Note: Each box will have at least one 2013 Winemaker’s Handprint Merlot and one “Dessert wine with a label from a now defunct website”. The rest of the bottles will be randomly picked from vintages from 2001 - 2017 (mainly reds and possibly one white). You will not receive more than 3 bottles of any wine.
MSRPs for one bottle range from $21 to $75
Winemakers’ Handprint Notes
2013 Winemakers’ Handprint Merlot, Sonoma County
In the beginning, we put our handprints on these bottles so everyone would know it was a Meeker Merlot - big, fruit-forward, full-bodied, and with tannic structure for days. Now you know what kind of wine this is! But we keep handprinting because the bottles are just so darned gorgeous.
And this 2013 Winemaker’s Handprint Merlot is a classic. Dark fruit like currants and cherries marry on the nose with hints of toffee and caramel. The wine explodes on your palate with more cherries, and hints of the best strawberry rhubarb pie you’ve ever had. There’s no shortage of subtle, toasty oak and big, powerful tannins throughout the palate and finish of this wine. This 2013 Handprint will age beautifully and develop more richness and roundness for years to come.
Alcohol: 14.7%
About The Winery
Winery: The Meeker Vineyard
Owners: Charlie, Molly Meeker and Family
Founded: 1984
Location: Geyersville, CA
Charles and Molly Meeker bought their first vineyard in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley in 1977, and thereafter, in 1984, established their winery – The Meeker Vineyard – with Charlie as the winemaker. In its early years, the winery specialized in Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay.
The Meeker Vineyard tasting room is currently located in the 105-year-old Geyserville Bank building in the farm town of Geyserville, about six miles north of Healdsburg between Alexander and Dry Creek Valleys. In 2001, the Meeker tasting room was cited by The Wall Street Journal as one of the most enjoyable wine tasting experiences in all of Napa and Sonoma Counties.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
Meeker Vineyard Mystery Offer - $40 = 16.65%
@jmdavidson1 I almost felt a bit of relief when I saw IL was not on the list. I have boxes stacking (my rack is full). But I’ll know by 8pm tonight if my offer on my next home in Missouri will be going through (and again, MO is there where IL is not).
@jmdavidson1 agreed on the IL disappointment. We’ve been out of Meeker for quite a while, and I was excited to see it be a mystery box. Then the big ‘wah wah waaaaah’ list of states letdown.
I guess it needs to remain a mystery for the Land of Lincoln.
@jmdavidson1 Sorry guys, we’re behind on our compliance there, but it will be straightened out shortly. Once it is I’d be happy to put together something for you at a comparable deal. Shoot me an email at lucas (at) meekerwine.com after summer and we’ll get you dialed in.
I hate to be a party pooper (especially since I am psyched to see a Meeker offer) but with only ~16% addtl savings and without doubling up on the Handprint, there is little incentive to spring for a full case - especially if anyone wanted to split said case. I’m in for a 6-pack. YMMV.
@chipgreen Hi Chipgreen, Yeah I’d split a case with you, but with one Handprint that would suck! If at the very least there would be two bottles of everything to make the case, without knowing what other vintages and varietals we’d have to split up, a split would double suck! Guess I’ll sit this one out!!
@chipgreen I’m not in charge of how things get split, but let’s just say that there are some highly motivating wines (thing 15+ years in bottle) on the list of possible wines and my understanding (which is not guaranteed to be accurate) is that this might be more likely to find its way into the case shipments. This is our first time doing a mystery pack too, so it’s new for me also.
I hope Lucas gets a chance to stop by and talk about some of the possible wines that might be found in the Mystery boxes or even just what’s going on at Meeker these days in general (if no spoilers are allowed). Fond memories of the many in-depth discussions with him on WW.
@chipgreen Hi! Lot’s going on. Getting ready to bottle for two custom crush clients in the next week along with a bunch of our wines in a month. My wife is 37.5 weeks pregnant. It’s all happening (probably).
Agreed it would be nice to see the roster of potential wines. This could be a great offer! @trifecta, you know these guys pretty well, don’t you? Any experience with the handprint Merlot?
Damn. Any chance PA was left off by mistake? I mean,a touch pricey for what I’m generally looking for, but I REALLY love the idea of random wines. (Considering I’m also self employed, I try to balance my enjoyment of wine with the cursing of the IRS.)
@fredpgh@lucasmeeker Damn. Next time maybe? I know PA only fairly recently opened to licensing, but would be an eager buyer, especially on the dessert wine. I adore sweeter/low tannin (and low acidity) wines especially, and this sounds right up my household’s tastes lines.
Some really nice looking wines on the Meeker website. The possible 2001 is a Carignane. Waffling on this one - looks awesome but the mystery offerings have typically been disappointing for me…
@CruelMelody Goes without saying that I can’t predict an individual person’s taste, but I’ll say that this is a pretty solid list of wines, and if you like our style in general (tannic, acidic, dry, ageable reds; crisp, dry aromatic white/pink; acid driven, balanced dessert wines) then you’re probably going to be happy with what you receive.
I’ll also say that the 01 is not currently listed on the website.
@lucasmeeker Oh I know you make great wine. And I’m sure whatever I would get would be delicious and money well spent. I just get greedy and hope for a wide variety of different wines with these deals, and usually end up just getting a bunch of the same bottle.
@CruelMelody Besides the two listed in the offer, there are 7 other wines on the list of possible inclusions, so 9 wines in all. 1 white, 1 pink, and the dessert listed, the rest dry reds. Do with that information what you will! Hope that helps!
@dmyers314 Unfortunately I don’t have rock-solid answers for you on either issue, I’m not the one who picks the mix for each case nor am I the one executing the shipping/fulfilment, those are both questions for the Casemates team, hopefully they can chime in for you.
@lucasmeeker Congratulations on your wife being pregnant. Must be a tough one if she’s counting half weeks lol. Since the only wine we know about is the '13 Handprint Merlot, can tell us about the wine, the year, the vineyard? Whatever you feel like. 2013 was supposed to be a great year for most?
@scott0210 2013 was a really solid vintage for us. This Handprint was a little uptight for it’s first six months or so in bottle but has really opened up lately and is incredibly elegant right now.
2013 Handprint (along with 09, 10, 12, and 14) a blend of two Merlot vineyards, both of which we’ve worked with since the '90s. Prior to 09, we had a Russian River vineyard we worked with as well, but we dropped that after 08. The 2011 vintage was the rain year and the Alexander Valley fruit didn’t make it in the door, so it was the Dry Creek vineyard exclusively.
Both vineyards are really excellent, consistent producers of completely different styles of Merlot, even though they’re only a few miles apart as the crow flies. The Dry Creek vineyard is incredibly varied, often steep hillside which leads to a decent amount of irregularity in berry size and ripeness. You might suspect this to be a bad thing, but we know the vineyard pretty well which lets us make good picking calls, and provided we nail that, the level of irregularity develops great complexity and structure, but generally is a louder, more boisterous wine.
The AV vineyard throws a lot more acid, but elegant, long tannins. It’s two blocks of two different clones, one always about 0.9 brix behind the other. Sometimes it can feel a little hollow through the mid-palate, but when combined with the DCV fruit they fill in each other’s weak spots and build big, long tannin structures that are seamless and elegant.
Generally speaking, with Bordeaux grapes we push hard on skin contact and tannin extraction, and rely on long barrel aging to develop firm, integrated tannin structures that age for a long, long time. This is one of our best examples of that focus.
Just doing some deducing from the meeker website. They have a 2001 Carignane listed and the only wine at $21 is a 2017 Verdelho. So given that the ranges are 2001-2017 starting at $21 I’d say both of these wines may be included in an order! (but may not)
I was excited when the bottle of Meeker “Winemakers’ Handprint” Merlot (2013) showed up. I had purchased some Meeker Petite Sirah in a Woot offer a few years ago and was happy with the wines. My wife was particularly impressed with the colorful paint handprints on the bottle. We decided to try the wine at dinner with three other people on Saturday.
Pop ’n pour, served at a temperature a little cooler than ideal since it just came out of the wine fridge:
Me: No nose to speak of. The major impression in my mouth was of tannins, which overwhelmed any sense of fruit, and surprised me as I don’t typically associate merlot with big tannins. It initially tasted more like a tannat than it did like most merlots, though the tannins weren’t quite as strong as with most tannats.
