In 2008 I took a last minute trip to Napa with a friend. By some sort of stroke of good luck we travelled down a dusty path to Ehlers Estates. I had never heard of these wines, being new to the wine business. In addition, they aren’t exactly taking out full page ads in wine spectator. So, after doing the big name wineries cliche thing we were pleased to find the historic stone winery that is Ehlers. I didn’t buy a whole lot of wine on that trip, but the most expensive purchase of wine that I made was at Ehlers. This bottle was their flagship silky smooth cabernet called 1886. I knew at the time that I could not purchase this wine in TN.
I was very excited when I found out that one of our smaller distributors had picked up the Ehlers wines. I am pleased to announce that we now sell the cabernet franc, the merlot , 120 over 80 Cabernet Sauvignon and yes, their flagship, much beloved by me, 1886.
But, you see there is so much more to this wine. The founder of the winery, frenchman and philanthropist, Jean Leducq began buying up parcels of land in St. Helena in 1985. In 2001 he combined the original 14 acres and historic stone winery along with an additional 40 acres that composes Ehlers today. The best part of this wine, aside from the fact that it is organic and biodynamic is that all of the proceeds of the sales of this wine go to a nonprofit organization that funds heart disease research. In fact,Vanderbilt received two million dollars last year from the Leducq Foundation.WOW. The wine is amazing, the people who make it are conscious about our environment and about the greater good of the human race. Not to mention they operate out of a gorgeous old stone building that was erected in 1886 by Bernard Ehlers! And to think I had no idea back in 2008, I just liked the wine. I hope my customers choose to try this wine. It is sure to astound the palate. The 1886 is filled with notes of plum, black cherry, violets and cinnamon. Petit verdot adds a whisp of blueberry. There is just a touch of merlot blended in to warm up the middle. The finish is long and strong.
This year we were fortunate enough to bring in the highly sought after Petit Verdot in addition to the rose’. Both wines were out of sight literally and figuratively!
I will be back at Ehlers in October! I plan on representing Lebanon well! We are excited to have such a strong relationship with these producers!