It is a tough crowd. But i’ve never tried Donati wines, so it will take some major convincing before i spend $20 on a blended red- especially if i know there have been better offers. I can wait. Or let the convincing begin.
Clarification: This was a special promotion that ran in March for the 4 year anniversary of the Donati Family Vineyard Tasting Room in Templeton. It looks as if someone still has some old emails lying around.
During the recession? Huh? I wasn’t aware it was over.
Richard,
My name is Ian Hudson, I’m one of the winemakers that takes deep pride in providing such wines like our 2006 Tal Padre. First off let me congratulate you on finding those ridiculous specials on our website for the other 06’s. I too took advantage of the crazy deals for my own personnel collection.
Anyway back to the Tal Padre,
2006 Tal Padre nuts and bolts:
49% Petit Verdot - 31% Merlot - 17% Cabernet Sauvignon - 1% Malbec - 1% Cabernet Franc - 1% Syrah
14.7% ABV
0.65 g/100ml TA
3.71 pH
77% New French Oak
14% Used American Oak
9% Used French Oak
Aged 30 months in barrel
Bottled unfiltered unfined
Please let me know if you have anymore questions.
Thanks,
Ian Hudson
Winemaker
There are two interrelated, but distinct phenomena:
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The overcapacity in the wine industry in California, which has been true for almost a decade; and
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The general depression (recession if you’re a Democrat).
The opportunity WineDavid39 tapped into before the depression was the result of #1, which caused there to be a lot of good (given 2004-2007 being at least good to excellent years) wine to be available at excellent prices.
That opportunity window is somewhat self-correcting, as producers fail marginal acreage is turned to something else, helped by less than stellar years like 2008.
That means that the general supply of good wine, for cheap, is down to some degree. That would naturally cause prices to increase, assuming demand remained the same.
However, the depression tends to cause demand to drop. At least, demand has shifted to lower price points as people have less money.
And, because of the depression, many wineries are in trouble and have problems with financing, leading them to be forced to liquidate inventory they might not otherwise want to.
On the fence, someone help convince me! This petit verdot heavy blend has caught my interest, but the lack of vintner participation and rattage has me ready to pass.
As someone commented earlier, a few more vital stats would also be very helpful… oak used, mos in barrel, pH, alc% etc.
… speak of the devil :o) nevermind… Thanks to Donati for the recent specs!
2006 Tal Padre nuts and bolts:
49% Petit Verdot - 31% Merlot - 17% Cabernet Sauvignon - 1% Malbec - 1% Cabernet Franc - 1% Syrah
14.7% ABV
0.65 g/100ml TA
3.71 pH
77% New French Oak
14% Used American Oak
9% Used French Oak
Aged 30 months in barrel
Bottled unfiltered unfined
Don’t be afraid of the heavy hand of Petite Verdot. With the long barrel maturation in mostly new French oak I have been able to tame the wild beast that is Petite Verdot. With that Merlot in there I really have been able to conjure up a balanced and smooth cuvee of Paicines gold… or should i say dark purple.
Got it! Thanks again Ian, I believe we were posting at the same moment :o) Appreciate the info… and what the heck… I’m in for one.
I guess that I should reveal my identity to all of you Wooters out there… My name is Mitch Bakich, DTC (Direct to Consumer) Manager for Donati Family Vineyard.
Congratulations to all of you who were able to take advantage of the deep discounts offered last winter, it definitely was a KILLER deal (It really made my Christmas shopping that much easier).
However, George Harrison said it best, “All Things Must Pass…” and the deal that you may have received one day, may not be available the next. The woot crowd is probably aware of this fact.
All is not lost, though. Those who are members of our Paesano Wine Club will still receive advance notice of special offerings and pricing as they always have.
…LOL…ZING!
Are the grapes for this wine organically grown?
No, we are not certified organic by any means however we do use some similar techniques. We use some organic fungicides like stylit oil to combat with botrotis as well as powdery mildew rather than dusting with synthetically produced powder sulfur.
We also use Integrated Pest Management and try to use native beneficial insects and vegetation as possible
Thank you for the update and for the great opportunities to try your wines. Does this mean that future special offers through the winery web site will still be available to non-wine club members (just without the advance notice), or will future discounts be restricted to wine club members?
Thanks
Well said RPM.
To add to that, every time I drive through Napa, Sonoma or Mendocino county, I see more and more vineyards being torn out, so it is indeed a self correcting situation. When times were good, everyone and their brother pulled out walnuts, pears, etc., and planted grapes to cash in. Not sure what will be planted next 
Donati makes some nice wines, and we got in on the sale last December. We bought 6 of the 2006 Tal Padre, and 6 of the 2006 Ezio at $15/bottle because we liked their regular bottlings, but yes after tax and shipping it turned out to be $18/bottle.
IMO, that’s a fair price for the wine, and $20/bottle isn’t all bad, but it’s not a $38 wine by any means.
One thing to note: some of the 2006 Donati wines are already throwing off a lot of sediment. You may wish to stand them up for a couple of days before opening, and decant. And I mean old school decant … pouring the wine in to carafe/decanter with a light shining through the bottle so you can stop pouring when the sediment starts to run.
by the time they say it happened it’s usually over.
The $44 deal isn’t the right price comparison (that’s like looking at the prices on Black Friday versus rest of year). However, when the everyday price at other internet sellers is $19.97/bottle, wine woot’s 24 hour “sale” looks very weak. Only the discounted shipping makes it mildly attractive. But we are also asked to buy 3 or more bottles, sight unseen, in a single day, without the opportunity to taste so you have to discount more than a couple bucks to compensate. If the wine is not to my liking, I’m stuck with multiple bottles. Thus, while we may not realistically expect 50% off regular prices, we ought get at least 20-25% off what other retailers (not winery price) are charging for the identical wine if the wine woot model is to survive.
weed, they’ll plant weed and then we’ll have medicinal.pot.woot
dude, that’s drought you’re thinking of