Whose expense account is this bullsh** going on? Well, I haven't NFC beat them yet, so. But it's definitely going to podcast. Sounds like it's hitting Barb's margin. Yeah. Wait till we taste all the signatory picks in a couple of weeks. Oh, yeah. Really looking forward to that. No, in all seriousness, we are opening some expensive wine today, but it is very much worthwhile because we picked out some best sellers and just some notable Napa producers that perform really well, especially at the holiday time. We get a lot of people coming in asking these by name. And unless you've been hiding under a rock, you have noticed price increases that we've unfortunately had to take in much of Napa Valley production. And so this holiday season, you might come into the store and you might be looking for Silver Oak and you're going to be pretty shocked to see the price. So we wanted to open up some of these big names, give you our honest take on them, and also show you some comparable great Napa producers. And most of which are actually family-owned properties. We tend to lose sight that 95 percent of Napa is family-owned. Mind-boggling. You absolutely forget about that. So we're going to taste some great producers across the board today. I mean, all of these wines are of great quality, but we're going to give our honest take and see how they stack up for your gift-giving this holiday season. Outstanding. Yeah. I mean, just looking at these bottles, this is like a who's who of iconic Napa s***. This is hot s*** right here. Hot. Folks, you are in for- Steaming. You are. Let's go odiferous than I am. Without the steaming. Folks, you are in for a treat. You get to listen to us taste. This is yummy. Hey, it's not like we're tasting stuff that people can't go out and buy. None of these are outrageously priced. All of them are available at pretty much every Binny's. All true. And none of them are like the stupid bank breaking place points where you need to. It's so precious. You have to wait to open up. These are just great, high quality holiday wines you should be sharing with your family. All right. Alicia brought a Brophy's worth of wine bottles. So we got to dive into this. Let's go. Let's do it. You're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Back in your feed with a wine show. This is the first one we're recording today. You watched Airheads last night, and you got like all jazzed up for this? What are you doing? What exactly is happening over there? I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. Hey, I'm Pat, specially spirits stuff. Alicia, wine. Hi, I'm Chris, I also drink wine. All right, that's true, he does. Copious, copious quantities. Right off the bat, where are we going today? So, the first kind of tasting exercise, and for those at home, we all have two glasses, we're going to do a lot of side by sides here. The first is to really refute the notion that all Napa tastes the same. Without getting into too much detail, the climate within Napa and the microclimates, the topography, everything is in place, soil, elevation, and as a result, you can find some pretty diverse wines. We're going to be tasting all Cabernet today, but the first two is really just to show you how different they can be. And we're going to start by tasting Kenan's Cabernet. And what we kind of probably will find with this is going to be a little more red fruit, more fresh acidity, and kind of a dialed back body, okay? It's going to be a more restrained expression. And we're going to taste that next to Caymus. Very, very popular. We sell a ton of this. People seek this out, and we're going to see a very, very different expression, so that's where we're starting. Boy, does Caymus have a reputation for having a signature flavor. They sure do. I mean, it's big, super juicy, valley floor fruit. And the Kenan, of course, Spring Mountain, which is why we're going to expect to see that leaner body and brighter flavors. Alicia's bow guarding the Caymus. Oh, I'm Seth. Past the dutchy upon the left hand side. I have not had Caymus in a year or two. Caymus has certainly evolved over the last couple of decades. OK, two glasses, Caymus and Kenan. You know, start with the Kenan. It's herbal. And just to point out, the Kenan 2018, Caymus 2021, always a relatively early release out of Napa. And here we go. How did they get so much wood in there in such a short time? So yeah, Kenan is herbal. It's more classically styled, right? More... Yes. We can't forget that classic Napa is before kind of that pivot to the more kind of Parker, riper, more extracted style. Classic Napa has those herbal kind of high notes. More old world in style, right? Kind of finer tannins and more acidity. I'd agree with that. Indeed. Indeed true. I like that it's supple without being like flabby and big and coating. Like it's got a nice velvety texture to it, but it's not too much texturally. Yeah. And it maintains focus. Yeah. It has a really good. It has a spine. Acidic focus. Yeah. Brought to this wine. I would say this vintage has more darker fruit character than I'm used to seeing out of Keenan, but it was I think a pretty ripe year. Nice backbone of vanilla in there that I'm, I don't know if it's just because I'm thinking of it the way I kind of approach tasting whiskey. Well, have you tried the Caymans yet? No, I've not tried the Caymans yet. Yeah, I would hold the vanilla note until. Yeah, I mean, definitely some new oak for sure. There's about a third new French oak on the Keenan. You should be getting some of those nuances for sure. So if you do tend to gravitate towards old world wines, French and Italian, I think this Keenan is a lovely direction to go to. To contrast that. By contrast, Caymus tastes like the whole brown, pink, and white ice cream. Like all of it. Neapolitan? Oh, yeah, Neapolitan. Put some respect on that ice cream's name. I got a box of it and it didn't say Neapolitan. It just said chocolate and vanilla strawberry. They're really dumbing it down. Well, I mean, I'm not