I waited to hear the others’ impressions before offering my opinion. They basically agreed with my impressions. One called it ‘astringent.’ We all agreed to let it warm in the glasses and open up a bit before consuming any more. It was a warm day, bordering on hot, and we were outside, so it wouldn’t take too long.
About 20-30 minutes later, I checked my glass. Now the nose had hints of sour cherry and raspberry. I tasted it again and the tannins had mellowed somewhat, but I still had trouble picking out any particular fruits. My notes here say: “I don’t know if this wine ever saw oak, but if it did, I’m not getting any hint of it.” Now I see in the description here on Casemates that it should have shown some toasty oak character, but I stand by my notes — it was undetectable in my bottle.
On the other hand, everybody agreed that it paired well with most of our foods. We had some hors d’oeuvres, including crackers, soprassata, cheddar, and smoked oysters. I thought it paired acceptably with everything except the hot soprassata. One of our guests disagreed, saying he thought it went really well with the soprassata. We had grilled chicken with italian spices, potatoes and corn on the cob, and it went better with the chicken than the potatoes or corn. Afterwards we tried it with dark chocolate and a toasted coconut dark chocolate, and I thought it paired the best with these. I regretted not saving more of mine until the chocolate came out.
What we all agreed on: The tannins were stronger than any of us would expect in a merlot, and this was not a fruit-forward wine. The Casemates description says “cherries and strawberry rhubarb pie,” but I only got hints of cherry and none of the five of us got any trace of strawberry. The discrepancy here makes me wonder whether we got an atypical bottle, or maybe it’s just too young to have been opened this year. I know for sure the wine wasn’t spoiled or oxidized, but the description here doesn’t match what any of us thought.
We also all thought it was much more of a ‘with food’ wine than a ‘sipping’ wine. One of our guests said her opinion was thumbs down on first taste, thumbs up when paired with the meal, and then thumbs down again after the food had been cleared away.
I do wonder what this wine would have tasted like on day two, but with five of us tasting, there was none left after dinner. I would suggest some bottle time since it’s possible that the tannins were just overwhelming the other subtler characteristics.
@moondigger Thank you! Useful to know (I feel like merlots tend to go tannic if heated too much, but not enough to cork out, and I have a tendency to open and ignore for a day before drinking, IF I can be arsed ahead of time.)
@moondigger thanks for the notes! Your description is making me pause…interested in this offer but I like my merlot fruit forward! I hope Lucas chimes in
I visited the Geyserville tasting room in May and enjoyed the vibe. The super friendly dogs, the wine peeking out of the bank vault, Charlie talking about anything and everything.
However, it was hot as hades outside, so the Verdelho and FroZin were the only ones that spoke to us. The reds all felt too high in temperature to be enjoyable. I’m sure at a lower temp and probably with food they would be off the charts.
@WineDavid49@lucasmeeker
Question here - does a 12-pack have the same distribution as 2x 6-packs? i.e. will a 12-pack have 2x the Thumbprint Merlot and (presumably) Vinitwo? The description is unclear above since it just says “each box”.
@Cerridwyn When you order a case, you get one box. Offer says one per box. So count on getting one Handprint and one dessert no matter which offer you choose.
@Cerridwyn@scott0210 nah, the only reason we didn’t say outright that we’d double up is the small chance the dessert wine from a now defunct website has some quantity limitations. but likely not.
@Winedavid49
Excellent, thanks for the clarification.
For the record, I’d happily sacrifice a Vinitwo for a different wine. I have lots of that (11 remaining) and little other Meeker wine! That way others could enjoy it as well!
@Cerridwyn I received the same bottles in my case. Glad I got 2 bottles of the Handprint Merlot. Looking forward to seeing Meeker at my local wine store in September.
@Cerridwyn Mine contained 2 handprint merlot, 2 of the dessert wine. The oldest wine I received was one 2001 Four Kings. Overall, I think I’ll enjoy most of what I received.
@Cerridwyn@JonnyA9497@strongry@chipgreen@klezman I got the same in my case which was really a 2 six pack order that was shipped in one box, had I know I’d get 2 of the Handprint Merlots I would have ordered a case, I’ve contacted CS. Very happy with the wine assortment!
I tried the enhanced shipping for the 2nd time, the gel packs were still slightly cool, I live & work in a rural area 40 or more miles from a Fedex or Walgreens location. Interesting note, the enhanced shipping is Fedex 2 day which would not let me re direct to my location of choice so I just let it go to my office. I was given a choice of 3 locations which were farther away and south of me rather than the closer ones to the north which I prefer. That may vary reqionally but here in WNY that’s how it worked for me.
With regular summer shipping, Fedex ground (which I’ll probably use from now on), the order goes by refrigerated truck to Rensselaer NY, arrives at night and is trucked right back to Buffalo, I usually redirect to a Fedex location 40 miles away from me and it gets there by 9am. I’ll cross post this in the summer shipping thread.
Either way I’m pretty satisfied with the summer shipping options.
The only other Meeker wine I’ve had was the Pink Elephant we got from the previous wine site several years ago. It was delicious, and we wished we would have bought more. Not sure if that translates to this offer enough to buy a case??
@lucasmeeker thanks for jumping on board. Two questions: 1. Can you elaborate on moondigger’s labrat report? 2. What was your thinking behind the Sakura blend? 27.5 viognier seems odd. I know small percentages of vio is sometimes added to Syrah but it’s usually under 5 percent. Thanks!
-2014 DCV Syrah. (A little young I would guess as their website only has '12 '13 listed.
-2017 Verdelho
-2014 Paddle Reserve
-2012 Sonoma Coast Pinot
Reading the comments from Lucas it was pretty apparent only the cases were going to get the '01. Curious what it was. (If it was the $75 SRP wine, as the available wines from the site maxes out at $72 for the Four Kings.) I also noticed Lucas did not respond to Sakura blend question and they don’t currently list a tech sheet for it. I would be surprised if anyone nabbed that blend. (The one I was most interested in.)
Also, this will be the first and last time I splurge for the expedited shipping. Wines arrive at pretty much the same temperature as outside and were in non-refrigerated transit for 45 hours. Maybe I am lucky to have the refrigerated truck get it to me by Friday from wherever it drops it off at, but didn’t see the value.
@KNmeh7@WineDavid49
I got the exact same selection. You’re right about the 2001 Four Kings blend as noted by JonnyA9497 right above the ridiculously long “Songs for a Colored Singer”.
As for standard summer shipping your wine will ride for 48+ hours in the back of a hot FedEx truck from St. Louis, MO to Columbus, OH plus however long it sits in St. Louis before heading Northeast towards Ohio. The average July/August temperature in St. Louis is 89 degrees, with 25 days above 90º. I am planning to stick with the 2-day expedited shipping with ice pack(s).
Finally, I’m disappointed that the offer specified only (1) Handprint Merlot and (1) dessert wine would be in “each box” whether a 6-pack or full case. A better way to handle it would have been to state upfront that those bottles would be doubled up, then in the event that the dessert wine allotment ran out (it didn’t) they could have “sold out” the cases, then re-opened case sales with the stipulation that the second dessert wine would now be subbed for with a different bottle. The way it was presented resulted in myself and others buying 6-packs when we gladly would have sprung for full cases had we known upfront that there would be (2) Handprint Merlots per case.
@chipgreen@KNmeh7@Winedavid49
I got this same selection. Wines seem cool enough, although they’ve been at home for 7 hours or so after their journey through the central valley.
I’m a little disappointed that no library wines were included (or maybe I’m wrong and some of these are back vintages), but the selection overall is pretty good.
It would definitely have been nice to explicitly be told that cases would get a higher-end selection than 6-packs, especially since the per-bottle price was lower!
@chipgreen@KNmeh7@Winedavid49 it is a mystery case though. Kind of surprised at the amount of complaining re not knowing EXACTLY what will be in the case…
@KNmeh7@nostrom0@Winedavid49
While wine.woot worked somewhat differently in that the quantity was a set number of bottles and you either ordered 1, 2 or 3 sets, whenever there was a guaranteed premium bottle in a “mystery” offer (think Wellington Victory), that bottle was always replicated if you bought additional sets. The other bottles were the mystery.
Thus, this offer broke tradition in that there was no guaranteed second bottle of Handprint or Vinitwo in a case purchase, which is especially odd since the whole basis of the format change between WW and Casemates was to encourage people to get together and split cases.
