What I'm Excited About This Week: The Return of Anonymous
I think we all know it's hard to keep a secret about something you're really excited about. People often want to know more about our wines, and we’ve found that the more we can educate and share fun factoids about the wines, the more connected the customers feel to them. This shouldn't be a secret, we certainly don't try to make it one—we just love our products and get excited to show you the coolest things we've tasted lately. It's one of my favorite things to do, especially when I already know that my palate and the customer's palate are in a very similar place.
The wines I’m featuring today, however, are a little bit different. For these Anonymous Wine Collective bottles, we've given a pinky promise and staked our reputations on keeping certain particulars under wraps. In return for a little anonymity, we're able to offer incredible pricing on these wines. If these wines were bottled by the original producer, they would sell for 60-70% more. Fortunately for us, the producers had more wine than they needed, and we felt like, gosh that would be an outstanding product to be able to offer our customers. We are extremely fortunate and thankful that our positive reputation has given us access to these wines, and, as more and more of them are released, we hope that you notice the theme of extreme price-to-quality ratios.
However, unlike the last batch which were finished wines when we bought them; these second releases were crafted with direct input from our Domestic Buyer Ryan Woodhouse. This iteration of the Anonymous Wine Collective is stunning, and a further feather in his cap as one heck of a guy.
I've heard some vague rumblings in the pipeline of future other Anonymous Wine Collective projects, and I'm pretty excited about what's going to be coming up as well, so you'll definitely hear more about that from me when the time is right, dear reader.
2024 Anonymous Wine Collective Russian River Valley Chardonnay $21.95 (Elsewhere $75) This is our second round of these Anonymous Wine Collective offerings, and honestly I'm super psyched for these. Last time the wines were great, they sold amazingly, and I heard a lot of wild guesses for what they were; it was great all around. This time, with the additional involvement from our Domestic Buyer Extraordinaire, Ryan Woodhouse, the wines are really next level. This Chardonnay is nothing less than amazing: the nose is really pretty with white flowers surrounded by a very classic sweet green apple and lemon, with a backbone of softly toasted oak and oak spice. The palate, however, is where it really shines. There's this amazing mouthfeel that's lush and opulent and just tastes expensive. More of the same sort of more crunchy green apple, lemon, and more of that toasty oak but with nary a smidge of butter to be tasted; instead there's a really nice line of acidity cruising through the whole thing. This is absolutely amazing and if these are the quality of wine that we're going to be offering through the Anonymous Wine Collective, just, wow—color me super impressed.
2024 Anonymous Wine Collective Russian River Valley Pinot Noir $24.95 (Elsewhere $90) Wow what another stunner we have here. The nose on this wine is so incredibly gorgeous. There are notes of lovely rose petals, dusty pie cherry, and cranberry. The palate is light and lithe, but with a really pretty depth of fruit. This is super pretty and classic, lots of lush and sweet cherry on this and nothing very crunchy but really nice and pleasant. This has depth and structure and it's still incredibly young, with time this is going to deepen even further. With this batch our Domestic Guv'nor, Ryan Woodhouse, really outdid himself. These are all extraordinary wines that outperform their price point by crazy amounts.
2023 Anonymous Wine Collective "Hillside Block 92" Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon $49.95 (Elsewhere $150) While it was just a touch muted when it was first opened, a couple hours later boy does this bottle of our new Anonymous Wine Collective Cabernet Sauvignon absolutely sing out in the glass. There's so much going on on the nose: a really dense and intense bramble-fruit coulis, black cherry compote, freshly cut fennel, a high-toned sort of volcanic minerality, and then lots of violets and a touch of hyacinth. The palate is rich and full, with surprisingly fine and integrated tannins. This is some really A++ winemaking to make something this rich into something this approachable already. There's a good amount of structure, with dark fruit, and a really nice kind of leathery savory note in the middle keeping it from being just too much. Thank you, Mr. Woodhouse for bringing this wine to us; I owe you a beer if you notice this and mention it.
I'm not exactly sure when we'll be opening these for tasting, but have no fear I'm sure it will be before too long, and I really do recommend coming in and giving them a try if you feel hesitant—but honestly, there's no reason to hesitate. These are all extremely well priced for the quality of the fruit, and the provenance—you just have to trust us on the provenance part. We pinky promise.