For a throwback Tuesday…

We have a 95 pointer from a quiet GIANT in the industry at 50% OFF.

Sometimes it’s all about being in the right place, at the right time, less about what and more about who you know.

Long before Wine Spies was born, I met Sandi Belcher and helped find her stunning wines new homes at full retail prices. Every bottle sold out with word of mouth. For good reason - they were simply spectacular.

Without that relationship from long ago this deal would never have happened. Longstanding, deep connections far and wide in the industry come full circle. And you’re the beneficiary today.

New to Arns? Most likely, you’ve heard of Heitz Cellar and Chateau Montelena.

Back in the 1970s, Sandi Belcher of Arns had a lot to do with the iconic wines made at those prestigious estates. With a UC Davis graduate degree in chemistry and agriculture, she found her calling on Pritchard Hill - joining Long Vineyards, and another winemaking legend, Zelma Long, for three decades.

Meanwhile, she and her vineyard manager husband John Arns quietly developed their own estate in the hills above St. Helena, just below Howell Mountain planted mostly to Cabernet Sauvignon. Before she launched her own label, regulars clamoring over the impeccable fruit grown on the 160 hillside acres included Dunn, Martin Ray, Burgess, and Merryvale.

In 1992, the same year as the first Screaming Eagle, she bottled and labeled the first Arns. They started with a few hundred cases, and rarely exceeded a thousand over the years, as they built a loyal following. The wines are snatched up by top restaurants around the world and their mailing list. It’s hard to find a better example of small production, family-owned, top tier winemaking than this.

Devout fans of Arns don’t want the secret out there. There’s rarely enough to go around! That’s why they love the totally under the radar (GLOWING) Reviews & Comments page on their website.

Imagine how much cajoling it took to get pry library gems out of their hands! Yes, more than one. With such a small amount of the 2014, we needed to lock down a few other vintages. Collect them all, enjoy as a mini-vertical as we did. It’s hard to play favorites when the nuances of the vintages don’t budge the astounding quality such impeccable grapes and winemaking can achieve year in year out. If you were lucky enough to have snagged some of their 2011 and 2012, we quietly blew through back in 2022, you know what’s up.

These wines turn SILK with time in the bottle. Flowing like satin, while velvety mountain tannins catch up on the finish. A beacon of classicism, a trip in time to a bygone era of Napa Valley, that emphasized complexity over intensity. They pair with pretty much anything, however, as wines of contemplation, an Arns is best savored, slowly, sip by sip, with friends and family who’d appreciate a decade of age and the wonders it does to these stunners.

$100 makes Arns a true bargain. Half off that is madness when there’s so little to be had.

95 Points – The Wine Independent “The Arns 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon is 100% of this variety. Deep garnet in color with a touch of brick, it bursts with bold notions of crème de cassis, plum preserves, and spice box, leading to touches of dried sage, cigar box, and candied violets. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is refreshing and beautifully balanced with nicely mature black fruit and spicy flavors offset by grainy tannins, finishing long and perfumed. Impressive! Drink 2024-2035.”