Although the amount of complaining may have surprised you, there was really only one complaint echoed by a handful of Casematers and while that concern was eventually addressed by WD it wasn’t until 39 hours into a 48 hour sale. Nobody was upset that they didn’t know the EXACT contents of the whole case.
@nostrom0 Far from it - more that the strong implication was that there were a whole lot of library wines, and if only case purchases were eligible for that it should have been stated up front. I quite like the selection I got, just a bit disappointed there was nothing with decent age on it.
"Each box will also have a dessert wine from a now defunct label
So, to summarize, you choose 6-bottles or the case. In both you are guaranteed a Handprint Merlot and the dessert wine. Beyond that, it’s a mystery…"
So my understanding was if I buy a case I would only get 1 dessert wine based on that verbiage. I ordered the case and got 2 bottles of that Woot Cellars late harvest zin which I have had before and did not enjoy. I believe it only sold for $12 originally so to stick me with 2 of them, well played Woot. I also got a white (Verdelho) and a white zin so out of 12 bottles there are 4 that I really have no interest in unfortunately. I guess my mistake for falling for another Woot mystery case, the only one I’ve been impressed with were the Wellington ones. I also got 2 bottles of Pinot so overall there were a lot of wines that are not my style as I have always enjoyed the full bodied reds from Meeker in the past and they were some of my favorite Woot purchases (such as the Diamond Ridge Cabernet and Petite Sirah)
On the plus side I did get 1 bottle of 2001 Four Kings but this is my last mystery case attempt, I have been disappointed by too many of them.
@jplamb Wellington was a blessing and a curse for woot. Blessing in that almost everything was great, reasonably priced, great participation by Peter, fun mystery cases (surely helped by the selling of the winery… finding wines from the 90s in my library mystery was amazing.)
I think that allowed some people to offer less than stellar mystery cases. I am not complaining with what I got (except that I didn’t find expedited shipping worth it) but I surely will not be buying another mystery case from Meeker.
I look at the known Noceto case, and think of how it could have easily been sold as a “mystery” by really focusing on grantee of AX1. Inevitably there would have been complaints about the four Rossos included, but being that it was known… no complaints.
Compare that to this “mystery” which was all but set-in-stone, yet sold under the mystery thing to entice us. Some people are reasonably miffed at the 12.50 vinitwo, verdelho, rose, all which are about at, or cheaper, than the per-bottle price on casemates.
Some people are reasonably miffed at the 12.50 vinitwo, verdelho, rose, all which are about at, or cheaper, than the per-bottle price on casemates.
That is hardly a fair statement. The value of my case was $201, assuming my CT value of $13 for the VInitwo. More if you assume a similar price as the Fro-Zin. The white was $21 and the others were all north of $40 retail price. With my $10 coupon code and after taxes it was a 40.9% discount, not including any shipping it would have cost from Meeker directly. Sure, the discount would have been higher if I’d ordered the case or gotten a $60 bottle in there, but that’s the deal with mystery cases. 40% is a very solid discount.
@jplamb@KNmeh7 The mystery was indeed a mystery when the sale ran. After the sale concluded, given the varying kinds of feedback regarding bottle counts (i.e. wanting two bottles of Handprint for case splitters, your comment about NOT wanting any duplicates, etc.), I became very gunshy about disappointing folks, so I asked our team to reach out to Casemates about guaranteeing the shipments were the same and did not have dupes for the 6 but did have requested dupes for the 12. We were reacting to feedback here and my memory of woot mystery cases to try and assuage and meet expectations. Please see my comment below for further explanation.
Finally made it to my wine locker to open my case. Was hoping for 1 regular Meeker dessert wine, but alas, I had missed the “defunct website” part. Oh well, more LH Zin to keep @Molarchae pacified.
As several others, my case contained:
(2) 2013 Handprint Merlot
(2) 2013 Woot Cellars Late Harvest Zin
(2) 2012 Pinot Noir
(1) 2014 Syrah
(1) 2001 Four Kings blend
(1) 2014 “The Paddle” Reserve Blend
(1) 2014 Barrel Select Zinfandel
(1) 2017 ZinGre Zinfandel/Grenache
(1) 2017 Verdelho
Funny part was that instead of a Meeker “Invoice”, it was a Scott Harvey one!
Haha I love not going in on these random cases! Seeing the re-ignited frustrations is hilarious. I’ve been suckered in a few times. 100% of the time with any “mystery case” I was never fully satisfied. It will never be the wine combinations you dream of… Well except that last time some got 3 victory bottles while everyone else got a Chardonnay opposed to the promised “if available” 2nd victory for the rest of most folks. Then to top it off, making that same mystery pack available weeks later and giving folks that that second ( if available terminology) victory bottle that was not given in the last pack therefore screwing peeps who fell for the first offer… yeah never letting that one down. Hehe, that being said, rest assured you are getting a discount. Not the one you had the impression on.
Has anyone tried the 2001 Four Kings Blend? I cannot find any tasting notes online of that vintage. Food pairing recommendations anyone? Not planning on opening it soon but would like to have an idea for when the time comes.
@sammypedram This wine is in beautiful condition right now, but is well into its aging curve, so expect a wine that is in the last 1/3 of its life. You should plan on pairing it in the same way that you would a well-aged Bourdeaux. We just poured this wine at our summer cellar party and it was blowing minds all day. I hope you enjoy it.
SEEKING INFO AND ADVICE re the MEEKER VINEYARD MYSTERY OFFER of July 16:
We have become gun shy after our experience with the June 15 PAVI MYSTERY LIBRARY DOLCETTO debacle.
Like most if not all of you we received a MEEKER 2001 FOUR KING’S BLEND in our case. The oldest vintage listed on the Meeker site is 2008.
IF you have tried it please share whether it was ok or corked.
ALSO, we would greatly appreciate your advice on how long we can cellar it. (It is in our Wine Enthusiast 300-bottle Wine Cellar).
Do we need to drink it ASAP?
We have bought well over 40 cases for our own consumption since January. We want to save the best for special occasions and for sharing with guests, but we do NOT want to take a chance on keeping too long.
@jeffreywsnyder First of all, I can tell you that the 2001 Four Kings is in incredible shape for a well-aged Cab blend and is much better than “okay”. If it’s corked, please let me know.
The oldest vintage on the website is 2008 because we don’t sell the library vintages with regularity… we have only made the 2001 vintage available a handful of times (I count two) for limited cellar sales over the past few years at $80/bottle.
You don’t need to drink it ASAP, but I would plan on drinking it within the next year. It will probably develop a few years more than that but at this stage in its life I don’t want to make any promises and have you end up disappointed.
@jeffreywsnyder Trust me, I’m well aware of the timing issue. A winemaker friend had an August baby last year and watching him has me plenty concerned. You’re also right though… we’re never not busy.
I’m glad you’re pleased and let me know how that 2001 4K turns out.
Hi all, I’m really disappointed to see how unhappy many of you are with this offer. We worked with Casemates to put together what we intended to be a nice mix of some of our recent favorites and off-the-beaten-path wines with the first time we’ve offered Handprint in an offer like this.
To address a few specific concerns I’ve seen here:
We didn’t make the shipments “random” very intentionally after seeing the comments here. One of the most common complaints I saw on the former boards for mystery packs was that people who preffered XYZ wines ended up with ABC and people who were hoping for ABC wines ended up with XYZ, and lot’s of FOMO and frustration came out of that if I remember properly. I talked with our team who talked with Casemates after the sale was over and asked if we could make sure that the shipments were the same across the board, which was not the initial plan nor is it how these deals work typically. It seemed to us, especially because some of the price disparity one the wines and how limited/rare some of them are, that we should make sure there was consistency across the shipments so that we didn’t end up with people feeling like they got a less preferable shipment than another person. That way what was included was a “mystery” but wasn’t random as originally planned. So even though I said at the time I didn’t make the call on what the final packages were, given some of the concerns being voiced here about split cases not getting 2 Handprints and the feedback I saw in the past, I asked for this to be handled in a way that I thought would be fairest and best for everybody given what we were hearing here.
Pricing: It seemed like a good deal to us to give you 40+%, which is better than any wine club discount we give and better than almost every individual sale we run (none of which ever include Handprint or a 2001 Four Kings, and also not to mention the heavily discounted shipping Casemates offers you that is much cheaper than what we can offer). We tried to make clear the price ranges that we were pulling from, so I’m sorry if you were looking for or expecting an even bigger discount than this.
