A famed grape from Madeira finds a home in the Sierra Foothills. A zippy, zesty, lip-smackingly fun and refreshing single vineyard wine, today’s deal is the 91-93 point Calafia Verdelho from Randle Johnson.
The Verdelho grape is most well-known for its part in the fortified wines of Madeira, as well as the excellent table wine examples found throughout Portugal and Australia. When not fortified, it produces a crisp, refreshing and complex wine.
What you may not know; however, is that this variety has also found a home in one of our favorite value spots – the Sierra Foothills of California.
Today’s example, from Bart’s Vineyard and made by the highly respected Randle Johnson (nicknamed “The Wine Doctor”), is absolutely perfect for summer sipping.
Randle was the winemaker at Stags’ Leap Vineyard, the vineyard manager and cellar master at Mayacamus Vineyards, rebuilt the Bodega Colomé brand in Argentina, and makes the Mt. Veeder and Artezin wines for the Hess Collection among many other distinguished positions. Calafia Cellars is his personal brand, started in 1979.
Randle uses his vast knowledge of the area and his decades of expertise to make some truly off-the-radar gems just like this Verdelho. This is a labor of love, and it shows in the glass.
Normally priced at $32 a bottle, you won’t pay anywhere near that price through today’s deal. And with just 4 barrels produced, this one won’t last long!
For the next day you can get 4 bottles of the 2023 Calafia Verdelho for just $XX.95 ($XX.XX9/bottle). That’s a discount of XX%!
We also now have an option to buy your wine and have your shipment held (at no extra charge) for delivery in October! While we take every precaution we can with our Summer Shipping protocol (2 day shipping in heat protection/styrofoam), we also know that many of you travel or live in very hot areas where you don’t want to risk it (or you simply detest styrofoam).
Please note this is not a “ship-at-will” program, all your summer hold orders will ship (in cardboard) at a date of our choosing in mid-October once temperatures have cooled down. Please read this post for important info to determine if the Summer Hold program is right for you.
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This 4-pack deal is available to ship to the following states: AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV and WY. (These states are dependent on the individual licenses of the offering winery and are not representative of all our deals. Every deal can have different, sometimes more, sometimes less, states available.)
Both our extremely affordable Summer Shipping and our new Summer Hold options are a flat $9.99 for any size order, allowing you to buy multiples to stock up and save.
Summer Shipping orders will ship in heat protection (styrofoam) 5-10 days after the conclusion of the offer, via UPS 2 day. Summer Hold orders will ship UPS Ground in October in cardboard.
Read on for our full review.
Clicking on the Add To Cart buttons above will take you to our checkout at shop.reversewinesnob.com. Once there you can adjust the quantity of 4-packs in your order. Ends Friday 6/21/2024 at noon (PT).
From the winery:
History: Verdelho hails from the islands of Madeira, due west of Morocco, and was widely cultivated as early as the 1600’s. Its exact origin remains a mystery; it may have originated on Madeira itself. By 1872 Verdelho constituted two-thirds of the island’s vineyards. Originally, it was used to make Madeira’s famous sweet dessert wines along with the Bual, Malvasia, and Sercial varieties. In time, Verdelho became the most widely planted white variety within the DOC region. It was taken to the Azores, Australia, and Portugal and has been re-born in California as a zesty, layered, and dry table wine.
Vineyards: Verdelho has small, open clusters with petite, oval-shaped berries that yield good concentration. It is one of a handful of white wine varieties that do well in warm macroclimates and can develop multilayered fruit profiles while retaining acidity. We have discovered such terroir in the Sierra foothills: Bart’s Vineyard, in the gold rush town of Plymouth, at 1600’ owned by Ann and Richard Bartolotti. It is a 1.5-acre block on red iron containing granitic soils that produce zesty and complex wines. Ken Johnson (no relation!), Ann’s grandson, meticulously farms the vineyard. The trellis is VSP which allows dappled sunlight to the fruit in conjunction with morning side leaf-pulling.
Vintage: The 2023 growing season started out with a bang. We had a whopping 54” of rain: 3 times the 2022 season! It rained into the spring, so flowering and set were late. Set finished in late May and revealed a very large crop. Summer was “normal”. We had no huge heat spike as we did in 2022. Harvest was also “normal”, smooth, and evenly spaced with good weather.
Fermentation & Aging: The grapes were harvested on September 11, 2023. The Brix was 23.9° with pH of 3.35 and total acid of 5.1g/L. The juice was fermented in stainless steel, X5 yeast, until dry, then transferred to neutral French oak barrels to receive sur lie aging for 2 months. The wine was bottled on Feb. 8, 2024.
Appellation: Shenandoah Valley, Sierra Foothills, CA
Produced and Bottled by Calafia Wines
14.1% Alcohol
Cork
And now on to our review:
The 2023 Calafia Verdelho opens with a wonderful honeysuckle aroma plus lots of other floral notes and plenty of lemon and lime along with touches of tropical fruit. It’s very inviting and it only takes one sip to know that this is going to be a refreshing one.
Taking a sip reveals a zippy, tasty and fun wine with lots of layers to discover. Featuring great acidity, depth and a smooth yet lively mouthfeel, it has similar flavors to the nose with a touch of pleasing spice on the fruit. This is a lovely wine that is just as good when it warms up as it is cold.
It ends with a crisp, dry, zesty, lip-smacking finish. Fantastic!
Cheers,
Jon
2023 CALAFIA VERDELHO
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Here’s what people are saying about our Insider Deals:
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“The shipping on the Insider Deals is another great part of the deal. We recently paid $27 to a winery in California to ship 6 bottles (same packaging as the insider deals)….yikes!”
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Get the 2023 Calafia Verdelho 4-Pack while you can! It ends Friday 6/21 at noon Pacific.
If you have more questions or any trouble ordering, please check out our FAQ or just click the Help button at checkout! No account is necessary to save your info for future orders or to checkout. GPay and Apple Pay are also now enabled.
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