25 Year Old 2nd Growth Bordeaux, Ex-Château

As I’ve alluded to recently in my posts about Bordeaux futures, we're looking far back into the past as well! Not everything we're acquiring will need to spend the next twenty years in your cellar. When allocations of mature Bordeaux come across our table, we're always quick to snap them up—especially when they come directly from the château itself!!

It's one thing to purchase 25 year old bottles from a negotiant warehouse in France, but to have access to wines that have literally never left the château since bottling, aging gracefully in the chai under the watchful of the property steward, is rare opportunity indeed. Yet, that's exactly what I have for you today!

Let's break what I just snagged from Château Gruaud Larose in St. Julien:

  • Esteemed 2nd Growth Property

  • From the outstanding 1996 vintage (rated 96 as well by Robert Parker himself)

  • 25+ years of maturation, no further cellaring required. Taste the beauty of mature Bordeaux without waiting two decades!

  • Bottles acquired directly from the château

I've locked in our allocation from Château Gruaud-Larose and we expect our limited cases to arrive by September. Lock down your bottles now by placing a pre-order! There aren’t many chances these days to get primo bottles ex-château for a fair price. I’ve got mine purchased already. That leaves three more cases for the public!

-David Driscoll

Our First Ever Grain-to-Glass Corbin Cask

My good friend David Souza from Corbin distillery in Atwater, CA personally drove down our newest single barrel whiskey and it was quite the moment to see it delivered. Similar to the Frey Ranch story, David is the fifth generation farmer to grow sweet potatoes and rye in the Central Valley. We are both from the Modesto area, which is how we know each other, and I've been telling anyone who will listen about the merits of Corbin whiskey since the beginning. Now, we are one of the first accounts in America to get one of these barrels. Using 100% estate-grown rye (it's the cover crop for the sweet potatoes), this is a 130 proof 6 year old rye that, for my money, is the best whiskey distilled anywhere inside the California state limits.

Bold, spicy, with enough sweetness from the oak to balance it out, there's no small barrique, oak chips nonsense going on here. This is rye that has spent over six years in a standard size new oak barrel, which gives it richness, but without all that over-oaked character you find in other American craft whiskies. It's full of graham cracker and oatmeal aromas with a peppery finish. The fact that David and his family planted and grew all the rye by hand, makes this a legit grain-to-glass specimen. This is pure California pride in a bottle, from one single barrel.

-David Driscoll

Wine Tastings Return To Pasadena This Friday!

In a world increasingly filled with death and destruction, we have some good news to report this week: wine tastings are back in Pasadena!!

Stop by this Friday to taste with the winemakers from Val del Prete in Italy’s Piedmonte region, localized within the small DOCG of Roero. We’re going to have some spectacular reds and whites to taste with you!

I’ll be in the bar pouring as well from 3 - 5 PM! Stop by before heading out to dinner, or taste some new wines before loading up for the weekend!

-David Driscoll

Single Barrel Cask Strength Frey Ranch Is Finally Here!

While serious Bourbon lovers have been loath to embrace the craft whiskey scene in lieu of their favorite Kentucky producers, one small distiller in Nevada has captured the imagination of our entire industry over the last year. Colby Frey’s family has been growing corn in the Sierra Nevada watershed since the early 1950s, roughly 70 miles east of Reno. As the fifth generation to farm, Colby’s innovation was to install a distillery on site and begin using his family’s 2000 acres+ of land to make whiskey. Using estate-grown corn and winter rye, the Frey Ranch Bourbon made a huge splash when it came to market a few years back, with its bold, spicy flavors and romantic backstory. With all the excitement over the standard Bourbon, it didn’t take long for customers everywhere to ask: when might we see a single barrel, cask strength expression?

Well…wait no longer. Our exclusive single barrel Mission cask is here to answer that question!

After tasting through multiple samples with Colby, we settled on barrel #556: a beast of a whiskey, clocking in at 130.18 proof. Unlike many Kentucky Bourbons that lead with vanilla and oak, this Frey specimen explodes with cinnamon, mint, wood polish, and a damp forest note that quickly morphs into a spicy, peppery finish. Using the distillery's four grain mash bill—corn, rye, wheat, and barley—it's a 5+ year old phenomenon that pops in all the right places. From grain to glass, every bit of this single barrel whiskey was overseen by Colby Frey; from the grains, to the distillation, to the maturation, to the bottling.

While Scotch whiskey has already seen the rise of the farm distillery—a la Daftmill and Kilchoman—Americans have been skeptical of the concept, holding true to their industrial Bourbon classics. That being said, we think this bottle of Frey Ranch may be the game changer America has been waiting for. With its massive ABV and inherent grit, Frey Ranch whiskey may take American craft whiskey into the future by returning to its past.

-David Driscoll

An Extremely Limited Allocation of Château Latour Wines

As we continue to expand our Bordeaux futures program, we are incredibly excited to offer the new releases from one the best wineries anywhere in the world: the esteemed Château Latour.

