Purchased these and several other wines at our visit to this winery in Sonoma last spring. This was one of my favorite winery visits, and drinking the wines one year later it rises to the absolute top of the heap. These are exceptional California wines for people with non-California tastes.
2018 Acorn Medley Alegría Vineyards Russian River Valley Red Blend
The Alegria is a symphonic blend of 24 varieties (and multiple clones of some) out of the over-100 produced on Betsy and Bill's 32 acres in the Russian River valley near Healdsburg. Their wines, every one, are field blends of the finest kind, some there when they purchased the initial vineyard from the Rafanellis next door and others planted since because lawyer Bill never met a grape he didn't want to grow. We've only just started opening the bottles we purchased last April and are blown away by how graceful and balanced each one is. These aren't tannic wines for the super-long haul, they're fresh, harmonious and dazzling wines with modest alcohols that accentuate the complexity achieved by their unique blending process. This, possibly the biggest wine in the line-up though not 'big' by California standards, is a "blend of blends" estimated to contain about 20% each Syrah, Zinfandel and Cinsault with lesser amounts of Dolcetto, Cabernet Franc, Sangiovese and 18 other grapes. We swooned over every drop.
2018 Acorn Cabernet Franc Alegría Vineyards Russian River Valley
Although no one else has written a word about this wine on CT, it somehow has a collective score of 89.2 points. Curious on what basis someone finds fault with this--not extracted? No heavy oak influence? Doesn't have the weight of a cabernet sauvignon? Modest alcohol? All of that is exactly what I love about it. It's medium-bodied and graceful, equally at home as a sipper or with food, with lacey complexity from the field blend mix of other grapes, many of which are white, that were vinified with 11 clones of CF. Similar in body to many pinot noirs, it's a red wine that's actually refreshing (unlike the plodding Mercer Malbec that was also on the table).