Press

What does it take to make a hundred-point Sonoma cab?
Start with some help from the gods
BY CHRISTIAN CHENSVOLD

How does a wine achieve immortality? Become an elixir that would please the gods on Mount Olympus? A
wine so fine it’s capable of inducing oenophilic ecstasy? Simple: to achieve wine immortality— which means 100 points from a top critic— the stars have to align in just the right way. First you need the will to make a world-class wine, and then you need a vineyard capable of rising to the challenge. Next, don’t underestimate the power of packaging and presentation to tantalize even the most persnickety wine snobs. And finally—and this is key—you need the Socrates and Aristotles of the wine press to give you golden reviews.

It also helps if you give your winery a name like Immortal Estate, which entered the market in 2014 with a cabernet priced in the elysian realm of $300 per bottle. That’s rare for anything from Sonoma County, but especially a cabernet. “When wine sells in that range,’’ says wine writer Christopher Sawyer, “it’s almost 100% because of reviews from critics. The reason Immortal Estates can charge that is because they got 100 points from Robert Parker. A wine becomes culty when it gets a hundred points, and we just don’t have
that many of them in Sonoma County.”

In the question of what comes first—the price or the review—Tim Martin, co-owner of Immortal Estates, actually set his sights on the price, which he felt was justified by the quality, and left the critics to come up with whatever numbers they saw fit. Located near Spring Mountain, the vineyard previously sold wine under the name Hidden Ridge. “When we first took over the winery, people kept calling it Hidden Valley—which is the name of a salad dressing,” says Martin. "I looked into it, and there were just too many hiddens and too many ridges out there, so we sat around and talked about what a great name would be.

“A wine writer had said our vineyard produces a cab that is 'perfection, nearly immortal,”’ he continues. “Then my partners and I were at a restaurant and the sommelier had us try a sherry from 1905 that was just incredible. It hit me that everyone who made that wine was gone, yet their work remained in that bottle.
And so we settled on the name Immortal." The quest for eternity is expressed in Immortal Estate’s logo, which depicts something entirely outside the world of viticulture. The so-called immortal jellyfish is the only creature known to man capable of reproducing its cells in order to “live forever."

So far, the strategy certainly seems to have earned the favor of the gods. When Immortal Estate was in development, people told Martin he was crazy to price a Sonoma cab in the hundreds of dollars, but early blind taste tests confirmed the quality of what the choicest vines in the choicest part of the vineyard could produce. Immortal makes about 300 cases of its Impassable Mountain cabernet at $300, and 3,000 cases of its Slope cabernet, priced at $80. Over the past four years, Immortal has scored two 100s, a 99 and a 97—Olympic gold by any standard. On the secondary market, among collectors and auctions, Immortal Estate’s cab goes for as much as $1,000.

As a former wine buyer and as a collector himself, Martin says he honestly doesn’t know how wineries arrive at their prices, which can often seem arbitrary. He only knows that he wanted to make something epic, and yet still feel that what’s inside the bottle is worth even more. “As a wine owner, you can put any price on a wine you want, but that doesn’t mean the market will agree with you. I never want someone to feel like they overpaid. These buyers are very astute, and if your wine can’t stand up, I don’t care how pretty the elements are around it, it’s just not going to be good enough. If the juice isn’t there, you’re only good for a year or two before everybody starts to talk and says it’s not a good wine, it just looks pretty. And there are a lot of brands like that.’’

"Looking pretty” has to do with the entire experience of acquiring a cult wine unavailable at even the most high-end wine shop. Oenophiles must get on an individual winery’s customer list, and every aspect of the winery’s communication, packaging and website is on par with any other ultra-luxe item, be it Ferrari in automobiles or Cartier in jewelry. Martin measures his career in “harvests” instead of years (he’s up to 26), and a Napa winery he also owns, Tusk Estate, has a 10-year waiting list. Immortal, he says, is on a trajectory to get there soon.

Ferrari makes a lot of cars that end up being “garage queens," shining spotlessly in their place of presentation and rarely getting out onto an open road and doing what they were engineered to do. And how tragic to be a diamond necklace that sits in a jewelry box, rather than adorning the neck of a beautiful woman at an elegant event. Trophy wines often suffer a similar fate, sitting in cellars collecting a layer of noble dust, occasionally brushed off to impress a fellow connoisseur. But in the end, wine is made to be drunk.

“We always say, 'Go create your own immortal moments,”’ says Martin. “We all have those times with good friends, good food and good wine, that create moments you remember forever. And you could take the same wine the next night, and it wouldn’t be the same, because it’s everything coming together that creates immortal moments.

“In life, people raise us, build vineyards and teach us winemaking, and their spirits live on in us," he continues. “This vineyard was here before me and will be here after me, and my job is to be a good steward. Years from now, someone will pull out a 25-year-old bottle of Immortal, and even though I won’t be around, the work of my hands will remain.”

By Sara L. Schneider

When it comes to wine critics’ scores—whether they sway you in any meaningful way or not— there are some thresholds that arguably matter. A bottle tagged with a 90 on the 100-point scale is in decent standing (if not in stellar position) on shop shelves, but drop that a single point, and it will languish; no one goes out looking for an 89. Halfway into the 90s is another milestone: Scores of 95 and over are downright impressive. In that range, the critics might quibble about nuance and style, but if their numbers are all clustered north of 95, they agree the wine is terrific.

The most compelling achievement, of course, is the century mark. Fully aware of the bragging rights (and marketing bonanza) riding on that perfect-100, critics don’t give it lightly. It’s the one score they’ve put the most serious thought into, and can back up with meaningful high praise. 
Alas, in light of the aforementioned marketing bonanza, most 100-point wines are elusive, unicorn bottles—the prize for the collector prescient enough to snag a ground-floor membership with the promising producer on his or her way to the top. But not all.
Periodically we scan the market for bottles deemed perfect by one or more of the most respected critics, which you can also order on the spot. Our most recent finds range from Napa Valley to Italy. As for the arguments about why they deserve their 100-point scores, we’ll let the critics themselves do the talking. 

Immortal Estate 2016 Impassable Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County

“… All Cabernet Sauvignon, the 2016 Impassible Mountain (28 months in 85 percent new French oak) … is a magical, blockbuster, yet ethereal-styled Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma. With a kaleidoscopic array of crème de cassis, sagebrush, tobacco, cedar pencil and awesome minerality, it has incredible concentration, full-bodied richness and a skyscraper- like mouth-feel, yet it also stays weightless, elegant and flawlessly balanced. There are few estates coming close to this level of quality in Sonoma with Cabernet Sauvignon, and if you want to taste pure perfection from Sonoma, try this wine! It’s still a baby, and I suspect it will need 8–10 years to hit maturity, but it’s going to evolve for 30–40 years.” –Jeb Dunnuck, jebdunnuck.com

By Sara L. Schneider

No one in their right mind would see good fortune in 20 months of a global pandemic. Yet for those of us—to be perfectly honest—for whom relief comes in the form of a glass of wine at the end of the day, there’s been a silver lining. As dinner shifted from restaurant dining rooms to takeout and delivery, and winery shopping went online, patterns emerged that made it a little easier to ride out the pain. Bottles from restaurant wine lists became available with that takeout, and the wine options delivery companies offered became almost endless. Savvy vintners started beaming their rich tasting experiences right into our living rooms via Zoom.

Now, as restaurant dining is an option once again, and wine country is fully open to visitors (albeit mostly by appointment—another pandemic adjustment that only enhances the experience), some of those accommodations seem likely to stay in place. But one consumer-friendly trend that has emerged from the era has the potential to improve our wine consumption at home for the foreseeable future: a small flurry of “little sister” wines—new labels created by exclusive (and elusive) brands at wallet-friendly prices that over- deliver with good fruit and great winemaking. In broad strokes, many of these so-called “second” wines are products of pedigreed estate vineyards, made from fruit that didn’t quite make the cut for the winery’s flagship bottling—a perfect win-win use of grapes that have enjoyed leaf-by-leaf farming alongside the barrels that did make the cut. Others are blended from great vineyards across the region, the fruit acquired through the vintner’s or acclaimed winemaker’s grower connections. (Who you know matters in Napa Valley.) In all cases, though, the “decommissioned” wine benefits from the skill of star winemakers.

Of course, second wines aren’t a new invention. Pahlmeyer has had its Jayson, and Opus One its Overture. As Beth Novak Milliken, president and CEO of Spottswoode, quipped to me once, “Our members have to have something to drink while our Spottswoode Estate [a coveted acquisition] is coming around in their cellars.” Her solution: Lyndenhurst, a terrific Cabernet made from both the Spottswoode Estate Vineyard as well as acclaimed family-owned vineyards from other parts of Napa Valley. Which brings me to one more advantage of “little sister” wines—many are crafted to be enjoyable at an earlier age than their older sibs.

What better excuse (along with the lower price tags, of course) to grab a bottle on a whim to punch up taco Tuesday!

These 11 “seconds,” old-timers and new, do their older siblings proud. We’ve listed the price of the flagships’ current releases, to let you know just how much you’ll save.

Immortal Estate 2016 Slope Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma County

Flagship wine: Impassable Mountain Reserve, $303, 100 points for the 2016 from Jeb Dunnuck.

Little sister to Immortal’s Impassable Mountain, Slope is 100 percent from the Immortal Estate Vineyard, high on the Mayacamas Range just west of the Napa border in Sonoma. The source has its privileges, like the seven different (hand) picks over the course of two weeks that the signature wine received. The 2016 Slope opens with classic cassis notes joined by graphite, savory herbs and spices, and hints of sage and forest.

There’s an awful lot to love on the palate, with juicy, briary berry fruit—red, blue and black—layered over toasted spice and mocha, with impressive length.

Buy Now: $80

By Sara L. Schneider

Whether it’s the 1920s or the 2020s, as party season commences, a timeless question remains: What bottle of wine should you bring your host?