going to make any corollary comments here. Which brings us back to Caymus. The Caymus smells a bit like a dusty, musty lumberyard oak to me. Like, like seasoning wood. Yeah. Okay, but once it's on your palate, it's like a pudding. And I got to tell you guys something. I like it. You know, it's a lot. Super friendly. It is fuller and plusher than the Kenan, but it's not like over the top. It really isn't. Sweeter fruit. I've had years where this presents much sweeter, richer for sure. If anything, it's drinking a little young, right? It is young, but a lot of people love this wine very young. What does this act to? I would probably drink it young. Yeah. This is not really a wine for aging. It's all about that ripe, juicy fruit, all those cocoa notes that we're getting, the chocolate that was talked about. Yeah. You see the tannic structure, one of the reasons why it's not going to age as long. The tannins are not framing this wine very much. The tannins are there, but it's just like a tiny little skeleton and a big fat guy. But it really does taste like a swirl of chocolate and vanilla pudding or custard. I mean, it's rich. It's big. But it is, you know, you can see why this is so beloved. I mean, it's just so easy to like. Yeah. And it's not as sweet as, to your point, some previous vintages. Yeah. I've had some that really I felt like residual sugar was such a major part of the profile. And just supporting gobs of super ripe fruit here, it seems a little pulled back, honestly. Pat, you think your bourbon bros would be down with this one? Oh, yeah. This is a bourbon drinker's wine. It's a steak night wine. It's there's a reason this wine's so popular because it's so crowd pleasing. It's the weeded bourbon of Napa Caps. It's the weeded bourbon. Yeah. It's a port barrel finished weeded bourbon. Yeah. It's the cabernet for the Coca-Cola culture. You know, people who grew up drinking soda, you grow up and you transition right into white Zinfandel and then Caymus Cabernet. Alicia, what do these set you back? So the Keenan set's at 59.99 and Caymus up to 89.99. So I did want to show an alternative for those that do like that plush or fruit style if that $90 price point is now just a bit too much. So we're going to pivot and go to. And the Keenan was 60, you said? Correct. Nice. Nice wine. We're trying this one next to the Caymus, so keep your Caymus. So keep your Caymus and now just, we're going to taste Frank. Greg drank all his Caymus. I did not. Okay, I have this much Caymus left. I have seen this bottle for 15 years at Binny's and I don't think I've ever tried it. Oh, wonderful. So we're going to go to Frank Family. And just a little background, Treasury just bought them. I think this shows some of that kind of ripe, juicy fruit that we had in Caymus, a very approachable tannic structure. I think it has a little more acid than Caymus does. I still think it's an acceptable alternative, especially because it sits on the shelf under $50 at $49.99. Wow. One of the best values in Napa Cab, I think right now at that price point. $50 for a pretty legit Napa Cab is unheard of now. And to your point, it's a well-known name. A lot of people want to feel comfortable bringing over gifts or pouring for their guests, especially at the holidays. You know, Camus' household name, Frank Family is still there as well. It's like you take the plum and you turn it into pomegranate, so you're like turning up the brightness and freshness on the fruit. And then like the wood is still there, but it's dialed back a little and it's more like cola than it is like chocolate. This is good. Yeah, this is really good. And you see that elevated acidity, I think even more versatile with food. Camus can overwhelm this hill, has acid, add brightness to a lot. It's more fresh, for sure. I don't want to complicate matters, but one thing I point out to your point, Alicia, about where Frank Family is located and the Napa Valley Appalachian is that we're not tasting precise terroir in most of these wines. People are sourcing grapes from all over. Even the Kenan is largely spring mountain fruit, but they source some for this, for Pope Valley. So unless you see like a state bottled or a nested AVA, you're probably drinking Cabernet from around the valley that is specifically chosen to bring different things to the blend. Although a lot of times the core of a Napa Cabernet is somewhere in and around the estate with other things filling in. So yeah, the other sourced fruit is kind of accentuating more than structuring the wine. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say. I mean, everybody has a different approach. And sourced fruit, to me, intimates purchase fruit. But a lot of people just own different wineries around the valley because of the different vineyards. Yeah. Just because they you get different character out of cooler climates. You know, if you have a vineyard in, say, Coombsville and you compare that to St. Helena, you know, really cool in Coombsville, it's going to accentuate acidity, brightness, freshness. St. Helena is very hot, going to bring you a lot of deep fruit. Yeah. I would definitely add to that of it is a strategic move and it is by no means kind of adding any like lesser fruit. It's more about creating a balanced wine. Absolutely. Especially as you get that change from south as you move north in Napa Valley. And people really want to, you know, they want to reserve their best estate fruit for their higher tier bottling. So, you know, a lot of people just basic Napa Valley is their entry level and they're still quite expensive. They're still very high quality. There's no compromise in the fruit. But, you know, once you jump up to a state and quote unquote reserve style bottling, you're looking more at the actual terroir of the winery. Yeah. Everything we're tasting today is under $100. I was shocked by that. I thought with some of the brands here, I thought that they would be higher. So I'm either thinking of reserve bottling or maybe some of them