Ellman Family Vineyards Brothers Blend Red Napa Valley 2018

Price drops to $64.95 per bottle when you purchase 4 or more bottles!

Ellman Family Vineyards is a new project in the works here in the Napa Valley, with some serious buzz around the Valley water cooler. That tends to happen when you add THE Andy Erickson as your winemaker, and another legend, Mike Wolf, as your vineyard manager. 94% cabernet sauvignon, plus a bit of merlot is the recipe behind this rising star cabernet. Priced so low we can’t even show it here, but read on and click forward for details!

The Ellman Family, Neil and Lance, are South African-born, American-raised entrepreneurs who fell in love with Napa and her wines. After years of planning, they recently purchased a 20-acre vineyard just east of downtown Napa, and not just any vineyard - this estate vineyard was the primary component of Wagner’s Caymus Special Selection for years. If that doesn’t get the blood pumping with excitement, I don’t know what will!

To get things really rolling, the brothers signed on with Andy Erickson to head up their winemaking program, with Andy’s long-time associate, Patrick Nyeholt, serving as his boots on the ground. To complete the coup, Mike Wolf (Scarecrow, Vine Hill Ranch, Adamvs, and more) was brought in as vineyard manager, and that is pretty much about as solid of a guarantee of quality as you can get in today’s Napa cabernet world.

The wine is impressive, to say the least. This “Brother’s Blend” is the more casual of the estate’s offerings, but the winery retail is already set at $140/bottle, and with only about 750 cases made – this is designed to go the way of winery-only allocation and club soon enough. We worked a deal to get a handful of cases to share – with the promise that we wouldn’t publish the price in our marketing. Trust me, you’ll be stoked to see the deal we worked out for you...just a crazy price for a wine with such a pedigree.

The wine is a classically styled and definitively Andy Erickson product – bold, rich, luxuriously smooth, and velvety, but never overdone. The wine is flashy but not syrupy, round, and toasty, without being overly oaky, and elegant to the last. Inky blackberry, fresh pipe tobacco, mocha, and cocoa powder, with aromas of lilacs and violets, and a plump core of red plums, black cherries, and myriad bramble berries. Grilled herbs and spices carry into a seamless finish, with a whisper of iron and crushed rock extending things beautifully. As impressive of an early effort as any new Napa wine I can recall, but again, with the team behind this wine, that hardly comes as a surprise. Grab a few while we have them...there’s no telling if we’ll get access to these ever again!

FOOD PAIRINGS: Time to break out the old cheese and charcuterie board here. I’m going for a mix with dry, hard cheeses like Piave Vecchio, aged Gouda, and Mimolette. For the meats, some Iberico ham, bresaola, and Spanish chorizo. A bit of fig jam, some Marcona almonds, and everything is right with the world.