Alto Adige: Erste + Neue

What is an “alpine wine,” you might ask? Literally, that term refers to wines from the French, Swiss, and Italian wine regions that hug the Alps mountain range, but stylistically it refers to wines that are brighter and generally lower in alcohol than warmer climate and lower altitude wines. Crisp and clean Pinot Grigios, racy and aromatic Pinot Blancs, and lighter-bodied Pinot Noirs are all examples of alpine-grown varietals, many of which reflect the freshness of the cool mountain air in the glass. If I had to choose a single word to describe them, it would be “elegant.” The cool nights and longer growing season along the alpine peaks and valleys result in wines with more vibrance and acidity.

The Vinous article I referenced in yesterday’s post describes the Alto Adige as a region of cooperatives and growers, which is an important point to understanding today’s featured producer: Erste + Neue. The name comes from the 1986 merger of the first co-op cellar in Caldaro (Erste), founded in 1900, and the newest (Neue) co-op cellar after the Alto Adige founded in 1925. Cooperatives are winemaking facilities that are co-owned by growers and vineyard owners in the region, allowing them to share production costs and pool resources to create greater scale. They account for a gigantic percentage of old world wines, and as much as half of the wine made in France. Whereas in the past, cooperatives were perhaps focused more on volume than a unique and terroir-driven character, today that’s changing. Erste + Neue is exhibit A.

Erste + Neue’s enologist Gerhard Sanin favors the bright and restrained winemaking style that shows the true character of Alto Adige alpine fruit, allowing the varieties to shine. Their white wines include Sauvignon, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, an excellent Müller Thurgau, and a number of reds, but it’s the inexpensive White Peak field blend that really rocked my world this year. A blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Bianco, and Chardonnay, each of which is fermented individually, then blended together for a fresh, racy, and refreshing Italian white, it’s hard to believe we can charge just $13.99 for something so delicious. The team from Vinous agrees:

90 POINTS: VINOUS - The 2020 White Peak lifts from the glass like a burst of alpine air, with a display of savory herbs, crushed rocks and hints of lime. This is soft textured yet wickedly fresh, focused on citrus and mineral tones but with a pleasant inner sweetness to balance. The White Peak finishes finessed with a lingering twang of tart lemon. This is a zesty blend of Pinot Bianco, Chardonnay and Sauvignon that ferments with whole bunches and then refines on the lees for four months in stainless steel tanks. - Eric Guido

If you need an intro to both the alpine style and the Alto Adige as a region, this is where you start.

-David Driscoll

Focus On Alto Adige

There’s a certain sense of pride we feel when our favorite new band or hole-in-the-wall restaurant gets the critical reception we feel it deserves. As painful as it can be to watch something you love explode into the mainstream, no longer an insider secret for just you and a handful of admirers, there’s a validation that comes from wider recognition—a stamp of approval that you have good taste! While I dread the price increases that come from greater competition in the market for my favorite wines, I’m simultaneously thrilled for their success.

Let’s use the latest Vinous exposé on Italy’s Alto Adige as an example. As a longtime lover of fresh and food-friendly Italian wines, I’ve been turning to Italy’s alpine vineyards for more than a decade, crushing sub-$20 bottles of deliciousness with everything from pizza to pasta to charcuterie platters for most of my career. So when one of the best wine publications around hints that the Alto Adige’s time to shine may well be nigh, it gives me goosebumps and gets me all fired up. Nothing brings me more pleasure than shining a spotlight on under-appreciated bottles, and if I have the boys from Vinous as backup, it makes that conversation all the more compelling.

I’ll be beefing up our selection just a bit today as I want to take advantage of the additional press, and I’ll be posting some special highlights throughout the week. Check back daily for an in-depth profile into some of the can’t-miss selections.

-David Driscoll

This Generation's Black Maple Hill

When I first started in retail (circa 2007), there was a whiskey called Black Maple Hill Kentucky Bourbon that sold for about $35. The quality was always pretty good—bottled by Willett for an operation out of San Carlos, CA called CVI that now purchases whiskey from Oregon—but it wasn’t so much the quality of the juice that connected with consumers as much as it was the bottle. In an era where budding Bourbon drinkers were inspired by history, prohibition, and the idea of bootlegging, the vintage-looking BMH label captured that drinking ideal perfectly. It encapsulated the romance of everything whiskey drinkers wanted, even if the eventual hype surrounding the brand didn’t equate to the whiskey itself.

