 24 brix. In normal years, there’s a high risk of losing freshness and complexity if the days get a bit too warm when they’re so fragile (near picking). 2011 posed no such risks, which paid off well.

The 13 RRV is entirely from Moore Ranch as it usually is. The RRV is a different set of clones, picked at a different time and fermented separately from the Moore Ranch Designate. Otherwise they’ll argue :slight_smile:. For this wine, I bumped the whole cluster percentage up to about one third.

Nash Mill
Located not far from Burt Williams’ Morning Dew Ranch, in the deep end of Anderson valley, north west of Octopus Mountain…making this a mountain slope vineyard. The topsoil is a sandy clay loam typical to the deep end. The subsoil has large amounts of shale in it, which adds an appealing/distinctive savory quality. Tho the type of soil is common in AV, the large amount of shale isn’t, and it’s a common characteristic of most of the top AV sites.

The 2012 Anderson Valley Pinot is a mix of Pommard, 115 & 667, entirely from Nash Mill. It’s a red fruited Pinot that’s both pretty and savory at the same time. Can’t ask for anything more than that imo.

Pratt Vineyard
Located between Occidental, Sebastopol and Freestone, and is a stone’s throw from Falstaff vineyard. The Pinot clones/selections I get here include Pommard, 23, 9 and 2a. Most of the vines I get fruit from are on their own roots (rather than being grafted to a rootstock), possibly removing an element that disguises the terroir. Owned and farmed by Jim Pratt, vineyard manager to many famous vineyards!

The 2012 Cuvee Abigail is entirely from Pratt vineyard!

Thanks for your interest!

How can Eric sell these great wines at such low prices? Try’em, you’ll see what I mean.

Larry

1st time customer

In for a cellar pack and 2 pack of chard.

Sean

Thanks Sean, and the other folks that have purchased so far!

And thanks for the kudos Larry. Not only does Larry have an excellent palate & make excellent wines…he was my Computer Science Prof at UC Berkeley! Smart guy and great wines…go try his wines.

Long time customer. In for a Mixed pack and the Chard! :slight_smile:

Eric recently had some Ladd Cellars picked up for the Manresa list.

From my recent tastings I’d say Eric is really dialing in his style and skills. I’m going for some Pinot…aaaaand maybe some Chard. Got any of the ‘flor’ Chard Eric? [cheers.gif]

Cellar restock here so I grabbed the Mixed and Cellar packs as well as the Primativo. Looking forward to seeing how Eric works with this grape.

Eric - PM Sent! I must have missed this yesterday…

Pm sent! Thanks for the awesome offer

PM sent. Got turned on to Ladd by Garagiste, and I’m excited to stock up!

Pm sent. Thanks!

Message from Eric…

“My home PC crashed so I am rebooting. It will take a few minutes to complete the safety checks. I will get to your PM’s in a few minutes.”

Going all in on these phenomenal wines. Congrats again on Manresa!

In for one Cellar 4-pack and one Chard 2-pack. Pm sent.

Drank a bottle of '08 RRV Pinot recently. It was terrific and still could’ve used some additional cellar time! My palate is decidedly Old World. Eric’s wines are the real deal!

We opened a 2009 RRV Pinot last night. It was delicious! Restocking some Pinots (cellar pack), as well.

Thanks for all the great comments and support.

Unfortunately my computer at home is having some ‘issues’, so I need to tend to that. I’ll be responding to PMs in between doing that tho.

Thanks!

Most of you know how great Eric’s Pinots are - I tried his Chardonnay at last Falltacular and it’s AWESOMESAUCE

Cris: missed your question about the Voile Chard…I still have some, but didn’t make very much, so couldn’t get it into one of the packs. I’m debating about doing another with my 2017 Chard, possibly!

Thanks Todd, I love the chard vineyard I’m working with…in fact, labeling it Sonoma Coast, despite being vineyard designate level wine, helps me keep it a secret!

I’m running low on the Chard pack…get your order in if you’re interested.

Thanks!

Eric-trouble with the pm, want the cellar and mixed