WineLovers Discussion Group

Lou, Brian, anyone know anything about these guys? Many of you will recognize the name from today's WTSO offer for a 2011 cab. I idly looked them up just to see if this was a real winery or not, in the way that so many WTSO offers aren't. Found a winery website with a winemaker name, Gus Anderson. Called the number listed there and no one answered, but 'Gus' was one of the principals named in the recording. Googling reveals accolades for the 06 and 07 vintages in particular and also blog-type mentions of visits to the winery, so there really was or is a brick and mortar establishment. However the winery's website lists no vintages after 2006. Then I looked them up on Cellartracker. There are more bottles in cellars for years 06 and 07 than typical, around 400 each, but that declines to the small end of two digit numbers by 2010, and only ten bottles, with no tasting notes, for 2011. Wine-Searcher only came up with a few bottles of 04 or 05 in one location. There's no evidence of reviews by professional critics.

So does this winery exist? Evidence on the net makes it clear it did, but the tracks get pretty faint after 06/07. Maybe they sold the name?

Totally guessing here but this sounds similar to a friend of mine who buys fruit and rents space in a winery. He has an office with an answering machine but he defintely doesn't have a winery. Some years there's x bottles of wine, other years 4X and others .1X.

Tom Troiano wrote:Totally guessing here but this sounds similar to a friend of mine who buys fruit and rents space in a winery. He has an office with an answering machine but he defintely doesn't have a winery. Some years there's x bottles of wine, other years 4X and others .1X.

I know of such instances too, but what I found doesn't quite fit that pattern either. It's a real bell curve. Possibly, the downturn is simply recession-related and they've only managed to just hang on.

I met them once a few years ago. A verging-on-retired older couple. Charming people. Struck me as a somewhat amateur/hobby project...gaudy labels, cute story, cute names. There is so much free space in wineries and at custom crush facilities that there is little reason, of course, to have a "winery" per se. The wines were ok but did not really stand out. Very Napa in profile, so I'm not sure it would be up your alley. Still...it might be worth a try if the price is low enough. I don't recall the wines as breaking the $25 mark even when newly released, so....

Brian K Miller wrote:I met them once a few years ago. A verging-on-retired older couple. Charming people. Struck me as a somewhat amateur/hobby project...gaudy labels, cute story, cute names. There is so much free space in wineries and at custom crush facilities that there is little reason, of course, to have a "winery" per se. The wines were ok but did not really stand out. Very Napa in profile, so I'm not sure it would be up your alley. Still...it might be worth a try if the price is low enough. I don't recall the wines as breaking the $25 mark even when newly released, so....

Wasn't interested in buying, just curious about who/what this was as the name sounded recently familiar.

Jenise wrote: Wasn't interested in buying, just curious about who/what this was as the name sounded recently familiar.

As for the familiarity of the name, if you regularly check WTSO, they sometimes have a little blurb about how the winery is Gus Anderson's "retirement project" or something like that. I originally thought that meant that he had been a winemaker all his life and was just looking for a way to get some funds for retirement, but based on what Brian said it very well may be that it's just an amateur project to pass the time after retiring from a separate career...

I can't answer your question Jenise, but the Eagle's Trace wines are on WTSO continually. It may be narrow minded, but for that reason alone I avoid them.

PS: If you are looking for a specific wine you can email WTSO directly and they will sell it to you without the need to wait for listing - assuming they have it in inventory.

Alex Judge wrote:

Jenise wrote: Wasn't interested in buying, just curious about who/what this was as the name sounded recently familiar.

As for the familiarity of the name, if you regularly check WTSO, they sometimes have a little blurb about how the winery is Gus Anderson's "retirement project" or something like that. I originally thought that meant that he had been a winemaker all his life and was just looking for a way to get some funds for retirement, but based on what Brian said it very well may be that it's just an amateur project to pass the time after retiring from a separate career...

That explains why it was familiar--must have ignored a previous offer.

Speaking of WTSO, while searching for something else unrelated ('cept it was wine), I came across some chatter on another board from several years back discussing getting 98 Palmer from WTSO. Must be from a period in time anyone who joined early on would look back on now as 'the good old days'.

Must be custom crush, no bricks and mortar winery that I'm aware exists. I remember vaguely tasting a couple of their wines a few years back and was not impressed.

Hi Jenise,
You might find the following link interesting. I think he makes the wine in a cave.

http://www.napawineproject.com/eagles-trace/

Salute

Lou Kessler wrote:Must be custom crush, no bricks and mortar winery that I'm aware exists. I remember vaguely tasting a couple of their wines a few years back and was not impressed.

Really? When I googled it, one of the entries (that I didn't click on) mentioned "this was one of the first places we stopped, and I'm sure glad" or something to that effect. So I presumed there was indeed a winery--I'm fairly certain there were 'estate vineyards' mentioned on the website in addition to the cave Victor mentions.

Jenise wrote:Must be from a period in time anyone who joined early on would look back on now as 'the good old days'.

I don't know, Jenise. They still offer some good stuff from time to time. High end Champagnes (Cristal), Super Tuscan (Sassicaia), Cal Cabernet (Beringer PR, Caymus SS) and Dow VP. I remember seeing a $400+ Bordeaux but can't remember the producer. Me, I mostly buy the cheap stuff.

Sam Platt wrote:

Jenise wrote:Must be from a period in time anyone who joined early on would look back on now as 'the good old days'.

I don't know, Jenise. They still offer some good stuff from time to time. High end Champagnes (Cristal), Super Tuscan (Sassicaia), Cal Cabernet (Beringer PR, Caymus SS) and Dow VP. I remember seeing a $400+ Bordeaux but can't remember the producer. Me, I mostly buy the cheap stuff.

Oh sure. But the recession created a lot of bargains that aren't out there now, and they were new with fewer customers. Logic says it can't be as good as it once probably was. Like with Wine Commune when they started out, and all wines started at $1. More wine, lower prices, less competition--shooting turkeys in a barrel, or so I understand. (I wasn't the first to arrive there, either.)