Dropout Mourvedre Castanho Vineyard Contra Costa County 2017

What do we want??!!

Gutsy, savory, meaty, richly-endowed, screaming ridiculous bargain California old-vine red!!!

When do we want it??!!

NOW!!

YES! Dropout is back (albeit in such a small amount we were hesitant to even send this email out…) --- winemaker Jon Keyes (who, it must be said, looks exactly like Vanilla Ice, oddly), and whose resume includes stints at high-falutin’, super pricey producers such as Two Hands (Australia), as Thomas Rivers Brown's assistant winemaker for several years at places like Outpost and Schrader, and currently making wine with Mark Herold for many of his high-scoring, much-collected wines. And he "dropped out" of college to do all this winemaking - thus the name for this lip-smacking red we have sold for 3 vintages now. It’s EXCELLENT and a VERY fine wine!

Grilled plum. Is that thing? Well, that’s what’s happening, along with rich earthiness, apple skin, and dark German chocolate goodness going on here, too, with good acidity to keep it pumping. These relatively (for CA) old vines were planted in 1981! If you’ve had Jon’s fantastic Albarino (we drink it poolside), wait until you try the red…HOWEVER, he made but a handful and there is very little to be had, especially at a price like this….while it lasts!