We included the Verdelho and the Zin Gre because a) it’s summer, b) they’re great, acidic, dry, bright wines that we thought you would enjoy, and c) because of the positive response to rose deals we had offered before.
We also included the 2001 Four Kings in 12 bottle packages because it’s a very special wine that we horde here, and have only poured and made available for two events in the past few years, at which it has sold for $80. We included this wine because we thought it would be an exciting surprise… we make wines that are built to age for ideally 2 decades or more, and bringing something out of our cellar that has been in bottle for 15 years was something we were trying to do to excite this community… but it seems to have elicited a different response than we hoped.
We weren’t able to include an invoice with contact info or follow up deals because the weekend I was supposed to draft that my wife went into labor. The reason I haven’t responded sooner is that I haven’t really been back at work full time until very recently and we received our first grapes Saturday, so I’m a little slammed.
Overall, we were trying to put something together that included wines that you literally can’t get normally along with wines that you can’t get at a discount normally along with wines that we are personally excited about. I’m personally very disappointed that we let some of you down and that some of you even think we were trying to “trick” you or anything like that. We made a big effort to respond to the feedback we were seeing here with the actual contents of the shipments to try and satisfy all the concerns while still delivering an exciting mix of wines.
Hopefully you enjoy the wines you received. My family and our team works hard to make wines we’re very proud of. I take a lot of pride in the honesty and integrity with which we communicate about our wines, and maybe the lesson here is that a Mystery Offer isn’t a good fit for us in that I can’t talk about the wines much in advance without ruining the fun and that it leads to people being disappointed in what they received even if we think we’ve put together something exciting.
If you’re one of the people who considers themselves very disappointed by this offer, please let me know and we’ll see if there’s something we can do to rectify it.
@lucasmeeker
Thanks for coming back and telling everybody how you went about it. As I pointed out above, the discount we got was absolutely solid. Sure, I’d have liked a bottle or two with more age (I know how your wines age! I’m hoarding a 2004 Cab Franc and 2005 Kiss Ridge still!), but my only disappointment was that I had hoped to be one of the “lucky” ones. That’s how a mystery offer works!
One suggestion for a future mystery offer - give at least a partial list of the wines that will be selected from. Doubly so if it’s a random packing offer. Not all previous mysteries have been random, nor are they required to me.
Cheers!
Also…what about your own label? Did you end that experiment?
@lucasmeeker
First…congratulations on the baby and I hope your wife and baby are doing well.
I do appreciate you following back up. Despite my frustration about some of the pack I really did appreciate the 2001 Four Kings in my case order and am excited to try that one. I think the biggest frustration is what appeared to be the attempt to dump the inventory of the Woot cellars wine which was a $12 bottle of a style of wine that I find to be undrinkable and now I have 2 bottles that I can’t even give away. I have really enjoyed the Meeker wines that I bought through Woot over the years. Everything you guys made that ended up on Woot was great from the Kiss Ridge Cab down through the inexpensive Forklift Grenache. I opened a bottle of your Pinot from this pack and while it’s not a style I would typically order, I thought it was well made and did enjoy it.
One suggestion if you decide to go the mystery route again is to break it down into 2 different purchase options that can at least get people into the style of wine that they enjoy. Maybe have one option for all red and another red/white mix or all white, I’d be fine with a higher price point on an all red pack. If people know that they’re getting all red and you want to get rid of random odds and ends in your cellar there won’t be too many complaints. The biggest complaints I’ve seen on mystery cases were the Wellington ones where people had a bottle of Victory replaced with a bottle of Chardonnay (BTW if anyone wants any Wellington Chard hit me up, I think I have at least 6 bottles lol).
@klezman Thanks for the feedback, that’s a helpful perspective. We probably should’ve asked Casemates to list the individual vintages instead of the range of 2001-2017, that probably would’ve shifted the expectations into proportion re: vintage.
We did end my label after the 2009 vintage, primarily because I took over the winemaking at Meeker around that time and it didn’t make sense to build a second brand. The Pinot Noirs we’ve released from Meeker, as well as the newer Archaic, Sakura, and some others have been wines that were originally part of the Lucas J. program and just got a Meeker label instead. Keep your eyes out for the Hone series wines, Hone is the catchall for most of my passion projects. Also, I’ll be releasing about 70-80 cs of a passion project Zin/Syrah blend soon that won’t be Hone or part of a wine club shipment, so keep your eyes up!
@jplamb Thank you, wife and baby are both great and all is well.
Re: the wine, I understand your perspective, and I’m sorry that you’re not a fan of the late harvest Zin. We did try to make it clear that wine would definitely be included. And for what it’s worth, while the price of that wine was $12.50 on Woot, that wine would never retail from me directly under $20/btl. Our existing dessert wines are both $28. While I realize that you’ll still see it as a $12.50 wine, the reason that price exists is solely because of the deal made with David, and from a wholesale/net cost perspective it should be considered a $20/btl wine discounted to $12.50… though I realize it doesn’t matter much to you if you don’t like it either way.
Much of the feedback from people in this thread about splitting cases was about only receiving one of something and not wanting to miss out on the specific wine, so we made sure to put two of those in the cases to try and prevent that problem. In your case that stuck you with two bottles, but we had to make a call and it ended up cutting the wrong direction for you.
I appreciate your suggestions for a future mystery pack. I think that the net takeaway for me here is to just avoid the mystery pack in the future or make it substantially less mysterious overall.
While I know you said you weren’t excited about the Verdelho and the Zin Gre rose, I think you’ll find that they’re really excellent wines. Honestly the Verdelho is one of the most exciting projects we’ve had over the past couple years, it’s been a big surprise and we’re very fond of it.
@jplamb if you were in San Diego i’d be happy to take the Vinitwo. I honestly didn’t know i liked that style until i got those bottles, i just bought them for the fun labels.
Just got my case yesterday (had some shipping issues that Jayme in casemates cs handled perfectly).
I was excited to brag, but it looks like I got the same as everyone else. That said, I’m still excited to drink this wine and I’m very satisfied with my purchase.
@lucasmeeker@Winedavid49 Just wanted to say I have been slowly working through this case and have been super happy with it! Great wine and for me a neat and interesting variety of wines. I know some people were disappointed with the mixture but I have really enjoyed it thus far. By the way, just had our first bottle of the Painted Merlot - what a delicious wine and what a gorgeous bottle!! Thanks again.
@sammypedram Thanks so much for the kind feedback! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the wines and hope the rest of them hit the same note for you. I appreciate you following up!
Note: Each box will have at least one 2013 Winemaker’s Handprint Merlot and one “Dessert wine with a label from a now defunct website”. The rest of the bottles will be randomly picked from vintages from 2001 - 2017 (mainly reds and possibly one white). You will not receive more than 3 bottles of any wine.
MSRPs for one bottle range from $21 to $75
Winemakers’ Handprint Notes
2013 Winemakers’ Handprint Merlot, Sonoma County
In the beginning, we put our handprints on these bottles so everyone would know it was a Meeker Merlot - big, fruit-forward, full-bodied, and with tannic structure for days. Now you know what kind of wine this is! But we keep handprinting because the bottles are just so darned gorgeous.
And this 2013 Winemaker’s Handprint Merlot is a classic. Dark fruit like currants and cherries marry on the nose with hints of toffee and caramel. The wine explodes on your palate with more cherries, and hints of the best strawberry rhubarb pie you’ve ever had. There’s no shortage of subtle, toasty oak and big, powerful tannins throughout the palate and finish of this wine. This 2013 Handprint will age beautifully and develop more richness and roundness for years to come.
Alcohol: 14.7%
About The Winery
Winery: The Meeker Vineyard
Owners: Charlie, Molly Meeker and Family
Founded: 1984
Location: Geyersville, CA
Charles and Molly Meeker bought their first vineyard in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley in 1977, and thereafter, in 1984, established their winery – The Meeker Vineyard – with Charlie as the winemaker. In its early years, the winery specialized in Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay.
The Meeker Vineyard tasting room is currently located in the 105-year-old Geyserville Bank building in the farm town of Geyserville, about six miles north of Healdsburg between Alexander and Dry Creek Valleys. In 2001, the Meeker tasting room was cited by The Wall Street Journal as one of the most enjoyable wine tasting experiences in all of Napa and Sonoma Counties.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OR, RI, SC, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, August 13th - Friday, August 17th
@lucasmeeker is here to answer questions.
