Hertelendy at Half Off - A great boutique Napa Producer with 95+ Points from the Wine Advocate at 50% off!!
We will sell no wine before it’s time….It’s time!!!
Big Trouble in California Wine Country
I just got back from a trip to wine country in Northern California and visited both Napa and Sonoma for a few days over the holiday weekend. It had been some time since I was in wine country tasting at wineries as I usually go during Premier week and there are a lot of planned events with hundreds of people from the trade in town. I figured with the “Bottle Rock” festival in town and Memorial-day weekend both valleys would be packed and bustling with wine drinking people visiting for the weekend and into the first part of the week as well.
Our first visit was at the oldest family-owned winery in California Gundlach Bundschu and it was the Sunday before Memorial day with jeff Bundschu at the DJ booth mixing up the tunes on a beautiful afternoon 75 degrees and sunny. It was a great visit and Jeff toured us around the winery telling us the story of this famous winery and although they were up to over 100,000 cases in production at one time they have reeled things back to around 30,000 today. This is due to a number of things but is also a sign of the times, there are less and less wine drinking people showing up to work every year for the last decade.
It was a nice crowd but maybe only at 60% of the capacity they have, I don’t know if they turned people away saying they were full because they did not have enough staff but we had a great time and the service was excellent. This was the busiest winery of all of our visits and by far the most affordable wine of all the places on our itinerary.
Monday, we had lunch at Auberge du Soleil, one of Napa Valley’s most prominent resorts that has been around for 40+ years. The restaurant was less then 50% full and this is one of the biggest holiday weekends of the year as Memorial Day followed the “Bottle Rock” weekend you would think that the restaurants would get a little busier than a normal Monday and if your not ½ full at lunch your losing money.
The following day we had lunch at the Oakville Grocer one of the most iconic stops on Highway 29 the longest continuous operating grocer west of the Mississippi. The parking lot was ½ empty. We had reports of tasting rooms 25-50% off in sales and the restaurants also facing hard times having not recovered from Covid times. Many wineries were closed on Tuesday and Wednesday for walk in tastings. We had appointments at all of our visits and when your talking about the Jarvis’s and Opus One’s of Napa Valley they are doing fine but it’s the little producers that may have loans on the property that are in big trouble.
I have seen more 50% off deals than ever in my 27 years of owning a retail store. There is a backup of inventory and if you love Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon your about to see a lot more offerings like this come across your e-mail so enjoy the summer of sales as we start off with this crazy offering of Wine Advocate 95+ point rated wines from Napa Valley at 50% off their release price!!
Hertelendy at Half Off!!!
2018 Hertelendy Chardonnay Ritchie Vineyard Sonoma
Price: $75.00 Your Price: $37.50 (50% Off!) Quantity in Stock: 7
(94 Points) Rich and oak-driven, this impressive, over-the-top wine is aged in 90% new French and Hungarian oak. Buttery creme brulee and tropical pineapple, guava and an opulent texture give it a complex intensity that persists in baking spice and vanilla on the palate. — Virginie Boone Wine Enthusiast
2019 Hertelendy Audere Red Blend Napa
Price: $75.00 Your Price: $37.50 (50% Off!!) Quantity in Stock: 27
(92 Points) The 2019 Proprietary Red Audère is composed of 43% Merlot, 43% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 3% Malbec and 1% Petit Verdot. Deep garnet-purple in color, it bursts with flamboyant black cherries, minted blackberries and blackcurrant pastille notes, plus hints of potpourri and spice box. Full-bodied, rich, soft and juicy in the mouth, it has bags of spicy black fruit and a perfumed finish. The Wine Advocate
2018 Hertelendy Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Price: $160.00 Sale Price: $89.00 Quantity in Stock: 14