Plenty of practical considerations arise while mulling your pick. How much should you drop? Pitfalls lurk at both extremes—too little and you’re a cheapskate or not doing as well as everyone thinks; too much and you risk showboating. Try to target the range the host typically drinks and serves. And if you don’t know, scan their Instagram posts or chat them up about recent bottles you both enjoyed to glean some intel. Then there’s the moment of the exchange: Will the bottle be uncorked or carted away to the cellar? Say buh-bye to your secret wish to taste the wine that evening; once you’ve handed it over, it’s the host’s—their choice. You could hint that if poured tonight it needs some time in a decanter, but don’t count on a sip.
Beyond the etiquette pointers, what about the actual bottle? Think in archetypes. We looked to the great partiers of the Jazz Age—the jock, the flapper, the heiress and others—and what they might have wanted to drink if they were around to enjoy our completely delicious (and legal) options today.

The Speculator

In the 1920s there was new money to be made on the fringes of growing industries from oil to real estate to even the birth of Hollywood. The speculators thrive on big risk, big reward and living large—and they’re not afraid to show it.

Immortal Estate 2016 Impassable Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County

Located high on the ridge between Napa and Sonoma, Immortal’s steeply sloped estate vineyard falls on the Sonoma side of the line. That’s a good thing: Rising from 1,100 to 1,700 feet, the vines enjoy cooling ocean breezes from the west (which never quite make it into Napa), stretching the growing season—hence good acidity, complexity and mature tannins. Spice and licorice open, with briary blackberry aromas, high-toned floral notes, dried herbs and a smoke box character emerging just behind. Deep and textured fruit flavors— more blackberry and cassis—deliver against a balance of plushness and tension, freshness and serious structure. ($303)

By Molly O'Brien

What  goes into the making of a 100-point wine?
We delve into Wine Country's most perfect creations.

What defines a wine as absolute perfection? The answer depends on whom you’re asking. There are multiple well-respected wine rating systems used in the U.S., but the most used is Robert Parker’s original scoring system favored by his Wine Advocate. This 100-point scale applies specialized criteria for what’s considered “perfection” at the time of tasting and has become something of a wine industry standard for rating quality wine. Wines that are given a score of between 96 and 100 points are considered to be “extraordinary” and worth the effort to find. 

For our purposes, the recommendations and information below are based on the Wine Advocate rating system as applied to Napa Valley’s and the Sonoma region’s wines, including many from the 2018 vintage.  

What makes a 100-point wine? Creating a 100-point wine requires a perfect storm of internal and external factors. Both the vineyard’s location and the winemaking process impact the outcome for the final product, but ultimately the quality of the wine largely depends on the climate of the year the grapes are grown. Uncontrollable forces of nature such as wildfires and weather factors like frost affect the grape quality, and not all years will yield good wines. Also taken into consideration are soil composition where the grapes are grown, the direction the vineyard is facing and the timing of the harvest.  

In terms of climate, 2018 offered nearly flawless conditions for creating the ideal vintage. There were heavy rains early in the growing season and the remainder of the season was filled with warm days and cooler nights. This allows the grapes to mature to ideal ripeness on the vine while also retaining the acidity needed to create balanced wines that are capable of aging (an important factor on the Wine Advocate scale). 

An impressive number of high-scoring wines were produced throughout the Napa and Sonoma region in 2018. Now, in the fall of 2021, many of these wines are just beginning to become available for purchase.

100-Point Wine Experiences

It can be challenging to find a 100-point bottle of wine, as such wines are enthusiastically coveted by collectors, and disappear seemingly as soon as they’re available. Luckily those wanting to indulge in one of these impeccable wines can enjoy a variety of unique wine-tasting experiences hosted at select wineries in the Napa and Sonoma region.  

Immortal Estate in Sonoma offers a one-of-a-kind “100-Point Experience.” The winery is helmed by Napa wine industry veteran and Tusk Estates co-owner Tim Martin and Randy Nichols, who is developing the new Auberge Resort at Stanly Ranch property. The pair thought it would be interesting to showcase four different vintages of their prized wines at once (each valued at more than $300 per bottle), so they created a special and soon-to-be-coveted experience.
TOR’s Black Magic wine bottle from 2018    
TOR’s Black Magic, 2018 (courtesy of TOR Wines)

This four-bottle vertical flight includes years 2013 to 2016 of the flagship Immortal Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. Two of the featured vintages — the 2013 and 2016 — have received perfect 100-point scores. The 2016 was a favorite among wine critics.

As there’s a limited amount of these wines, the intimate tastings accommodate between four and eight people at $500 per person for a 90-minute guided tasting experience and are held at an exclusive location in Napa. 

By Elin McCoy

For collectors: Immortal Estate 100-Point Experience
($500, minimum 4 people)

A spectacular hidden vineyard and a vertical tasting of a stellar, little known $300-a-bottle plush, rich cabernet are the draws. The remote property is in a rugged valley in the Mayacamas Range between Sonoma and Napa, and much of the vineyard lies on a steep 55-degree slope. In June, the winery launched this four-vintage (2013 to 2016) sampling of the winery’s flagship Impassable Mountain Sonoma cabernet, served with cheese and charcuterie. The drawing on the label is a jellyfish, the only creature on Earth that’s said to be able to live forever.

by Andrew Chalk

When I have to drink wines like these so young (it is the current release) I am left with feelings of schadenfreude, ennui, pan perdu (?) at the oenological infanticide. How would such an age worthy category have emerged after a fleeting twenty years in the cellar (especially an ‘immortal’ wine)?    

A BLOW THE CELLAR DOORS OFF RATING

I knew nothing about Immortal Estate before this tasting and was blown away. Generally, I save reading the background material to wine reviews until after I have tasted the wine, so as not to predispose me to anyone else’s opinion. When I read the collateral material here I discovered that critics from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and critic Jeff Dunnuck had both given the ‘Impassable Mountain’ 100/100 points, a less than 1 in 1000 event. I could not get any professional 2016 scores for the ‘Slope’ but would place it in the upper half of the 90s. In particular, it is less inscrutable to drink now. 

THE VINEYARD

The ‘Immortal Estate’ brand is made by Hidden Ridge Vineyard from a 50-acre 1998 vineyard set high in the Mayacamas Mountains, close to the dividing line between Napa and Sonoma Counties. This affords early morning and late afternoon ocean breezes and protection from inland valley heat. Soil is a dog’s breakfast of uplifted alluvium and decomposed volcanic material. Aside from being remote to reach (a matter which drones are likely to ameliorate in the next few years) the vineyard is topographically formidable. Slopes approaching 55 degrees at times (‘Slope’ was named ‘Slope 55’ for a time) make basic agricultural operations a major effort and the difference in latitude from 1100’ to 1700’ between the top and bottom creates what are legitimately multiple growing zones.

The new ownership (since end 2016, see below) have gone through an orgasm of additional planting including petit verdot, cabernet franc, malbec, mourvèdre, grenache, sémillon, sauvignon blanc, sauvignon musqué, and rolle (vermentino). This broad swathe of viticulture suggests a major change of course from the 100% cabernet sauvignon wine being made now. I ask winemaker Timothy Milos if they are preparing for Armageddon. “I’m not sure our plantings will divert Armageddon! The majority of the vineyard will remain cabernet sauvignon (some 86%) with about a percent each of the other bordelaise varieties. We planted sauvignon blanc and sémillon to our coldest north facing sections of the vineyard that have struggled with ripeness as Cabernet, and varieties for rosé (rolle, mourvèdre and grenache) just above that. Our main consideration in planting for climate change was choosing a rootstock with a shorter vegetative cycle to reduce our season length and perhaps avoid the uncertain weather at the end of October. Drought tolerance was also an important consideration, although it was with the original plantings too.”

THE TEAM

Winemaker Timothy Milos is the continuity factor, having made wine here for nearly 20 years. He trained at U.C. Davis, was formerly head winemaker at S. Anderson and then Cliff Lede. 

Co-owner and GM Timothy Martin is part owner of cult winery Tusk and a former Lail employee and Melka Estates manager. 

Co-owner Randy Nichols is a real estate developer who craves singular lieu dites when it comes to vineyards and whose company, Nichols Partnership, is currently developing the new Auberge property in Carneros—Stanley Ranch

WINEMAKING

Winemaking, as always seems to be the case with cult California wines, is remarkably mainstream.  Hand harvesting takes place a few subsections of rows at a time as ripening progresses (judged by taste). It takes two full weeks to harvest the whole acreage. 

Strict berry selection is by mechanical sorting (they have experimented with optical sorters as well). Then maceration seems to be the operative word. Cold-soak for 2-3 days prior to fermentation, mixing daily either by punch down or pump over. Milos says “Our total maceration time, crush to press, runs from about 30 days to over 60 on rare occasions. I find the balance is typically achieved between 35 and 45 days total time for Cabernet. The decision is based entirely on taste and varies from vintage to vintage.”.

TASTING NOTES
Immortal Estate 2016 ‘Slope’ Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, CA ($75)

Winemaking:  Fermentation is in 75% new French oak. Individual barrels from five lots were selected for the final blend which was racked twice before being bottled unfined, and unfiltered in April 2019. Ageing since that time has been in bottle until release. A total of 21,060 btls, 288 magnums (so, despite Hugh Johnson’s entreaties, they have not made half bottles)

Appearance: Totally opaque, purple rim, dark berry core;

Nose: Cassis, five spice (esp. the cinnamon), cherry, tobacco;

Palate: Chewy tannins, black cherry. Ready to drink now with prime rib or fatty steak cuts like ribeye or strip; 

Immortal Estate 2016 ‘Impassable Mountain’ Cabernet Sauvignon, Sonoma County, CA ($303)

Fermentation is in 85% new French oak. Full malolactic fermentation. Individual barrels from two lots were selected for the final blend which was racked three times before being bottled unfined, and unfiltered in April 2019. Ageing since that time has been in bottle until release. A total of 4734 btls, 186 magnums, 15 jeroboams.

Appearance: Intense dark fruit core, ruby meniscus;

Nose: Cedar, blackberry, spice notes of nutmeg and clove. 

