I bought 4 Cabs. With all the griping I do about the skyrocketing cost of Cabs, if nothing else I felt compelled to patronize a producer that has kept prices steady, and still sells well below $75.  That alone was worth 4 bottles. Plus, a bottle of '02 that I had recently was very good. That helped pushed me over. And if that wasn't enough, they now ship to CT (three years after we became an "ship-to" state.) I applaud them for doing the paperwork to allow them to ship wine to the state with the highest per capita income, and that is in the top 5 states for per capita wine consumption. It is amazing how many wineries still refuse to go through the effort to ship wine to us. Again, for the effort, they won some business.

The 2006 Cabernet is, IMHO, worth purchasing. Barrel sample I tasted at Pride was outstanding! JimmyV, you'll be very happy with your purchase....

That's quite a premium on the 3L.

When I finally make it up to the winery to pick up my reserves I will taste these and decide whether to purchase any. The price on the chardonnay is quite reasonable, and the cab pricing is not bad either. I like the winery, but.... too much wine

It's seems as if everyone who's been on the board for a while has reached the same point. Too much wine. Everyone seems to be curtailing purchases across the board.

Too much wine is relative. Too much money to be spent on home heating oil. Too much money to be spent on electricity. Grocery bills up by 50-75% due to rising food costs. Those are the real reasons I suspect.  There is going to be a huge glut of wine on retail shelves in the next year. From what I hear from people ITB, restuarant sales are way down, and so too are retail wine sales.  I am guessing that this will also be the case with mailer orders.  I am only buying from mailers if the price is right, or if the wine will never make it to retail.  As an example, a quick check of Wine Searcher showed hundreds of places selling Loring Pinots from 2005 and 2006. And the vast majority are under mailer price (though shipping may eat into the savings a bit.)  I don't suspect 2007 will be any different. If I have to have some, I will pick it up for $35 or less on sale. No rush for the mailer.

Personally I believe there is already a glut of wine in the retail pipeline that's been building for about 3 years now and is about to reach crescendo. I'll bet you I get 2 dozen offers a day. No exaggeration. I've seen the same, tired bottles over and over on local retail shelves. Product is just not moving.

I think you're right. I also think you will be seeing a lot of wineries closing shop or put up for sale.

Maybe I'm a little behind things here, but Foley's name isn't on the winemaker notes. I don't have it in front of me but it's someone else.

Was this a mutual decision, with Foley going on to concentrate on his own brands, or a Harlan-Turley style meltdown?

Bill Harlan never employed Helen Turley.

Probably meant Bryant.

Vitis -- It was a mutual decision, came out a while ago. Foley has his own full time winery near Angwin now. Foley is still a "consultant" to Pride, meaning he spends about as much time as Michel Rolland does with his myriad wineries. Still, the crew was all trained by Foley and the fruit sources are the same... and he was still the winemaker at the time the above mentioned wines were fermented.

Now the bryant-marcassin meltdown was the wine world's equivalent of "War of the Roses"... :-)

Have not bought this in years. At least some money in the pocket. Geez...