Used Shippers?

Okay, perhaps some of you may have noticed that we have shipped you wine in old, worn, often with Styrofoam and messy looking cardboard wine shippers. Here's the story:

We looked for good alternatives to standard, landfill filling shippers and there are not many out there. The ones we found were so expensive it didn't make sense to buy them. At some point over a glass or two of Chardonnay it came to us to seek out people that have shippers that they don't want anymore.

Lucky for us there are plenty of members of various wine clubs out there that are now saving shippers for us. We even had an offer from the good people at Connoisseurs' Guide to California Wine to save all their wine packaging for us. We've started adding stickers explaining whats going on (see pic)

The point is we are re-using these terrible shippers to keep them out of landfills and back in the service of safely getting wine to your door. I hope that this can become a trend in the industry, remember that Styrofoam can't be recycled so lets keep them in service.

If you have shippers to donate email us at: info@primenapa.com

Happy New Year!

A happy new year to all. 2009 was a great year for PRIME,(OK, economy issues aside) we made many new contacts got terrific placements and met some truly great people.

It amazes me how great our customers can be. We are very thankful for those people that have tried the wine and taken it upon themselves to spread the word to their friends and coworkers. Its your support that keeps the wine flowing...

Winery Update-All wines were laid down for a tasting and photo op. Unoffically, the end of the year is also the end of the winemaking season. Today marks the last day of the Malolactic fermentations for us at Prime. The Cabs have been done for several weeks but the last Chardonnay just finished up today. Actually, the PRIME Chard was arrested (SO2 added to prevent ML) but we did a small lot of full blown, new oak, full ML Chardonnay for a charity auction and that's what just finished.

Today I also tasted the '08 and '09 Cabernets. I was really amazed with the tannin levels in the '09 wines. They are babies, but way more tannin than I expected. Should age really well. The '08s are almost ready to go at this point. Very smooth and supple with great flavors. I think these are going to be some of the best wines yet. Only time will tell...

Forbes Mill Steakhouse Primes up

This week I had the pleasure of meeting up with Erin Shipp, wine buyer and sommelier at Forbes Mill in Danville. Forbes Mill is a beautiful steakhouse now in the space that I used to know as Tony Romas back in the day. I stumbled across an article in the examiner, apparently their sliders are excellent.

Erin is a delightful and extremely knowledgeable Certified Sommelier. It was great to get to talk wine with her and get some insight on how wine service works at her restaurant. Luckily, Erin liked what PRIME had going on and agreed put the D4 Cabernet on the list (and apparently secretly at the bar by the glass, if you know the secret handshake).

Erin really liked the D4 Chardonnay as well. In fact, she gave the wine some of the best compliments I could hope for. "Unfortunately, she said, I can't buy it." Funny thing about a steakhouse: they sell mostly red wine. Up to 97% red she figured. Well maybe we'll try again when the weather warms up...

Double Gold Tasting

All the double gold wines from the San Francisco International Wine Competition (Our 2006 Prime Cabernet Sauvignon D4 included) were invited to attend some traveling tastings. We attended the one based in San Francisco. It was for the trade only with wine and spirits available to sample. This was the first time I had been to Conduit Restaurant (answer to that picture for facebook peeps) and the decor was definitely inspired by its name. The food was tasty and interesting, including sweetbreads and pigs feet. All in all a fun mellow event.

#NapaCabs take over Chateau Montelena

This afternoon St.Supery's Rick Backas (@RickBackas on Twitter) got a great group together with very little notice. The plan was sent out via Twitter: If you produce a Napa Cabernet that is <$50 show up with a couple of bottles at Chateau Montelena at 3PM for a tasting and Twitter fest. Everyone got to know each other and talk about their story.
Lots of great people attended from a bunch of different wineries including-Judds Hill, Signorello, Girard, St.Supery,Titus,Cakebread,V.Sattui,Crushpad,Raymond,Ch Montelena,Flora Springs,BV,and of course, Prime. There was not a bad wine in the pack. It was nice to see how Napa producers work together to help each other. Search #NapaCabs to see comments on how it went down. Prime got gome great complements from the tasters!

2006 Prime Cabernet Sauvignon Release!

The 2006 Prime Cabernet has arrived!

Our second vintage carries on the soon to be tradition of making well crafted restrained and elegant wines. It is our goal to make our District 4 Cabernet reminiscent of some of the great wines of Napa Valley’s past by shying away from high alcohol levels and over extraction.
By no means however, is this wine timid. The first hint that this is a serious Cabernet is the opaque ruby color in the glass. The nose is also quite impressive with aromas of black cherry, forest floor, and spice. Of course the true gratification is on the palate as additional flavors of black currant, red fruits, dried herbs, and a touch of espresso, all linger on a 20 to 30 second finish. This is a classic Cabernet profile if there ever was one. Don’t feel bad about drinking a bottle as soon as you get home, but if you have a cool place to store the wine, it should age nicely for five to seven years.

Cheers!
-Ted, Lisa and Curtis

$39/bottle $421.20/case (10% case discount)

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