2018 Chad Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 750 ml

Business was booming in NYC until early March. Then, in the space of just a few days, the city’s hottest spots—The Odeon, Gramercy Tavern, Daniel, Le Bernardin, and Per Se—closed their doors. Hundreds of cases of one of Oregon’s finest Pinot Noirs were left without a home… until a call was made to Chad.

Upwards of $20 by the glass all over town in January and February under a far more recognizable label. At $20 a the bottle this morning behind CHAD. You make the call. 200 cases are up for grabs. 

In the summer of 2008, a young Napa Valley winemaker hosted a BBQ in his backyard. Most of those who attended were also young winemakers. But on this evening, unlike past get-togethers, this wasn’t a night for partying. The mood was somber as one by one, they confessed to their host that they expected to be laid off in the coming months. 

The black economic storm clouds that had rained on Wall Street’s parade had finally found their way to the West Coast. Wineries that were selling everything on release and raising prices fluidly just six months before, were now packed with unsold inventory. Wholesalers all over the country were hunkering down, trimming inventory aggressively. 

Wanting to help his buddies out, the host of that BBQ saw an opportunity, and his first call was to Wine Access. His name was Chad.

Over the next four years, CHAD became one of the hottest tickets on Wine Access, and justifiably so. While our new winemaker friend often shared the details behind each of the wines that were bottled under his label, he always cautioned us not to divulge the names of wineries or winemakers. “When you’re offering a wine that otherwise would be sold for 400 bucks for 40, it’s best not to rub salt in the wound,” Chad said. “I’m going to ride this as long as I can. Eventually things will turn around, and when they do, I’ll call it a day.”

It would take nearly four years for him to call it a day, but by 2012, from Oregon’s Dundee Hills to the steepest slopes of Napa’s Howell Mountain, the bear market had turned decidedly bullish…and that day had come. 

CHAD was no more… or so we thought.

If you were coming into NYC from out of town in January or February, and hoped to book a table on short notice at Keith McNally’s iconic brasserie, The Odeon, Daniel Boulud’s Bar Boulud and Restaurant Daniel, Danny Meyer’s Gramercy Tavern or Union Square Cafe, or Thomas Keller’s iconic Per Se, you must have been dreaming. Even on Monday nights, typically the slowest night of the week, all of those restaurants, as well as dozens of other top addresses, were packed to the gills, with waiting lists a mile long. 

But then, in the space of just five or six days, the planet shifted on its axis. On a single night, Boulud and Meyer joined Le Bernardin, announcing they were shutting their doors for an indefinite period of time. A day or two later, Keller followed suit. Within a week, every single restaurant in the city was closed. Jobs were lost. Bills were left unpaid. And many of the greatest wineries on the coast, each holding large allocations ticketed for NYC hotspots, were whipsawed. 

It would take just another few days for wineries and their wholesalers to see the writing on the wall. The bulls became bears, adopting the same strategies that had saved them during the Great Recession. Many flipped their iPhone address books to the letter C…and called Chad.

2018 would be the fifth consecutive magnificent vintage in Oregon but with fewer heat spikes than in previous years and cool nights, resulting in low hydric stress and longer hang time on the vine. Then, between late September and early October, under bluebird skies, farmers all over Willamette Valley picked at their leisure—as was the case on the prized hillsides in Dundee Hills and Yamhill from which the 2018 CHAD Pinot Noir Willamette Valley is drawn.

Upon release, under another far more familiar label, sommeliers all over town were featuring this mouth-watering 2018 Oregon Pinot Noir for upwards of $20 by the glass. Today under CHAD? 

Just $20.00 per bottle. You make the call.