CLASSIFIED STORE TAKEOVER!! 🕵️‍♂️ FIRST TIME EVER!! FIVE JAW-DROPPING WINES.

Operatives, TRUST YOUR FAITHFUL AGENTS OF WINE. My hands are sweaty as I type this. The risk of ANY exposure of the producer puts our livelihood at stake. Because this is, without a doubt, the best Classified we’ve had. Wait… classified(s) - plural.

Ever.

It’s not up for debate. Is one the best? You can take Larry Bird, the Michael Jordan, and Tom Brady as your GOAT? They’re all legendary.

A producer any collector knows, yearns for, and fawns over when spotted. Scores that refuse to quit. And the kicker: we have FIVE of these bad boys lined up today. Every one an absolute stunner, the kind of CULTY wine usually only available through retail auction houses.

Our business is built on precious and delicate relationships. This is not one we can even whisper a hint via DM or text message or smoke signal…

Speculation abounds in the Operative Hangout looking for clues. Be warned, however: this time, we’ll be trolling the Operative Hangout and, in a rare move, removing any blatant giveaways. Mark Stephens’ phone number will be put on “do not disturb” and ignored for the next 24 hours. It’s that serious.

We know… it takes some of the fun out of it. BUT Trust Us, 🤐 none of that will matter when you open your lockers.

Capiche? Ok, now that we got that out of the way, let’s get into it.

Scores? 🎯 Everything this winery does gets HUGE scores… HINT…100 Pointer Alert and A wall of 98’s and 97’s

And our cryptic collaboration of critics reviews….”It’s amazingly poised..”, ”full-bodied palate is tight-knit and multi-layered with loads of mineral nuances.”, ”balance, purity, and elegance here are world class”, ”great concentration and purity of flavors building in the glass”, ”multi-layered”

And the 2023 Napa vintage? Critics, winemakers and growers called it A once in a lifetime vintage. Brilliant. Aromatic and Fully ripe. James Suckling titled his report Napa’s Gorgeous Red Tide: 2023 Vintage Is a Legend in the Making.

Here’s what we can say. This producer’s fingerprints are all over some of Napa’s most fought over single vineyard sites, and the winemaker leaned on a mentor for blending, one who shaped some of Napa’s most legendary Cabs and Red blends across a five decade, four continent career. (Many 100 pointers)

The fruit comes from Coombsville, one of Napa’s coolest and most quietly respected AVAs, where morning fog off the bay and volcanic soil in the Vaca foothills trade raw power for precision instead. Only a small handful of labels are ever trusted with fruit off this particular hillside, and every one of them treats it like a secret worth protecting.

And why… It’s one of the younger recognized appellations, but is an ‘insiders iykyk’ place. Coombsville sits on an old volcanic caldera, so the ground is full of ash, tuff and other volcanic material rather than the alluvial gravel you find elsewhere in the valley. That combination, cooler and slower ripening plus volcanic soil, tends to produce Cabernet with real structure and mineral drive..which is why only a handful of winemakers get access and 1st pick to this fruit.

Deals like today take delicate negotiation. Months went into hammering out the details, our agents tapping their feet the whole time, eyeing the sample bottle and being forced to pass it by again and again. OP’s you have no idea how hard that is!! But it paid off…and as a reminder…MUMMS the word!

Our take on it?? Dark cherry, cassis and blackberry lead, layered with dried violets and rose petal up top. Cedar, graphite and a curl of black pepper work underneath, with baking spice and something almost like crushed dried thyme and bay leaf creeping in the longer it sits, with evolving dark currant. The palate is tight and multi-layered, chalky, fine grained tannins holding everything together with real freshness running through it. Long, earthy, unhurried finish. This is a cellar worthy wine. Give it the time it’s asking for. Decant it or cellar it for about 5 years, and get some more bottles to enjoy over the next 20 years!

These 2023’s are AMAZING and one of those of vintages everyone will reference for years to come!

🚨 Five files. Five reveals. Mission complete, Operatives, this is the last vault in this takeover. All five are live in the store right now. Go clear what’s left before we seal this dossier for good.