flattened or softened in price a little. No, you're thinking of their higher end. Yeah, because Napa Valley wines do not decrease in price. I'm dreaming over here. Exactly. Kamas has special selection. It's more than double the price. Kenan has an estate wine. Are we still comparing things to Kamas here? Okay. So of the first three we tasted, I think the Frank did a nice job of falling in between them, where it gives a little more austerity with oak similar to the Kenan, but it still has some of those jamier fruits and that friendlier profile that you get with the Kamas. I think like that's a really great one to bring. If you know somebody like, you know, you know, they enjoy Kamas, of course. Nobody who likes that style isn't going to like the Frank. But I think people who are a little more serious about their wine are probably going to appreciate that a little more. And then know that's kind of like, that's kind of like an insider pick type of thing. Where are we going next? So we're going to go, our first wine is going to be Chateau Montelena. Very, very famous winery, and Beau Barrett, a great friend of Binny's. I've always enjoyed these wines. We've had them on the podcast before a couple years ago. And a wine, again, highly sought after because of its name. We're going to try that first, and then we're going to go to Clos du Val, and we're going to compare. And again, Napa bottling as opposed to their estate bottling. Again, also located in Calistoga, where it is quite warm, but there is a huge diurnal shift. Strangely, at the southern end of the valley, you get the San Pablo Bay having a strong impact, but there is cool air being sucked in through gaps in the mountains up here. So there's some coolness to retain freshness here. You're pontonniing all over the place. Stop looking at me. I'm pontonniing all over the place. I don't even know what that means. Yeah, that means you put cheese in an overhead bin on an airplane in the middle of the summer. So oftentimes, yes, as Chris said, we think just Calistoga North, it's much warmer up there due to its distance from the cooling winds in the south, but there's still the Chalk Hill gap up there where those specific cool currents can come through. Chateau Montelena benefits from that. I remember Beau Barrett saying specifically that this wine is their steakhouse wine. This is actually not meant to really age. It's not going to get bad in a few years by any means, but they're making it for you to consume now and to order frequently at one of your favorite Chicago steakhouses. So I feel I've had this wine a lot. I feel this is a very safe wine. I mean, it's like the prototype for Napa Cabernet. Drinks more tannic, drier finish, a little more of that kind of herbal oak character. I think this is a more serious wine drinkers wine. It's still friendly, but it's not like the last three. This is the classic Montelena style. They're relatively restrained, despite their location. Like we said, there's cooling influence. They're right by the Napa River. A lot of these, the vineyard sites, literally the river runs right by their site. So there's cooling influence, alluvial soils, that kind of stuff. We're looking at a Napa Cab that's under 14 percent here. I mean, I think the Caymus, one thing that really stood out to me about Caymus was, there was alcohol heat on the finish. I mean, and it was prominent for me. Here we've got medium body structure, bright fruit. And just a spark of pyrazine. Indeed. Indeed. A classic flavor that should not be looked askance at. You can ripen that- That's green peppers, folks. He's talking about vegetal. You can ripen that out, no problem. But also, when you do, you sometimes lose some varietal character. Yeah. Is it a cab anymore? Sometimes you can't tell in a blind tasting, except for the massive richness of the fruit. Yeah. I find the Montelena one, it's not super expressive to me on the nose. I don't think the finish is incredibly long. Again, I think it's safe. Damning with faint praise. That's how I feel. If you're going to retail at 80 bucks. Whoa, seriously? Yeah. Okay. I got to ask the Clos du Val. I want to go to the Clos du Val. It's a slightly different expression in terms of that there's more fruit in play here. I think the tannic structure is pretty similar. What a playful nose on this one. But it's so expressive. I think it's very pretty. There is a little bit of that cocoa thing we were talking about earlier in some other wines. Yep. But I think this over delivers for the $54.99. This is awesome. This wine is great. It's super grippy on the palate. Very grippy. Yeah. So interestingly founded by a French couple and notoriously strident about their French approach to wines in Napa Valley, these guys are located in Stag's Leap District. So we're going all the way from way north in Calistoga down to the southern eastern end, nestled into the Vaca Hills or foothills before you get into the mountains. It's always either nestled or perched. Yeah. There's no perching here, only nestling. Maybe snuggling, I don't know, snuggled up to, spooning with. Stop vamping. Keep going. They're spooning with the Vaca Mountains. We're in a place that is cool. And there's this legendary story about the original winemaker who came to Napa to work here from France with deep knowledge of Bordeaux style winemaking. And he kept driving through the same portion of Stag's Leap every day with his windows open. And he noticed a dramatic shift in the actual temperature as he was driving by and thought, dang, this is where our vineyard is going to be. I love this story that starts with they were really strident with their French background. Like, have you ever had a story from a winery where they're like, they came from France, but like, they're not too French, you know? Well, the story also includes the idea that they had connections to Barton and Goustier, a very huge negotiation company in France, but they wanted to get away from the more traditional French wine industry and seek something