School House Pinot Noir Napa Valley Spring Mountain Napa Valley 2013

Holy moly. SCHOOL HOUSE! It’s practically MYTHICAL, even here in Napa. This a MUST for serious collectors, aficionados of Napa’s tiny, brilliant producers, and at a truly astonishing price today. Goodness, our hearts are pounding.

We’re not worthy!! Yeah, right, we’re totally worthy. There is a LOT you need to know about School House, only a small handful of even the biggest Napa geeks know about this wine. Wow!! We really are shocked. OK, here we go. This is a LOT of VERY COOL Napa history here…like we said, serious stuff!! Did you get some yet? Come back and read this later, if need be…OK, ready to get geeky???

• DRC. Yes, Domaine de la Romanee Conti in Burgundy, arguably the greatest pinot noir producer on Earth (well, that is not really debated actually). The cuttings for the School House vineyard were brought by the legendary Gustave Niebaum (founded Inglenook) and when they converted to Cabernet in the 50s, THOSE cuttings went to School House and to this day is the only clonal selection there.

• School House was planted in 1953 (!!!) and is one-of-a-kind, perched up high on Spring Mountain.

• For decades the minuscule production has been made at Pride Mountain Vineyards, a neighbor and personal favorite of your humble scribe.

• Incredibly hard to find; retailers get a few bottles here and there but most of it goes to restaurants and collectors.

• The price. We continue to be shocked to ever GET any, much less like this.

• More info on the history HERE

• Great notes on past vintages on CellarTracker and the like. Worth noting the fantastic aging potential, too -- many of the 70s wines are still rocking.

• Your most hardcore collector friends will be amazed to see a bottle of this in your cellar!

THE WINE! If you’ve ever had a Pride wine, and can imagine them doing pinot, well, there you go. It’s always been (especially under winemaker Sally Johnson) a wonderful tension between power, lushness and elegance, and why we love it so much. This pinot noir is loaded with perfume and flavor, but glides lightly and effortlessly. Light in color, but intense and sophisticated. Cranberry, smoky earth, allspice, cigar box and minerals. LOVE the way it GLIIIIIDES…just so refined. Fantastic, cerebral stuff!! We are stoked beyond belief --- please get some. A piece of Napa history (at a price that is never going to come around again)!