“Some awfully good wine has dropped significantly in price in the past year or is being dumped right now, including 2005 Bordeaux, 2006 Châteauneuf-du-Pape, 2004 Piedmont wines and some first-rate bottlings from California's North Coast… ”—Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar
It’s times like these when we wish we were in your shoes.
We’ve heard it up and down northern California, from people who have been “in the business” for decades, and certainly seen it with our own eyes. There has never been a better time to be a wine consumer than now—and our Roaring Rock selection is solid proof.
Now the philosophy behind our selections is simple. We source wine direct from producers—wine that represents the top juice northern California can produce—and bottle it for you under our own label. But we’ve noticed that things have changed a bit in the past few years. First, quality has never been higher in northern California. The top producers are lowering yields and turning out wines that are extraordinary in both character and flavor. You’d think that this exemplary quality would make wine more dear—but that’s where you’d be wrong. Times are, to put it bluntly, weird—and great wine today is going for prices that just a few years ago would be considered folly.
To recap: wine quality has never been higher, and prices have fallen significantly. That’s an equation where you can win big, if you know how to buy and know where to look. Which is easy, as we’ve done the looking for you.
Our 2007 Roaring Rock Springs Meritage is a pleasure bomb from the fog-covered northern California coast—a unique, Bordeaux-inspired blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Our Cabernet Franc hails from the Russian River Valley, cool and finely cut with rich, black-fruited flavors. Merlot from Lake County adds a bit of sex appeal, while Cabernet Sauvignon from the heart of Mendocino County offers penetrating flavors of bright, black cherries. Mix all that up in older barrels that have seen a couple of seriously top vintages in California and you’ve got a blockbuster wine ready for either the table or the cellar—for a song.