different out, but still Well, this is a classy yet exciting and lively wine all at the same time. This rock, this might be the best out of the five I've had so far. I really like this one. Yeah, it might be my favorite. It's up there with the Frank was really good. So was the Kenan. I like the cheaper one so far. It does really hit a sweet spot of kind of plush round fruit up front, but not too heavy. They're still lifted and the tannic structure is well integrated. The Montelena is fantastic. It's just when put in perspective with price, it's hard to spend an extra 30 bucks. It's frumpy. It's like, it's a... It's a puffy blouse? No, it's not. It's what they call austerity. It's austere. Yeah. It's like an angry looking judge wearing a wig. And you're the barrister. Motion denied. And some people will very much appreciate that austere style. Yeah, for sure. Barber being one, that's upper alley. It's exactly what I was thinking about. Others will not. So kind of when you don't know that safer bet that we found in Frank Family and Clos du Val, I think kind of balances out your audience. The other thing I would point out about the styles like, Pat, you said Camus steakhouse or steak night one, right? But Bobarik calls this his steakhouse wine. I would argue that if you put those two up against a steak, the Montelena is going to really start to shine and the Camus will look a little blousy and overblown with the food. This is kind of the magic of austere wines. They sometimes just are not what you want to sit around on the couch and sip, which you would definitely do with Camus. But once you pair it with the right food, it's a whole different experience. We're gonna keep going. We're going to first try now Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Artemis. This is another one that I recall using this in like Wine 101 to show Napa Cabernet, and it was 55 bucks. And this was just like two years ago, and it's $85 now. And so again, very popular gift and an excellent winery. I'll add that I really like their wines. They do play with a little more restraint. You find some herbal character. But we're going to contrast this with Hall Cabernet. So this is Catherine Hall and her husband's winery. But again, they're kind of entry level expression at $55.99. Yeah. This is another one of these historic wineries that kind of exploded onto the scene. I'm not going to say exploded because people were not drinking that much wine in America back then. But in the late 60s, early 70s, there was a big crop, Camus, 72, Montelena, the Barrett's bought that 50 years ago, Clos du Val, same time period. And the same thing with Stag's Leap. And they're famously known for their win at the Judgment of Paris in 1976 with their 72 bottling. But that would be what is now, I believe, the Stag's Leap Vineyard bottling, which is, I don't know what it costs right now. 200 bucks or more. Yeah. Probably more. Yeah. Well, Artemis smells great though. Yeah, it does. I've always loved this wine. It's so pretty. And you have fruit, non-fruit, herbal, desiccated flowers, kind of everything sitting on top. Yeah, it's like potpourri. Yeah. It's really graceful. Yeah, in comparison, the Hall is just more, it seems more about the fruit. And there's a little just more balance here in the Stag's Leap. Yeah, again, we're looking at the difference in Terroir, although these are both Napa Valley bottlings and fruit is coming from various places, but the homeland in Stag's Leap in the south and then Hall is centered mostly in St. Helena and Rutherford, which is the heart of the warmest part of the valley. I will say though, the Stag's Leap gets ripe on the palate. I think the fruit is like, whoa, it's, don't forget about me and it gets- It was fruitier on the palate than I expected based on the notes, for sure. The notes is so interesting, you could go on forever. Yeah. It's like potpourri, there's a little hints of fruit, and there's like pencil lead and cracked black pepper. My favorite notes of any wine we've had so far, but then it just explodes with fruit on the palate though. It is. It's very like blueberry, it's like a fruit basket almost on the palate. Well, and along with all of the fruit in texturally, the tannins are way bigger here than they've been. Tell me I'm wrong, like less acidity and more tannins? There's firm tannic structure, but it's well integrated with the fruit, I think. I don't see them popping out, but you know, anytime you like spend a little time sucking on a wine, you can really, or chewing on it, you can really bring those tannins out. And that's how you really find out, like, when you taste like the smoothest wine in the world, you're like, wow, is there any structure here? Aerate it a little bit, and you'll realize sometimes really high-end wines are so, so polished that you don't even, the tannins just slide by, but you aerate it in your mouth, and all of a sudden you feel the power, the grip that's underlined, and Chris is saying, suck it and see. It's my motto. Then the hull, I don't know. So hull on the nose, you lose the floral and herbal notes, and I get more fruit followed by some spice box and a little chocolate. So just different profile in that way. More amped on chocolate-covered cherries and raspberry on the palate than the other one, which is way more in like plum, black raspberry. Super lush mouthfeel. This one's- Very cedary on the finish. Cedary? That lifted almost metallic zing at the finish. I get what you're saying about metallic. I think sometimes I think pure zines present as slightly metallic. Interesting. I mean, I've never discussed that with anyone. But I've been keeping that to myself. Well, we just learned something about Chris. But that's not to distract from the fact that 97% of it is just this big pleasure ball. Yeah. Friendlier than the Stag's Leap, I think. Stag's Leap, I probably preferred, but that hall is, that's just a slam dunk crowd pleaser of a wine. Like people who don't even, aren't serious wine people are