Anonymous Wine Co. Delivers Gifts with Intrigue and Incredible Value
The Anonymous Wine Collective project is without doubt one of the most exciting projects I've ever worked on in my almost 15 years with K&L. I've explored incredible vineyards in the faraway lands of New Zealand and South Africa to build our Southern Hemisphere Direct Import program. I've tasted five decades worth of Monte Bello from 3- and 6-liter formats. I've tasted hundreds of wines spanning the entire career of Josh Jensen at Calera Estate... and countless other unforgeable experiences. However, the Anonymous Wine Collective project inspires me so much because it has the ability to impact so many people, both customers and winemakers alike. We can bring unbelievable wines at unbelievable prices to customers, at the same time as supporting winemakers with cash flow and upfront commitments that are dependable and projectable. With the huge amount of trust and recognition K&L has built over 50 years in the business, plus my own deep personal connections to great producers across California and beyond, I strongly believe that the sky is the limit for what we can achieve with this range of wines.
In just the past 12 months we've now released 14 Anonymous wines that I'm extremely proud of. Many of them sold out quickly as people recognized the value for money, and tasted the quality in the bottle. Each time we release a new wine I'm just as excited as the first time. In fact, as the project grows, more and more incredible opportunities keep coming our way. Even just within the first year of this endeavor, we've already accomplished things, and secured more relationships with iconic producers than I could have dreamed of 12 months ago. Some of the stories of how these wines came to be in bottle are just incredible. That is truly trickiest balancing act with these wines—we can't tell you exactly who made them and just how fortunate we are to have these relationships. I try to give as many hints as I can, and I know many of you love playing the guessing game, including leveraging the power of AI to try and decode the puzzle! However, if Anonymity is the price to pay to keep these incredible collaborations coming that's absolutely fine with me, because the proof is in the bottle.
Quite self-indulgently, I love to go and play winemaker. I get to walk the vineyards, taste barrels, experiment with blends, finalize cuvées, maybe even get to watch the bottles coming fresh off the line. It's very gratifying to feel so holistically involved in the process, and to really be able to put my heart soul into what we release under the Anonymous label. I hope that what we've achieved so far is just the tip of the iceberg. I know the potential of what's out there. But ultimately, you, our loyal customers will be the judge, and I consider that very deeply each and every time we bottle an Anonymous Wine. I want it to be a brand that people trust, a brand people are excited about, where folks are waiting to see what's coming next. Most importantly, I want the wines to put a smile on people's faces when they pop a bottle and take a sip. That is the ultimate measure of success for me and I'm thrilled to be striving for it every day. Please enjoy and let me know your thoughts and guesses! 🙂
2020 Anonymous Wine Collective "Manchester Ridge Vineyard" Mendocino Ridge Blanc de Blancs Sparkling Wine $29.95 (Elsewhere $55) The first ever Anonymous sparkling wine! And wow, what a beauty to kick things off! This vintage Blanc de Blanc is 100% Chardonnay from the remote Manchester Ridge Vineyard in the spectacular Mendocino Ridge AVA. This little-known AVA is often referred to as the "Islands in the Sky". Manchester Ridge Vineyard is planted at 2,300ft elevation on a remote mountain top just 2 miles from the Pacific Ocean. The Old Wente clone vines, planted on marine sedimentary sandstone, produce less than 2-tons per acre of fruit. The vin clair base wine was fermented and then aged sur lees for 12 months in once used French oak. The wine was then put on tirage and aged for another four years! Finally, in September of this year, the wine was riddled entirely by hand, disgorged and finished with zero dosage. A sparkling wine of uncommon depth and complexity balancing rich autolytic flavors.
2023 Anonymous Wine Collective Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay $24.95 (Elsewhere $50) As always we're sworn to secrecy here but what I can tell you is that this Chardonnay is entirely estate-grown and produced in the Santa Cruz Mountains by one of the most highly revered producers in the region. The vineyards are farmed according to organic and biodynamic protocols, with a big focus on heritage clonal material and high-density hillside plantings. Native yeast, barrel fermented, but with just 15% new oak, this is a vibrant, focused, mineral drive style of Chardonnay that will stand toe to toe with serious white Burgundy.