(Click their username for recent activity.)
@moondigger shares a Lab Rat Report on the 2013 Meeker “Winemakers’ Handprint” Merlot.
Meeker Vineyard Mystery Offer
6 bottles for $119.99 $20/bottle + $1.33/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $199.99 $16.67/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
@ilCesare WB!
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: Tax & Shipping not included in savings calculations)
Meeker Vineyard Mystery Offer - $40 = 16.65%
37 states and no IL. That ______!
@jmdavidson1 I almost felt a bit of relief when I saw IL was not on the list. I have boxes stacking (my rack is full). But I’ll know by 8pm tonight if my offer on my next home in Missouri will be going through (and again, MO is there where IL is not).
@jmdavidson1 agreed on the IL disappointment. We’ve been out of Meeker for quite a while, and I was excited to see it be a mystery box. Then the big ‘wah wah waaaaah’ list of states letdown.
I guess it needs to remain a mystery for the Land of Lincoln.
@jmdavidson1 Sorry guys, we’re behind on our compliance there, but it will be straightened out shortly. Once it is I’d be happy to put together something for you at a comparable deal. Shoot me an email at lucas (at) meekerwine.com after summer and we’ll get you dialed in.
“Dessert wine with a label from a now defunct website”
(Note that like most dessert wines, it’s 375 ml)
Since I was robbed of the dessert wine in the last offering, at least I am guaranteed a bottle in this one!
Casemates Overlords…please bestow me with multiple bottles of dessert wine!
Darn you @Winedavid49! Darn you to heck!
/giphy dandy-curt-llama
I hate to be a party pooper (especially since I am psyched to see a Meeker offer) but with only ~16% addtl savings and without doubling up on the Handprint, there is little incentive to spring for a full case - especially if anyone wanted to split said case. I’m in for a 6-pack. YMMV.
/giphy tall-costly-way
@chipgreen Hi Chipgreen, Yeah I’d split a case with you, but with one Handprint that would suck! If at the very least there would be two bottles of everything to make the case, without knowing what other vintages and varietals we’d have to split up, a split would double suck! Guess I’ll sit this one out!!
@chipgreen I’m not in charge of how things get split, but let’s just say that there are some highly motivating wines (thing 15+ years in bottle) on the list of possible wines and my understanding (which is not guaranteed to be accurate) is that this might be more likely to find its way into the case shipments. This is our first time doing a mystery pack too, so it’s new for me also.
“In both you are guaranteed a Handprint Merlot and the desert wine.”
I’ve never had a desert wine before! I hope it’s not sandy…
@dorp And ironically it’s probably not dry…
@dorp @Vyntage it is a hot commodity, however
@dorp @Vyntage Can confirm not sandy or dry.
I hope Lucas gets a chance to stop by and talk about some of the possible wines that might be found in the Mystery boxes or even just what’s going on at Meeker these days in general (if no spoilers are allowed). Fond memories of the many in-depth discussions with him on WW.
@chipgreen Hi! Lot’s going on. Getting ready to bottle for two custom crush clients in the next week along with a bunch of our wines in a month. My wife is 37.5 weeks pregnant. It’s all happening (probably).
Agreed it would be nice to see the roster of potential wines. This could be a great offer!
@trifecta, you know these guys pretty well, don’t you? Any experience with the handprint Merlot?
Damn. Any chance PA was left off by mistake? I mean,a touch pricey for what I’m generally looking for, but I REALLY love the idea of random wines. (Considering I’m also self employed, I try to balance my enjoyment of wine with the cursing of the IRS.)
@Jamileigh17 no PA is heartbreaking
@fredpgh @Jamileigh17 Sorry!
@fredpgh @lucasmeeker Damn. Next time maybe? I know PA only fairly recently opened to licensing, but would be an eager buyer, especially on the dessert wine. I adore sweeter/low tannin (and low acidity) wines especially, and this sounds right up my household’s tastes lines.
@fredpgh @Jamileigh17 It’s on our list of things to do to get PA dialed in. Probably within the next few months.
@fredpgh @lucasmeeker Perfect, hopefully next time you have something on here, PA will get in on it.
/giphy zealous-dirty-queen
I was wondering why MA is off the list for w/e reason…
@sp3ar woops i realized it but I can’t delete the post XD
Should I buy two 6 packs or a full case? You guys never make it easy.
@Twich22 Good point. I’d say if you love Handprint Merlot, maybe go for two 6ers.
Not shipping to Connecticut makes this decision easier!
/giphy efficient-loud-tarzan
/giphy offhand-bright-burrito
I hope I do not get any duplicates in the 6 pack (4 unknowns) but looking forward to the mystery!
@KNmeh7 I love this gif.
Some really nice looking wines on the Meeker website. The possible 2001 is a Carignane. Waffling on this one - looks awesome but the mystery offerings have typically been disappointing for me…
@CruelMelody Goes without saying that I can’t predict an individual person’s taste, but I’ll say that this is a pretty solid list of wines, and if you like our style in general (tannic, acidic, dry, ageable reds; crisp, dry aromatic white/pink; acid driven, balanced dessert wines) then you’re probably going to be happy with what you receive.
I’ll also say that the 01 is not currently listed on the website.
@lucasmeeker Oh I know you make great wine. And I’m sure whatever I would get would be delicious and money well spent. I just get greedy and hope for a wide variety of different wines with these deals, and usually end up just getting a bunch of the same bottle.
@CruelMelody Besides the two listed in the offer, there are 7 other wines on the list of possible inclusions, so 9 wines in all. 1 white, 1 pink, and the dessert listed, the rest dry reds. Do with that information what you will! Hope that helps!
@lucasmeeker Thanks for the information! I’m definitely leaning towards purchasing, and hoping for a couple of your red blends
@CruelMelody There’s some in the mix for sure!
Hi everyone, I’m here to answer questions! Feel free!
@lucasmeeker Given the heat out here, will you be shipping temperature controlled or holding the wine until it’s safe to ship?
Will a case purchase have a higher chance of older wines?
@dmyers314 Unfortunately I don’t have rock-solid answers for you on either issue, I’m not the one who picks the mix for each case nor am I the one executing the shipping/fulfilment, those are both questions for the Casemates team, hopefully they can chime in for you.
@lucasmeeker Congratulations on your wife being pregnant. Must be a tough one if she’s counting half weeks lol. Since the only wine we know about is the '13 Handprint Merlot, can tell us about the wine, the year, the vineyard? Whatever you feel like. 2013 was supposed to be a great year for most?
@dmyers314 @lucasmeeker Write-ups says
@scott0210 2013 was a really solid vintage for us. This Handprint was a little uptight for it’s first six months or so in bottle but has really opened up lately and is incredibly elegant right now.
2013 Handprint (along with 09, 10, 12, and 14) a blend of two Merlot vineyards, both of which we’ve worked with since the '90s. Prior to 09, we had a Russian River vineyard we worked with as well, but we dropped that after 08. The 2011 vintage was the rain year and the Alexander Valley fruit didn’t make it in the door, so it was the Dry Creek vineyard exclusively.
Both vineyards are really excellent, consistent producers of completely different styles of Merlot, even though they’re only a few miles apart as the crow flies. The Dry Creek vineyard is incredibly varied, often steep hillside which leads to a decent amount of irregularity in berry size and ripeness. You might suspect this to be a bad thing, but we know the vineyard pretty well which lets us make good picking calls, and provided we nail that, the level of irregularity develops great complexity and structure, but generally is a louder, more boisterous wine.
The AV vineyard throws a lot more acid, but elegant, long tannins. It’s two blocks of two different clones, one always about 0.9 brix behind the other. Sometimes it can feel a little hollow through the mid-palate, but when combined with the DCV fruit they fill in each other’s weak spots and build big, long tannin structures that are seamless and elegant.
Generally speaking, with Bordeaux grapes we push hard on skin contact and tannin extraction, and rely on long barrel aging to develop firm, integrated tannin structures that age for a long, long time. This is one of our best examples of that focus.
Just doing some deducing from the meeker website. They have a 2001 Carignane listed and the only wine at $21 is a 2017 Verdelho. So given that the ranges are 2001-2017 starting at $21 I’d say both of these wines may be included in an order! (but may not)
@DJZachAttack The 2001 Carignane is not the 01 on the list.