going to be wowed by that. I feel like the Caymus would be like, come here, buddy. And the hall would give them a high five and they'd be bros. The hall being the little brother. The little brother, exactly. Bros, totally bros. Yeah. Even though Catherine Hall is heading up this winery, she might be a bro. I don't know. I don't think I've ever met her. Look, I'm anthropomorphizing the wine. I spent a whole day with her a few months ago. Oh, Nate, Rob. No, she got super pissed because we were getting, Catherine Hall was in to present something and we happened to be having roof work on that day and Alicia like Karen the roofers to get them to stop working while Catherine Hall was talking. You know, she was a former ambassador to Austria. She's the real deal. So I mean, she's got delicated ears apparently and can't deal with roof work. She's the real deal. I think her family owned a winery in Mendocino before they did this. I'm just imagining that interaction. Alicia's like, Catherine Hall is here and the roofers are like, okay. That was more like telling the managers like, you have to get them to stop. And then stomping off when no one understands why I care. Unbelievable. Anyway, did you high-fiver at all during the day? Did I high-five her? Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out where she lands on the road. Have you ever high-fived anybody? My son. I'm finding this hard to believe. I feel like Alicia like a year ago to said, I don't even know what a high-five is and I've never had a frozen pizza. I feel like it's going to be on us to teach your son how to high-five and what a frozen pizza is and possibly what a hot dog is. Isn't that some kind of a sucrose-laden soft drink from the islands? The high-five? Yeah. Oh, is that what you're talking about? No. Oh. It was a joke about how you're out of touch. And then, well, anyway, where are we going next? No one's arguing. Okay. So, yeah, Hall, great value. But yeah, all about kind of that juicy fruit quality. I mean, I'm going to say these wines are all doing exactly what they're supposed to do today. Right? I would drink any of these. Not a secret in the box so far. And I am drinking any of these. Any and all. Here's Homie's favorite. Just because your brother's on the wine club. Yeah. I liked it before he was in the wine club. Mr. I like Chappellet Cabernet Franc. Yeah, that is a good one. I fell in love with the Chappellet Cab when we poured it at a tasting when I was running the St. Charles Binny's. That's when I first had it and I was like, wow, this is like one of the greatest wines I've ever had. It's a great winery, pioneers in the Pritchard Hill area. Can we just take a moment to reflect on the, isn't that neat when that happens, when you have a sensory experience and it becomes a bookmark in your life and you're excited about it for the rest of your life? My memory doesn't serve me that well. There you go. No bookmarks for me. Enjoy the Chappelloy. Every day is a new experience. So this still is a family owned winery. They are, as Chris mentioned, up in Pritchard Hill, which is not technically a nested AVA. So there are 16 nested AVA's. But Pritchard Hill has chosen to not file for that. And there are several reasons. They are very hip. Not to mention the fact that Chappellet themselves owns the right to use Pritchard Hill on their high-end bottling. Oh, that's probably it right there, huh? Yeah, nobody else can put that on there. Great Winery dating back to the late 60s, founded by Don Chappellet, early winemaker Philippe Tognier. If you guys are familiar with Tognier. I mean, who isn't? Great winemaker made some of really the great wines that Napa has seen now on Spring Mountain. Really beautiful stuff. This is another one with a really super thinky nose. There's like a touch, I mean, along with everything you'd expect, bramble fruit and reeds and stuff. It's like sulfur, but it presents in a way that's- There's a tiny bit of sulfur. But it's like graceful, like a perfume or something like that. It's really a delicate little complexity. I rolled my eyes at you, but I'm totally picking up what you're laying down. Just to point out, we have been avoiding mostly mountain fruit since the Canaan. Okay. We're back in that now with Pritchard Hill. Now, of course, it's not all from Pritchard Hill. That would be their estate and you pay a lot more for it. But you can still get, when you get it up into the mountains and you're above the fog line, you're going to get more direct UV light, we're going to get riper, more flavor, more concentration, firmer tannins than we would on the valley floor. This is a beautiful site too. Has anyone been there? Have you been there, Alicia? It's gorgeous. They have this unbelievable a-frame cellar room that was built in the late 60s. It's really an incredible rustic design. You're out in the vineyard, you're overlooking Lake Hennessey. It's just a really beautiful spot in the valley. Not that there are any real dogs there. Yeah. I love this wine. I think this wine is phenomenal. This wine is the best. It's in subtle complexity. 100%. It's not kind of shouty like some others were. It doesn't disclose itself right away. I think it will continue to show off some more nuance. Everything is so well-knit together. You have so many diverse aromas and flavors. It's really the whole package. It is really everything I'm looking for in a wine. It's like everybody else has gone to bed when you're camping and you're the last one looking at the embers of the fire as it's slowly going out and you're just sitting there thinking like, that's what this wine is taking me to. I like it. This is the first one of the big names that I am like, yes, 90 bucks. I get it. Yeah. No, I think this wine is worth every penny. It's not flashy, but it's absolutely packed. Totally agree. There's a reason that a boatload of really, really high-end wineries followed Chappellet into Pritchard Hill area. Their Pritchard Hill is expensive now, but all of their neighbors are double the price. People are not messing around there. They're looking for luxury coupes, and you can still get their Napa Valley here, bottling here for under 100. All right. And seek out their cab franc. So anyway, good luck, Round Pond. This Round Pond is really good too. Round Pond is solid. I mean, I haven't tasted it. I will say, this Round Pond is not cheap either. It is less expensive, but still sits at 79 bucks. It's like sherbet and waffle cone. Sherbet and waffle cone, dusted with Rutherford dust. A sprinkling. Can I have a sprinkling of Rutherford dust on my ice cream? All right. I'm going to step on Chris. Sorry, Alicia, I stepped on you. You said like 80 bucks, 79.99? 