Good Times, Bad Times is a single vineyard wine made from vines first planted in the 1870s by Hiram W. Crabb in the historic vineyard called To Kalon. It’s situated in the Oakville appellation in the Napa Valley next to the Mondavi winery and over the road from Opus One Winery. The vineyard is owned and managed by Andy Beckstoffer, the best known grower in the Napa Valley.

We insist that the cropping level is kept low, in accordance with the kind of wines that we make in the Saint Emilion. The wine is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. The vines are cropped below three tons per acre, ensuring concentration. Two runs of green harvesting ensure that the hand-picked berries that finally end up in the vat are the best that could possibly be picked; they are delivered to the winery in yellow plastic baskets known locally as FYB’s - you can work that out!

Vinification is pretty similar to those wines that we make in France. After running through two sets of sorting tables - first by bunch and then, after the destemmer, grape by grape, we are looking for a long cold soak before fermentation in new French Oak, and are aged thereafter in a temperature controlled cellar at 18C.