“Who is Sarah Francis? It’s about time we all found out.” – Robert Parker, 2015

By now a lot you already know who she is. We ran through the 2019 Sage Ridge previously, and this one last year. We just cleared the winery out again for this special Sarah Francis Store Takeover!!!

We have 10, yep, you read that right, TEN of her stunners up for grabs today, see the Store for all!

A vertical of Beckstoffer Georges III from 2017 through 2022. And another vertical, Sage Ridge from 2017 to 2019. Plus, The Cowboy and some of her Faith’s Cuvée Blanc de Noirs bubbly.

The Cabs are the lowest we have ever seen, or will see them, from $300 down to $89. That’s a full 70% OFF. Gulp. Now back to bad news, THESE WILL GO FAST as they are the final bottles in her library, and the word on the street is that they are sadly pulling the plug on this project. Getting teary eyed…

Eight years in and it sure doesn’t taste like it! It’s a POWERHOUSE vintage of structure. This big, bad, hedonistic thriller competes with and surpasses many of the very best out there and at our price it’s in a league of its own.

Wine Spectator scored the overall 2018 Napa vintage 99 Points, calling it “spectacular year, with wines that are rich and dark, but detailed, restrained in style and very terroir-driven.” At the time, it was the HIGHEST ranking vintage for the Napa Cabernet EVER.

Decanter was equally impressed: the 2018 Napa Valley Cabernet vintage belongs in an echelon with the finest of the past two decades.

Ok so …Where were we?

This 2018, you’ve seen the reviews for the 18’s and the hype, but just to give you a little more context..Sage Ridge Vineyard is a prized, hard to get Napa vineyard up on the ridges 1,480 feet in elevation above Lake Hennessey, near Pritchard Hill, close to Chappellet and Colgin. It’s a very small exclusive club of wineries that get this fruit! Guess that connection to Andy Beckstoffer was indeed fruitful. 🍇😊This vineyard gets big scores from high end critics when made by Bevan, Geodesy, Morgado, Scattered Peaks and Argot.

In just five years she went from having no grapes, no label, and no actual wine to earning a perfect 100 points for the inaugural vintage of this same Cabernet from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. He praised its “100-point aromatics” and the “stunning, intense fruit and richness.”

By taste alone, the 2018 seems positioned to come close to that same 100-point mark and we cannot imagine it earning anything less than 96-99 points.

Normally available only directly from Sarah via allocation, or perhaps from a small list of restaurants like Cole’s Chop House in Napa or Evangeline in Calistoga. Production clocks in at a minuscule 75 cases or so - every bottle is even hand-numbered by Sarah herself.

Which means we have far less than the normal offer to go around…

Tasting notes for this wine are at the bottom..BUT we wanted to give you a bio on this super EXCLUSIVE CULTY wine!

Sarah was born in Texas, and at a young age she felt the pull of the grapevines in her grandmother’s garden. In 2008 she sold her house, cashed out her retirement, and left her job at Johnson & Johnson to go all in on a move to the Bay Area.

Her persistence paid off. She connected with Andy Beckstoffer, who refused to sell her a barrel of To Kalon juice at first. She persisted, though, and eventually won him over after agreeing to make a Burgundian Chardonnay from the Carneros Lake Vineyard. Turns out he is a good person to know, and that connection led to many others!

Fermentation takes place entirely in the barrel. After hand destemming the fruit is put in the barrel with tops removed and punched as needed. The barrels rest on oxo rollers where they’re spun three times a day to ensure even exposure to the oak and skin contact. After, the juice is racked back into barrels for malolactic fermentation and continued aging for as long as it takes - up to 30 months in some vintages.

This 2018 from Sage Ridge is EPIC indeed. Fruit forward with vibrant blackberry, cassis, and a savory edge of steeped black tea start to layer in, with a mineral, graphite-like backbone holding it all together. The palate arrives structured and serious, mountain-fruit dense, with firmness. It shines with layer upon layer of fruit, graphite, minerals, violets. It is a teeth-staining, mouthcoating masterpiece for sure, with well-built tannins and the bones to go for decades! This, our friends is a wine you drink alongside a Tomahawk steak! 🥩

Dollar for dollar these can’t be beat. Store Takeover is for today ONLY. So beat the clock and snag all you can, while you can.