@lucasmeeker interestinggg…I’m on the fence. I’ve just bought so much wine lately!
Lab Rat Report here.
I was excited when the bottle of Meeker “Winemakers’ Handprint” Merlot (2013) showed up. I had purchased some Meeker Petite Sirah in a Woot offer a few years ago and was happy with the wines. My wife was particularly impressed with the colorful paint handprints on the bottle. We decided to try the wine at dinner with three other people on Saturday.
Pop ’n pour, served at a temperature a little cooler than ideal since it just came out of the wine fridge:
Me: No nose to speak of. The major impression in my mouth was of tannins, which overwhelmed any sense of fruit, and surprised me as I don’t typically associate merlot with big tannins. It initially tasted more like a tannat than it did like most merlots, though the tannins weren’t quite as strong as with most tannats.
I waited to hear the others’ impressions before offering my opinion. They basically agreed with my impressions. One called it ‘astringent.’ We all agreed to let it warm in the glasses and open up a bit before consuming any more. It was a warm day, bordering on hot, and we were outside, so it wouldn’t take too long.
About 20-30 minutes later, I checked my glass. Now the nose had hints of sour cherry and raspberry. I tasted it again and the tannins had mellowed somewhat, but I still had trouble picking out any particular fruits. My notes here say: “I don’t know if this wine ever saw oak, but if it did, I’m not getting any hint of it.” Now I see in the description here on Casemates that it should have shown some toasty oak character, but I stand by my notes — it was undetectable in my bottle.
On the other hand, everybody agreed that it paired well with most of our foods. We had some hors d’oeuvres, including crackers, soprassata, cheddar, and smoked oysters. I thought it paired acceptably with everything except the hot soprassata. One of our guests disagreed, saying he thought it went really well with the soprassata. We had grilled chicken with italian spices, potatoes and corn on the cob, and it went better with the chicken than the potatoes or corn. Afterwards we tried it with dark chocolate and a toasted coconut dark chocolate, and I thought it paired the best with these. I regretted not saving more of mine until the chocolate came out.
What we all agreed on: The tannins were stronger than any of us would expect in a merlot, and this was not a fruit-forward wine. The Casemates description says “cherries and strawberry rhubarb pie,” but I only got hints of cherry and none of the five of us got any trace of strawberry. The discrepancy here makes me wonder whether we got an atypical bottle, or maybe it’s just too young to have been opened this year. I know for sure the wine wasn’t spoiled or oxidized, but the description here doesn’t match what any of us thought.
We also all thought it was much more of a ‘with food’ wine than a ‘sipping’ wine. One of our guests said her opinion was thumbs down on first taste, thumbs up when paired with the meal, and then thumbs down again after the food had been cleared away.
I do wonder what this wine would have tasted like on day two, but with five of us tasting, there was none left after dinner. I would suggest some bottle time since it’s possible that the tannins were just overwhelming the other subtler characteristics.
@moondigger Thank you! Useful to know (I feel like merlots tend to go tannic if heated too much, but not enough to cork out, and I have a tendency to open and ignore for a day before drinking, IF I can be arsed ahead of time.)
@moondigger thanks for the notes! Your description is making me pause…interested in this offer but I like my merlot fruit forward! I hope Lucas chimes in
I visited the Geyserville tasting room in May and enjoyed the vibe. The super friendly dogs, the wine peeking out of the bank vault, Charlie talking about anything and everything.
However, it was hot as hades outside, so the Verdelho and FroZin were the only ones that spoke to us. The reds all felt too high in temperature to be enjoyable. I’m sure at a lower temp and probably with food they would be off the charts.
This might pull me back in…Had some Meeker Cab Franc bottles a few years back from the old site. Loved Loved Loved it.
@WineDavid49 @lucasmeeker
Question here - does a 12-pack have the same distribution as 2x 6-packs? i.e. will a 12-pack have 2x the Thumbprint Merlot and (presumably) Vinitwo? The description is unclear above since it just says “each box”.
@klezman likely doubling up.
I want someone to post after the fact what came in the boxes
@Cerridwyn i will if you remind me in 2 weeks
@Twich22
I will do my best to remind you
@Cerridwyn When you order a case, you get one box. Offer says one per box. So count on getting one Handprint and one dessert no matter which offer you choose.
@Cerridwyn uh oh, I see @Winedavid49 in with a “likely doubling up” comment. I think they’re changing their minds
@Cerridwyn @scott0210 nah, the only reason we didn’t say outright that we’d double up is the small chance the dessert wine from a now defunct website has some quantity limitations. but likely not.
@Winedavid49
Excellent, thanks for the clarification.
For the record, I’d happily sacrifice a Vinitwo for a different wine. I have lots of that (11 remaining) and little other Meeker wine! That way others could enjoy it as well!
@klezman @Winedavid49 Yes, ~this~.
@klezman @rjquillin @Winedavid49 same here!
/giphy relieved-bickering-cork
@Cerridwyn just opened my case:
(2) 2013 Handprint Merlot
(2) 2013 Woot Cellars Late Harvest Zin
(2) 2012 Pinot Noir
(1) 2014 Syrah, 2001 Four Kings blend, 2014 “The Paddle” Reserve Blend, 2014 Barrel Select Zinfandel, 2017 ZinGre Zinfandel/Grenache, 2017 Verdelho
@Cerridwyn I received the same bottles in my case. Glad I got 2 bottles of the Handprint Merlot. Looking forward to seeing Meeker at my local wine store in September.
@Cerridwyn Mine contained 2 handprint merlot, 2 of the dessert wine. The oldest wine I received was one 2001 Four Kings. Overall, I think I’ll enjoy most of what I received.
@dmyers314 @mb1973 @JonnyA9497
thanks!
@Cerridwyn @JonnyA9497 Same here in my case
@Cerridwyn @JonnyA9497 @strongry @chipgreen @klezman I got the same in my case which was really a 2 six pack order that was shipped in one box, had I know I’d get 2 of the Handprint Merlots I would have ordered a case, I’ve contacted CS. Very happy with the wine assortment!
I tried the enhanced shipping for the 2nd time, the gel packs were still slightly cool, I live & work in a rural area 40 or more miles from a Fedex or Walgreens location. Interesting note, the enhanced shipping is Fedex 2 day which would not let me re direct to my location of choice so I just let it go to my office. I was given a choice of 3 locations which were farther away and south of me rather than the closer ones to the north which I prefer. That may vary reqionally but here in WNY that’s how it worked for me.
With regular summer shipping, Fedex ground (which I’ll probably use from now on), the order goes by refrigerated truck to Rensselaer NY, arrives at night and is trucked right back to Buffalo, I usually redirect to a Fedex location 40 miles away from me and it gets there by 9am. I’ll cross post this in the summer shipping thread.
Either way I’m pretty satisfied with the summer shipping options.
Random wine that’s mostly reds? Yes please.
{mod edit to remove the super long image}
/giphy tearful-halting-sound
@Seeds TLDR
Thank you, mystery mod!
Random Wine, eh? Tempting, but still too rich for my beer-drinking arse.
Just last week I emailed Meeker about a previous sites wine and here this is.
/giphy troubled-abusive-taco
@uglytalents There’s a reason I put you off for a week.
Twice within a week. This could get ugly.
/giphy ponderous-lawful-chimpanzee
The only other Meeker wine I’ve had was the Pink Elephant we got from the previous wine site several years ago. It was delicious, and we wished we would have bought more. Not sure if that translates to this offer enough to buy a case??
@strongry There is a pink wine part of this mix, but it’s not Pink Elephant, it’s our current rose.
@lucasmeeker thanks for jumping on board. Two questions: 1. Can you elaborate on moondigger’s labrat report? 2. What was your thinking behind the Sakura blend? 27.5 viognier seems odd. I know small percentages of vio is sometimes added to Syrah but it’s usually under 5 percent. Thanks!
@lucasmeeker oh well, I just needed a simple nudge. Sorry Lucas! Bring on Noceto!
@losthighwayz My apologies. When you sent this I was driving my wife to an OBGYN appointment for our incoming baby.
Been a while, and what the heck, it’s the first mystery case, so in for the 12-pack:
/giphy disillusioned-fatherly-salmon
Whee!
@uncleop Thanks! The wines are awesome!
Mine arrived.
-2014 DCV Syrah. (A little young I would guess as their website only has '12 '13 listed.
