We gotta get some serious Wim Hof breathing going for this one. Harden the mind. Calm the nerves. And maybe prepare a cold ice bath because we’re ON FIRE over here.

A fresh drop of the Crane Assembly’s Disciples - at the best price in the entire world!

If you like The Prisoner, or other similarly styled, full-throttle, hard-charging Zin blends, you NEED this in your life. Oh, you’ve never had the original Prisoner, or a Zin blend like this? You MOST DEF need it in your life. Trust us. Some wines are so irresistibly delicious, so fantastically complex, you can’t help but wonder how the hell they did it.

That’s just what Dave Phinney does though. He makes these otherworldly, williwonkified, liquid treasures that penetrate your soul. If the Prisoner was like inventing the wheel, this is like a GT350. If the Prisoner was like Tom Brady in the 2001 season, Disciples is like him in 2020. Evolved, improved, more sophisticated and ready to tear it up.

You get the idea.

The mad genius behind this wine is the guy who sent Orin Swift into orbit, and the same guy who crafted the original Prisoner blend many moons ago. So, it makes sense that his latest passion project riff on this style takes a similar intensity to a new echelon.

Impeccable vineyard sources – the historic Old Crane Estate, Tofanelli in Calistoga, and Morisoli in Rutherford. All deep heritage sites, where some vines from 1880 still crank out impossibly concentrated gnarly old vine fruit. This wine is “all about that bass”, thumping with a core of strawberry preserves, jammin’ with some raspberry.

For the inaugural vintage Antonio Galloni lauded “The Crane Assembly is one of the most intriguing projects I have come across in some time. It is no secret that vineyards planted with grape varieties other than Cabernet Sauvignon are likely to be economically unviable. It’s hard to say exactly how things will shape up here, but readers should make an effort to taste these wines while they can… Floral, silky and nuanced, with compelling purity of fruit and terrific balance, the Disciples is a winner. Striking fruit density and alluring aromatic presence add character to this mid-weight, super-classic wine.”

Robert Parker echoed “The winemaker behind these magnificent wines is Dave Phinney, working from the Dr. George Beldon Crane Vineyard, which was first planted as a site in 1885. At that time, it was largely a blend of grapes often referred to as ‘mixed blacks.’ There are now 8 acres in production, four containing the original plantings and the rest planted from 1930 onward. Phinney and a group of his friends purchased the vineyard in 2012… serious consumers should be thrilled. The Zinfandel plantings date from the 1880s and were better known as the source for Biale’s Old Crane… terrific body, length, richness, and viscosity. It is a sensational Zinfandel…”

Just the fact that it hails from the highest-scoring Zin vintage EVER by Wine Advocate at 95 points should be enough of a reason to scoop up much as you can: “2018s are packed with purity, vibrancy, and energy… fantastic intensity and depth without being concentrated/weighty, offering bright, crunchy fruit profiles.”

No scores on the 2018 yet, but given the past results, we know what to expect…

Unleash your inner beast, NOW!