2014 Three Wine Company SMC Red Wine 750 ml

Snubbing The Competition, First in Line

Whenever “Matt Cline” calls, no matter the hour, I pick up. Why? Simple: our clients can’t get enough of his wines—to this day, they enjoy more 5-star ratings on Wine Access than almost any other wine we’ve ever offered. So, yesterday, when the phone rang at 7:09 a.m., and Matt’s named appeared on caller ID, I answered immediately. “I’m sorry to call so early, but I’ve got an east coast retailer who wants the rest of the 2014 SMC, and he wants it today. I told him I’d have to call Wine Access first.” That’s why we love Matt Cline. With 433 cases produced, after releasing to his mailing list last month, just 300 cases remained he told me. “Tell your friend,” I said to Matt, “that he can have whatever is left—if any is left—by Friday night.” So, thanks to Matt, before his latest 93-point 2014 Three Wine Company SMC hits the market—you get it first. The previous vintage earned 4.23 out of 5 stars. But in Wine Spectator’s “dream vintage,” the third-consecutive drought year, Matt turned out a massively concentrated, rich SMC loaded with macerated blackberries and black cherries soaked in kirsch with streaks of lavender and crushed violets—it’s sure to become your fast favorite. And why do you love Matt? $48 on release—just $34.99 per bottle (27% off for you), for a short time today. Shipping included on 4.

The story of Matt’s SMC blend, begins with his work, scouring the Petaluma Gap—the country’s newest AVA, which is already gaining a reputation as a place where you can practically bottle the wind. Formerly a part of the Sonoma and Marin counties, the limits of this subregion are literally defined by where the salty, brisk breezes blowing off the Pacific maintain a speed of at least 8 mph. Cutting a 15-mile gap through the coastal hills, this wind tunnel of an AVA stays cool as the inland valley heats up, temperatures sometimes swinging by as much as 40 degrees, fog coating the vines till the morning sun is high in the sky.

In other words, Petaluma Gap offers simply pristine conditions for producing complex Syrah, which dominates this mouthwatering Rhône blend: balanced, elegant, intensely aromatic. Those windy conditions make for berries that are thick-skinned and tiny, packed with phenolic compounds, vibrant acidity, and powerful structure.

To achieve the wine’s rich, rounded mouthfeel, Matt Cline blended in the meaty, rustic warmth of Mourvèdre and velvety-smooth Carignan, both from thick-trunks of bush-trained vines planted in the loamy Delhi sands of Cline’s Bigelow Vineyard.

It’s everything we’ve come to expect from Matt, with its Rhône sophistication and finesse girded by big bold California fruit. Fortunately, it’s a style that the 2014 vintage, the third in a series of four drought years on the North Coast, was almost designed to produce. “The vines just look very happy in droughts,” Matt told us. “They’re even darker-green than in big rain years. They get water: the roots go down 30 feet, and we’re right by the bay. When you’re talking about dry-farmed, own-rooted vines like these, what a drought really translates into is superb concentration.” That, and another full-bodied, irresistible hit from Three Wine Company.

If you’ve enjoyed Three’s full-throttle, lively, old-vine Zinfandels, or Matt’s bright, floral, and structured Field Blends, you’ll appreciate “SMC” as a seamless marriage of both styles.