Palate: Long complex finish of new French wood and fruit. Profound but approachable tannins. A feeling that this wine is less giving in its youth than the Slope but that it also has a more substantial recoil of flavor to be released on maturity. No qualms about keeping this a decade.

Samples

Close your eyes, point to any one of the more than 800 wineries on the Napa Valley and Sonoma County winery maps, and there is little doubt that your blind selection yields a wonderful wine tasting experience. Most of the region’s wineries welcome guests with open arms, offering gracious hospitality within their verdant vineyards. But a few wineries and winemakers go a step further, immersing wine lovers in the vinous process while revealing their secrets to success. Others roll out a virtual red carpet, creating elegant, otherworldly environments in which to escape, if only for an hour or two. And one Napa Valley vintner soars (quite literally) to new heights with her elevated wine tastings. If you are one not easily gratified by a routine sampling of Napa Cab, these wine tasting experiences are for you.

Immortal Estate 100-Point Experience

Immortal Estate is a luxury Sonoma wine brand from Tim Martin of Tusk Estates and Randy Nichols, developer of Napa’s new Auberge Resort at Stanly Ranch Carneros. Their 100-Point Experience takes place in Napa at a private, undisclosed Rutherford location and includes pours of four vintages of their flagship Cabernet Sauvignon, Impassable Mountain, including the 2013 and 2016 vintages, which were each rated 100 points by both Robert Parker of the Wine Advocate and critic Jeb Dunnuck. This immersive dive into these world class wines is for groups of four to eight. ($500 per person)

For many people, the best way to celebrate the end of lockdown is drinking lots of wine

As the tourism industry continues to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, one thing is becoming clear: people still want wine. According to a new report, expensive wine tasting sessions are being booked at a rate that some would describe as "off the charts."

Demand for wine tastings costing $500 or more is higher than it has ever been in California's Napa Valley, MSN reports. According to the news outlet, some vintners have claimed to be surprised at how fast some of their most expensive offerings are being bought up.

In some areas, these events can result in bills costing tens of thousands of dollars.

One winery owner spoke with MSN, saying that he wasn’t expecting a big rush when he introduced a new $950-per-person experience.

One winery owner spoke with MSN, saying that he wasn’t expecting a big rush when he introduced a new

$950-per-person experience. The package includes tours of various vineyards that go into making one of the winery’s most popular cabernets. According to him, however, the demand for the experience is outpacing its availability.

Tim Martin, owner of Tusk Estates and Immortal Estate, also spoke with MSN. "June is typically not a big month for wine hospitality here, especially for high-end reds," he said. "But requests are off the charts. I have not seen traffic like this for years."

The demand is likely connecting to California revoking many of the lockdown restrictions that were put in place during the last year. Since the rules were changed right as the weather started to warm up, it’s seemingly created a perfect storm of stir-crazy wine lovers looking for something to do outside of the house.

“June is typically not a big month for wine hospitality here, especially for high-end reds,” says Tim Martin, owner of Tusk Estates and Immortal Estate, which just began offering a $550 tasting. “But requests are off the charts. I have not seen traffic like this for years.”

A $550 flight over the vineyards of Carneros in a vintage airplane. Glasses of Champagne in a limo ride to a winery, starting at $850. Private tutorials with Wine Country chefs on how to pull mozzarella. And for another $750, Baccarat crystal glasses engraved with your name.

These are just a few of the extravagant wine-tasting experiences available in Napa Valley right now — and the demand for them, vintners report, has never been higher. Some wineries are adding tastings that cost $500 or more, and concierges who charge more than $1,000 a day are hiring to keep up with inquiries from people wanting unique — and private — experiences.

“June is typically not a big month for wine hospitality here, especially for high-end reds,” says Tim Martin, owner of Tusk Estates and Immortal Estate, which just began offering a $550 tasting. “But requests are off the charts. I have not seen traffic like this for years.”

With California’s pandemic restrictions ending and the weather heating up, it’s little surprise that tourists are flocking to Wine Country. But this version of wine tasting is a far cry from what the masses who descend on the busy tasting bars along Highway 29 experience. Bills for these high-end Napa vacations can easily add up to tens of thousands of dollars; some vintners even expressed surprise at how quickly their priciest offerings are selling, considering the economic impact of the pandemic.

Tor Kenward, owner of Tor Wines in St. Helena, wasn’t expecting a huge rush when he started hosting a new premium wine tasting last year called the Black Magic Experience. For $950 per person, visitors can tour marquee-name vineyards like To Kalon, Vine Hill Ranch and Dr. Crane, whose fruit goes into his Black Magic Cabernet. Given the high price tag, Kenward thought it would take some time to generate interest in the wine tasting. And yet, “We have a way greater demand for it than we’re able to take care of right now,” he says.

It’s a sharp twist from recent fears that the valley was sliding into a tourism downturn due to the COVID-19 crisis and the 2020 wildfires. Now, the air is clear, the orange sky of 2020 a distant memory. The wealthy appear eager to spend their money in Napa Valley.

That there’s ready cash for such luxe leisure pursuits could be due to the larger economic patterns of the moment: According to the Institute for Policy Studies, America’s billionaires increased their fortunes by 45% during the first 12 months of the pandemic. But there’s also pent-up demand from non-billionaires who are ready to travel and spend some money again. Theorem Vineyards, located on Diamond Mountain in Calistoga, is receiving more requests for tastings than it can accommodate, says owner Kisha Itkin.

That goes for the standard experience at Theorem, which involves a tour, a tasting of three to four wines and a cheese plate ($150-$250), as well as for its pricier offerings: a tasting that involves a limo ride from your home or hotel with Champagne, followed by a private food-and-wine pairing ($850-$1,500 per couple, depending on the driving distance); and the Theorem Vineyards Baccarat Experience, which provides a custom-engraved crystal wine glass made by the French company Baccarat ($750 per person).

A lingering desire for social distancing may also contribute to the high demand: A private experience can now command a premium. “People are definitely willing to pay a little more because it’s so private,” says James Cerda, Theorem’s vice president of sales and marketing.

Plus, with many Americans still wary of international travel — and many countries still not open for tourism — domestic destinations like Napa and Sonoma are likely getting some of that summer-trip traffic. And many of those traveling there likely want to do something special. Experts say that as the pandemic ends, people are seeking out more adventurous, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, perhaps because COVID was such a stark reminder of our mortality.

Angela Duerr, owner of the concierge service A Cultured Vine, which plans luxury experiences in Napa Valley, says interest in high-end experiences in Napa is the highest she’s seen in years. “It’s like they turned the faucets on really high,” Duerr says. She had to hire a new employee last month just to keep up with the requests.

Duerr’s clients, she says, are not content to have the same wine-tasting experience they had on their last trip to Napa — nor do they want something that can be arranged via a Wine Country booking service like CellarPass.

“I need to come up with things that you couldn’t have done on your own,” says Duerr. “It could be something like: Let’s get on a helicopter, go for a ride, land next to a vineyard, now you’re under this 500-year-old oak tree and it’s nothing but you and the winemaker and a table that’s already set.”

For that, clients pay up: Duerr recently planned a trip for a 10-person group with a total price tag of about $80,000, and another for a set of three couples that ended up near $40,000, including airfare. Contributing to those bills are a rental house or hotel, private chef dinners and Duerr’s own fee, which begins at $1,600 for two days of trip planning for up to four people. (For larger groups, it starts at $2,200.) Those sums also account for the expectation that a group will spend at least $2,000 on wine at each winery it visits.

For vintner Shannon O’Shaughnessy, tourists’ desire for special additions has helped fuel her new wine brand Aileron Estates, which launched during the pandemic. A pilot who loves flying, she began offering biplane flights in addition to tastings. For $550, you get about 20 minutes in the air — complete with some loopy “aerobatics,” if you want them — in vintage, open-cockpit aircraft. (It gets pretty loud, O’Shaughnessy warns.) Boxed lunch is available at an additional cost. Later, you head to Brasswood in St. Helena, where she hosts tastings.

“Small wineries are usually vying to get attention and to try to get people to come for tastings,” she says. “And now I have so many requests that it’s starting to feel like a full-time job.”

It’s possible that Napa’s current luxury-tourism boom is a bubble, and that it could burst. The region’s famed wine industry faces plenty of obstacles: It’s struggling to attract Millennials, and wine consumption overall is not growing in the U.S. If the 2021 fire season — which could be severe in California — proves as widely damaging to the grape harvest as 2020’s was, that could spell serious damage to Napa Valley’s economy. The area’s prestige may be strong enough to withstand a crisis like that, or interest in its fancy wine excursions could fade.

But for now, these upmarket experiences point to the way that wine sales have evolved. Luxury wine customers are less inclined to buy wine sight unseen than they might have been in the past, when a 90-plus-point score from a trusted critic was enough endorsement. Today, those customers want to walk through the vineyard, spend real time with the winemaker and snap some memorable photos before buying. Helicopter rides and engraved crystal help sweeten the deal.

Still, some of the new high-end offerings are old-school: just tastings of expensive wine.

Immortal Estate, which calls its new $550 offering the 100-Point Experience, involves a tasting of four wines, bottles that sell for $75 to $303. The allure, according to Martin, the owner: Two of those wines earned 100-point scores from the Wine Advocate. The $550 fee is a steep one for four pours, but Martin says it’s meant to signal that this is something only for hard-core wine collectors.

“To be able to pull from our library,” says Martin, “there has to be some kind of fee to separate the looky-loos from the people who are serious.”

Kenward, owner of Tor Wines, says people — including customers — even tell him that he should charge more for wine. (His most expensive wine, the $450 Black Magic, recently got a surge of publicity after golfer Phil Mickelson drank it out of a trophy in an Instagram video.) At one point, Kenward says, a friend of his “who sells wine to the black-card people” talked him into charging $155 for a Chardonnay, as opposed to Kenward’s typical $85. All 90 cases sold out in one day, surprising even Kenward, who admitted it’s always a shock when an expensive wine sells out so quickly.

“A lot of people predicted that we’d have the Roaring ’20s after the pandemic, and maybe they’re right,” Kenward says. “But to be honest, it feels a little crazy.”