Last month, when I met with the team from Frank August Bourbon, I knew I had just uncovered this era’s version of Black Maple Hill. There's a generational divide that has taken place over the last few years that really separates the whiskey lovers from 10-15 years ago from the newer aficionados who are driving the business today; namely, their obsession with authenticity and the association of Kentucky Bourbon as a quintessentially blue collar drink. By design and intent, Frank August is a modern interpretation of what today’s newer Bourbon drinkers are looking for: a super classy bottle, a heavy stopper, even a back label that peels off cleanly so that the text doesn't disrupt the architecture and look of the decanter. It speaks clearly to the more prestige-driven intentions of today’s Instagram-friendly consumer.

The new Frank August 100 Proof Small Batch Bourbon is a ten-plus barrel marriage of Kentucky-distilled juice that does not come from Castle & Key or the Bardstown Bourbon Company. As their CEO and co-founder Johnathan Crocker said to me a few weeks back: "It's also not Willett-distilled,” in response to my question on the source, ”but my first call on this project was to my longtime friend Drew Kulsveen, so that should give you an idea as to the quality of our distilling partner," hinting at Willett’s sourcing connections in Kentucky. The juice is about four and a half years old, and from my limited tasting experience I thought it was delicious. Far, far better than the old Black Maple Hill.

That being said, I've been looking forward to writing about the Frank August whiskey more so because of the dichotomy in what it represents, and its presage as to where we're headed. Napa and Bordeaux have stood on this same precipice: trapped between a desire to hold onto humble roots, yet understanding the life-changing potential of premium-ization and an economic boom. Having Drew Kulsveen as a friend and advisor is a huge advantage because if there's one company out there that knows how to navigate that treacherous chasm, it's Willett. Their track record with premium releases over the last two years is spotless, easily raking in $300+ from purple top fanboys who can't wait to hand over their money, despite the price increases.

The Frank August bottle is gorgeous. It makes for a beautiful sight on top of any bar. The whiskey is inarguably good. However, the potential for this whiskey as a conversation piece is far more interesting to me than any of those factors. Bourbon has become America's national drink of choice for more than just working class Kentuckians. From Silicon Valley, to Hollywood, to Wall Street, to five star resorts in just about any city between our coasts, there's a fever for high-end Bourbon that never ceases. It's that same fever that drove the team from Frank August to create the brand in the first place.

Much like the Black Maple Hill bottle captured the romance of the last generation's whiskey ideals, I think the Frank August bottle does the same for the modern drinker. Like I said before, I'd drink the Frank August over the old Black Maple Hill recipe any day of the week and twice on Sundays. It's rich, integrated, and seamless on the palate, polished in a way that few new NDP products are. More importantly, like Black Maple once did, I think Frank August is poised to become a bellwether; a changing of the guard in terms of customer desires. Are we ready to trade in the old timey Kentucky label for the sleek, polished, and modern interpretation of that same small batch ideal? The team at Frank August is betting that plenty of Bourbon-loving Americans are ready to do just that.

The first batch is here at Mission. Will it become this generation's Black Maple Hill? I'm curious to find out.

-David Driscoll

Know Your Growers, Know Your Vineyards

In his gigantic tome The Wines of Burgundy, Clive Coates writes succinctly about how to buy good wine: “Rating the vintages, rating the vineyards, and rating the growers. You may assume that each of these is of equal importance. Not so. The name of the grower on the label is paramount. The climat (or vineyard) is of marginally less precedence, and the vintage very much the least. What are you looking for? In a word: elegance.”

In America, we’re often trained to think about wine in terms of flavor, and to then attach that flavor to the varietal. Cabernet is full-bodied and dark fruited. Pinot Noir is lighter-bodied and bright. But for those of us who work in the industry (and those who put Burgundy at the center of the wine universe), the grower and the vineyard are everything. Think of it like your favorite chef at your favorite restaurant: it’s less about any singular dish at that point. The potential for exhilaration is what drives us, so we open ourselves up to new opportunities.

“Terroir” is a loaded and rather hackneyed word at the moment, so I’m going to shy away from using it. What I will say, however, is that certain vineyards have a unique ability to produce greatness, and certain growers know exactly how to coax those flavors out of the grapes. It’s less about winemaking and more about farming. Knowing where to plant, how to prune, when to pick, and when not to pick: it’s the wisdom of a grower that separates a great wine from a mediocre wine. Just like a skilled photographer knows how to capture the potential beauty in an image, the seasoned grower knows what to do in the vineyard.

