The tasting, hosted by proprietor John Caldwell, was extensive and seemed to include a majority of Caldwell Vineyard's wines (they make 21 different wines, about 5,000 cases in total). But, in reality, I probably only tasted ten wines in total. Still, that's a lot of wines to taste. A standout for me was the 2013 Caldwell 'Silver' Proprietary Red - a palate pleasing blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvginon and 25% Cabernet Franc (all from Caldwell's Coombsville estate), delicious blackcurrant, plum and violets (with Vinogirl-pleasing acidity). And a lovely, get-the-beef-wellington-on-my-plate, 2013 Merlot which was all subtle red plum, red cherry yumminess. Then, there was a bourbon, phew, long story. All in all, a great tasting.
13 comments:
Vinogirl: It's been great reading your burst of posts!
I forgot to mention how much I love the photo of Vinodog 2; one of my favorites: the look, lighting, and gestalt is amazingly well done!
With this mornings post on Caldwell: ten wines tasted at a sitting is way more than I like to taste, though the pros do upwards of fifty (no wonder I have a problem with many of their reviews), but the 2013 silver proprietary red sounds beautiful; sadly their wines are not available in the NH market place.
Judging from their web-site, a place I'd really like to visit. The B&W photo that greets you on their 'Home' page is stunningly beautiful, exceptionally classy!
Don't see their wines in upstae NY either, not where I shop.
21 different wines and only 5,000 cases produced! Is there a typo in there somewhere?
upstae is really upstate.
NHW: I know, my posts are like buses in that they all come at once :)
Caldwell no longer distribute their wines, they are all DTC through tasting room and wine club. The website photography is great, isn't it?
Thanks for the kind words.
Tomasso: Nope, no typo. 95 cases of this, 124 cases of that, 239 cases of another...must be a logistical nightmare.
Logistical nightmare indeed, and it also explains why we don't see the wines on the East Coast--not enough for distribution.
Personally, I don't understand small wineries producing myriad wines. It doesn't seem smart for building brand identity.
Tomasso: I think he also mentioned that he didn't want to sell his 5,000 cases at half price!
Well, yeah, at small production it would be foolish to distribute at half price. Making money in wine is all about volume. It's not easy to reap great rewards at under 10,000 gallon capacity--unless you luck out and can get a few hundred dollars per bottle.
Tomasso: Well, that's the approach Napa's so-called 'cult' wines take - hundreds of dollars per bottle, (in tandem with the consumer-psychological allure of getting on an 'allocation' list in the first place, of course.) The more wine you make, the cheaper it has to be.
I certainly have no business getting in on this, but there must always be the exceptions to the rule; I think of Shafer vineyards which produces at least 30,000 cases of wine a year, but still can sell their wines for a substantial price (Hillside S is between 200-300 hundred dollars).
The idea must be marketing, either by word-of-mouth, or impressing the likes of WS etc.
I'm not sure if the 500 cases of the 1973 Chateau Montelena is accurate, but their wines are still pricey today!
JMTC!
NHW: Thanks for your two cents. Yes, there are exceptions. And yes, I'd put it down to marketing.
Dennis:
I'm not saying you can't command a high price for wines if you have large production (Shafer also distributes nationally).
I'm saying when you have small production you MUST get good money for your wines to stay alive.
Thomas: Well, that clears that up! I suppose if the government had a vineyard, it could ignore profitability issue!
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