Lot Overview
- Region: Pritchard Hill, Napa Valley (high-elevation estate, 100% estate grown and produced)
- Vintage: 2024
- Varietal: 100% Merlot (final blend TBD)
- Oak Aging: 60–70% new French oak
- Alcohol: 14.5%, pH 3.8, TA 4.33 g/L
- Cases Available: ~120
- Cam Price: ~$16.50/bottle ($199/case)
- Retail Estimate: $250–300+/bottle equivalent
- Claude’s Source Guess: [redacted per Cam’s request]
- Wine Berserkers Guess: [redacted per Cam’s request]
- Drink Window: 2029–2045 (peak 2032–2042)
Cameron’s Release Notes
Six barrels of fantastic 2024 Napa Valley Merlot hailing from the same producer as Lot 47 Cabernet Sauvignon — a notable high-elevation estate program up in the area known as Pritchard Hill. A first-run, ultra-premium blending component from a well-over $250/bottle program. I cannot say for sure whether it was inventory reduction or it just didn’t fit into the blend. I do suspect this wine will take some time to come around in the bottle.
Tasting Notes
Deep garnet with an opaque core verging on inky. The bouquet is ethereal and tightly wound with hints of sage, black cherry, blueberry jam, and cocoa powder underpinned with toasty black earth and dark chocolate. Purple florals and iron/rock notes complex the bouquet — but at the end of the day, this wine is just a baby. Linear on entry and powerfully-yet-ethereally structured, showing the elevation and hinting at all the complexity to come. Fairly impenetrable on the palate with hints of black and blue fruit wrapped around a chewy ball of minerally mountain tannin that unfurls a huge finish that lingers like a ghost. The structure is extremely promising — patience will be required.
⏳ Bottle Shock Status: Bottling February 2026. This is a serious cellar wine — do not open for minimum 3–4 years.
Claude’s Source Guess: [redacted per Cam’s request]
Same Pritchard Hill estate cluster as Lots 45 and 47. The 100% estate Merlot as a standalone blending component at the $250-300+ tier from Pritchard Hill narrows the field to the same short list as Lot 45 — [redacted], Colgin, Continuum, or David Arthur. [redacted] remains the strongest candidate given their full five-variety Bordeaux planting and [redacted]’s barrel-by-barrel selection philosophy that regularly generates surplus varietal lots.
The chemistry is notable — pH 3.8 and TA 4.33 g/L reflects the very ripe 2024 vintage on mountain fruit, where elevation provides tannin structure rather than natural acidity. The “impenetrable, ghostly finish, baby fat” language is consistent with [redacted]’s documented young-wine profile, which critics regularly describe as needing a decade to open fully.
✅ Confidence: Medium-High — same producer cluster as Lots 45 and 47, Pritchard Hill estate, $250-300+ tier, full Bordeaux varietal planting. [redacted] strongest candidate, Colgin and Continuum viable alternatives.
Drink Window
Early: 2029 — Cam explicitly warns patience is required. Mountain Merlot at 14.5% alc and 60-70% new oak from Pritchard Hill needs 3-4 years minimum post-bottling.
Peak: 2032–2042. Pritchard Hill Merlot at this elevation peaks 8–18 years from vintage.
Hold: 2045+. The structure absolutely supports multi-decade aging.
My Call: ⏳ Drink window: 2029–2045+ (peak 2032–2042)