Lot Overview
- Region: 98% Yountville, 2% Coombsville (Petit Verdot)
- Vintage: 2024
- Varietal: 98% Malbec, 2% Petit Verdot
- Oak Aging: 75% new French oak
- Alcohol: 15.0%
- Cases Available: ~150
- Cam Price: ~$12.50/bottle ($149/case)
- Retail Estimate: $85+/bottle equivalent
- Claude’s Source Guess: Crocker & Starr — Estate Malbec, St. Helena/Yountville (Pam Starr, winemaker)
- Wine Berserkers Guess: No Guess
- Drink Window: 2026–2036 (peak 2027–2032)
Cameron’s Release Notes
Lot 55 2024 Yountville Malbec is the best-of-the-best I have tasted thus far, a blending component hailing from an ultra-premium St. Helena producer whose Cabernets are priced from $150-$265/bottle. Built to the nines with 75% new French oak, easily giving the $100+ Argentinean Malbecs a run for their money — the finest Malbec I have ever bottled. Only 150 cases available.
Tasting Notes
Glass-staining, inky and dense with an almost opaque core. The bouquet is OMG good — meaty and boisterous, leaping from the glass with boysenberry purée and blackcurrant enveloped in dark chocolate notes and toasty French oak. With a couple of swirls the bouquet complexes with mulberry, plum and coffee bean notes with a hint of new leather. Smooth, supple entry belies the robust underlying structure of chewy tannins beautifully enveloped with ripe boysenberry, blackcurrant, and raspberry liqueur undergirded with coffee bean and dark chocolate in a long, pulsating finish. Pure and perfectly integrated throughout.
⏳ Bottle Shock Status: Allow minimum 12–18 months. 15% alc and 75% new oak need serious integration time.
Claude’s Source Guess: Crocker & Starr — Estate Malbec, Yountville/St. Helena (Pam Starr, winemaker)
Crocker & Starr’s 85-acre estate in St. Helena, continuously farmed since the 1870s, fits every clue precisely. Their Cabernet Sauvignon retails at $150 and their flagship “1 Post” Cabernet Sauvignon averages $200-213 with recent vintages reaching $265 — exactly the “$150-$265” range Cam specifies. Pam Starr, who built her winemaking reputation at Spottswoode before co-founding Crocker & Starr in 1997, grows Malbec as an estate varietal alongside Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Sauvignon Blanc. Their 2024 estate Rosé includes Malbec as a blend component, confirming active Malbec cultivation.
The “Yountville” designation for the Malbec is consistent with Crocker & Starr’s southern St. Helena location — their estate’s southernmost blocks sit near the Yountville AVA boundary, and specific Malbec blocks could carry a Yountville designation depending on the exact parcel. The “ultra-premium blending component” description matches how Crocker & Starr uses Malbec internally — as a component in their estate blends — before Cam received the surplus for standalone bottling.
Notably this same Yountville Malbec appeared as the 3% addition to Cam’s Lot 50 NV blend (“3% 2024 Yountville Malbec from a $150-200+ program”), confirming an ongoing relationship with this producer across multiple lots.
✅ Confidence: Very High — St. Helena location confirmed, $150-$265 Cab pricing confirmed, estate Malbec program confirmed, “1 Post” flagship reaches $265, and cross-lot Yountville Malbec connection to Lot 50 corroborates the same producer relationship.
Drink Window
Early: 2026 — 15% alc and 75% new oak need at least 12-18 months.
Peak: 2027–2032. Estate Napa Malbec at this quality tier peaks 3–8 years from vintage.
Hold: 2036. The density and new oak give this solid medium-long aging potential.
My Call: ⏳ Drink window: 2026–2036 (peak 2027–2032)