-2017 Verdelho
-2014 Paddle Reserve
-2012 Sonoma Coast Pinot
Reading the comments from Lucas it was pretty apparent only the cases were going to get the '01. Curious what it was. (If it was the $75 SRP wine, as the available wines from the site maxes out at $72 for the Four Kings.) I also noticed Lucas did not respond to Sakura blend question and they don’t currently list a tech sheet for it. I would be surprised if anyone nabbed that blend. (The one I was most interested in.)
Also, this will be the first and last time I splurge for the expedited shipping. Wines arrive at pretty much the same temperature as outside and were in non-refrigerated transit for 45 hours. Maybe I am lucky to have the refrigerated truck get it to me by Friday from wherever it drops it off at, but didn’t see the value.
@KNmeh7 @WineDavid49
I got the exact same selection. You’re right about the 2001 Four Kings blend as noted by JonnyA9497 right above the ridiculously long “Songs for a Colored Singer”.
As for standard summer shipping your wine will ride for 48+ hours in the back of a hot FedEx truck from St. Louis, MO to Columbus, OH plus however long it sits in St. Louis before heading Northeast towards Ohio. The average July/August temperature in St. Louis is 89 degrees, with 25 days above 90º. I am planning to stick with the 2-day expedited shipping with ice pack(s).
Finally, I’m disappointed that the offer specified only (1) Handprint Merlot and (1) dessert wine would be in “each box” whether a 6-pack or full case. A better way to handle it would have been to state upfront that those bottles would be doubled up, then in the event that the dessert wine allotment ran out (it didn’t) they could have “sold out” the cases, then re-opened case sales with the stipulation that the second dessert wine would now be subbed for with a different bottle. The way it was presented resulted in myself and others buying 6-packs when we gladly would have sprung for full cases had we known upfront that there would be (2) Handprint Merlots per case.
@chipgreen @KNmeh7 @Winedavid49
I got this same selection. Wines seem cool enough, although they’ve been at home for 7 hours or so after their journey through the central valley.
I’m a little disappointed that no library wines were included (or maybe I’m wrong and some of these are back vintages), but the selection overall is pretty good.
It would definitely have been nice to explicitly be told that cases would get a higher-end selection than 6-packs, especially since the per-bottle price was lower!
@chipgreen @KNmeh7 @Winedavid49 it is a mystery case though. Kind of surprised at the amount of complaining re not knowing EXACTLY what will be in the case…
@KNmeh7 @nostrom0 @Winedavid49
While wine.woot worked somewhat differently in that the quantity was a set number of bottles and you either ordered 1, 2 or 3 sets, whenever there was a guaranteed premium bottle in a “mystery” offer (think Wellington Victory), that bottle was always replicated if you bought additional sets. The other bottles were the mystery.
Thus, this offer broke tradition in that there was no guaranteed second bottle of Handprint or Vinitwo in a case purchase, which is especially odd since the whole basis of the format change between WW and Casemates was to encourage people to get together and split cases.
Although the amount of complaining may have surprised you, there was really only one complaint echoed by a handful of Casematers and while that concern was eventually addressed by WD it wasn’t until 39 hours into a 48 hour sale. Nobody was upset that they didn’t know the EXACT contents of the whole case.
@nostrom0 Far from it - more that the strong implication was that there were a whole lot of library wines, and if only case purchases were eligible for that it should have been stated up front. I quite like the selection I got, just a bit disappointed there was nothing with decent age on it.
@klezman @nostrom0
Pfftt I hear more whining or disappointment from mystery buys than any other offer. Makes me wonder why anyone buys mystery boxes
My six-pack:
2012 Sonoma Coast Pinot
2014 “The Paddle” Reserve Syrah Blend
2014 Dry Creek Valley Syrah
2017 Verdelho
2013 Handprint Merlot
2013 Woot Late Harvest Zin
"Each box will also have a dessert wine from a now defunct label
So, to summarize, you choose 6-bottles or the case. In both you are guaranteed a Handprint Merlot and the dessert wine. Beyond that, it’s a mystery…"
So my understanding was if I buy a case I would only get 1 dessert wine based on that verbiage. I ordered the case and got 2 bottles of that Woot Cellars late harvest zin which I have had before and did not enjoy. I believe it only sold for $12 originally so to stick me with 2 of them, well played Woot. I also got a white (Verdelho) and a white zin so out of 12 bottles there are 4 that I really have no interest in unfortunately. I guess my mistake for falling for another Woot mystery case, the only one I’ve been impressed with were the Wellington ones. I also got 2 bottles of Pinot so overall there were a lot of wines that are not my style as I have always enjoyed the full bodied reds from Meeker in the past and they were some of my favorite Woot purchases (such as the Diamond Ridge Cabernet and Petite Sirah)
On the plus side I did get 1 bottle of 2001 Four Kings but this is my last mystery case attempt, I have been disappointed by too many of them.
@jplamb Wellington was a blessing and a curse for woot. Blessing in that almost everything was great, reasonably priced, great participation by Peter, fun mystery cases (surely helped by the selling of the winery… finding wines from the 90s in my library mystery was amazing.)
I think that allowed some people to offer less than stellar mystery cases. I am not complaining with what I got (except that I didn’t find expedited shipping worth it) but I surely will not be buying another mystery case from Meeker.
I look at the known Noceto case, and think of how it could have easily been sold as a “mystery” by really focusing on grantee of AX1. Inevitably there would have been complaints about the four Rossos included, but being that it was known… no complaints.
Compare that to this “mystery” which was all but set-in-stone, yet sold under the mystery thing to entice us. Some people are reasonably miffed at the 12.50 vinitwo, verdelho, rose, all which are about at, or cheaper, than the per-bottle price on casemates.
Live and learn.
@KNmeh7
That is hardly a fair statement. The value of my case was $201, assuming my CT value of $13 for the VInitwo. More if you assume a similar price as the Fro-Zin. The white was $21 and the others were all north of $40 retail price. With my $10 coupon code and after taxes it was a 40.9% discount, not including any shipping it would have cost from Meeker directly. Sure, the discount would have been higher if I’d ordered the case or gotten a $60 bottle in there, but that’s the deal with mystery cases. 40% is a very solid discount.
@jplamb @KNmeh7 The mystery was indeed a mystery when the sale ran. After the sale concluded, given the varying kinds of feedback regarding bottle counts (i.e. wanting two bottles of Handprint for case splitters, your comment about NOT wanting any duplicates, etc.), I became very gunshy about disappointing folks, so I asked our team to reach out to Casemates about guaranteeing the shipments were the same and did not have dupes for the 6 but did have requested dupes for the 12. We were reacting to feedback here and my memory of woot mystery cases to try and assuage and meet expectations. Please see my comment below for further explanation.
Finally made it to my wine locker to open my case. Was hoping for 1 regular Meeker dessert wine, but alas, I had missed the “defunct website” part. Oh well, more LH Zin to keep @Molarchae pacified.
As several others, my case contained:
Funny part was that instead of a Meeker “Invoice”, it was a Scott Harvey one!
@MarkDaSpark
It seems all the cases were the same and all the 6-packs were the same. Mystery ≠ Random!
@chipgreen @MarkDaSpark We made a shift in plans after the feedback I was seeing here. Please read my longer comment below for further explanation.
Haha I love not going in on these random cases! Seeing the re-ignited frustrations is hilarious. I’ve been suckered in a few times. 100% of the time with any “mystery case” I was never fully satisfied. It will never be the wine combinations you dream of… Well except that last time some got 3 victory bottles while everyone else got a Chardonnay opposed to the promised “if available” 2nd victory for the rest of most folks. Then to top it off, making that same mystery pack available weeks later and giving folks that that second ( if available terminology) victory bottle that was not given in the last pack therefore screwing peeps who fell for the first offer… yeah never letting that one down. Hehe, that being said, rest assured you are getting a discount. Not the one you had the impression on.
@TechnoViking I’ve yet to be disappointed with a PW ‘mystery’ offer, just disappointed I missed out on some of the large format offers.
@rjquillin right?! Imagine if PW wines were here on casemates. Literally, the death of me.
Has anyone tried the 2001 Four Kings Blend? I cannot find any tasting notes online of that vintage. Food pairing recommendations anyone? Not planning on opening it soon but would like to have an idea for when the time comes.