10 bucks less. 10 bucks less. This is also a very good wine in a very different way. There's a little more roundness here. The tannins are a little chalkier in a way. There's a dry woodiness to it that it's flirting with being distracting for my taste. Dry woodiness, but there's also like a marshmallow puffiness on top. I agree. There's definitely a toasted marshmallow angle to this wine. A little spice. The tannins are a little dry on the finish, no doubt. Also, the finish really lingers and pulls you back in on this one. Have you been to this estate, Alisha? No, I've not been to Napa since working at Binny's, just as an aside. What? I know. She's been to France like 12 times. Yeah, that's true. How in the hell? Because she goes to France instead. I did go to France a lot this year. This is a really big property right on the valley floor. I mean, they got a lot of acreage and it's pretty nice palm tree line driveway. Gorgeous. And they have this amazing fruit and vegetable garden right in the middle of the estate. Yeah, Dresden Insects. Not only that, but they let you pluck peaches off the trees and things like this. They also have chickens. I've been there too. It was fun. Yeah. Only a certain section of the population would be excited about having to pick their own peaches. The whole population would be excited by it if they tasted a sun-warmed peach off of that tree, I'll tell you what. Sun-kissed peach. No, there's no kissing. No kissing. This was fully licked. Sun-liked peach. Sometimes warm fruit off a tree. Remember when he said that he didn't have any of those bookmark sensory experiences? I have none. They also, Greg, here's something for you. I do believe they grow cardoons in that garden. Fizzles, cheese. Oh, neat. You know what's up. We can get some non-animal rennet. That's becoming a theme on this show. Great. I think the Round Pond is just a bit more obvious and a bit more open about what it is, and it's a little easier. Though the complexity is certainly there and I really like the wine. But here I have to go, the Chappellet is absolutely outstanding. I mean, it's the most complex wine we've had so far. That's why I called dibs on it in yesterday's e-mail. That's also why nobody acknowledged that. Yeah. My head wasn't at what I could get out of here with, it was what I could get from this. Well, your loss. Fair enough. There's not a stinker in the bunch so far. Give us a stinker. What do you got? So we're going to go to Oakville, and both of these are designated as Oakville AVAs. So this is a very prestigious AVA. Oakville does stretch kind of all the way from the Maya Commons to the Vaca Range, and it has some pretty famous neighbors. And we're going to start with Robert Mondavi. Oh, this is going to break my heart. All right. Oh, no. Why? How much is this? This is $89.99. Oh, f**king Jesus. Why? Because when I used to sell this, it was like $35 bucks. I know that was a decade ago. This is the Oakville Barrel, right? Yes. So it was like $45 bucks. This is not the entry level Napa. Oh, man. Oakville even extends up and into the Vaca Hills. There's some interesting big vineyards like Oakville Ranch. You go up to Oakville Ranch and you're overlooking Screaming Eagle. It's really pretty cool. Speaking of great vineyard sites, I mean, Mondavi famously founded in 1966 after Robert left his family at Charles Krug. Right behind the winery, we have the one absolute Grand Cru Vineyard that everybody agrees on, Tocallan, which Mondavi still owns a large portion of, although it's split in ownership. Bextauffer, Tuck Bextauffer. Yes. Bextauffer Tocallan is now a huge piece of it. Okay. Famous vineyard managers. Bextauffer's, I mean, there are wines made under the Bextauffer name, but they're very famous vineyard management. Hand me that back when you're done with it. I want that back. Like Roger Bossert for keeping baseball stadium fields looking good? What are you talking about? Exactly like that. The Sodfather, bro. The Sodfather. Alicia, do you know what he's talking about? No. He's the groundskeeper for the White Sox. And then when Wrigley Field was all messed up, they brought him in to fix Wrigley Field. You know what, though? The Sodfather 3 was a real letdown. Yeah, I mean. So we're going to compare the Robert Mondavi Oakville to Groth also in Oakville. So we're going to see two different Oakville expressions here at two different price points. What's up? Greg's been there. Can I tell my Groth story? Oh, was this when you got sick? No, what? You threw up on a bus in Napa. Yeah, but not this time. Oh, okay. No, this was on my honeymoon. I wasn't the one throwing up then. He says with glee. That's how he got her to marry him. This is my story. You can fact check me on it. He made a bunch of money. I think it was with Atari or one of those companies. The back of the bottle says that the family bought it in 1981, but here's the story. When they bought it, this building didn't exist, but they put it on the label. The winery looks exactly like this. So when they built a building, they had to make sure that it looked like the drawing of the building. That's a real reverse engineering weirdness there. That sounds like something Binny's would do. Cool. We do have a store that looks like a castle. One that looks like a bowling alley. Let's see if Greg loves this wine. Robert