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley

Region, A Cutting-Edge Wine Bar, Opens at The Barlow

Region, a new wine bar at The Barlow in Sebastopol, is the first of its kind in Sonoma County, pouring 50 small production wines from self-serve WineStation machines and providing intimate access to winemakers in a casual setting.
The WineStations use an argon gas preservation system to keep the wines fresh for up to 60 days and dispense from a tap at the push of a button. At check-in, patrons get a tasting card, which looks a lot like a hotel key. The tasting card is then linked to the patron’s credit card and they can sip the day away. Sure, it could be a little dangerous for your wallet, but each wine is offered in a 1, 2.5, or 5 oz. pour and the machines display pricing for each wine, which range from $1 for a 1 oz. pour to a whopping $91 for a 5 oz. pour of Immortal Estate’s Impassable Cabernet Sauvignon. (Don’t worry, most 5-ouncers are priced at $15 and under.)

“We’re taking a unique approach to the wine industry and, respectfully, we want to disrupt it a little bit with this new way to experience wine,” said Region co-founder and longtime Sonoma County local Kerry Thedorf, who, along with her business partner Johan Eide, a Sebastopol native, have been working together to bring Region to life for nearly a year.

Located next door to Golden State Cider, Region partnered with 25 carefully selected producers, most of which are lesser-known boutique brands, like Frostwatch Winery, Front Porch Farm, and Thirty-Seven Wines.
“Our goal was to help the small guys that can’t afford the million-dollar tasting room or are so off the beaten path that they need help with foot traffic and getting the word out,” said Thedorf.

The wines span 14 appellations (almost exclusively Sonoma County) and while there is of course plenty of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on offer, there are also some hard-to-find grapes like Albarino, Gewurtztraminer, Semillon, and Carignane. DRNK Wines even has an orange wine, a skin-contact Pinot Gris from Bennett Valley.
Wines can also be purchased by the glass or bottle and Region has a list of nine flights on their menu. The Au Natural, for example, highlights green-conscious growers, while Sonoma Sunset features wines that fall between red and white in color.

The space is light and airy with neutral tones, poplar wood, and tile accents. Clean lines are everywhere you look and are meant to embody vineyard rows. (Dan Quinones photo)

Thedorf and Eide originally envisioned reclaimed wood and antiques for Region, but after realizing both were quite common not just in Sonoma County, but even within The Barlow, they went in another direction for the design.
The space is light and airy with neutral tones, poplar wood, and tile accents. Clean lines are everywhere and are meant to embody vineyard rows. Communal tables (set with leather bar stools) were partly constructed from wine barrel racks and there are a few couches for lounging. On theme with Region’s mission to do wine differently, there are two prints of aerial vineyard photography by Dan Quinones, which present the vineyard in a new, abstract way.

The WineStations are set up in one room and, in another, there’s a tiled bar where a winery partner sets up shop each week to hand-pour a selection of additional wines that aren’t available in the machines. These wines can be anything from current releases to older vintages and verticals. Thedorf said producers should treat it as a pop-up and can get as creative as they want during the two weeks a year they are the featured winery, hosting everything from winemaker dinners to pick-up and release parties to educational seminars. Front Porch Farm is up first for the grand opening and will be bringing their farmers market stand with them.

“We wanted to take the approach of the brewery mentality. I want that connection with the winemaker, I want to know where [the wine] is grown, I want to know all the ins and outs of it, not necessarily in traditional wine education, but easily broken down — the nuts and bolts of it,” said Thedorf, who has already seen many winemakers pop in even when it’s not their week. “It’s a breath of fresh air to have the winemakers in the space.”
For food, Region has partnered with several Barlow neighbors, who will deliver orders as they are placed. Patrons can choose from a selection of sandwiches from The Farmer’s Wife, like the Gravenstein Apple Grilled Cheese and Grass-Fed Beef Filet, or pies from Acre Pizza, like the Potato Pizza. Sushi Kosho has three kinds of poke, a Wagyu short rib, and a Bahn Mi sandwich on offer, while Fern Bar has a variety of dishes, including churros and a fried chicken sandwich.

Region’s grand opening is scheduled for July 25, but they will be open for a preview this weekend, Saturday and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. In compliance with Sonoma County’s reinstated guidelines for outdoor seating only, Region has an expansive outdoor patio and Thedorf said they have set it up so that patrons will still be able to safely use the wine machines and interact with the featured winery.

By MaryAnn Worobiec

Supermodel and actor Kate Upton shot from obscurity to international fame in 2011 with a viral video and an appearance in Sports Illustrated. She’d be on the cover of the magazine the following year—and then three more times—and has since expanded her career in modeling and acting to campaigns for Bobbi Brown, Express and Guess, plus parts in The Other Woman and The Layover.

Through her travels with her husband, Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander, Upton, now 28, grew to love wine. At Auction Napa Valley 2016, she offered to accompany the winning bidder of one lot to a Golden State Warriors championship game; the lot gaveled off for $1.04 million. In 2019, the couple decided to add wine to their résumés, becoming co-owners of Immortal Estate in partnership with friend and Tusk Estates proprietor Tim Martin, who had first invested in the property in 2016 and changed its name from Hidden Ridge.

The steep, Cabernet-dominated vineyard is on the Sonoma side of the Mayacamas Mountains. It’s a dramatic site, ranging in elevation from 900 to 1,700 feet, with 50 acres planted on the slopes of Spring Mountain. Upton recently spoke with senior editor MaryAnn Worobiec about her favorite boutique producers, her pilgrimages to wine institution Bern’s Steak House, and what she and Verlander are up to in the kitchen these days.
Kate Upton and Justin Verlander
Kate Upton and Justin Verlander have made it to the top of their fields, and now they're pretty high up on Spring Mountain too. (Courtesy of Tim Martin)

Wine Spectator: How did you get into wine?
Kate Upton: When I was working and I spent a lot of time in Europe, it was very much a part of the culture there. After a long day of work, everyone bonds over dinner and a glass of wine.

I always preferred white wine until somebody, for my 22nd birthday, brought me a few bottles of Opus One. That’s when I knew I was really a red wine drinker.

WS: Did you start traveling to wine regions?
KU: When Justin and I first got together [in 2014], we both found a similar interest in red wine. When we first started dating, I was in Tampa and he was in Lakeland, Fla., so we would go to Bern’s Steak House because it had [one of] the largest wine cellars in the world. We enjoyed trying all of these new, fun wines together. For off-season that year, it was both of our first trips to Napa.

Going to Napa completely changed our experience with wine. Learning about how it was made, and the culture in Napa … To their core, everyone there is a farmer, and they have this love of wine. There is such a strong community there—there’s a sharing of wine and information. We were hooked. We try to go back at least once a year.

WS: Do you have favorite places to visit in Napa?
KU: We try to go to at least one different place just to experience something different each time, but we love Tusk; it’s such a beautiful property. Hourglass is a cool experience, in the vineyards and cave. We actually did Melka last time—I love their CJ [Cabernet]; it’s a very drinkable wine.

Napa is about friendship and a family environment. Take a place like Lamborn. You walk in, and it’s like you’re walking into a family house. You see how much love they put into the wine. Being able to experience that and hear their generational story, it adds so much to the wine.

WS: Do you collect wine at home?
KU: Yes, we have a wine cellar. It’s one of our favorite places in our home. Wine really brings people together. [Our cellar is] mainly Napa Cab. Then we have different fine wines, mainly super Tuscans, Brunello. One of Justin’s former teammates on the Astros, Gerrit Cole, is a big Bordeaux lover. He has shared his love of Bordeaux with us and it’s really rubbed off. So we’re kind of new Bordeaux drinkers. But I’m definitely ready to learn—ready to get some bottles under my belt.

WS: Do you enjoy cooking?
KU: We both enjoy cooking. We mainly cook in the off-season, because that’s when he’s home for dinner. I always cook different fishes, or salmon. He’s usually grilling steak. He’s really into sous vide right now, which is really amazing.

WS: How did you get involved with Immortal?
KU: From our frequent trips to Napa, we formed a friendship with Tim [Martin], and we were [members of] Tusk. Tim reached out to us about wanting to take over Hidden Ridge and rebrand it, because it was an amazing wine.

I think we were probably the easiest sell. We have a real love for Napa, wanted to find a way to become involved, but also wanted to make sure it was the right team and the right wine. When I first got involved, I was pregnant, and I banned myself from Napa; it was too sad. Now, though, I’m hoping to be way more involved in each of the steps.

99 points

All from estate fruit, the 2014 Impassible Mountain is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon that spent 27 months in 75% new French oak. It reveals a deeper ruby/purple color as well as a beautiful perfume of blackcurrants, mulled spice, graphite, crushed rock, and earth. Incredibly deep, full-bodied, and opulent, yet always with a sense of purity, minerality, and length, it's a monumental wine that builds on the palate, has ultra- fine tannins, no hard edges, and an awesome finish.
— Jeb Dunnuck

WINNING RED

Just because it’s spring doesn’t mean you can’t drink red! This bottle is a great pairing for a nice dinner.

Immortal Estate 2014 Slope Single Bottle, $97, Immortal Estate.

It is safe to say that Immortal Estate founder Tim Martin has gleaned his share of knowledge of Northern California wine terroir over the years. Early in his career he held positions with Lail Vine-yards before starting several enterprises, including Tusk Estates, whose coveted vintages are only sold to friends-of-friends, with a 10-year waiting list. But when Martin first visited the Sonoma County vineyard that he and his partners would buy and rebrand as Immortal Estate, he knew the moment he turned off the road from Spring Mountain that this place was something different.

“When you turn to the left,” he explains, “you drive Indiana Jones style for about a mile, deep into the woods. Further into the mountains . . . you’re in the jungle. There are no vineyards around, it’s not your typical bougie thing that’s been built.”

The steep spot where Immor-tal’s vineyards grow appears on a 19th-century stagecoach map, identified with the inscription “Impassable Mountain.” Today it remains inaccessible during rainy season; the property is not normally used to host visitors. What makes the place distinctive is a natural spring that feeds the property’s ponds, and the 55˚ slope that had been terraced and planted by the prior owners in the 1990s, a far steeper incline than would be permitted today under county regulations.  

