Ellman Family Vineyards Brothers Blend Red Napa Valley 2018

Ellman Family Vineyards is a new project here in the Napa Valley, that launched out the gate with some fantastic critical praise and plenty of hype. That can sometimes happen when you start with a winemaker/vineyard manager mega-combo of Andy Erickson and Mike Wolf. Over 50% off this incredible 94 POINT beauty – composed of 94% cabernet sauvignon and 6% merlot – makes this a new must-have Napa red!

Neil and Lance Ellman are South African-born, American-raised entrepreneur brothers who fell in love with Napa years back. After years of planning, they recently purchased a 20-acre vineyard just east of downtown Napa, and not just any vineyard - this estate vineyard was the primary component of Wagner’s Caymus Special Selection for years. Andy Erickson heads up their winemaking program, with Andy’s long-time associate, Patrick Nyeholt, serving as his day-to-day taskmaster. The legendary Mike Wolf (Harlan, Scarecrow, Vine Hill Ranch, and more) manages the vineyards – and that basically completes a dream team that can stand toe to toe with any producer in Napa, and beyond. 

The wine is impressive – particularly as this “Brothers Blend” is the more casual of the estate’s offerings, but with the winery retail is already set at $140/bottle, and with only about 750 cases made – this is designed to go the way of winery only allocation and club soon enough. We worked a deal to get a handful of cases to share and the savings are crazy good. The wine itself? Even better. A classically styled and definitively Andy Erickson product – bold, rich, luxuriously smooth, and velvety, but never overdone. The wine is flashy but not syrupy, round, and toasty, without being overly oaky, and elegant to the last. Inky blackberry, fresh pipe tobacco, mocha, and cocoa powder, with aromas of lilacs and violets, and a plump core of red plums, black cherries, and myriad bramble berries. Grilled herbs and spices carry into a seamless finish, with a whisper of iron and crushed rock extending things beautifully. As impressive of an early effort as any new Napa wine I can recall, but again, with the team behind this wine, that hardly comes as a surprise. Grab a few while we have them… there’s no telling if we’ll get access to these ever again!