Yesterday's mail brought a large envelope from Montelena. Inside, a nice 11x11 sisal-bound book with nice photos of/from the winery, and an "invitation."

The enclosed volume presents powerful news about an original and new lifestyle opportunity from Chateau Montelena Winery - Ultra Mont - and I am quite excited to share that with you.....

Its' not a wine club. You might say we offer experiences in which our wines and you are the participants. The priviledges of membership revolve around your lifestyle, not our latest release. For example, imagine our wines delivered to you virtually anywhere in the US within 72 hours. Perhaps you would like us to organize an exclusive and intimate dinner for you and your friends at Chateau Montelena. It would be our priviledge to host this, or to join you.

The book goes on to offer quarterly mailings with aged vintages, "hard-to-get Estate Cabernet Futures." All for a "committment" to purchase $5000 from the winery, or $3k inwines and 2k in events. And this is a "1/3 discount from the inagural $7500 invitation offering price."

I've bought futures from Montelena (not from retailers) for several years. Maybe this fits those inbetweeners who buy a lot more wine than I but without the $$ to own their own winery?!?!