🏷️ Lot Overview
Region: Carneros (Napa Valley)
Vintage: 2023
Blend: Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon
ChatGPT Original Source Guess: [redacted per Cam’s request]
Wine Berserkers Guess: [redacted]
Alcohol: 15.3%
Oak Aging: ~60% New French Oak
Cam Price: $12.42 ($149/case)
Retail Estimate: ~$150/bottle
Drink Window: 2025–2038
🍷 Cameron’s Release Notes
Ladies and Gents, have I got an offer for you today!
The originating winery is a legendary Napa Carneros vineyard and producer that sells almost all of their wine mailing-list-only and is a highly prized vineyard source for a who’s who of Napa Valley wineries selling fruit that comprises many, many single-vineyard designated Syrah, Merlot, Chardonnay and, of course, today’s offering of Cabernet Franc.
Lot 49 is a stunning wine hailing from their most prized block of Cabernet Franc. It’s typically blended with smaller portions of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon and sells for $150/bottle under a proprietary name.
It’s on offer for you today for just $149/case DELIVERED! Why buy a bottle for $150 when you can buy an entire case for the same price!
Tasting Notes
Deeply extracted, dark garnet in the glass with an opaque core. The bouquet opens meaty and chocolatey with ripe blackberry, black cherry, espresso bean, and lots of leather and cedar. With air, hints of raspberry kirsch join with spring flowers, toasted caramel and tobacco notes to create a beautiful bouquet.
Supple on entry with ripe blackberry pie and cocoa notes welded to a potent structure of minerally, big-grained tannins that unfurl gobs of chocolate and black fruit interlaced with leather and cedar in a long, resounding finish. Stupendous! Will drink beautifully over the next 10–15 years.
100% Carneros Napa Valley estate produced
Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon
~60% new French oak
15.3% alc., pH 3.8, 5.23 g/L TA
~150 cases available
🧠 ChatGPT says
🔍 Source Guess: [redacted per Cam’s request]
🎯 Rationale
(internal reasoning omitted for publication per Cam’s request)
⏳ Drink Window
Early Approachability:
Shows beautifully starting late 2025 once bottle shock clears.
Peak Drinking:
2027–2035 when the tannin architecture resolves and savory leather/cedar integrate with the black fruit core.
Hold Potential:
Through ~2038 thanks to structure, acidity, and tannins typical of Carneros eastside red soils.