So the million dollar question, of course: how do I know which growers and which vineyards to buy from? You don’t; and you won’t until you start tasting all sorts of different wines. I can, however, tell you how the rabbit hole begins. To use myself as an example, I tried a Chardonnay from The Hilt last year that completely blew my mind. It was fiercely acidic, almost salty, and had so much electricity. I met with the grower at the vineyard sites and learned that the Chardonnay being grown by The Hilt at the Radian and Bentrock vineyards in the Sta. Rita Hills region near Santa Barbara had a very unique soil type (diatomaceous earth) that lended itself to mineral-driven whites.

From there, I began purchasing wines from other producers using Radian and Bentrock fruit, comparing and contrasting the styles. Then I expanded out to the nearby Sanford & Benedict, La Rinconada, and La Encantada vineyards to see what the differences were. Not only were these wines completely rocking my world, they were piquing my curiosity, enlivening my sense of adventure, and increasing my enjoyment of drinking on the whole. I began taking more trips out to the Sta. Rita Hills, meeting more of the winemakers and growers in the region, and expanding my horizons. At this point, I probably have seven to eight cases of various Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs from the Sta. Rita Hills waiting to be opened and enjoyed.

Granted, not everyone has the same level of interest, commitment, or enthusiasm when it comes to wine. For plenty of people out there, a nice silky Cabernet or creamy Chardonnay is more than sufficient for their personal enjoyment. But when you’re spending serious cash for a “nice” bottle of wine, the vineyard and the grower are what (should) determine the price. Personally, I would never drop more than $20 for a generic “Napa blend” or a “French red” because I have no idea what I’m paying for. For those of us in the biz, it starts with the place. Which places are making the most exciting wines and—from there—which sites specifically. Then, which growers/winemakers are creating the best expressions of those vineyards.

Whether you’re buying German Riesling from the Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard along the Mosel, a Bordeaux blend from the Médoc, or Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir, the location almost always dictates the wine’s potential character. Once you know from whom and where your wine comes from, and how those specifics affect flavor, you can make a decision about what’s worth buying.

-David Driscoll

Private Rooftop Party

There is no better way to get to know your customers than a big rooftop party with food, cigars, and Scotch whisky. So after two years of sitting at home, communicating via email, and doing everything remotely, we decided to throw a private celebration atop the Glenmark Hotel in Glendale with our friends La Palina and Balvenie on hand to join the festivities. Getting to shake hands, light up sticks, and share a few drinks with so many familiar names, yet unfamiliar faces, was a real treat—especially at sunset with some of the best weather in Los Angeles so far this year.

We had the entire roof to ourselves, so everyone found a comfortable seat, caught up with old friends, met some new ones, and indulged in some of life’s finer pleasures. The best part for me: you get to see who your real customers are in situations like this. You get to have real conversations with people who really drink, and enjoy the social nature of alcohol. You make lasting relationships based on a shared camaraderie, rather than a shared OCD for allocated bottles.

A big thank you to everyone who came out! I can’t wait to do it again soon!

-David Driscoll

The Best CA White Wine Value - Period

While 2019 was a benchmark year for the Santa Rita Hills, with monster scores in the 95+ range for the best wines, we're expecting 2020 to be even better. Which is why I’m letting you know now, rather than later, that the time to buy these 2020 wines is immediately. Other wine retailers will wait for the Wine Spectator's approval before letting you know about a new offering, but we're here in advance to tell you simply: don't wait for the press to buy these wines. Because by the time the points come in, the best bottles will be long, long gone.

Let's talk about the new 2020 vintage of Sandhi Santa Rita Hills Chardonnay as exhibit A: one of the most thrilling white wines I've tasted from California in the last year.

The press on this wine is just starting to roll out, with Robert Parker's Wine Advocate handing it a preliminary 93 point score, writing: "tones of golden apples, beeswax, brioche and roasted almonds. The medium-bodied palate offers youthful, tangy acidity and slowly emerging nutty layers, finishing energetic." For those of you who fell in love with last year's The Hilt Chardonnay like I did, this wine has the same salinity, but at almost half the price. As one friend said to me last week: "The 2020 Sandhi is the best deal on white wine anywhere in California right now." I'm hard-pressed to disagree. Other wines of this quality sell for $45-60 a bottle, yet this one is under $30.