That terroir, which produced Cabernet that garnered a 100-point score from Robert Parker, is what convinced Timothy Milos, the winemaker who had crafted that wine, to accept Martin’s offer to continue as winemaker under the new ownership, with an eye toward greater successes ahead.

“Someone said to me, ‘How do you get better than a hundred points?’” Martin says. “Points are very arbitrary, very subjective, one person’s opinion. I respect it and appreciate it, but I believe that you should always be striving to do more, and what I know is that this vineyard can actually do better, and so did Timothy.” 

As Martin speaks, his fiancée Jessica Biggins, who handles the marketing side of the business, pours from a decanter a glass of Immortal Estate’s 2014 Impassable Mountain Cabernet. A welcome spiciness is notable on the mid-palate. Just a couple of weeks earlier, Immortal had released its second label, a more fruit-forward mountain Cabernet called Slope, at a more accessible price point than Impassable Mountain.

“You see vineyards like this in Europe,” Martin says of the steep terraces, recalling time he spent in Bordeaux with winemaker Philippe Melka. “You don’t see them here. One of the things we’re doing is going through all the blocks, and the ones that are good but not great, we’re ripping them out and starting over.” The plan is to re-plant the whole vineyard over the next 10 years or so, taking greater care with the selection of root stock and clones than Martin believes was done for the original planting. 

As we sip our Slope, talk turns to the conditions the Northern California wine country has endured over the past couple years: wildfires and, more recently, flooding. Martin views such events philosophically as part of what makes his job a happy challenge.

“Generally, if you’re making a luxury good—a car, a watch—you’re doing it in the containment of a shop, and you can control all the elements. We’re still subject to Mother Nature. Wine is unique in the luxury space, in that a good portion of the entire project is completely not in your control. Therein lies part of the adventure and fun,” he says. “And also for us, a lot of the stress. It keeps everyone in this industry on our toes.”

The guest for this episode is one of the most industrious and deep-thinking winemakers for whom I’ve had the opportunity to sit down and explore their winemaking brain. Tim Milos is a winemaking consultant and through his various projects is all over California, Oregon, and has experience with more varietals than anyone on the podcast to date. Our conversation gets into the weeds on technical aspects of extended maceration, ideal varietals for natural winemaking, the merits of racking, Tim’s organizational strategy, and problem-fermentation management.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

• Tank Garage Winery, Calistoga, CA

• Immortal Estate, Sonoma, CA

• Bounty Hunter Rare Wine and Spirits

• T-Vine Winery, Napa, CA

• Esther Mobley’s mentioned article from The San Francisco Chronicle

Among the dozens of perfect-100 scores Robert Parker Jr. awarded the 2013 vintage, one went to an almost-unknown Cabernet. Parker said this in The Wine Advocate: “This wine is nearly immortal, drinking well young, and for those with the patience and wisdom to wait 25 to 35 years, a legacy wine from Sonoma.” For many Cab connoisseurs, this “Impassable Mountain” from the former Hidden Ridge Vineyard was a revelation, not only because the winery was obscure, but also because of that last bit—the wine was from Sonoma.

For his part, Tim Martin, who, with partner Randy Nichols, acquired the property in 2017, is excited to tell the world that Sonoma can produce world-class Cabernet Sauvignon. “This is a wine about place,” he says. Parker might have discovered the wine, but it was the site Nichols loved. Tucked on the steep slopes of the Mayacamas, these precipitous vineyards—in 25 small blocks—undulate around knolls and ridges, creating a bowl of sorts. According to Martin, air from Sonoma’s Petaluma Gap is drawn in and caught here in a cooling swirl.

These are, in fact, vineyards that could never be planted today. Topping out at 55-degree slopes, they’re way too steep for new regulations. But the variations in elevation and aspect they create translate, as far as Martin is concerned, into complex wines, wines that could come from no other place.

Martin, known in wine-collector circles as the partner (with Philippe Melka) in top-rated Tusk wines, has rebranded Hidden Ridge as Immortal Estate, and his goal—with winemaker Timothy Milos, who has been with the vineyards through their Hidden Ridge years and who Martin describes as a “nerdy chemist”—is nothing short of producing the best Cabernet in Sonoma. But to do that (Parker’s 100 for the ’13 notwithstanding), he says, investment is called for. You have to put substance behind a goal like that: Nutrients need to go back into the land, parcels need to be replanted, practices adjusted in the vineyard . . . Some things in these wild hills defy taming, though. Vineyard manager Juan Servin, also a seasoned part of the team, recently sent out a cryptic warning: “Be careful— there’s a bear roaming around out here!”

Immortal Estate’s 2014 signature Impassable Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon ($303— Martin isn’t fond of round, straightforward numbers) is a dark, complex beauty, seesawing between savory and sweet notes. Blackberry aromas are layered with haunting florals and earthy crushed rock, while generous red and black fruit on the palate is layered with cedar and spice and balanced with a powerful, grippy structure.

The 2014 Slope Cabernet might be slightly more approachable at an early age, but it harbors its own share of complexity—beautiful violet and cassis aromas followed by a silky (but powerful) palate of ripe berries, savory herbs, baking spice, and dark chocolate (a terrific deal at $97).

Which brings us to jellyfish. (You’d expect talk of jellyfish in a piece on Cabernet, right?) It turns out there’s a minuscule species with the capability of reverting to its primitive, polyp stage and then forming a new polyp colony, theoretically living forever. The striking likeness of the Immortal creature on the black bottle, glowing as if lit from behind, connects the dots for Martin—the longevity of the wine described by Parker, the ability people have to live on when they invest in others . . . and the immortality we approach when we create certain things. “Bottles of wine,” says Martin, “are time stamps.” These particular bottles have the stamp of impossible, impassible slopes high on the Sonoma side of the Mayacamas Mountains. The Immortal Collector Pack ($1,414), which includes an etched magnum and two 750s, would certainly make that memorable.

97 points Robert Parker's Wine Advocate: "The 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon 55% Slope comes from the Sonoma side of the Mayacamas Mountains. It is 100 % Cabernet Sauvignon from a vineyard planted at 1,700 feet. This is a remarkable wine and reminiscent of the great classics from the golden era of the Mayacamas on the Napa side (such as the 1968, 1970, 1973 and 1974) come to mind when tasting this beauty. It is simply loaded. Dense purple in color, the wine has notes of licorice, crème de cassis, Asian plum sauce, cedar wood and earth. Full-bodied, opulent and irresistible already, it is capable (because of the impeccable balance and purity) of aging 20-25 or more years. This is a modern-day classic that could compete with very finest Cabernet-based wines in the world. (RP) 97+" (03/2016)

James Bradshaw | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: November 07, 2018
It's no secret that the 2013 vintage for Cabernet in California's North Coast was phenomenal. And this sterling effort from Hidden Ridge is certainly no exception. This is high-elevation Cab at its best. Unlike its brethren on the other side of the Mayacamas Range, this 2013 is stately and demure (as opposed to rambunctious and raucous). Don't get me wrong, there's no shortage of bold, dark fruits and excellent wood spice, but its framed in a reserved manner. The overall effect is tantalizing. Plum, cassis, mocha, cedar, Asian spice, and anise seed all work together to create an experience that captivates from the first sip to the last. It is an absolute joy to drink now, but I can't wait to see what it does ten to twenty years down the line. A top-notch wine in every way. Don't miss it.

Ryan Moses | K&L Staff Member | Review Date: November 07, 2018
It only takes one quick sniff to see the remarkable pedigree here as fine aromas of pure black cherry, bright florals, and dark chocolate emerge from the glass. The palate is incredibly focused, full of deep red fruits and a laser-like acidity. The purity and refinement are striking and speak loudly to the amazing vintage. There is structure here to spare. This is one of those wines that leaves you imagining how it will evolve, and at the relatively modest price you can probably squirrel away a few bottles to find out. Drink now with a long decant, or cellar for five years and enjoy for the following 15-plus. A terrific wine and a great example of the heralded 2013s.

Sometimes, the wine business is a very, very small place. Also, I am about to talk about jellyfish. You’ve been warned…

While in San Francisco recently for the SF International Wine Competition (more on the results of that in a couple of weeks), I caught up with wine marketing maven Tim Martin. Longtime 1WD readers might recognize Tim’s name from way back in 2012, when apparently (according to Tim, anyway) I was the first person to write about Tim’s Napa Valley project, Tusk. “We’ve got a ten year waiting list on Tusk now,” Tim mentioned, which I suppose is much more a tribute to that brand’s cult status, and the prowess of winemaker Philippe Melka than it is to my influence. I mean, as far as I know, even my mom doesn’t read 1WD.

Anyway…

It turns out that in the five-plus years since we last met, Martin has been busy lining up another potential cult classic, and this one already has some connection to previous 1WD coverage – it happens to be the next iteration of Hidden Ridge, which even longer- time 1WD readers might recall from when I visited that stunning Sonoma estate, on the very edge of the Napa Valley border, back in 2010. At the time, I marveled at why the prices for their reds were so low.

After Hidden Ridge patriarch Lynn Hofacket – who planted the vineyards on the steep hills of that estate (some of which literally match the great pyramids in slope percentage) – passed away, his wife Casidy ward eventually (though not without some trepidation, as I’ve been told) sold the vineyards to what would become the team behind what would become Immortal Estate (Hidden Ridge winemaker Timothy Milos remains a part of the team).

It was Hofacket’s passing, which nearly coincided with the death of Martin’s father, that became the genesis of Immortal’s brand name. “I started to think about legacy, and what we leave behind” Martin told me, and he noticed that Wine Advocate’s 100-point review of the 2013 Hidden Ridge Impassable Mountain Cabernet included the phrase “This wine is nearly Immortal.” And thus, a brand (or, at least, the idea of one) was born.

