2019 Dewey's Vermentino
(Barsotti Vineyard)
Normally: $27-30.
Our price: $22 for 1. Buy here.
Only $20 on 3! Buy here.
And only $18 on 6! Buy here!
TL; DR: Skip the Chard and SB for T-Day... and get one of California's greatest Verme
Charlie Miller's Dewey's Wine project — and specifically his Vermentino — are some of the most exciting wines to come out of California in the past 5 years. Don't take our word for it, though! Here's what the SF Chronicle's Esther Mobley had to say about the previous vintage:
"Dewey’s Vermentino is one of the most memorable bottles I’ve drunk since coronavirus isolation began. Made from grapes from the Barsotti Vineyard in El Dorado County, the wine walks that electrifyingly thin line between richness and austerity: it has zippy acidity, but a gratifyingly creamy texture, with a citrusy aspect so fresh and vivid that it feels as if you just crushed lemon verbena leaves in your hands. The wine makes me think of sea salt, fresh cotton, sharp crème fraiche."
Dewey's Vermentino (far right), and friends
Argument 1: Sub-Verm the Dominant Paradigm!
Fact: 53% of all white grapes planted in California are Chardonnay! Making the nigh-monoculture worse, another 10% (-ish) each of wine grape acreage is planted to Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio, respectively! That leaves a mere quarter of the total land that's planted to white grapes available for the nigh-hundred other (fascinating, mind-expanding, non-Orwellian, counter-hegemonic, and delicious to boot!) varieties in our great state!
Enter the Verm! Famed as one of Italy's sexiest white grapes, Vermentino's found primarily in Sardinia, the Ligurian coast, and coastal Tuscany: it's a grape that loves the sun-spangled seaside just as much as a proper Californian does! What vinous injustice, then, accounts for the fact that less than 0.67% of all acreage planted to vine is, um, doing the Verm?
We live in a veritable vinous paradise... so start drinking like it! Humans of California: end the grapey triopoly.... and do the Verm!
Argument 2: Charlie Miller: One of the Greatest Californian Winemakers You Haven't Heard Of.
Charlie, the longtime assistant to Michael Cruse (SF Chron Winemaker of the Year, and the guy behind some of the most sought-after wines in CA) quietly launched his side project, Dewey's Wines. Named for Charlie's old, partially deaf, German shepherd mutt ("I wanted the opposite of a vanity project," he said)... and it quickly — and perhaps unsurprisingly, given his pedigree — became known as one of the greatest new entries on the Californian wine scene. 
Charlie, Frank, Emma, and Dewey
Argument 3: Californian Grand Cru.
Barsotti Vineyard is one of the most respected sites in all of CA; just being granted grapes from here is like being admitted to an Elite Club of Californian winemakers. It's farmed organically by Ron Mansfield, a legend of Sierra Foothills viticulture, and it sits more than a half-mile above sea level.
As such, the grapes here are slow to ripen, giving them a nervy, racy acidity, and allowing white floral aromatics and white stone fruit notes to develop on the palate. As Esther Mobley notes, it "walks that electrifyingly thin line between richness and austerity" — crisp and fresh on the one hand and delightfully textural on the other. Saline and mouthwatering, this is a Californian white wine that's as complex as it is gluggable.
A Living Vineyard: Barsotti
Argument 4: Deflationary Pricing!
The usual price on this wine, as Esther noted in her article? $27... and worth it! Us? We're offering it for $22 (19% off) on Bottle 1... and offering it for a mere $18 (33% off!) — the lowest price it's ever been offered for! — on the 6-pack!
______
This is as great a Thanksgiving white wine play as any we can think of; it satisfies the ABC (Anything But Chardonnay) crowd with its snappy or, but has the texture to make Aunt Diane happy, too! And at 33% off? Heck, you can put one at every place setting!
Sub-Verm the Dominant Paradigm! And Get One of California's Greatest Whites... Priced Like It's Still 1999!
2019 Dewey's Vermentino
(Barsotti Vineyard)
Normally: $27-30. (See here, e.g.)
Our price: $22 for 1. Buy here.
Only $20 on 3! Buy here.
And only $18 on 6! Buy here!