2012 "Sexy Rexy" Sauvignon Blanc

We absolutely LOVE this wine! Sure we admit we’re a little biased but you don’t have to take our word for it. Take the word of the 20 person Sommelier & Winemaker judges panel of the 2013 Press Democrat North Coast Wine Challenge who awarded this wine a gold medal and declared it best of the best” in the “Over $30 Sauvignon Blanc” category.

Now wait a minute you say, I thought you are only selling this wine for $25?

Why yes, you are correct.

You see when we submitted the wine into the competition we didn’t know where we would finally price it and we didn’t want to limit ourselves. So we submitted it into the “over $30 Sauvignon Blanc” category where this little David of a wine took on the Goliath’s and beat wines three times as expensive and won a GOLD medal! At $25 not only is this wine a winner but so are you!!

2011 "Cuvée Skylar" Chardonnay

Cuvee Skylar represents a blend of our finest lots of Chardonnay sourced from the Russian River Valley. Our goal with this cuvée is to showcase our wine’s pure fruit flavors, so we vinify our chardonnay in neutral oak barrels and age it on the lees.

2010 "King Rex" Pinot Noir

This wine was handcrafted from a premium selection of Pinot Noir sourced from Doctor’s Vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands. Year after year this vineyard delivers fruit that is pure, bold and expressive, and like its namesake never fails to bring a smile to our face. Go Rexy!

2010 "Cuvée Skylar" Chardonnay

We could drink this beautiful Chardonnay all day long and sometimes do! The fruit for this bottling comes mostly from the celebrated Floodgate vineyard in Russian River Valley. Where we take the entire block of clone 15 for ourselves. Why clone 15? Because it is the only chardonnay clone we know that needs absolutely no new oak to deliver the texture and mouth feel normally associated with oaked wines. We just love it and we blend a very small amount of Old Wente into the final blend to add just the right touch of minerality to cleanse the palate and support the generous fruit that is the hallmark of the Skylar bottling. Easily in the top 5 wines we have ever made, ‘nuff said.

2009 "Cuvée Skylar" Chardonnay

Following the amazingly full and beautiful 2008 Cuvée Skylar, this 2009 is an entirely different Skylar altogether. The 2009 version is more Chablisian in execution and will make for a perfect wine to pair with food. The acid profile speaks to a very long life ahead.

2008 "King Rex" Pinot Noir

This is the best wine we’ve ever made. Hands down. In fact, in all my years collecting wine I have never come close to tasting a wine this good and this rewarding to drink. Even better, it comes with an awesome story to boot. Our friend Chris Hagan was scheduled to undergo brain surgery in the late summer of 2009. We wanted to help him get his mind off things (literally) so we invited him to join us to develop the final blend of this wine the day before his surgery. Three laugh-filled hours later we had developed a five clone blend of pinot noir that was flat-out rocking! The wine is predominantly Swan (89%) and Calera (7%) which give it wonderful aromatics. We then added 828 (1.5%) & Wädenswil 2A (1.5%) that give it palate weight without heaviness. And finished with a dollop of strangely tannic 667 (1%) that carries the flavor down to your gullet (or whatever that is directly behind your clavicle) and delivers a tantric finish that lasts for minutes.

2008 "Cuvée Skylar" Chardonnay

We always dreamed of creating the quintessential chardonnay. In our opinion, this wine is it. Moving forward every year we will create a Cuvée Skylar chardonnay that will represent a blend of our finest lots of Chardonnay. Our goal with this cuvée is to showcase our wine’s pure fruit flavors, so we vinify our chardonnay in neutral oak barrels and age it on the lees.

A winemaker friend told us this wine reminds him of Rombauer chardonnay without the oak influence. He thought we’d be offended. We took it as compliment and it’s why we proudly print the phrase Célébrez le jus de cougouar! across the back label.

2006 "King Rex" Pinot Noir

They say every wine collector ultimately ends up in Burgundy and truth be told, pinot & chardonnay are our first love. So when we were offered a chance to make wine from this up and coming vineyard in Russian River Valley, we jumped.

This is a vineyard designate wine but we did drop an itsy-bitsy (4%) helping of Annahala Vineyard pinot noir from Anderson Valley into the final blend to give it that feral funky pinot quality that we love and we’re sure you will love too!

2006 "Cuvée Skylar" Chardonnay

I drink red wine on Fridays, Saturdays, and special occasions. I drink white wines every day. If I was a snob, this is the part where I would casually mention that I love white Burgundy (chardonnay) and how they are the best wines of the world but honestly, I have never had a magical white Burgundy experience and luckily for both of us, I am not a snob. But I digress… So my magical Chardonnay experience came to me when I was staying at Auberge du Soleil celebrating my second wedding anniversary in 2001 (don’t worry, this isn’t going to get R-rated). My wife had passed out from a long day of wine tasting and I ordered room service burger & fries. I asked the Sommelier what Chardonnay he would recommend. He suggested a 2000 Aubert, Ritchie Vineyard, Chardonnay. The burger and fries were amazing. The wine was an orgasmic mouth explosion (yeah, I typed that). I had never tasted anything like it and for me this wine was a game changer. I have collected the amazing chardonnays of Mark Aubert ever since, and in my personal opinion, he is a hall of fame vintner.

2005 "King Rex" Cabernet Sauvignon

The historic To-Kalon vineyard is considered the crown jewel of Napa Valley and perhaps the finest vineyard planted to Bordeaux varietals in America. In 2005 I was enamored with the whole cult-cab thing and when we were offered a chance to make a bottling using 100% To-Kalon Clone 4 fruit, I immediately jumped at the chance. The grapes were $10,000/ton which back then seemed an astronomical price. Of course today that seems a steal as they are 3-4 times as expensive. I still remember the day the fruit came in. It was flawless. I mean we barely had anything to sort. I had never seen fruit like it before and honestly ever since. We literally pressed the fermented wine into a Taransaud barrel (MTTH) and the wine made itself. This is flat out beautiful example of California Cabernet at its finest and it is still singing a decade later.