Which brings us to the jellyfish…

Immortal Estate’s flagship Cabernet Sauvignon has a jellyfish on the label. Not just any jellyfish, of course, but the small Turritopsis dohrnii, which possesses the Medusozoa equivalency of near immortality. There’s no good way of explaining this, so I’ll point you to an excerpt from www.immortal-jellyfish.com:

Turritopsis dohrnii is now officially known as the only immortal creature. The secret to eternal life, as it turns out, is not just living a really, really long time. It’s all about maturity, or rather, the lack of it. The immortal jellyfish (as it is better known popularly) propagate and then, faced with the normal career path of dying, they opt instead to revert to a sexually immature stage.

Sexual immaturity? Forever? That’s not exactly a wine marketer’s wet dream, but check out how the innards of this nigh-undying look to the human eye; namely, almost exactly as if it’s carrying a wee little glass of red wine:

Now, that kind of is a wine marketer’s wet dream right there.

One of my first questions to Martin, because this is the kind of guy I am, is why, if the vineyard site and winemaker are the same, should anyone feel compelled to pay three-to-four times the Hidden Ridge asking prices for Immortal Estate. Martin’s answer was obviously well- considered, and just as obviously wasn’t marketing fluff: “Lynn just didn’t have the same resources to elevate the farming practices as we do.”
In other words, Immortal’s Randy Nichols has the funds to farm their unique vineyard site to its fullest potential. And personally, I think you can already taste it.

2014 Immortal Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (Sonoma County, $303)
Available by acquisition only because, well, cult wine. Densely packed, in terms of palate weight, complexity or aromas, and intensity of mouthfeel, this is immediately identifiable as a Napa Valley styled classic, but of course in a blind tasting we’d all get it wrong since it’s technically from Sonoma. Cassis, pencil lead, cocoa, dried herbs, black and red plums… the stuff just keeps coming and coming.

Interestingly, while this is drinkable stuff now, the palate has hints of reservation. There are nice laces of acidity through the leather of the tannins and the density of the fruit, but it’s the tannin action that has the most depth to it. Deceptively so, however; those tannin chains are nice and long, so you’re getting a silky experience now, and so it’s easy to miss just how much structural scaffolding is built into this puppy. The tannin Force is, indeed, strong with this one; and it has many, many, many years of excellent drinking ahead of it.

Cheers!

Tim Martin has a knack for creating high-end wine brands, and
Immortal is one of them. His Gauge Branding company created Tusk
Wines in Napa Valley (average price $868 for one — yes, one — bottle
of Cabernet Sauvignon) and it sells out in an elephant’s heartbeat.
Fashioning gotta-have luxury goods is Martin’s gift, and his latest is
Immortal Estate, previously Hidden Ridge Vineyard. Lynn Hofacket
and Cassidy Ward planted the vineyard in the Mayacamas Mountains,
not far from Cornell and Pride Mountain, in 1990. Their winemaker,
Timothy Milos, continues with Immortal. The branding comes from
critic Robert Parker Jr., who described a Hidden Ridge wine as “nearly
immortal.” After Hofacket’s death, Martin and his partners acquired
the vineyard and used Parker’s comment, and Turritopsis dohrnii, more
commonly known as the immortal jellyfi sh, as brand anchors. The wine
is excellent — fl oral and with juicy dark fruit and silky tannins. The
price comes from the Colorado 303 area code of Immortal investors.

By Michelle Konstantinovksy

“Wine, for whatever reason, has this intimidation factor — no one seems to be intimidated by vodka,” says Tim Martin, a Napa Valley industry vet. “No one goes into a bar nervous about ordering Grey Goose versus Belvedere. But wine creates this weird intimidation I’ve never completely understood. There’s almost this strange shame or embarrassment from people who think they don’t understand it, which is why I say all the time, we’re just glorified farmers, for God’s sake. We’ve built wine into this thing and mystified and glorified it, but it’s really just an agricultural product, like growing tomatoes.”

Martin believes the unnecessarily snooty attitude that prevails in viticulture only prevents would-be wine connoisseurs from learning the ropes. As co-founder and partner at Tusk and Immortal Estates, respectively, Martin makes it his business to make wine accessible, interesting, and just plain fun. “The truth is, your palate is smarter than you are and smarter than anything you’re going to read,” Martin says. “A lot of books will give the basics, but I believe the best way to start learning is to start drinking. As with any food product in the world, your palate becomes educated via taste, and as you start trying more, the more questions will come up, and the more you’ll want to learn. Start by drinking, and let that lead to exploration into whatever you like.”

Learning curve.

You don’t need to study up, but if you’re totally new to whites, reds and everything in between, Martin says getting to know a few facts can set you up for success. “The first thing you want to learn about is that there are many varietals — chardonnay, cabernet, pinot, etc.,” he says. “You learn about those and then you learn that varietals in Napa are a little different than those in Sonoma, which are a little different than those from Mendocino, and you start to ask why. Then you learn there are different terroirs — a French word for everything that happens in a regional environment, like the soil type.”

The rules are: There are no rules.

“Diversify and don’t be intimidated by rules,” Martin says. “I’ve heard all these things like, ‘Oh, I can’t have white wine with red meat’ — why can’t you? Some-one made up these arbitrary rules. Some are based in ideas like a powerful cab may overpower halibut, which may be true, but if that’s what you like, and you like that contrast, no one has factored that in. I’ve found so many interesting pairings that go against the rules. Your palate learns when you test it and push it, so my rules are to explore and diversify and not get caught up in very structured rules. Exploration brings creativity, and that’s borne out of someone taking a risk.”

Fine dining.

When it comes to taking his palate out on the town, Martin has a few go-to spots throughout the Bay. “I have two favorite restaurants in the city,” he says. “One is Quince, which is obviously amazing and such a fantastic restaurant in terms of having really high-end food and wine. I love Coqueta on the waterfront. In Napa Valley, one of my favorites is Bouchon — the meals are always spot-on, and it’s delicious French cuisine done right. Don Giovanni is an- other one that’s been doing this for 20-something odd years, where I always have a good experience.

Raise a toast.

As a founder of Tusk Estates and a partner in Immortal Estates, Martin clearly has a stake in the wine game. But that doesn’t mean he’s not a fan of other makers. “Obviously, I’m biased,” he says. “Immortal is my brand, and Tusk is my brand, but Scarecrow is another incredible brand, there’s another winery here called Brand that’s really delicious, and a company called Melka that makes quite a few different, beautiful, well-made wines.”

Cougar juice conundrum.

It’s safe to say that one varietal in particular has gotten a pretty bad rap among winos: Chardonnay. “In the U.S., we’ve placed tiers on wines, like cabs are the best, and that’s how we price them, and that’s how people view them, which is part of that snobbery,” Martin says. “‘Oh, you only drink chardonnay, or you only drink Riesling … eventually you’ll grow into your palate.’ That’s like saying, ‘Oh, you only like regular oranges, but everyone loves blood oranges — you’re just not quite ready for those.’”

A perfect pick.

With so many factors — origin, year, flavor profile, etc. — choosing a wine can be a bit overwhelming. But Martin says trusting your gut and adding in a little bit of knowledge can go a long way. “You want to look for estate fruit from an actual vineyard source,” he says. “When you get into wine, you can start to know, ‘Oh, that’s an Oakville Cab. That’s a really good area that produces high-end Cabs, so even if I’ve never tried it, I have a better shot with it than say a Mendocino cab, since that area isn’t known for Cabs.’ That’s not to say it couldn’t be made there, but it’s a little bit more of a crap shoot. Knowing the region and varietals that are best in that region plays a huge role for me when I’m in a restaurant guessing and exploring and trying something new.”

A break from the norm.

Everyone needs a breather now and then. So what does a wine expert drink when vino isn’t on the menu? “I love tequila and mezcal,” Martin says.

...BOYS’ WEEKEND

IN: Sharing stories through the grapevine, biking and bonding with the bros over organic Cabernet Sauvignon à la Immortal Estate in Napa.

OUT: Players and playboys. Gentleman’s club and golf weekend benders haven’t been “yuge!” since the 2000s. Believe me. That’s not fake news...

by Greig Santos-Buch 

Today, Winetraveler spoke with Immortal Estate Winery, Northern California’s newest winery situated on the mountainous border of Napa and Sonoma producing award winning wines. The vineyard is an organic evolution of Hidden Ridge Vineyard, a winery that has produced wines earning a rare 100-point rating from internationally influential wine critic Robert Parker.

Discover Immortal Estate

Could you provide some background on who the wine maker is for Immortal Estates? What is his/her experience?

Timothy Milos created Hidden Ridge Vineyard in 2004, in collaboration with Marco DiGiulio, and has been the sole winemaker since 2008. As a California native, Milos was pursuing a doctorate in molecular plant pathology at Cornell when he fell in love with the art of wine making. He redirected his academic career, and began studying Enology and Viticulture at U.C Davis, and working in the Napa Valley. Timothy started work at Hidden Ridge after working with a number of wineries, including Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Opus One and Cliff Lede Vineyard. He currently lives with his family in Napa.

What inspired the creation of this brand?

The new Immortal brand was created as a tribute to all things timeless. We each strive to place our lasting mark on the world and to leave a legacy. In wine making, we are hopefully able to create something beautiful that will outlive those currently working to conceive it.
Our beautiful vineyard was terraced out of the hillside by the previous owner who unfortunately passed away from Cancer in 2016, but his work and legacy live on in the unique land. The immortal jellyfish is the only animal on the planet we know of that can live forever. It continuously reproduces its cell back to a youth state. Our mission at Immortal is to continue to reproduce our energy into this vineyard with wines that will last longer than the team creating them. We may be gone 50 years from now, but the wines we create will still be very much alive and drinkable. Our hard work and legacy will be left behind in each of the bottles we artfully produce.

What has the transition from Hidden Ridge Vineyards been like?

The transition from Hidden Ridge to Immortal has taken about two years. We didn’t want to forget the past, we actually have integrated that past into our future, so the transition was intentionally slow and methodical.

What is the terroir like of the property?

