Events

1) WHITE OAK Chardonnay Estate Russian River Valley 2017: Full-bodied with a nice rich mouthfeel featuring fresh white peach and tropical fruits of all sorts, with nice touches of orange blossoms, spice and a hint of sweet oak on the long finish.  100% hand-harvested and hand-sorted, then aged for ten months sur lie (“on the lees”), which is an old-school practice usually used with higher-end Burgundies in which the dissolved yeasts are stirred back into the fermenting wine—a process known as bâtonnage—which brings a distinctly added complexity to the final wine.  It was then aged an additional six months in the bottle.  Winemaker Bill Parker produced numerous award-winning wines for Matanzas Creek and B.R. Cohn before joining White Oak. 

2) KILLIAN Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast 2016: For nearly 40 years, Ed Killian made award-winning wines for the likes of ChateauSt. Jean, Beringer, Lambert Bridge and Chateau Souverain—where he was Head Winemaker for over 25 years.  Then in 2012, he decided to use his experience and reputation to get back to his roots and focus on creating exciting ultra-limited handmade Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from a spectacular high-elevation vineyard in the extreme northern part of the Sonoma Coast, above the fog line butstill retaining very cool temperatures, allowing for slow, even ripening and great fruit concentration.  All of the fruit was hand-harvested, hand-sorted and only the best select clusters made it into the final fermentation. Elegant and complex, it’s wonderfullyaromatic with wild raspberry, dried cherry, violets and mystery... On the palate there are loads of velvety red fruits, rose petals and allspice—all framed by toasty vanillin oak. 91 points from Wine Enthusiast.  ONLY 177 CASES were produced.

3) ECLIPSE Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Moon Mountain Sonoma 2017: A Reserve bottling of JUST 80 CASES from the same Moon Mountain vineyards that the renowned Hanna Winery uses in their ultra-limited high-end Cabernet (the Eclipse almost 1/3 of the price).  Winemaker Jeff Hinchliffe began way back in the day at the iconic Christian Brothers in Napa Valley alongside the legendary Tom Eddy.  From there he was a pioneer in Mendocino wine country at Hidden Cellars and Gabrielli before coming on board at Hanna.  The Eclipse Reserve is aged 30 full months in custom French oak and produced using only free-run juice which is the juice that flows freely from freshly-picked grapes before they’re pressed, known as “Noble Juice” because of its exceptional quality.  The result is a big, plush Cab that highlights the distinctive mountain fruit—it’s absolutely loaded with intense velvety layers of dark blue and black berries of all sorts.  It’s complex and luscious, beautifully balanced with classic cigar-box earthiness, silky tannins and a gorgeous long food-friendly finish.