Mondavi. Robert Mondavi Oakville. It's a lot of matchstick on the nose. It's pretty awesome wine. Powerhouse wine. Powerhouse wine. Tannen's almost a bit much for me, to be honest. I think at this point in its life, they're just stealing the show, so this needs time. This one is the first, this needs time wine. And I don't think that the tannins are too much for the fruit in the long run, so aging it will be okay. Sometimes when tannins overwhelm fruit in a young wine and you don't start with balance, it's just a fool's errand to try to soften those tannins over time, but this will work. Yeah, I mean, that's a good point of when you taste a wine, you're like, oh, you know, will this age? If you have extremely high tannins and the fruit concentration is not enough, the fruit is only going to go down, right? So it's never going to improve in that way. So should you age the wine? Well, is everything kind of elevated and needs some time to integrate or become more cohesive? That's really the question. I like both of these wines. Counterpoint to this needs time, I think this needs cheese. Oh. You said that like you're going to whip out some cheese. I did not. I almost bought cheese. The alternative to time is always a little air and cheese. Air and cheese. Air and cheese. So now let's go to the Groth sitting on the shelf for $59.99. Groth famously had the first 100-point line from Robert Parker. We'll see how this compares. Same direction, a little bit dialed back in intensity, and a little softer in body and brighter in fruit, like you go from again plums to like strawberries. This is strawberry cream pie. I think this kicks ass for $60. Yeah. I mean, it's solid Napa Cab for the price. This is really nice. At this point, if you're 60 or under for Napa Cab, you're winning and it's good. I mean, come on. Yeah. And you know, this is the one, I hate when people say this s***, but like this is very drinkable right now. So you can have this now and then go back to the other one. It's delightful and fresh. And I bet it's more versatile with more kinds of food. Alicia gets Instagram notifications on her watch. Wow. You've been watching her watch this whole time? Well, I just happened to see a giant Instagram logo, the size of the watch pop up. Did you see all the trades? My husband trades on Friday afternoons. I get those too. I didn't see those. This one time Jeff comes up to me and looks at my watch and he's like, yeah, your heart rate's a little high. Maybe you should go for a walk. I quit wearing it. Stupid watch. Trying to tell me what to do. We tasted this Groth earlier in the week and it showed just as well as it is showing now and presented just as much value for the money. It's really good. These are both really good. The Mondavi is awesome too. It's awesome. My palate's not there with wine where I would drink this now. I get what you're saying. It's a little skewed on the tannin spectrum of balance for sure. It's like a Dodge Challenger, like a red one. It's powerful and obnoxious, I think it's a plum crazy one. Super cool. Right. It's always fun to have too much engine for your car, right? Yeah. Well, those are both really good. And a glimpse at some real nested AVA terroir here, as opposed to a lot of these other ones. Yeah. Okay, we're on our last line up here. Another very popular item that's requested in the holidays is Silver Oak. This is number one. And for a great reason, they make excellent wines. But I could not justify opening now a $175 bottle. Wait a minute, is this shabby Alexander Valley bottling? Silver Oak Napa. Really slummin it here. Silver Oak Napa's $175. When I started at Binny's, it was $89. So I recently had lunch with- Catherine Hall. No. But basically, anyway, I recently had lunch with someone from Silver Oak. And while other wineries over the years have taken these slow price increases, they held steady for a while. And they now have to make up some ground. And so we have seen now a pretty big, big jump with Silver Oak. And they have made huge investments. They bought a lot of new vineyards, they made some huge investments in the winery. So all understandable stuff, but still, you know, still some hard prices to stomach. So with that, I did grab the Silver Oak Alexander Valley bottling. So this is not in Napa, so we're pivoting slightly here. This is in the very north part of Sonoma, so kind of northwest of Napa. Just on the other side of the mountain. Yeah. And so you still get kind of all the benefits from some cooling influences that do come up from the Russian River Valley, further south in Sonoma. But it is a pretty warm place and they make excellent Cabernet. And Silver Oak, very famous for its use of American Oak. Exclusively American Oak. A lot of these wines, you may be surprised that- Vanilla and blueberries. Yeah, a lot of the wines we've tried already have a blend of French and American Oak. A lot of people would probably just think that French Oak is dominant. And it often is, but American Oak is more pronounced expression. It really sings in lines. It's big, it's bold, it's loaded with lactones, coconut and vanilla and all of that stuff. And Silver Oak is so freaking committed to American Oak that they bought their own Cooperage in Missouri. They make all their own barrels with Missouri American Oak. And this wine I'm pretty sure goes into 50% new. So they're not shy with the new oak either. And it's not shy on the palate with the oak either. There's a very sweet spice. This is that kind of the bourbon drinker's profile that we were talking about earlier. I think this is the first wine that I'm- Coconut, it smells like American Oak. This is the first wine I think of they've gone a little too far with the ripeness. And it's not in fruit heft, it's in bruised fruit. It's so heavy on the fruit that there's- I can see that for sure. Slightly overripe cherries. Yeah, almost slightly macerated. I still think it's good. This is definitely a bourbon lover's wine. For sure. Holy cow. For sure. And then, so