Rather than release its wines annually en primeur like the other chateaux of Bordeaux, Latour made the decision back in 2011 to bring its wines to market only when deemed ready by head winemaker Frédéric Engerer. As a result, while other top estates are releasing their 2019 and 2020 as futures, Château Latour is only now releasing its 2014 vintage, along with the 2016 vintage for its second wine: Les Forts de Latour.

I was lucky enough to have lunch with Engerer while visiting Latour back in 2016, and he explained that the decision was based on the increasing consumption of long-lived wines before they're ready to drink. Château Latour is a wine that can live for decades before it reaches its peak, so to witness consumers opening young bottles in their infancy was doing a disservice to the brand. As he states in an interview with Decanter: "We sell wines way too young and it doesn’t have to be this way. Consider other wines like vintage Champagne, no one thinks it is abnormal for a Champagne house to keep wines for many years and only release them when they are ready."

While Engerer has approved the limited release of these two vintages, both will need at least another 10+ years of cellar time before they show their true form. During that above mentioned lunch, Engerer brought four bottles of Latour and Les Forts each and made us taste them blind. People were guessing 1982, 1988, and 1990: the best vintages of the last forty years. As it turns out, Engerer brought wines from the four worst vintages of the 1970s (see the above photo I still keep on my iPhone). His point was to showcase how Château Latour from any vintage has the inherent potential of a masterpiece.

Leaving the restaurant that day, there was no doubt in my mind moving forward that Château Latour is one of the best wines in the world—if not the best. We were fortunate enough to get a few cases of the latest Château Latour releases, and we're hoping they find a good home. If the worst vintages of the 1970s fooled a table of experts, I can only imagine what these great vintages will taste like down the line.

-David Driscoll, Mission Sales Manager

Another Round Of Angel's Envy

In 2021, there was one single barrel at Mission that stood out from all of the casks we purchased that year. While we had a number of fantastic selections, we received more positive feedback about our single barrel of Angel’s Envy than any other single cask exclusive we offered. Now that we’re a quarter of the way into 2022, I think there’s a good chance for history to repeat itself. Our second barrel is another stunner.

Getting to nose the actual empty European oak wine barrel that our latest Angel’s Envy single barrel release was finished in really offered an insight into its flavor profile. More than any expression I’ve ever tasted personally, this unique iteration is the least wine-y I’ve come across, which is exactly why we selected it for the store. The sweet, red-fruited character of Angel’s Envy is available any day of the week in the standard edition, so grab that bottle if it’s dessert Bourbon you’re after. The singular experience offered in Mission’s 4120 barrel is a richer, fuller, oakier expression of Angel’s Envy that goes heavy on the European oak spice, not so much the wine.

The color is a dark reddish amber and the weight of the whiskey is full-bodied, but rather than that kiss of sweetness we’ve come to expect from Angel’s Envy, the initial flavors are dark chocolate, incense, brandied cherries, and cigar box. Everything about the Bourbon’s profile prepares your palate for an onslaught of sweetness, but it’s completely held in check by the whiskey’s 110 proof power. Even at 55% ABV, it’s entirely sippable—a testament to the supreme drinkability that European oak wine barrels impart.

But the most exciting part of this single barrel expression is the insight it offers into the nature of the Angel’s Envy juice itself, without all the wine influence. I’ve never tasted a clearer and more delicious version of that whiskey until now.

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live Repost: Talking Bordeaux With Jeff Garneau

As an educator and advocate for Bordeaux, there is no person on earth I would rather talk to about wine than my longtime friend Jeff Garneau. Hence, I decided to turn one of our conversations into a Live Instagram post so that other people out there could see the insight and humor that Jeff brings to his craft.

This was a fun way to spend an hour of my time today. Hopefully you guys feel the same.

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live Tomorrow With Jeff Garneau

If you’re on our email distribution list, then you probably got the notice earlier this morning about our new Bordeaux futures program, which I’m very excited about.

For those of you who are new to Bordeaux, I’m excited to take you on one of the most intoxicating and inspiring wine adventures our industry has to offer. Unlike the rest of the wine world, the chateaux of Bordeaux don’t sign exclusivity contracts with American importers or distributors to sell their wines. Instead, the wines are sold as futures years before their release, either directly from the chateau itself or through a negotiant partner. 

Working as a retailer in the Bordeaux trade means establishing relationships with both the producers and the brokers in the region, and taking positions on wines long before they’re even put into the bottle. We like to think of Bordeaux futures as a savings account, where you invest early to get a greater return down the line. By ordering futures in advance, you can secure far better pricing for wines that will continue to appreciate in value as the years go by.

To break down the basics of Bordeaux, I’m going live on Instagram at 1 PM PST tomorrow with not just one of my best friends, but also one of the best Bordeaux experts I’ve ever known: Mr. Jeff Garneau.

Jeff and I worked together for 11 years before he retired from retail and moved back to his home state of Maine. Tomorrow, he’ll be making his first professional Bordeaux appearance in many years!! He taught me just about everything I know about Bordeaux, so I’m now hoping to utilize his talents and charm to broaden that education at Mission. He is a wealth of information and anyone who’s even remotely interested in Bordeaux will find this quite informative.

I hope you’ll join us over at the @missionliquor account!

-David Driscoll