RAEN

WHY BUY: A 99-point Pinot Noir for just $80? How about a 97-point Chardonnay for the same low price? Believe it. That's the mind-blowing value that RAEN Winery delivers, and among the many reasons hard-core collectors and sommeliers have tried so hard to gatekeep these wines for themselves. Carlo and Dante Mondavi, grandsons of the legend, Robert Mondavi, are crafting some of the absolute best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay this side of Burgundy — elegant, finessed, built for the long haul, but also impossible to resist opening right now. Snatch these up now, folks. RAEN isn't going to stay a secret for much longer, and the prices are almost certain to go up, up, up.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: "Spellbinding." That's the word James Suckling reached for to capture the 99-point Royal St. Robert, which he went on to call "a continu[ing] benchmark for American pinot noir," singling out its "captivating combination of linear intensity and calmness" as "so classy and sophisticated.” He gave almost as much love to the 98-point Sea Field, hailing its "persistence, intensity and structure," its "firm, muscular tannins," and its "long, lightly chewy finish.” The Lady Marjorie Chardonnay drew from him a small prose-poem, along with 97 points, rare for a white wine in the critical community: "vibrant and featherlight yet concentrated,”  he wrote, "creamy yet refined," with "a steely mineral aftertaste." 

OUR TASTING NOTES: Pour the Lady Marjorie first, and what arrives is lift — that buoyant, sea-spray cool-climate quality you almost never find in inland California fruit, holding the wine aloft as if it were supported by a small breeze. Underneath, though, there's real weight, a creamy depth that catches you off-guard given how high this wine seems to fly. The Royal St. Robert plays a quieter game. It’s almost reticent at first pour, the kind of Pinot that doesn't show itself fully in the opening minutes. Wait, though, and the wine begins to reveal itself in slow stages: a fine, silken tannic frame; an interior that opens patiently; a wonderful, elongated finish. There’s a restraint here, a refusal to perform, that California Pinot rarely manages. Sea Field is the muscle of the trio. Where the Royal St. Robert murmurs, Sea Field has more to say, and it says it in a darker, deeper voice. The mid-palate grips and won't quite let go, and the tannins carry real authority. A few years in bottle will only do it good, but the bones are absolutely there.

THE STORY: The Mondavi name has been synonymous with California Cabernet for so long that it's pretty easy to forget that the family had to invent that legend in the first place. So when Carlo and Dante Mondavi, fourth-generation winegrowers, grandsons of the great Robert, set out to make their own wine, in 2013, they did something both audacious and, well — call it deeply Mondavi: they ignored all that the patriarch had built. Instead of Cabernet, they chose Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Rather than establish roots in Napa, they went to the rugged, fog-bound, Pacific-battered reaches of the true Sonoma Coast. And turning their backs on California bombast and size, they opted for Burgundian restraint. The result, RAEN — pronounced "rain" — has, in just over a decade, become one of the most coveted addresses in all of the West Coast. Indeed, many insiders are now saying that it is redrawing the map for what California Pinot can be. The brothers consider themselves winegrowers, not winemakers — not unlike their father, Tim, or their grandfather Robert — and that distinction explains why they’re so fanatical about farming. They subject their 38 acres to biodynamic, organic, and permaculture principles; hand-harvest in the cool of the night; employ 100% whole-cluster fermentations on native yeasts; and bottle unfined and unfiltered. The aim, always, is to get out of the wine's way. 

WHAT TO PAIR THEM WITH: With its lifted texture and saline finish, the Lady Marjorie makes a wonderful match with a Vietnamese ginger-lemongrass chicken, a plate of Hokkaido scallops with brown butter, or a Persian saffron rice with herbs. For the Royal St. Robert, think earthy, mineral, rich: a duck tagine, say, or a Korean galbi-jjim, or a wild mushroom risotto. The denser, grippier Sea Field calls for heartier fare, like an Argentine asado, a cochinita pibil, or a juicy, crusty porterhouse.

FUN FACT: RAEN is the brothers' philosophy in acronym form: Research in Agriculture and Enology Naturally. The name is also a nod to the notion that wine was rain first, with water filtered through rock and soil and taken back up by the vine.

OUR GUARANTEE: As always, we only buy and source directly from the estate to ensure that your bottles and cases arrive as they should and as you deserve: with pristine provenance guaranteed. Secure yours today!