2023 Anonymous Wine Collective Santa Cruz Mountains Pinot Noir $24.95 (Elsewhere $60) Made by the same producer that crafted the Chardonnay above, once again this Pinot Noir is entirely estate-grown and produced. The fruit is fermented using around 30% whole-clusters, in tiny one-ton micro-fermentations. Native yeast and gentle hand-punch downs are used for precise and delicate extraction. The wine is then aged in top notch French cooperage, around 15% new oak. This wine is absolutely singing aromatically - a bouquet of fresh picked roses, bay laurel, baking spice and dried citrus peel. The palate is so pure and vibrant with juicy red berry fruits, cool raspberry, Alpine strawberry, some complex amaro-like herbs and sassafras elements. Texturally, the wine is lifted and elegant, with very fine silky tannins, and perfectly crunchy acidity that buoys the ripe red fruits perfectly. Savory Coastal Redwood grove elements add some extra intrigue and very typical terroir driven flavors to the wine highlighting its cool climate, mountain origins. So enjoyable and expressive as a young wine, tasting great from the first sip, but I know from experience that these wines also age beautifully, and I hope I'll be diligent enough to save a few bottles to drink 10 years from now and be very happy. Simply unbelievable value for money here at more than 50% off the typical cost of this exact same juice. I couldn't be more stoked on how this bottling turned out!
2023 Anonymous Wine Collective Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon $19.95 (Elsewhere $90) Oh my, this bottling turned out even better than I expected...and I had high expectations to begin with! The idea of crafting a great bottle of $20 Napa Valley Cabernet in this day and age is almost impossible...almost. But what if you go one of the OG winemakers who helped put Napa Cab on the map. A man who has worked in First Growth Chateaux in Bordeaux, and who has four decades of experience in Napa Valley. A man who knows the lay of land intimately. Who knows where to get great fruit without paying top dollar. Well, that's exactly what we did. This 2023 Cabernet is sourced from a single vineyard high in the Vaca Mountains. The rocky, volcanic soils produce powerful, concentrated fruit, that is bursting with blackberry and cassis, but true to this winemaker's more classically aligned style, also captures some of the finer varietal characters with hints of mint, cedar, pencil lead and subtle tobacco leaf. The wine is aged in entirely seasoned French oak. Without any new barrels the oak is very subtle and just delicately frames the wonderful purity of fruit. For a mountain-grown Cab the texture is nicely polished, but it still has sneaky power under the refined fruit and fine tannins. Put this in a blind tasting and you won't believe it's a $20 bottle...oh, that's because it's not, this winemaker's Cabs routinely sell for $80-$90+ and it's only through our Anonymous Wine Collective agreement that we can bring this rockstar Cab to you at such a modest price. Don't be afraid to case up here, this wine will easily age 8-10 years comfortably, maybe longer in a cold cellar. This has to be a contender for best value so far in the Anonymous range...it's flat-out ridiculous for this price!
2024 Anonymous Wine Collective Anderson Valley Pinot Noir $29.95 (Elsewhere $80) Here's an incredibly exciting new 2024 release from our Anonymous Wine Collective series. This is a beautiful Anderson Valley Pinot Noir made by one of California's true winemaking luminaries. This collaboration between K&L and the winery dates back to well beyond the creation of our Anonymous label. This wine has existed in a previous life under our long running Kalinda house label! I'm very excited to expand this relationship into the Anonymous range as it's a true privilege to work with this highly renowned winery. Founded in the early 1990s, this winery is truly and icon in the production of Sonoma Coast and Anderson Valley Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Known for their elegant, complex, Burgundian inspired winemaking, this winery produces highly collectible wines only available via the mailing list, auctions, and high-end restaurants. Their most recent set of releases were scored in the 96 to 99 point range by The Wine Advocate, Jeb Dunnuck, and Antonio Galloni's Vinous. I was lucky enough, once again this year to visit the winery, taste from barrels, and put together our cuvee. The Anonymous bottling is very in keeping with the winery's style, elegant, finessed, bright lifted fruit, lovely floral and savory earthy components. It's not a big, ripe wine, it's a wine that is about capturing the sensual, refined, layered, subtle complexities of cool-climate Pinot Noir. Bottle in July, this wine is already very expressive and aromatic. I think it will continue to gain depth and complexity over the coming months and years and will no doubt be a lovely 4-6 year wine, and likely continue to age well though 8-10 years and beyond. For folks who enjoy Burgundy and more graceful expressions of new world Pinot Noir this is a real treat!
