10121 Park Street Bellflower California

10121 is a wine i have been wanting to make for a decade.

10121 is a wine I have wanted to make for a decade, maybe longer. 

On the Label, you find My Father, GrandFather, and Uncle. Standing in the Garden in Bellflower, California. The Big 3 in my Life. The 3 that leaned on each other to create greatness. I love this photo. I love the 3 of them. I love the individuality of each of their personalities and how they gave each other room to become great in their own right. I love the power of 3 when the gears mesh just right. This wine is when the gears mesh just right, and greatness is achieved.

This triumvirate of wines: Petit Verdot - Cabernet Sauvignon - Cabernet Franc is a powerhouse of flavor. Think of a Tight Drum Kit - A Gritty Guitar and a Soulful Power Bass. Individually each can hold its own, but when they all catch the groove, the combination hits you somewhere deep in your soul, your head starts to bob, your feet begin to shuffle, and your hands begin to clap. 

This wine has been a sleeping giant of a project for the last decade. Every time we faced with a farming opportunity (read colossal problem), I would lobby my father to plant another of these varietals. First, we had the Cabernet Sauvignon - then we needed to replace some vines, and after years of convincing, I told my dad, if we graft over some of those vines to Petite Verdot, I will buy every last grape from him in perpetuity. This statement lit up his eyes. He backed my play and said, Ok. Let us do it... It was like building a team. Cab Franc was then planted into the vineyard at El Camino Real, and the band was complete. We had the Super Group 

This combination has a traditional old world slant to them in the Bordeaux region of France. Usually, those wine have a massive portion of Merlot in them. However, this bottle is dominated by Petite Verdot, often the smallest part of a traditional blend. The Cab Franc is the second beast in this wine, followed by the Cabernet Sauvignon... We are driving the wrong way up a one way street in this wine. Totally contrarian to tradition. 

Thus - this is us, again, redefining American wines by expressing our vineyards accordingly.