we used to sell, speaking of older prices, the Silver Oak Alexander Valley always used to be around like $55 or something. Yeah, we used to have Blanton's. Yeah, for sure. I understand. Like it's, I'm sure it's doubled in price, but what do we sell for now? It has done exactly that. It's $99.99. I don't know, man. I think it delivers $100 worth of value for wine. Is it the most serious wine drinkers favorite wine? No, but for somebody who wants to buy a really nice bottle of wine, they're not going to be disappointed. I think the word silver and oak cost $40. Well, I think that the name originated because of the Silverado Trail and Oakville. Oakville. Silver Oak. So even the name is a sham. It's not a sham. It's a- Well, the Alexander Valley by the way. Technically, it's a merit. They started in Napa in 19- This is another 1972 graduate. Yeah. Well, on this expense account blowing tasting lineup, apparently we couldn't afford the Napa Valley bottling. Yeah. It's expensive, dude. Billy's spidey sense is tingling. Yeah. Billy's excited to get in here. So I want to show that and go to Honig. This is 2019. Family-owned property again here and smaller production. It smells like tea. They just make a few skews. Bergamot specifically. It has orange peel lift at the finish. A little bit. But I mean more like black tea. Like it smells like, I don't know, like leafy black tea. It smells like chicory. Yeah. This one almost smells kind of woodsy. It's like cedar chips. Yeah. This has its charm. This is an outlier in this lineup and this interesting spicy quality that it has. I think we actually have kind of come full circle a little bit on more of that classic Napa Cabernet. Yeah. It has some austerity. It has a little more focus. It's not flamboyant, but there's purity in the fruit, but there's a lot of non-fruit going on. Instead of green peppers, it's red peppers. There's even a little hint. Which one is this? No, I'm sorry. I was looking at a tasting sheet. Something 20? Funky. Funky. A little bit... Honig. This is Honig. Interesting. Yeah. They make some excellent Sauvignon Blanc. Unlike some other properties, they just stick to their Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet. Me and Greg loves a good Sauvignon B. Super, super focused on what they're doing. Not as focused as Silver Oak, who under that label, it's just Napa and Alexander and that's what you get. Except for maybe Bonnie's Vineyard, but that's basically just a... When Alicia and I were talking about this, Honig used a fair amount of American Oak too, and I always get that character. I don't think it's popping out as much, obviously, nearly as much as in the Silver Oak, but I think on the finish, the retro-nasal thing, you get that vanilla custard and coconut really coming out. I think it's there. This Honig on the shelf, again, just under 50 bucks at $49.99. Nice. Right. So half the price. Really nice wine for 50 bucks. So we go from what, like $175 for Napa Silver Oak down to $100 for Alexander Valley and then $50 for the Honig. So you know. Now, don't we have the Alexander Valley Silver Oak on some kind of deep sale right now? Yeah. When this podcast comes out, it's going to be running pretty. Pretty out. Yeah. I think we don't know the price yet. It's going to be less than its front line price. We're getting in a lot of cases of the 18. So, hopefully in this, we left with some winners and... One of the managers at Geneva just texted me to ask if they could borrow my underberg belt for Halloween. Assuming you have one. Of course and of course. Assuming you have one. Jim, leave that in. The Bandolero. All right, so we've worked through 13, almost all... Of bakers, doesn't it? Napa, Napa Cabernet is here. Some big names that are certainly worth the price even with the increases that we've seen. Then I think some awesome value picks as well. Please don't discount these and you don't always have to get the same thing every single year. Every single bottle here is noteworthy and interesting, if not fantastic. At the beginning, you may mention that Napa doesn't all taste the same. We've had a pretty good selection, a tour of a bunch of different styles. Yeah. That's cool. What are your favorites? What are you taking home? Which three open bottles is Pat Keystern out of here afterwards? Chappellet, of course. I'll fight you for that one. Yeah. I like the Clos du Val and I liked probably this last one. The Honig maybe. You like that one? It's a good value proposition for sure in the rarefied world of the Napa Cabernet. The Frank was really good too. I've got six here I really like. Everything you just said but also the Artemis makes me- Artemis for Artemis. We're awesome. Yeah. Agreed. I'm pretty much on the same page with you guys. I think those are all excellent choices. Well, we can't all agree. At least you say something different. Yeah, we can. None of them are a bad choice. Well, I like the Keenan up front. I tend to like that more austere style. Growth probably. The Groth for sure. Groth. Yeah. You're showing some real maturity, a lot of growth. Then of course, the Chappellet, but honorable mentions to Hall and Honig. That Chappellet, I think probably the wine of the day for me. Solid juice. Napa Cabernet. And one Alexander Valley. And also one Alexander Valley. I mean, yeah, enjoy people. These are great. It's a time of year to treat yourselves and get one of these. They're awesome. They're all drinking great now. Thank you for walking us through these. Oh, of course. And I just going to say that there's a reason that Napa Valley is world renowned as a place to grow great Cabernet. It's not a mistake. All right. And if you enjoy our podcast as much as we enjoy Napa Valley Cabernet, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. That is all. That is all. To all the ships at sea. Thank you for listening to Barrel to Bottle the Binny's Podcast. Back in your feed next week with something more cheap. Until then, I'm Greg. I'm Pat. I'm Chris. I'm Alisha. Keep tasting.