Marcassin Vineyards

Wait, what Marcassin is located at the Calistoga Post Office? Well probably not, but the wines are still among the hardest to find in the whole wide world. I’m not going go through reviewing their wines or criticizing them as if I was an expert, but I have had a chance to try many bottles over the years, and I can say they were often unworldly and wonderful.
Now here is the funny thing, at least to me, opinions about wine are given by so-​called aficionados at a dizzying rate. Now I’ve already admitted that I’m no expert on Marcassin wines, but I do know they are extremely rare and if all the people who claim to have tried them actually did, Marcassin would need to change their name to Mondavi. Get it?

I know little about the vineyards and the new winery, but this year we finally made the Marcassin mailing list. We have tried only the 2006 Blue Slide Ridge Pinot Noir… outstanding; and the 2006 Marcassin Vineyard Chardonnay… the best bottle of wine that my wife and I had ever had. We had a bottle at each of two different occasions on a long weekend «mental health» short vacation to Orlando at the «Bull & Bear» restaurant in the Waldorf Astoria Orlando. Sharing a taste with the maitre d’ and the somilier resulted in waiver of the corkage fee (different crews on the two nights) on both occasions. We had been on the waiting list for around 14 years, before an opening which we literally jumped through, overnighting a check the day after we received our conditional offer. If you are not on the waiting list, get on it! I wish that we could afford more than the case of chardonnay and case of pinot that we bought.
It doesn’t get any better than this. My wife and I both appreciate the privilege of being on the Marcassin list and look forward to our future allocations.

The «Goddess of Wine», Helen Turley, makes California «Grand Cru» Pinot and Chardonnay under her label, Marcassin. As Parker says, Turley and her wines represent a commitment to excellence at the highest level. Check out Blue Slide Ridge or Marcassin Vineyard for truly top notch CA Pinot.