Sandhi is the joint venture between Michael Mina wine director Raj Parr and winemaker Sashi Moorman, who made wine at Ojai and Stolpman and now runs Piedrasassi. Over the last few years, their Domaine de la Côte winery has become one of the biggest cult sensations in the state. The overwhelming majority of the fruit in the 2020 Sandhi Santa Rita Hills Chardonnay comes from the Domaine de la Côte estate, and the wine is simply electric on the palate. If you think Chablis is saline and mineral-driven, wait until you get a load of this. This is oyster wine; brimming with tangy citrus and salt. I'm so completely smitten by the combination of acid and minerality in this wine, I'm planning to buy 2-3 cases just for personal drinking.

It doesn't stop with just Sandhi, however. We have new 2020s arriving from Tyler, Liquid Farm, The Hilt, Dragonette, and more iconic Santa Rita Hills producers. Click here to view our entire selection and keep checking back for new arrivals as they come in. Because they're going to go FAST.

-David Driscoll

The New California Frontier: Breaking Down the Santa Rita Hills

One day after my lunch date with Tyler winemaker Justin Willett, I was visited by the team from Sandhi and Domaine de la Côte to taste and discuss the new vintages from Raj Parr and crew. All it took was one sip from the 2020 Sandhi Santa Rita Hills Chardonnay to send my taste buds into a frenzy and my brain into overload. The combination of ripeness with acidity, salinity, and minerality in these Santa Rita Hills wines is not just incredibly exciting, it has transformed my mindset into a hoarder-like purchasing mode, hellbent on squirreling away as much of this stuff as I can afford. Cases of Radian Vineyard Pinot Noir, scattered bottles of Bentrock Vineyard Chardonnay, and back vintages from Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, across a multitude of different producers.

I’ve been through enough wine and spirits gentrification in my career to know what the future holds for the Santa Rita Hills appellation and the Burgundian-like wines currently being produced there (for a fraction of Burgundian prices). I watched Bordeaux prices skyrocket after the 2005 vintage, ending my chances of ever affording the wines I’m most passionate about. I sat by as single malt prices quintupled over the last decade, forever changing the landscape of luxury. And Burgundy? Burgundy has become so ridiculously rare and expensive, you have to pay $100+ a bottle just to drink a village level wine from a serious producer, let alone a premier or grand cru expression. Meanwhile, prices for the very best wines from the Santa Rita Hills remain well under $100 and well within reach. But for how long? That’s the million dollar question.

Terroir, like many buzzwords, has become a bit hackneyed over the years, as just about every producer from wine to spirits to beer has stressed the individuality and quality of its local ingredients, even if those ingredients aren’t all that special. Yet, it’s still the reason why wine drinkers will and should pay an extraordinary amount for a bottle of wine. There are a million creamy and buttery Chardonnays out there, but only Chablis can taste like Chablis because of its incredibly chalky soils. Only Pulingny-Montrachet can produce wines with weight and a characteristic flintiness that thrills the palate with every sip. There’s a reason why the names of these regions and vineyards have become known to wine drinkers around the globe. They are special. There’s something magical in their geographic and geological conditions that produces complex and fascinating wines.

As I’ve been finding out firsthand over the last two years, the Santa Rita Hills vineyards are just as special in their own way. You can bet that once the rest of the world finds out just how special these wines are, availability is going to go down, prices are going to spike, and we’re going to have to fight for our annual allocations just like with every other hot genre in our industry. While collectors in Europe, Asia, the U.S. and elsewhere continue to fight over $600 bottles of Armand Rousseau Gevry-Chambertin or $1600 of Clos de la Roche, we can easily drink $35 bottles of 2020 Sandhi Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir and $70 bottles of Liquid Farm Radian Vineyard. Justin Willett’s 2020 Tyler La Encantada Vineyard is $64.99 and drinks far above any village Burgundy I’ve tasted in the last few months. These wines are right here; available. The vineyards are in our backyard, just an hour-plus away from Los Angeles.