The Immortal Estate is located high in the rugged Mayacamas Mountains where we farm 50 acres of vines between 900 and 1700 feet in elevation, on mostly terraced slopes of up to a 55% grade. The vineyard consists of two adjacent sections: the upper section “hangs” from a promontory ridge line with East, South, and Western exposures, while the lower section sits on a massive ancient slide and has South, East and Northern exposures. Within each section there is rapidly changing topography, elevation, aspect, and soil. Soils range from decomposed volcanic ash, to fractured rock, to uplifted ancient seabed. While the vineyard usually sits above the fog line and experiences warm days, the site is impacted by ocean air flow from the Pacific Ocean, moderating the temperature in the mornings and evenings, preserving fruit and freshness in the wines. It is the diversity and complexity of the physical characteristics of the vineyard, its mountainside location, and the cooling breezes it receives that define the unique terroir of Immortal Estate.

What grapes are being grown and what wine styles produced?

We currently grow Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot on the property. We pair the diversity of our property with clonal diversity in the Cabernet to enhance the complexity of the wines. Our Cabernet Sauvignon is classically styled, rich in complexity, and matures over time. We are current replanting a small portion of the vineyard where we are adding Cabernet Franc and Malbec to be used in our Cabernet Sauvignon wines, and a small amount of Grenache, Mourvedre and Rolle, to make an estate rosé in the future.

Any unique production practices to discuss? What makes the brand unique?

Our wine is made according to neoclassical non-interventionist techniques. Much of the vineyard work is by hand, and we hand harvest. We pick on taste not chemistry. We choose the grapes according to areas of ripeness not vineyard blocks, and we keep these picking lots separate. The fruit is sorted, destemmed and sorted again before all going into small tanks. The fruit sits cold several days until natural fermentation begins and we pump over several times a day incorporating air during fermentation. We allow the new wine to macerate on the skins after fermentation and drain off when the wine is in balance by taste. Next, we age the wine in mostly new French Oak barrels from a number of select forests. The wine is usually racked three times, over about two years, and we bottle unfined and unfiltered.

Will you be allowing visitors for tastings, tours? If so, in what format / setting? What kind of experience(s) can they expect?

Right now we are doing private tastings with our hospitality team that spends a good amount of time educating people on our process, story and wine.

Any other news or events we should be aware of?

The Immortal Brand officially launched July 10, 2018 with the flagship wine Impassible Mountain. Our second wine will release this October, and it’s called Slope.

CAPTURE: Tell us how Immortal Estates came about, and the story behind the name and the jellyfish logo.

TIM MARTIN: When I took my first trip to see this special vineyard, I saw something that looked like it was out of Europe. With a 55-degree slope, it represented something that was just not done anymore due to envi- ronmental issues.

We wanted to rebrand the vineyard but had not made a firm decision. While sitting at a local restaurant, the sommelier insisted I try a 1905 sherry. Well, it made me stop and pause realizing I was sipping something stunning and while everyone who had a hand in making this sherry was gone, I was savoring it years later.

It made me think about that mountainside vineyard and the fact that the founder who carved it out with his bare hands was gone. However years later we will have the enjoyment of drinking a beautiful cabernet. The vineyard seemed to take on a spirit of immortality in my mind. The spirit of the owner that crafted this vineyard by hand lives on, and that became the new brand – Immortality Estate.

Shortly after this experience with the sherry, I stumbled onto information about the Immortal Jellyfish, which when it gets old reproduces itself again.

With my passion to create things that live beyond myself, such as the hand crafted wines that are 100-200 years old, it seemed the Immortal Jellyfish was the beautiful and perfect logo for the Impassable Mountain Reserve.

C: Describe the style of Immortal’s new release-the Impassable Mountain Reserve.

TM: The 2014 Impassable Mountain style is a luxurious cabernet with all the structure you want in a cabernet, very well balanced and appealing. It is a mountain fruit caber- net that has a beautiful mouth feel but all the structure you want.

C: Would you classify it as a cult wine?

TM: I guess I would. We are setting a bar for a high end Sonoma Cabernet, and are only making 400-500 cases. Although Napa has been doing this for a long time, you do not think of Sonoma as a high end Cabernet at $300 a bottle.

C: Where does the technology of wine- making stop and art begin to take over?

TM: The artistic part for us comes at the very beginning when we pick the best fruit. For this special vineyard, which pro- duces the Impassable Mountain Reserve, everything is done by hand from selection of vines through the wine making process to the packaging. Our wine decisions are always to select the best of the best. That is the difference in a cult wine, versus business decisions for the books.

C: What was the most difficult part of cre- ating a wine at a level that received a rare 100-point rating from Robert Parker?

TM: You have to make hard decisions. We made a hard brand decision to invest into the vineyard by removing 25% of the vine- yard, and replanted better rootstocks to grow the vineyard to the next level.

We will not see the fruits of that investment for seven years.

C: With a limited production, will we see it on wine lists of restaurants we might know?

TM: We will only produce 400 or 500 cases at most, so other than the winery, Impassable Mountain will be available at select high-end restaurants.

C: If you were not in the business of making wine what would you choose to do?

TM: As a kid I grew up playing music, and thought I wanted to become a rock star or a music producer. Then I came upon the impor- tance of winemaking and winemaking became my song, so to speak.

C: What is your most memorable wine moment?

TM: Early on in my career, I was in Bordeaux with friends drinking a Cheval Blanc, one of the first wines of France. The wine was so good, we were not drinking it we were sipping it. That moment was the turning point for me to be committed to winemaking.

C: Who is the one person you would like to share a bottle of wine with?

TM: Steve Jobs. It would be fascinating to talk with him because he was passionate about what he created, and the products we enjoy today have lived beyond himself.

The Bay Area’s thriving wine industry welcomes an exciting new addition with Immortal Wines.

Located deep in the Mayacamas Mountains, far off the beaten path of the Wine Train and the typical Napa Valley tourist spots lies the picturesque and idyllic Hidden Ridge vineyards. Encompassing 50-planted

acres of lush garden fruit, Hidden Ridge has been producing wine since the early 90’s with moderate success. While their product was good, they lacked the marketing focus and business acumen to push the business forward among the industry’s numerous competitors.

However, all of that is about to change with the help of Tim Martin. Martin, a businessman with experience in the wine business, visited Hidden Ridge with his partners a few years ago and immediately recognized the potential of the property and its unique and varied landscape.

Unlike most Napa Valley vineyards, Hidden Ridge’s land can vary significantly in elevation from one acre to the next, allowing its fruit to receive sun and stress from multiple angles depending on what part of the slope it’s located. That gives the grapes a truly diverse and diverse range of flavors and it’s a feature that is hard to find in a California wine vineyard.

‘Farming at this angle isn’t allowed anymore. The most you can farm is at a 15-degree angle and ours is at a 50 degrees. It does not sound like a very big deal but when it comes to wine, it’s a huge deal. What you’re getting here is true mountain fruit, but mountain fruit on a slope with many different flavor profiles.’ Said Martin.

He knew right away how much potential there was for Hidden Ridge, so he worked with their original winemaker and brought on the best possible team of vineyard managers and horticulturists to help create wine that was as exceptional and unique as the property it comes from. He wanted to show that Sonoma, typically known for its Chardonnay and Pinots Noir, can truly compete in the Cabernet market. It’s an effort that has definitely paid off. Impassable Mountain, Immortal Wine’s signature Cabernet, has received rave reviews from critics and collectors alike. Robert Parker ‘the world’s most trusted wine authority’ has consistently scored the wine a 97 out of 100 on his rating scale. It’s a wine that exemplifies the complexity of flavors created by the varied elevations of the Hidden Ridge vineyards.

“We are able to get all these different nuances from the land and the very best of the best goes into Impassable Mountain. It a true collectors’ wine.” Said Martin.

Slope, the other Cabernet in Immortal’s debut collection, is a more accessible option for wine lovers to enjoy, but still has a well-balanced and remarkable in taste. Both will be available on Immortal Wine’s website in the coming months.

And this is just the beginning for the brand. There are plans to produce a number of other wines at Hidden Ridge, including an estate-grown Rose, and the potential for developing additional collections endless.

As excited as Martin is excited about the many business possibilities that Immortal has to offer, it’s clear from his enthusiasm that this is also a passion project. He is genuinely captivated by the wine and branding industries and is looking forward to make a real contribution to the market by challenging the wine community’s perception of Sonoma Cabs.

“I’m excited because I think the world is ready to know more about Sonoma. People don’t think of Cabernet when they think of Sonoma, but I love a challenge.”

This can be a sad story or a happy one. You be the judge.

Everybody and their sister is writing about Immortal Estate, a newly branded Sonoma County wine that is, unlike so many brand-driven wines, actually something special. Everybody is writing about it because new owner Tim Martin is a branding expert, and he's much better at corralling the media than the previous owner.

Martin, whose best friend is superstar consulting winemaker Philippe Melka, was savvy enough to put together a Denver-based investment group to buy the property when the founder's widow decided to sell. Martin already has a successful Napa cult brand in Tusk Estates, a mailing-list only Cabernet with a waiting list. Tusk is just about impossible to buy, and that's part of the point. "I'm a less-is-more guy when it comes to branding for wines," Martin says. "I like for people to discover the wine's secrets."

The new Immortal Estate has some secrets to discover.

The 165-acre property is in a valley that once held a remote hunting lodge at up to 500 meters (1640 feet) of elevation snuggled in between Napa and Sonoma Counties. Pride is the only winery nearby, but you can't see it from the property. This story you've heard before: Lynn Hofacket and his wife Casidy Ward moved out from their native Oklahoma to wine country and wanted to develop something special, so they bought this ranch. The property, which Hofacket dubbed Hidden Ridge, could not be developed today. Much of the 50 acres of vineyards are on volcanic soils on a 55-degree slope. Germany's Mosel region might be the only other place in the world with vineyards that steep. It's mind-boggling to stand at the top looking down and think about the workers who have to tend the vines. They're not on the electricity grid so equipment has to be powered by gasoline or generators.

If you're wondering if it was illegal to plant vines there, Martin says Hofacket was fined three separate times. Sonoma County code doesn't allow planting on slopes higher than 15 degrees, and "now they would shut you down", Martin says. But the vines are there now and the vineyard has been grandfathered in.

