New World Red Club
November 2025

2021 Architect Cabernet Sauvignon

For the past few years, I have adhered to a strict guideline: only selecting wines from brick-and-mortar wineries for our clubs. This means that, although they may not be open to the public, there is a physical place where the wines are made and bottled under that winery’s name. The alternative is wines bottled under private labels for grocery or liquor store chains, online wine clubs, or even for brick-and-mortar wineries that want to offer a less expensive tier without the costs of full production. Depending on which statistics you prefer, this represents between 8 and 17% of the domestic market, with the wide variance simply a matter of what is considered a private label.

When times are good, the bulk market diminishes as wineries want to bottle all they can. However, in times like this—when consumption has fallen nearly 15% over three years—many wineries are left with unsold wine and need space for the next harvest. This often forces them to sell in the bulk market, where they receive pennies on the dollar, but it’s better than dumping the wine down the drain. A good example of this is our feature this month: the Architect, a Cabernet from Alexander Valley bottled for the American importer Broadbent Selections.

One reason I shy away from private labels is that they rarely tell a story. It’s very difficult to write 500-600 words about a wine with no backstory. However, this wine is different. It is made in honor of the great Master of Wine Michael Broadbent by his son, Bartholomew. Michael was a titan of our industry; like many of his generation, he came of age during WWII, posted to the Royal Artillery. After the war, he trained as an architect but entered the wine business in 1952. While working for several iconic British importers, he was one of the first to pass the Master of Wine exam in 1960. He then joined Christie’s Auction House in 1962 and established their wine department, which allowed him to taste many of the greatest wines ever produced as they were brought to the auction house.

In 1980, he published The Great Vintage Wine Book, a collection of his tasting notes on wines dating back to the 19th century. A second edition followed in 1989, and my signed copy remains one of my prized possessions. His son Bartholomew observed that, in his 140 notebooks and 90,000 tasting notes, Michael would often sketch facades of buildings he admired. The label on this bottle features one of those sketches.

It may sound odd that Bartholomew would create a California wine in honor of Michael, who was renowned as an authority on Bordeaux. However, Michael was also one of the founders of the Napa Valley Wine Auction, along with Robert Mondavi and other Napa Valley winery owners. He served as the auctioneer for over twenty years, which gave him deep roots in the California wine community. Today, the event still exists but has been renamed the Collective Napa Valley Auction Weekend.

For this wine, Bartholomew worked with two vineyards in Alexander Valley, where the vines are 15-20 years old. This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon was fermented in stainless steel tanks and then aged in French oak barrels for 14 months. You’ll want to decant it for about half an hour before serving to allow the bouquet to develop. Once decanted, it delivers a rich nose of cooked cherry, blackberry preserves, caramel, black licorice, and milk chocolate. On the palate, this is a full-bodied wine with deep fruit, framed by oak and persistent tannins through the finish.
It is excellent now, but this wine will continue to develop until at least 2030. Serve it with marinated steak tips, pasta Bolognese, or standing rib roast.

2020 Hedges Descendants Liegeois Dupont Syrah

In September, Oregon Public Broadcasting did a piece on Hedges winery and how they were harvesting their grapes this year—dumping them on the ground rather than making wine. With tanks and barrels already full and distributors refusing to order more wine, they had few options. They used machines to pick the grapes and simply dumped them on the ground rather than into harvest baskets. Sadly, there is so much wine from last year still available in the bulk market that it no longer even makes sense to try and sell it as a private label. To make matters worse, they also have to deal with unsold wine already in distribution, which brings us to this feature and the special price for club members.

In this case, the problem for the winery is even worse than dumping the grapes on the ground. They made the wine and sold it to a distributor, but for some reason, it has not sold through to restaurants and retail outlets. The distributor will hesitate to buy more or the next vintage unless the winery issues a depletion allowance. This means the winery would pay the distributor to sell the wine they already have. The distributor will make nearly their full margin because the winery is funding the aggressive discounts. Yes, the winery is now paying the distributor to sell their wine. Have you ever heard the joke: “How do you make a small fortune in the wine business? Start with a large fortune and open a winery.” The new price of this wine is why.

This bottling from Hedges is a stunning example of why Washington State Syrah is a category you should get to know. Starting in 1997, Tom and his wife Anne Marie Hedges began purchasing vineyards around their winery on Red Mountain, which resembles a French château in Bordeaux. They now have five estate vineyards, and as of 2021, all are Demeter-certified biodynamic. Their commitment to sustainability even extends to their family, with their son Christophe serving as their national sales manager and daughter Sarah Hedges Goedhart handling the winemaking.

All of the Syrah grapes for this wine come from one of their single vineyard sites, Les Gosses. This vineyard, adjacent to the winery, was planted in 2007 and has been Demeter-certified since 2019. The clonal material for this site includes cuttings from Tablas Creek and the more infamous Joseph Phelps clone. Legend has it that Joe carried cuttings in his suitcase back from the great hill of Hermitage in France, propagating the vines in Paso Robles when he started the Le Mistral project in the 1980s. All grapes for this wine are hand harvested, and fermentation was done in stainless steel, with the wine pressed directly to barrel for malolactic fermentation and aging. It was then racked off the lees and barrel-aged for 19 months in 90% American oak (40% new) and 10% French oak.

When you are ready to open this wine, be sure to decant it for at least half an hour before serving. This is a serious wine with a few years in bottle, so it will benefit from some air. Once decanted, it offers brooding notes of baked cherries, boysenberries, cedar, cigar box, molasses, and hickory smoke. On the palate, it is quite dry, with prominent oak, but a massive amount of fruit that helps keep the whole wine in check. Drink from 2025 to 2035 with lamb chops or French-style pot roast.