(95 Points)The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon is based on 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petit Verdot, and the balance Malbec and Merlot. Beautiful crème de cassis, blueberries, flowers, cedarwood, tobacco, and rocky, mineral-like notes emerge from the glass, and it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, a layered, seamless texture, building tannins, and a great finish. This rich, powerful 2018 has the vintage's purity and freshness, stunning overall balance, and the class to evolve for 20 years or more." — Jeb Dunnuck
2018 Hertelendy Signature Mountain Red Blend Napa Valley
Price: $160.00 Your Price: $89.00 Quantity in Stock: 23
(96+ Points)"The 2018 Signature Mountain Blend is composed of 60% Merlot, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Petit Verdot, 7% Malbec and 1% Cabernet Franc. Opaque purple-black colored, it slowly unfurls to reveal beguiling scents of baked black plums, boysenberries and chocolate-covered cherries plus hints of lilacs, forest floor, pencil lead and star anise. Medium to full-bodied, the palate shimmers with electric energy and tension, delivering mouth-filling perfumed black fruits and a firm foundation of ripe, rounded tannins, finishing with fantastic length and purity." — Lisa Perrotti-Brown (Master of Wine), Robert Parker Wine Advocate
2016 Hertelendy Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Price: $160.00 Sale Price: $89.00 Quantity in Stock: 26
(96 points) “The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon is a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Petit Verdot, 7% Malbec, 6% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc. It has a deep garnet-purple color and delivers intense, vivacious black cherries, warm blackcurrants and blackberries scents with touches of garrigue, cigar box, underbrush and lavender. Full-bodied and packed with generous flavors of crushed black berries with oodles of earthy sparks, it has a rock-solid line of grainy tannins and seamless freshness, finishing very long and savory.” — Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Robert Parker Wine Advocate
2015 Hertelendy Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Price: $160.00 Your Price: $89.00 Quantity in Stock: 24
(96 Points) "Hertelendy's inky purple-black colored 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon has a lifted blackberry and cassis nose with nuances of cedar, tobacco and bouquet garni plus scents of chargrilled meat and truffles. Medium to full-bodied, with good concentration in the mouth and firm, fine-grained tannins, it's expressive and youthful with a long finish." — Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Robert Parker Wine Advocate
A bit about Hartelendy Wines
Hertelendy wines represent our Old World family tradition over many centuries, from 18th-century Veltlínske zelené (Grüner Veltliner) and Rizling vlašský (Welschriesling) vineyards near Budatin Castle in Slovakia to Hungarian wines produced by our ancestral Great Uncle Gábor Hertelendy (below). He created two varietals in his basalt-mountain vineyards overlooking Lake Balaton: Szürkebarát (better known as Pinot Gris) and Kéknyelű (a rare Hungarian white wine grape only found in the Badacsony wine region). Unlike the majority of common grape varieties used in viticulture, Kéknyelű cannot self-pollinate. Kéknyelű is rare today because it requires both male and female specimens for pollination, so it occupies double the space to reap half the yield.
Great Uncle Gabor’s manor was half-way up an extinct volcano on the north shore of Lake Balaton where his wine profited from the rich soils resulting from the very hard (volcanic) basalt rock. Gabor sold all his white wine to the Badacsony cooperative, so bottles never adorned his Hertelendy name. He only allocated two acres to wine production, and family members from Budapest would all volunteer to assist with the harvest. Gabor et al continued producing wine even after the confiscation of his land by the Communists, who allowed him to stay and work on his former land as a hired hand.
Original Hertelendy Coat of Arms. More details about this crest can be found by deciphering the secret “Da Vinci” code on our Chardonnay label.
Today, Hertelendy family traditions have been reborn in the New World with quality vintage selections from the Napa Valley to bridge both sides of the Atlantic. It is also unique that regardless of where Hertelendys make wine, volcanic soil within their respective terroir has always been a staple in Hertelendy winemaking throughout generations.