2023 Anonymous Wine Collective Yountville Cabernet Sauvignon $39.95 (Elsewhere $120) The smallest production Anonymous wine we've bottled so far, this was a unique opportunity to grab just a few hand-picked barrels of incredible Cabernet all for ourselves! The Yountville Cabernet comes from a small, organically farmed, single vineyard just off the Silverado Trail, on the eastern side of the valley. The vineyard is right on the boarder of the Yountville and Stag's Leap AVAs, and sits right next to famous neighbors such as Kapcsandy and Cliff Lede's Poetry Vineyard. The wine is a tiny, four-barrel selection with just 110 total cases produced. This Cabernet is a picture of balance and class. The refinement here is stunning. Pure aromas of cassis, huckleberry, lavender, hints of bay laurel, cigar box tones and graphite. The palate has a lovely purity of fruit, but also some wonderful savory complexity and rocky mineral elements from the site's volcanic alluvium soils.
2023 Anonymous Wine Collective "Hillside Block 92" Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon $49.95 (Elsewhere $150) The 2023 Anonymous "Hillside Block 92" Oakville Cab is a singular wine that really shows the qualities of the site and character of the vintage. Sourced from one, incredibly steep hillside parcel of vines with some of the most radically rocky soils I've ever seen in any vineyard on the planet. Honestly, this site looks almost too much hassle to even farm. It's easy to imagine the roots snaking around pure basalt boulders on their way down into the red volcanic loam. With a panoramic view across the Oakville Valley floor several hundred feet below, this west facing terrace is among many of the most famed vineyards in all of Napa having produced several 100-point wines. Neighbors include: Dalla Valle Estate, Ramey's Pedregal Vineyard, Peter Michael's Au Paradis, and Joseph Phelp's Bacchus Vineyard. Directly above, heading up the mountain is Pritchard Hill and many more iconic estates. From a site like this you might expect pure, unbridled power and richness...however, the cool and moderate 2023 vintage allowed the fruit here to remain nicely balanced. The wine was also raised entirely in four, 500L French oak Puncheon casks. The result is a wine that's quite linear and fresh. Given that the wine hails from the east Oakville hills, it's actually quite a Bordeaux-esque expression of Cabernet with floral violet notes, bright fruit, a fine, but grippy tannin structure, subtle barrel spice and lots of graphite and volcanic mineral tinges. Having tasted the individual components and composite blend from barrel and now the finished wine, I do believe that in a few weeks / months the wine will fill out a little more in the mid-palate and show more density of fruit. It certainly loves a good 2-3 hour decant if you're drinking it right away to allow the wine to gain volume in the glass. Ideally give this wine a couple months to round out in bottle (there's no rush) and enjoy anytime over the next 10-15 years. The winery's own bottling from this vineyard sells for $150+ and recently was awarded 95+ points from several renowned publications.
2023 Anonymous Wine Collective "Pagani Ranch - Ancient Vine" Sonoma Valley Zinfandel $19.95 (Elsewhere $50) A VERY exciting addition to our Anonymous family, our first Zinfdandel! And I couldn't be more excited about having a bottling sourced from the iconic and historic Pagani Ranch in Sonoma Valley! While we can't tell you who crafted this wine for us, the list of folks that can even get their hands on this revered, ancient vine fruit isn't very long, so you can probably take a pretty good guess. This stunning wine is 90% Zinfandel from the original 140-year-old block at Pagani Ranch planted in the 1880's. Then, completing the field blend are small amounts of 100-year-old Primitivo and Alicante Bouchet. The wine was aged for 20 months in a combination of French and American oak, 20% new, 80% seasoned. This wine is a perfect example of the ancient heritage vineyards found across California that are a truly unique and special part of our state's viticultural history. I'm so thrilled with this wine I can't wait to share it with you! An absolute classic rendition of Zinfandel this legendary, historic site. There tons of rich, brambly fruit from the old vine Zin, but also real substance and complexity from the inclusion of Alicante Bouchet and a Primitivo clone brought here by Italian immigrants over a century ago. The wine shows a real sense of place with a crushed rock and ferrous mineral tone from red iron-rich loam and volcanic cobblestones that define the soils of the site. The picture perfect growing season in 2023 gave this wine lots of vibrancy and focus to balance all that old vine concentration and potency. The subtle use of both French and American oak is a well known signature when combined with this beautiful fruit. The value here, as with all the Anonymous wines is simply outstanding!