is a winery we have been meaning to visit for a while as we are familiar with the other wines the two partners in this venture create. They are Oscar Renteria of (Renteria Wines) and Steve Reynold’s of Reynold’s Family Winery located on Silverado Trail. No, these are not the only wineries both are involved in – also see our write-up on Thirteen, a one of a kind winery that creates wines blended from all of the Napa Valley sub appellations. We finally caught up with Naughty Cellars in Los Angeles and then meet them again several months later in San Francisco. The idea for this winery started as a “joke label” when both men started making garage style wine and giving it away to their friends and family. For some reason the friends and family started asking if they could purchase this wine – we would have stayed put with the free giveaways, but in any case word spread and eventually Renteria and Reynold’s decided to bottle the wine commercially. Their labels are one of a kind and maybe with wine from lesser premium vineyards would be the only selling point, but with the experience and land holdings between Reynolds and Renteria, this pair produces some fine wine priced very affordably based on Napa standards (as of press time, no more than $30/bottle).
Before trying the wine the label and names of their wines will certainly catch your eyes. The label is a zany little figure dressed in red, complete with two sharp red horns and names such as Racy, Inky, & Sticky certainly perk the ears. Our favorite is their Racy. We tried the 2002 version which is a fruity blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Zinfandel. The Zinfandel overwhelms the nose which is not a bad thing, unless you hate Zinfandel which we don’t. It has some deeper aromas including black cherry and Santa Rosa plum both of which follow through to the palate. The Inky is a very interesting blend of Petite Sirah and Syrah. The nose is decidedly earthy in flavor with some exotic aromas jumping around and a complexity of flavors not often found in wine priced this affordably. Fleshy blackberry, strawberry, black licorice and clove spices complete the flavor profile. Production on each of Naughty’s labels is typically extremely limited with one offering a mere 41 cases! This is where it pays to do some homework; top vineyard sources, well respected owners in the industry, small quantity productions and affordable prices… yea – tough to be beat!. Visit: www.naughtycellars.com – NOTE: this winery has been incorporated as a label under Reynolds Family
NOTE: This review has been archived.
REASON: Stopped producing wine commercially. Possibly became incorporated under the Reynolds Family brand of wines at one point
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