As an AVA, the Santa Rita Hills appellation just turned fifty his year, marking the anniversary of industry pioneer Richard Sanford’s first wines from Sanford & Benedict Vineyard in 1972. As the buzz from those wines began to spread, they kept planting Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in the most rugged of locations, allowing the vines to struggle deep into the earth and soak up whatever these sites had to express. Twenty-five years later, La Rinconada Vineyard was planted just adjacent to Sanford & Benedict, and is now a name in its own right. In 2000, Richard Sanford planted La Encantada Vineyard, the first certified organic plot in the Santa Rita Hills (we have a few bottles left of the 2015 Sanford in stock now if you want to grab one). In 2007, more vines were added into the 200 acres of planted vineyard space at Rancho Salsipuedes, where Bentrock and Radian Vineyards lie. Acquired by the Hilt in 2014, we’re only now realizing just how incredible these wines can be.

Unlike Burgundy, which despite its recent surge in popularity has centuries worth of documentation for its best vineyards, we’re still discovering the great potential of the Santa Rita Hills region. New sites are still being planted. Recent additions like Tyler’s Mae Estate and the vineyards at Domaine de la Côte still have their best wines ahead of them. The time to jump into the Santa Rita Hills pool is right now. Today. Immediately! By the time you figure out what you like and what’s worth buying, you’ll likely still be able to find and afford the bottles you want. Five or ten years from now? I don’t know if that will be the case. Like I said, I’ve been through all this before. Ten years ago you could get Blanton’s whenever you wanted it, and no one really cared about E.H. Taylor. In today’s modern era, pricing and availability can change in an instant.

-David Driscoll

Catching Up With Tyler Winery

Last year, when I made several trips up to the Santa Rita Hills to tour what is, in my humble opinion, the hottest AVA in California right now, there was one particular winery I wasn’t able to squeeze onto the schedule: Tyler. Started by Santa Barbara native Justin Willett back in 2005, Tyler has been an homage to the great vineyards of the region since its inception, starting with wines made with fruit from Sanford & Benedict and Bentrock, eventually expanding into lesser-known sites like La Encantada and La Rinconada. Justin has been a champion of the Santa Rita Hills for his entire career, and it was great to finally sit down and talk about that passion in person.

Lunch was at Bottega Louie in West Hollywood. We started with pizza, then went for the salmon as we tasted through the 2020 wines: Chardonnay from La Rinconada and from the new Mae Estate that Justin and his wife purchased back in 2015. Pinot Noirs from Mae, La Rinconada, and La Encantada; all of which were unique and refined in their own way. The vintage was stunning across the board and the side-by-side comparison of the sites brought forth various explanations from Justin about production: whole cluster in this vineyard, not in this one. New oak for this vineyard, not for this one. The winemaking varies site by site, based on the needs of the wine.

As a huge Burgundy fan, Justin was quick to dissect the current state of affairs in terms of pricing and availability for France’s most famous wines, noting that the top wines of the Santa Rita Hills start to look pretty attractive at $60 and $70 compared to $600 and $700 for some of the top Burgundies. I couldn’t agree more. Ever since I started digging deeper into the AVA—trying whatever I could from Tyler, The Hilt, Liquid Farm, Sandhi, Sanford, and other top producers—my itch for Burgundy has been almost entirely satiated. It’s obviously a much longer topic of discussion than I have time for in this blog post, but it’s one I’m thinking more and more about each day. The Santa Rita Hills is our version of Burgundy here in California.

And what better pairing with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir than pan-fried salmon with crispy skin? Justin mentioned that he meets for meals and conversations with other top winemakers in the region to discuss the future of Santa Rita Hills and Santa Barbara County as a whole. “What are the wines supposed to taste like? What do we want them to be?” he asked rhetorically, as we discussed the growing awareness of appreciation of Southern California wine on a global scale. “One thing that’s really changed is its relationship to Los Angeles,” he said between bites as we tasted through the second flight; “Napa and Sonoma have always had the support of San Francisco, but LA hasn’t had the same relationship with Santa Barbara. That’s starting to change, however.”

I couldn’t agree more. As a Los Angeles resident who doesn’t plan on moving anywhere else for the rest of my life, the fact that I have this incredible wine culture in my backyard is a tremendous source of pride. My relationship with the Santa Rita Hills has grown tremendously since I relocated down south, and I’ve attempted to channel that passion into my buying here at Mission. In a few years, I can see that energy spreading into more and more Angelenos. And it’s about time!

-David Driscoll