Hertelendy Vineyards sources its fruit, not just from our 4+ acre mountainside 1365 ft elevation
“Rockwell Ridge” estate vineyard (35 ft below the Howell Mountain AVA demarcation line) planted in 1993, but also from ultra premium volcanic sites around the Napa Valley including areas like Atlas Peak, Pritchard Hill, Howell Mountain, Oakville, and Coombsville. Specializing in all five Bordeaux varietals, the majority of Hertelendy’s red vitis vinifera grapes come from tuffaceous rocky soil that is located on the steep, western facing Vaca Mountain slope (with Oakville being the exception). These slopes have volcanic ash, red clay, and granite-like sub soil, getting the best of both worlds: mountainside structure and rich flavors from the valley floor. These hillside locations, blessed with low fertility soil, consistently produce wines of unusual intensity and concentration. The rocky terrain provides excellent drainage and naturally stresses the vines, producing wines of character, complexity, and elegance. We also source some of the most ultra-premium Pinot Noir and Old Wente Clone Chardonnay (from fifty year old vines) planted on world famous Gold Ridge Sandy Loam top-soils in the Russian River Valley.
Ralph Hertelendy, Founder/Vintner
After family immigrated from Hungary and settled down in the San Francisco Bay Area, Ralph Hertelendy fell in love with wine at a very early age. When Ralph was 5 years old in France, he tasted one of the best French Grand Crus, and remembered liking it not just for the flavor, but also because it brought friends and family together. After getting his business degree from the University of San Francisco, Ralph became a sommelier and worked for several wineries in the Napa Valley as a Winemaker’s Assistant and in sales. When he was 15, he made his first beer, and when he was 25, he made his first wine in his basement; over the years he has refined his craft towards creating only top quality style wines (he was not a great brewer).
Being multilingual, he’s lived and traveled in France, Italy, and Spain to go on wine explorations in specific regions to further hone his craft and broaden his horizons. Besides world-travel, Ralph shares many other interests and passions as well; he’s a Director of his family’s philanthropic organization: the Hertelendy Foundation, is a realtor, musician, sports fan, car enthusiast, woodworker, avid chess player, and loves to cook, stay active (scuba diving/golf/snowboarding/wakeboarding), and skydive while seeking adventures around the world.
Quirky and interesting, Ralph is also a bit of a zealot when it comes to converting people’s preconceived notions about wine. He likes to throw curveballs about certain varietals, and entice people with intriguing labels and tasting notes that turn conventional wisdom on its head. “I like to make wines that people don’t expect. To do the opposite of what something should be.” When Ralph tastes amazing wines, it moves his soul and sometimes gives him an epiphany on the meaning of life. When asked why he’s making small production, top quality wines, Ralph begins to say, “It’s a profound passion striving towards excellence….”, but then asserts with a cheeky grin, “…plus, there’s just not enough mind-bending wines in this world.”
Phillip Corallo-Titus, Wine Consultant
Phillip is well known for his work at Chappellet Vineyards and Titus Vineyards. Ralph approached Phillip as his wine consultant because he loves his classy style of winemaking, creating silky smooth, well-balanced wines. Phillip is a talented winemaker whose passion for wine, and modest humility clearly shows when conversing with him.
Phillip discovered his passion for viticulture and wine at the age of 12 when he began helping his father in the family vineyard. Building on this foundation, Phillip studied agronomy, viticulture and enology at the University of California, Davis and began his professional career in Napa Valley in 1981. Phillip’s approach to winemaking begins in the vineyard, where he believes that ripe grapes and great terroir are needed to make premium wines. In his downtime, Phillip enjoys eating healthy and traveling to different parts of the country for his favorite pastime: flyfishing.
Combining Ralph’s complex, bold approach and Phillip’s elegant finesse of winemaking, wines from Hertelendy Vineyards meet in the middle of their styles, birthing beautiful expressions of liquid art that wouldn’t otherwise have been made. They have formed a symbiotic relationship over the years, and continue to push the envelope with their winemaking techniques in the pursuit towards winemaking perfection.
“Your wine is only as good as your grapes.” — Phillip Corallo-Titus
“There’s nothing quite like an incredible wine — It has the ability to move your soul, induce goosebumps, and if you’re lucky, even reveal the meaning of life. Here at Hertelendy, we handcraft some of the world’s finest without compromising quality. Perfecting winemaking since 2006, I feel blessed and fortunate to share my passion with the world.” — Ralph Hertelendy
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