Rare wine bargains from Napa Valley

In this day and age of “price,” a real wine bargain from Napa Valley – Oakville, to be exact – has come to my attention.

Imported by Sherbrooke Cellars and sold online at liparita.com and hoopesvineyard.com, the Cabernet Sauvignon (2009), in this case, is an outstanding wine that has not found the high price tag that dominates the industry.

At $55 and $65 a bottle, both companies bring the consumer a wine that is both memorable and pleasing to both the palate and the pocketbook.

Winemaker Jason Fisher and partner John Healy explained to me that wine owner Spencer Hoopes is not after what other Napa companies have done, that being, pulling a high price from a hat and selling their wines at that random price point.

What they do, John explained, is sell over-achieving cult wine at giveaway price points.

Yes, the wines have a past history. Liparita is known as a “ghost wine,” having disappeared during prohibition. Hoopes saved the 100-year-old vineyard and Fisher has started producing outrageous Cabernet Sauvignon on the land, which is named after a volcanic archipelago off the coast of Sicily.

Hoopes said, “When I came across Liparita in 2006, the brand was in disrepair. To reintroduce the brand, we wanted to take it back to its original roots at the ghost winery. We also wanted to use the original label.”

The latter’s original label in 1900 proclaimed, “Pure California Wine.” Today, under Hoopes, Liparita’s label declares, “Pure Napa Valley Wine.”

Both Liparita and the Hoopes Vineyard are labors of love. The passion for the land and the environment is the key to success. Winemaking for winemaking dominates versus winemaking for dollars, often a Napa problem.

The back label on the Hoopes 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon says it all: “Our label is simple and light-hearted, but, our Cabernet is serious, complex and earthy. The ‘Earth’ is our 10-acre family vineyard in Napa Valley’s Oakville Appellation, surely one of the world’s most prized areas for growing Cabernet Sauvignon. Our very limited yields result in superb aromatics, strikingly rich and brilliant flavors with full soft tannins. Let us know if our wine pleased you.”

As you can see, the philosophy of the vineyard is to please the customer with a wine that wants to be seamless, complex and balanced without harsh tannins. Basically, their commitment is to make extraordinary wines at reasonable prices.

The 2009 Liparita Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon is a very aromatic wine that focuses on dark berries, especially blackberries and blueberries, on the nose. My palate was dominated with upfront spice mixed with white pepper and fig.

The long, lingering finish reaped of vanilla overtones followed by a licorice toffee finish. This wine was very pleasant on the palate and grew in flavor from glass to glass.

The 2009 Hoopes Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is an outstanding wine that has a strong cherry and dark chocolate nose followed by a balanced, tannin free palate of tobacco and spice. The wine is a classic cabernet style wine that reaches heights of balance and finesse with each sip.

Both wines are made in limited quantities.

View their websites for other wines that both Liparita and Hoopes Vineyard produces. I believe all wines from Liparita and Hoopes Vineyard are of superior quality at fair market prices.

Posted by Phillip Kampe on April 11, 2013. Filed under Columns,Food,Opinion,Wine and Beyond. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry