Any of you geeks know Carter Cellars/Envy Winery?

[Robin Garr]

It seems that Mark Carter, the owner at Carter Cellars/Envy Winery in Napa, has moved to Louisville where he's started blending very high-end bourbons. This is a natural story for me since Louisville is trying hard to cultivate status as a sort of Napa of bourbon, making bourbon travel aka "bourbonism" a big deal here. I had a good interview with Mark today and got to see the shop he's creating out of three adjacent 19th century buildings a block from, er, "whiskey row," and really enjoyed getting to know him.

Just curious if any of you are familiar with Carter Cellars wines. They're pricey, and he candidly told me that he fashioned his first wines for RMP's palate by loading in the oak, and achieved success with a 100 for his first release in ... 2006? I did not disclose to him that this does not sound appealing to me. We were getting along so well.

So anyway, just wondered if any of you are familiar with the brand from tasting or reputation. Here's a link about it from the Napa Wine Project:
https://www.napawineproject.com/carter-cellars/

[David M. Bueker]

Yeah, he achieved eye popping reviews by making blackberry pancake syrup with Cabernet Sauvignon. I have been served a couple of them blind. The bottle weight was a dead giveaway.

RP himself on a 2013: The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer To Kalon Vineyard The Three Kings is borderline perfection. Massive but well-balanced floral notes intermixed with crème de cassis and blackberry characteristics are offered in an unctuously textured, almost beyond belief Cabernet Sauvignon. This is the probably the way incredibly low-yielding Bordeaux from 1949, 1945 and 1929 tasted when young. However, this is Napa, and the ripeness and purity of fruit is remarkable. Drink 2018-2040.

And Lisa Perrotti Brown (Parker's successor in California until recently) on a 2019 is even worse: The very deep purple-black colored 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Beckstoffer Las Piedras Vineyard La Bam comes sashaying out of the glass with provocative chocolate-covered cherries, crème de cassis, dried mulberries and fresh blueberries scents plus hints of potpourri, underbrush, sassafras, cedar chest and tobacco leaf. Full-bodied and so multilayered in the mouth it makes your head spin, the palate features very ripe, very fine-grained tannins and superb freshness, finishing with awesome length and depth.

I did not know that a wine could sashay.

[Robin Garr]

I figured that was the case. He insisted on giving me a bottle of his 2019 Hossfeld Coliseum Red Blend, which per Wine-Searcher is under $100, and a bottle of Old Carter Very Small Batch Bourbon Batch 1, which goes for an eye-popping price. He told me that he applies the same approach to his bourbon as to his wine: Double oak and extra char.

That being said, we did a mini-tasting at his shop and it wasn't awful, because caramel and sweet fruit are desirable descriptors in bourbon. At barrel strength, 117.6 proof, it definitely got my attention. I'm just fascinated to see him transfer over his Napa/Parkerized approach to wine to bourbon. A quirky story for a local audience.

I did not know that a wine could sashay.

In Parker etc reviews, anything can happen.

[David M. Bueker]

I would certainly try his Bourbon. Probably choke on the price tag.

[Robin Garr]

I would certainly try his Bourbon. Probably choke on the price tag.

Yes, you would. Wine-Searcher lists average US retail on Batch 1 at $595.

[David M. Bueker]

That’s all?

[Robin Garr]

That’s all?

That’s retail, though, not after market.