Origin: California
Retail: $19.95 | Sale: $17.96
When Patrick Capiello was a sommelier and restaurateur at some of New York’s finest restaurants (Tribeca Grill, Veritas, GILT and Pearl and Ash), he was frustrated by the lack of affordable, varietally honest wines from California. In 2018, he teamed up with longtime friend Pax Mahle, formerly a wine buyer for Dean and Deluca and since 2000, proprietor of Pax Wine, one of the leaders of California’s third wave of wineries. Together they craft beautiful, unmanipulated, terroir-driven wines from organic, family-run vineyards.All of the wines are blends produced from fruit that comes from the same locations as the fruit for his Monte Rio Cellars project. The primary difference between the two is that the Skull Wines are blends from several different sites, whereas the Monte Rio wines are single vineyard expressions of a single varietal. Like his Monte Rio Wines the Skull bottlings are produced from all sustainable &/or organically farmed vineyards, made naturally with only native/ambient yeasts, fermented in a combination of cement & stainless steel before being aged in neutral wood. Notes of ripe berries, red currants, cherry compotes, and sweet spice lead to a lingering, acid-driven finish. 30% Zinfandel, 20% Syrah, 20% Mission, 10% Petite Sirah, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, & 10% Alicante Bouchet