Darin Szilagyi
Online Edition
I put my name on the Screaming Eagle waitlist in 1999. I haven’t heard a peep back in since the automated “Thank you for your interest in our wines.” email. I still have hope.
In other instances, I caught a good thing on the way up. Kosta, Sea Smoke for example. I’ve got a good idea which of my latest adds is going to prove out to be a “I’m glad I signed up when……”
There’s been a lot of good press on Adam and Dianna Lee’s new concept, Clarice Wine Company, and rightly so. Even before anyone took their first sip of the wines, right around last Thanksgiving, the whole concept was, well, different. Sure, it all starts and ends with getting your paws on some amazing juice, pinot noir to be specific. But along with access to the wines, subscribers also get a virtual swag bag of cool stuff. Stuff like access to members-only content, a load of opportunities for bootstrap education, closed discussion groups & consequently a fair amount of inside skinny & private access to the real people behind the wines, invites to at least two private events, and occasional special access to wines produced by Adam & Dianna’s many friends.
It’s like a little wine country club. “Come on in, meet the members, grab a glass and stay awhile.”
If you were reading closely, you saw the word “subscribers.” That’s one of the cool twists too. You can decide for yourself how you want to frame it: either a something like a pinot MasterClass for a year that happens to have a case of wine as pay off at the end, or perhaps a cool way to break up paying for your 12 bottle allocation into installments along with uber-exclusive access to in-the-vineyard gossip your friends don’t get to hear. Either way, I thought the idea was fresh. Fresh & exclusive, because no matter the demand, Adam is only letting 625 subscribers in the club. Like 12-ish people per state? Three per country? That’s pretty exclusive, and the window is open now. Run, don’t walk.
And the wine? If you’re pinot groupie, you already know Adam by name. If you don’t, you probably have tried or at least know of Siduri, Adam’s first label and still a tremendous source of pride for Adam and his family. For many years, finding Siduri on a restaurant wine list made my pick near automatic. In fact, I mentally ascribed a coolness factor to any menu that could get enough access to put Siduri on the regular wine list, especially the amazing single vineyard bottles. So, hearing Adam 2.0 was booting up, I jumped in quick. It was an easy bottle to forecast.
Was I right…..??? We’ve tried all of the 2017’s and here’s what we thought. (Note: Wine X received no incentive for this article. We were regular old paying subscribers)
2017 Clarice Wine Company Garys’ Vineyard. Santa Lucia Highlands. Pinot Noir
Picking out macarons while blasting Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy on your AirPods. The best of Big & Rich cherry & strawberry, and maybe even a little spicy vanilla. NomNom.
Wine X Says: XXX and so sad when the bag is empty
2017 Clarice Wine Company Rosella’s Vineyard. Santa Lucia Highlands. Pinot Noir.
Taking a road trip with a Stanford grad hippie chick. Earthy and complex, and maybe even a little sweet.
Wine X Says: XXX and sure to invite back
2017 Clarice Wine Company Santa Lucia Highlands. Pinot Noir.
A homemade valentine card from Hagrid. A few deep woods flowers drawn with wild berry ink.
Wine X Says: XXX with an impressive signature. This was my favorite by just a hair 🙂
OK, Adam, we’re sorry. We couldn’t help ourselves with the Silence of the Lambs/Fava thing. It was bad. We know 😉
