2018 Kinfolk Sauvignon Blanc Dry Creek Valley Sonoma County 750 ml

Our Sauvignon Blanc Surprise of the Season

We knew Britt Nichols, the driving force behind the Wine Access customer favorite Nichols, was up to something big when we all received text messages one afternoon this past spring. Meet me at the Sky & Vine rooftop bar at the Archer Hotel in downtown Napa tonight. 6pm. Got something *interesting* to show you.

We’ve known Britt and her husband, fellow winemaker Ry Richards, long enough to understand that a message like that—especially one sent to our entire team—could only mean one thing: Something crazy to taste.

We arrived at 5:59 and the two of them were already at a high-top, with six glasses of shimmering white wine poured and an unlabeled bottle in the middle, the words “DC SB” scrawled in Sharpie across its flank—Dry Creek Sauvignon Blanc, we later discovered. Aromas of tropical fruit and fresh-cut grass hovered above the table.

“Go ahead,” she told us, barely trying to suppress her anticipation.

No wonder she was so excited: This was Sauvignon Blanc with all the layers of Meyer lemon, grilled pineapple, papaya, and grapefruit zest, cut through by hints of tarragon and wet-stone minerality, that you usually associate with $45 bottles. And yet, she told us, we’d be able to offer it for $12 a bottle.

Our initial surprise was quickly replaced with the dawning realization that this is just how Britt and Ry do things. With friends in the business throughout California, they are always the first winemakers that get the call when a few extra lots remain from the top growers and producers: Their friends know that Britt and Ry will take their juice and transform it into a wine of both greatness and affordability.

The source of this one, like all the Kinfolk wines, has to remain a secret. But suffice it to say that it comes from one of the most awarded, critically praised producers in all of Sonoma County.

Situated on a hillside in the most northern reaches of Dry Creek Valley, this estate-grown Sauvignon Blanc is from a vineyard naturally irrigated by an underground spring that gives the vines all the water they need and not a drop more. The fruit, as a result, is concentrated and packs a serious punch that allows it to age gracefully for years longer than most Sauvignon Blanc. Nearby redwood groves help moderate the temperature and provide a hedge against warm days, which means that the wine has as much ripe fruit as acidity. The tension between the two is striking, and far more typical of a wine that costs three or four times as much.

The couple at the table next to ours that evening was curious about the mystery wine in our unmarked bottle, so we did a little experiment and poured them each half a glass. Their eyes opened wider as they took their first sip, their eyebrows doing a little dance. What, they wanted to know, was this incredible wine? We couldn’t tell them, but suggested they join Wine Access...

Today is their chance to find out. We just hope they read this before it’s gone. Britt didn’t have access to all that much fruit in 2018, and with a price like under-$15 per bottle, the 2018 Kinfolk Sauvignon Blanc promises to fly out of here faster than we finished that marker-scrawled bottle back in the spring.