The vineyard was a labor of love for Hofacket, a construction magnate before he got the wine bug.

"Lynn didn't have a vineyard management team," Martin says. "He did everything himself with the help of one guy." But marketing wasn't Hofacket's strength. Despite strong critical reviews, he struggled to sell the wines. Part of it he blamed on the Sonoma County appellation: the vines are 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, but as Hidden Ridge sits alone it doesn't have a prestigious Cabernet AVA it could use. It is technically part of the Fountaingrove AVA, but nobody knew where that is before and now, Martin says, "It sounds like fire." (Martin said he could see a ring of fire around the property last fall, but he says the ridge wind kept smoke from descending into the grapes.)

 
© Immortal Estates | The jellyfish logo has a meaning – and no, it's doesn't involve being stung.

Martin thinks Hidden Ridge just isn't a great name for a wine, even though it perfectly describes the property. He's keeping the vineyard name but not for the wine brand itself.

"One of the first things I noticed was that people called it Hidden Valley, like the ranch dressing," Martin says.

Hofacket bounced his prices up and down, at one point charging just $40 a bottle for one of the few wines that may have cost that much to produce, given the remoteness of the vineyard. In 2010 he decided the grapes weren't up to his standards so he didn't pick them. In 2011, a wet and cool year, he made only a second-label wine. The next main release, 2012, cost $80 a bottle.

In December 2014, Robert Parker gave 97 points to the 2012 Hidden Ridge Impassable Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, and he gave a preliminary score of (96-98+) to the 2013 vintage. Those were the highest scores the Wine Advocate had given Hofacket, and he must have felt partially vindicated. On March 3, 2016, Parker released his final rating for the 2012 wine. He gave it 100 points, writing: "If you want a quintessential example of what perfection is in my business, taste this wine ... the incredible pure aromatics of blue, red and black fruits, the minerality, the volcanic, earthy sweetness that emerges in a subtle fashion, the full-bodied opulence, the staggering finish of more than a minute, and its unreal concentration certainly make this one of the most compelling and profound Cabernet Sauvignons I have ever tasted ... This should be nearly immortal ... a legacy wine from Sonoma." Now THAT is vindication. But Hofacket did not live to read it; he had died in November 2015.

I'm struck by Parker's use of "immortal" because that is the word Martin chose to rebrand the wine after his group bought it from Hofacket's widow.

"I tried a 1905 Sherry once, and realized everyone who made this wine was gone," Martin said. "But their work, the wine they made with their hands, remained."

That's how he chose the name Immortal Estate, and the logo of a tiny jellyfish that, in theory, can live forever by regenerating itself back to a polyp. The marketing outreach was cheesy enough that I was skeptical; longtime readers know that skeptical is my default state. But after seeing the vineyard, I agree: it's special. Martin's team is replanting some of the vineyard to add other Bordeaux varieties – Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot – to add to the main wine. He's also planting Provence grapes around a lake at the bottom of the valley to create a Provence-style rosé.
"We spent the last year adding massive amounts of nutrients to the soil because the previous owner didn't want to do that," Martin says. "You have to give back to the earth or at some point she stops giving to you. Someone told me, why would you do anything to a wine that got 100 points from Parker? Because that's not how I think. I think you should always challenge yourself to be better." Immortal Estate will charge $303 for a wine that peaked at $125 under Hofacket. There are 500 cases of the 2014, and it's an impressive wine, with layers of berry flavors, some dark chocolate, fine-grained tannins that give a firm yet smooth mouthfeel, and a long finish. Hofacket created this wine. And it lives on. 

By Annette Hanami

For Tim Martin, a brand designer, building Tusk into a cult Cabernet was a matter of marketing aspiration in a bottle, from branding, labeling, packaging, to the luxurious quality of winemaker Philippe Melka’s wine. It’s in the moment.

But one night while dining at Torc in Downtown Napa, he was served a rare 1905 Sherry that sparked a revelation. While the Sherry winemakers have passed on, their spirit lives on through the wine. It was about that time that he had the opportunity to acquire a unique vineyard on the Mayacamas range, Hidden Ridge, whose ageworthy 2013 Cabernet wines Robert Parker rated a perfect 100 points, calling it “nearly immortal”. And so Immortal Estate was born.

The spectacular vineyard’s steep slopes and high elevation site produces deep, rich and concentrated fruit, while the 1,000 foot vertical span adds complexity. The Impassable Mountain Reserve (400 cases) is their small production, icon wine but given the large 50-acre vineyard, Immortal Estate will also produce a second wine called “Slope” to enable a shared journey with their customers. The longevity of the wine inspired Martin to select for its logo the elusive and immortal Turritopsis Dorhnii jellyfish. For more information, check the website.

They say a good quality product can sell itself. Hogwash! In an era marked by crowded marketplaces, big data, and hyper-dynamic marketing practices, selling a product requires deft strategy. In many cases, the fine line that separates success and failure lies upon a brand’s ability to consistently deliver on message for ever changing marketplace. For Tim Martin, co-founder of Gauge Branding and owner of Immortal Estate – previously Hidden Ridge Vineyard – his latest passion project is a testament to the power of rebranding: reviving a stagnant vineyard into a luxury wine brand.

As a child, Martin worked as a prep cook for his Italian grandfather. His penchant for all things culinary led him to two accomplished decades in restaurant and hospitality management. After working in Napa Valley for a decade with legendary Robin Lail and her wine project, Lail Vineyards, in addition to launching his own project, Tusk Estates, Martin launched Gauge Branding with partner Mark Wiegard. At Gauge, Martin focuses on cultivating brand DNA and crafting marketing strategies for emerging winemakers, cold-brew coffee makers, and bourbon distillers. In 2017, he fulfilled his lifelong dream to own a vineyard and thus became the new owner of Hidden Ridge Vineyard, now known as Immortal Estate.
In its original incarnation, Hidden Ridge Vineyard was a small vineyard with a cult-like following. Its 2013 Impassable Mountain Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon received a coveted 100-point score from venerated wine critic Robert Parker, who described it as a “quintessential example of what perfection is.” The brand’s only other wine, the 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon 55% Slope, also received a laudable 97+ score. Yet despite such critical accolades and high remarks, the vineyard and its compelling wines went largely unrecognized. The problem wasn’t the wine, but rather the branding or lack thereof.

To say the vineyard’s unique location is off the beaten path would be an understatement. Located on 150 acres of land on the Sonoma side of Spring Mountain in the Mayacamas Mountains, the secluded vineyard runs the ridge between the Napa and Sonoma valleys. West of St. Helena, the estate’s 50 planted acres span the slope of Spring Mountain. What makes the vineyard unique is its 55-degree slope, a deviation from the county’s set 15-degree maximum. Since the area was originally developed by Lynn Hofacker and Timothy Milos in 1990, the estate is grandfathered in.

With its extreme slope and mountainous terrain, the area is an anomaly compared to typical auspicious properties. After initially purchasing the land, Hofacker spent years learning the land and developing the vineyard. This distinctive terroir provides unique soil and light conditions for the mountain fruit used to produce the vineyard’s acclaimed cabernets. The property’s exposure to the early afternoon breezes from the Russian River compounded with the area’s climate keeps the wines natural acidity and nuanced flavors. Rich, dark, and full-bodied, the wines boast a complex range of palette notes like cassis, dense cocoa, sweet spice, and truffles. “These mountain fruit are incredibly delicate,” said Martin. “The wines produced here are unlike anything else you can find. It really speaks to just how special this location is.”
While Hofacker proved to be accomplished in producing remarkable cabernets, his tenuous efforts in establishing his brand and marketing his creations kept the Hidden Ridge name a little-known secret. Today, Martin has made it his mission to change that.

When reimagining Immortal Estate, Martin had one goal in mind: to create a world class cabernet from Sonoma, which no one has ever seen. “I was intrigued by this idea that we have drawn lines and said, ‘Napa does this well, Sonoma does this well,’ but these are arbitrary lines we drew on a map. Mother Earth didn’t do that,” said Martin in an interview with Napa Valley Register. “So when I tried this wine for the first time it opened up my brain, I felt like I learned something, because this is a Sonoma cabernet that you don’t expect to have these kinds of profiles. I was blown away and sort of accepted this challenge of communicating to the world that Sonoma can make amazing cabs.”
For Martin, the new Immortal Estate was launched as an evolution of Hidden Ridge Vineyard. Rather than disregarding the past, Martin aims to honor the original vineyard by building upon its legacy of winemaking and transforming the brand into a prestigious name that will stand the test of time. “I love the fact that every day I get to work on something that I hope will outlive me,” said Martin. “Lynn, the founder of the vineyard, he’s part of that spirit. Here’s a man who crafted this amazing property. He passed away, and yet, this vineyard lives on; it’s like the spirit of his is there.”

If ever there was a symbol to represent endurance and eternal life, the immortal jellyfish would be it. As the only immortal creature on the planet, the jellyfish is able to reset itself and transform back into an adolescent state to essentially start over. With this in mind, Martin made the mysterious creature the focal point of the vineyard’s new branding. “Like the immortal jellyfish on our labels, we want clients’ memories with Immortal Estate wines to live forever,” said Martin in a press release. “We believe the way to do that is to deliver a truly luxurious wine experience through incomparable wines. We believe something special happens when people come together around good wine. Our goal in everything we’re doing is to create these immortal moments for people.”

Formerly the Hidden Ridge Vineyard, the winery has a new owner, Tim Martin, who is reinvigorating the label with vines grown far to the west in the Mayacamas Mountains. This year celebrates the first wines under this new label. Tasting by appointment.

With investors including Kate Upton and her husband, Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander, Tusk Estates’ Martin unveils his new wine brand, Immortal Estate, this month, boasting wines from a stretch of the Napa-Sonoma border known for its top-rated Cabs. “We’ve dedicated ourselves to excellence in our pursuit of a wine that pairs infinitely well with life’s finest moments,” quoth Martin, encouraging oenophiles to “create your own immortal moments.”