Lot Overview
- Region: 100% Dry Creek Valley
- Vintage: 2024
- Varietal: 100% Malbec
- Oak Aging: ~40% new French oak
- Alcohol: 15.0%, pH 3.74, TA 5.85 g/L
- Cases Available: Not stated
- Cam Price: ~$9.92/bottle ($119/case)
- Retail Estimate: $60–70/bottle (tasting room)
- Claude’s Source Guess: Mauritson Family Winery — Dry Creek Malbec blending component (same producer as Lot 54; Alt: Beekeeper Cellars)
- Wine Berserkers Guess:
- Drink Window: 2025–2032 (peak 2026–2030)
Cameron’s Release Notes
Sourced from the same producer as Lot 54 Rockpile Zinfandel, this rich, ripe, opulent Malbec is usually a blending component for their various $80+ Rockpile Cabernet Sauvignon-based programs. Like so many producers, they’re simply cutting back production across the board. Fair to say this would retail for around $60-70/bottle out of the tasting room.
Tasting Notes
Opaque core with magenta rim. The bouquet is immediately boisterous and vibrant with blackberry jam, cherries jubilee, blackcurrant and brown sugar beautifully complexed with violet florals and pink peppercorn perfume. Opening further, the wine reveals a chocolatey underpinning swimming with plum reduction and savory umami notes. Ripe and supple on entry with a fantastic structure of big-grained tannins unfurling gobs of rich, ripe black cherry, raspberry liqueur, black pepper and chocolatey oak — all beautifully integrated with fantastic length and persistence.
✅ Bottle Shock Status: Drinking well now.
Claude’s Source Guess: Mauritson Family Winery — Dry Creek Malbec (blending component for Rockpile Cab programs; same producer as Lot 54)
Confirmed same producer as Lot 54 — Mauritson Family Winery, whose Rockpile and Dry Creek programs include Malbec as a blending component for their $80+ Cabernet Sauvignon and red blend programs. The Mauritson family farms extensive acreage in both Dry Creek Valley and Rockpile, and their proprietary blend programs (which include Malbec, Petite Sirah, Syrah and other varieties alongside Zinfandel and Cab) make this a natural surplus component. Beekeeper Cellars — Ian Mauritson’s boutique premium label from the same family estate — remains a viable alternative.
✅ Confidence: Confirmed — same producer as Lot 54 per Cam’s explicit statement.
Drink Window
Early: 2025 — Cam implies it’s ready now.
Peak: 2026–2030. Dry Creek Malbec at 15% alc and 40% new French oak peaks 2–6 years from vintage.
Hold: 2032. The structure and concentration support medium-term aging.
My Call: ✅ Drink window: 2025–2032 (peak 2026–2030)