School House Vineyard Mescolanza Syrah Blend Spring Mountain 2014

Do you remember the GLORIOUS day that was June 5th, 2018 when we were absolutely mind-blown, teeth-rattled to the core to offer the MYTHICAL School House Pinot Noir? Planted with cuttings from Domaine de la Romanee Conti? A Napa legend? For us, it was like winning the lottery. You simply don't get to have these wines. We went back to the winery some months back to beg and plead for more...and.....wow!! We're throwing a case or two of this in the cellar, you can bet on that!

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. This is a world-class "field blend" (if you are a Ridge fan, you'll know what we mean) of 45 rows of Syrah, 5 rows of Grenache, and 2 rows of Mourvédre planted in 1953 (!!!). The grapes are picked and fermented together, as was the custom back in the day (and still ragingly successful today for the few that do it!).

There is a LOT you need to know about School House if you don't know, only a small handful of even the biggest Napa geeks know about this wine. Seriously,  School House was a "cult" before "cult" was even a THING. OK, here we go. This is a LOT of VERY COOL Napa history here…Googling is highly recommended!! Did you get some yet? Come back and read this later, if need be…OK, here’s the scoop:

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. It is incredibly hard to find; retailers get a few bottles here and there but most of it goes to restaurants and collectors and even that is few and far between!! The price. We continue to be shocked to get ANYTHING, much less like this. 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!

We know, we know...tell us what it TASTES like!! OK! Happily. It smells like the Napa Valley does right now during harvest --- freshly crushed berries!! Dark red/purple and fantastically perfumed, the Syrah just pops with all the berries and a deep, mocha, almost Kahlua-like scent, but it's not oaky in the slightest. Clean, pure and bright, packed with secondary loveliness like rose petals, lavender, and red whips. This is NOT a big olive/meat style of Syrah, no, it's all warm, balanced and flowing and so tremendously good. A MUST.