2016 Color & Sound Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

The Colors and Sounds of Wine

“You say this tastes like ‘blackberries’ and ‘crème de cassis,’ but it’s not like that for me. When I sip this, I see ribbons in spectrums of black, blue, and red colors, some as wide as oak trees; others as thin as guitar strings.”

The wine we were drinking was a 2013 Inglenook, and our friend Alexis, a kindhearted Yountville local who loves to share special bottles from her cellar, was attempting to explain that she experiences wine as shapes, colors, and sounds. “I’m told I have Synesthetic senses, whatever that means,” she said, then clinked our glass and took another sip. “Now, I’m hearing Bob Dylan. Is that crazy?”

Yes, Alexis may sound a little crazy. We all do at times. But she has a rare gift, and our conversation over lunch at Mustards Grill in Napa more than two years ago was awe-inducing. It’s the reason we’re writing today to introduce Color and Sound—a label inspired by Alexis, boasting an equally complex personality at an everyday price. For this inaugural release, the 2016 Color and Sound Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, all we can disclose is that 90 percent of this wine comes from a 100-point Napa Cab house whose flagship wine sells for $500 to the mailing list. The rest comes from another icon that regularly earns 95-97-point Parker scores.

How are we able to offer this remarkably plush, black-and-blue-fruited, delicious 100% Cabernet at only $23.99 per bottle? No matter how abundant a vintage might be, cult wineries prefer to make less to maintain demand. They sell off their extra grapes to friends who they trust. Often, we get that call.   

When Alexis first described herself as a Synesthete (someone who can taste in shapes, colors, and sounds) she also told us, “I have a hard time drinking anything if doesn’t have a big personality, and most of those bottles tend to be pricey.” It sounded like a challenge—one we decided to tackle.

Her “synesthesia” had us thinking about wine in a whole new light. In the last couple of years, we’ve taken Alexis to lunch quite often just to hear her explain, “the colors and sounds” of wine, as she’s always put it. Eventually, last summer, again at Mustards, we worked up the nerve to ask her if she’d partner with us.

“You’ve really inspired us, and we’d love to make a wine that captures how wine makes you feel and we’d love to have you describe it so we can print your notes on the label,” then added, “and of course, provide you with a healthy stash.”

Alexis grinned, and nosed her glass of 2013 Joseph Phelps Cabernet—she was paying for lunch that day. “If you can make a wine like this,” she tapped her nails against the bottle of Phelps, “for even forty bucks, I’m in.”   

We shook on it and then ignored her calls for weeks, worrying we’d over-promised. If we were going to make wine to celebrate Alexis’ “synesthetic gifts” that might also inspire vivid, pleasing sounds, shapes, and colors for her, it had to be nothing short of exceptional.

But the market is a tricky place if you’re trying to make “exceptional” value-priced wines. We made a few calls to some old friends, then waited. And waited. All hope seemed lost, and then came THE call from a Napa cult Cabernet house that employs one of the world’s greatest French winemakers.

We told them about Alexis. They were intrigued and said it was the wine for her. We offered to wire money then and there. It was the Cabernet coup of a lifetime, and it now makes up 90 percent of the blend of the 2016 Color and Sound Napa Cabernet. Built on A++ fruit—a source we can never disclose.

What did we do with this Cabernet? We gave it the royal treatment, aging it in expensive new French oak another year, bringing the total time in barrel to 26 months. We bottled it in January, and made a reservation at Mustards on Groundhog Day, then called Alexis.

She was in a rare, sour mood. “I had a corked bottle of something quite special last night. All I could taste was thick patches of thorny roses and twisted scrap metal.”

“Well...this isn’t corked,” we said, revealing an unlabeled bottle of Color and Sound. “And it’s been breathing for twenty minutes, so ‘forget your troubles and just be happy’—” she stopped us from singing another lyric with a loving wave of her hand.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Taste it,” was all we said before holding our breath.

Alexis smiled big, nosed the glass for a bit, sipped, then closed her eyes and mused. “Mmmm,” she began, “Blue winter rain and black soils. I’m seeing crimson-violet waves, and I’m not hearing music as much as the familiar buzz of tractors and workers picking grapes at night here in the Valley during harvest. It’s smooth like a sheet of steel for me, and also grainy like running your finger along an oak stave. I get cool a quietness too, like standing in the wine cellar too long. It’s maroon feathers and—”

Gently interrupting her, we clinked our glass to hers. “Wait, that’s just incredible,” we said, then slid over a pen and paper napkin. “Will you jot that down?” She grinned wide and took the pen, writing quickly. “I want at least five cases,” she said without looking up.

As we watched Alexis write out the very words that today grace the back label of Color and Sound, we grew excited to share the wine with you, knowing that with a little patience, the right connections, and the right inspiration, we could make a wine for under $40 that hits all the emotional, tactile, and sensory marks of a wine triple the price. 207 cases, minus Alexis’ five, for the taking; a thousand sips of the colors and sounds of wine.