@sammypedram This wine is in beautiful condition right now, but is well into its aging curve, so expect a wine that is in the last 1/3 of its life. You should plan on pairing it in the same way that you would a well-aged Bourdeaux. We just poured this wine at our summer cellar party and it was blowing minds all day. I hope you enjoy it.
@lucasmeeker Thanks so much! Greatly appreciated.
@rpm @rjquillin @chipgreen @scott0210 @boatman72 @MarkDaSpark @Sammypedram @klezman @jplamb @KNmeh7 @smittypap @Winedavid49 @uncleop @strongry @lucasmeeker @losthighwayz @uglytalents @Seeds @StingingJ @Cerridwyn @JonnyA9497 @mb1973 @dmyers314
SEEKING INFO AND ADVICE re the MEEKER VINEYARD MYSTERY OFFER of July 16:
We have become gun shy after our experience with the June 15 PAVI MYSTERY LIBRARY DOLCETTO debacle.
Like most if not all of you we received a MEEKER 2001 FOUR KING’S BLEND in our case. The oldest vintage listed on the Meeker site is 2008.
We have bought well over 40 cases for our own consumption since January. We want to save the best for special occasions and for sharing with guests, but we do NOT want to take a chance on keeping too long.
@jeffreywsnyder First of all, I can tell you that the 2001 Four Kings is in incredible shape for a well-aged Cab blend and is much better than “okay”. If it’s corked, please let me know.
The oldest vintage on the website is 2008 because we don’t sell the library vintages with regularity… we have only made the 2001 vintage available a handful of times (I count two) for limited cellar sales over the past few years at $80/bottle.
You don’t need to drink it ASAP, but I would plan on drinking it within the next year. It will probably develop a few years more than that but at this stage in its life I don’t want to make any promises and have you end up disappointed.
@lucasmeeker
Congratulations on your new baby.
I gotta say, your timing is lousy—harvest time + new baby = uh oh. Although, if you are a small business owner I suppose there is never a slack time.
Thanks for your comprehensive reply.
No complaints here. I can assure you WE are VERY pleased.
Best regards.
@jeffreywsnyder Trust me, I’m well aware of the timing issue. A winemaker friend had an August baby last year and watching him has me plenty concerned. You’re also right though… we’re never not busy.
I’m glad you’re pleased and let me know how that 2001 4K turns out.
Hi all, I’m really disappointed to see how unhappy many of you are with this offer. We worked with Casemates to put together what we intended to be a nice mix of some of our recent favorites and off-the-beaten-path wines with the first time we’ve offered Handprint in an offer like this.
To address a few specific concerns I’ve seen here:
Overall, we were trying to put something together that included wines that you literally can’t get normally along with wines that you can’t get at a discount normally along with wines that we are personally excited about. I’m personally very disappointed that we let some of you down and that some of you even think we were trying to “trick” you or anything like that. We made a big effort to respond to the feedback we were seeing here with the actual contents of the shipments to try and satisfy all the concerns while still delivering an exciting mix of wines.
Hopefully you enjoy the wines you received. My family and our team works hard to make wines we’re very proud of. I take a lot of pride in the honesty and integrity with which we communicate about our wines, and maybe the lesson here is that a Mystery Offer isn’t a good fit for us in that I can’t talk about the wines much in advance without ruining the fun and that it leads to people being disappointed in what they received even if we think we’ve put together something exciting.
If you’re one of the people who considers themselves very disappointed by this offer, please let me know and we’ll see if there’s something we can do to rectify it.
@lucasmeeker
Thanks for coming back and telling everybody how you went about it. As I pointed out above, the discount we got was absolutely solid. Sure, I’d have liked a bottle or two with more age (I know how your wines age! I’m hoarding a 2004 Cab Franc and 2005 Kiss Ridge still!), but my only disappointment was that I had hoped to be one of the “lucky” ones. That’s how a mystery offer works!
One suggestion for a future mystery offer - give at least a partial list of the wines that will be selected from. Doubly so if it’s a random packing offer. Not all previous mysteries have been random, nor are they required to me.
Cheers!
Also…what about your own label? Did you end that experiment?
@lucasmeeker
First…congratulations on the baby and I hope your wife and baby are doing well.
I do appreciate you following back up. Despite my frustration about some of the pack I really did appreciate the 2001 Four Kings in my case order and am excited to try that one. I think the biggest frustration is what appeared to be the attempt to dump the inventory of the Woot cellars wine which was a $12 bottle of a style of wine that I find to be undrinkable and now I have 2 bottles that I can’t even give away. I have really enjoyed the Meeker wines that I bought through Woot over the years. Everything you guys made that ended up on Woot was great from the Kiss Ridge Cab down through the inexpensive Forklift Grenache. I opened a bottle of your Pinot from this pack and while it’s not a style I would typically order, I thought it was well made and did enjoy it.
One suggestion if you decide to go the mystery route again is to break it down into 2 different purchase options that can at least get people into the style of wine that they enjoy. Maybe have one option for all red and another red/white mix or all white, I’d be fine with a higher price point on an all red pack. If people know that they’re getting all red and you want to get rid of random odds and ends in your cellar there won’t be too many complaints. The biggest complaints I’ve seen on mystery cases were the Wellington ones where people had a bottle of Victory replaced with a bottle of Chardonnay (BTW if anyone wants any Wellington Chard hit me up, I think I have at least 6 bottles lol).
@klezman Thanks for the feedback, that’s a helpful perspective. We probably should’ve asked Casemates to list the individual vintages instead of the range of 2001-2017, that probably would’ve shifted the expectations into proportion re: vintage.
We did end my label after the 2009 vintage, primarily because I took over the winemaking at Meeker around that time and it didn’t make sense to build a second brand. The Pinot Noirs we’ve released from Meeker, as well as the newer Archaic, Sakura, and some others have been wines that were originally part of the Lucas J. program and just got a Meeker label instead. Keep your eyes out for the Hone series wines, Hone is the catchall for most of my passion projects. Also, I’ll be releasing about 70-80 cs of a passion project Zin/Syrah blend soon that won’t be Hone or part of a wine club shipment, so keep your eyes up!
@jplamb Thank you, wife and baby are both great and all is well.
Re: the wine, I understand your perspective, and I’m sorry that you’re not a fan of the late harvest Zin. We did try to make it clear that wine would definitely be included. And for what it’s worth, while the price of that wine was $12.50 on Woot, that wine would never retail from me directly under $20/btl. Our existing dessert wines are both $28. While I realize that you’ll still see it as a $12.50 wine, the reason that price exists is solely because of the deal made with David, and from a wholesale/net cost perspective it should be considered a $20/btl wine discounted to $12.50… though I realize it doesn’t matter much to you if you don’t like it either way.
Much of the feedback from people in this thread about splitting cases was about only receiving one of something and not wanting to miss out on the specific wine, so we made sure to put two of those in the cases to try and prevent that problem. In your case that stuck you with two bottles, but we had to make a call and it ended up cutting the wrong direction for you.
I appreciate your suggestions for a future mystery pack. I think that the net takeaway for me here is to just avoid the mystery pack in the future or make it substantially less mysterious overall.
While I know you said you weren’t excited about the Verdelho and the Zin Gre rose, I think you’ll find that they’re really excellent wines. Honestly the Verdelho is one of the most exciting projects we’ve had over the past couple years, it’s been a big surprise and we’re very fond of it.
@jplamb if you were in San Diego i’d be happy to take the Vinitwo. I honestly didn’t know i liked that style until i got those bottles, i just bought them for the fun labels.
(and reordered them twice over)
@klezman @lucasmeeker The Hone series has been awesome so far! Keep up the good work. I’m still holding some OG archaic as well.
@jplamb @radiolysis I think I’ve got a case+, if I can find them. Well, CT does at least.
I’ll pull a few for you for our next swap.
Lucas, hang in there. Great to have your perspective and comments. @lucasmeeker
@rjquillin cool! Any chance you’ve found the Zaca Mesa whites as well? When we tried to swap those it seems they went missing on you
@trifecta @rjquillin Thanks guys, much appreciated.
Just got my case yesterday (had some shipping issues that Jayme in casemates cs handled perfectly).
I was excited to brag, but it looks like I got the same as everyone else. That said, I’m still excited to drink this wine and I’m very satisfied with my purchase.
Thanks @lucasmeeker
@Seeds I’m glad you’re happy with the wines, and sorry to not mix it up more. We wanted to be fair!
@lucasmeeker @Winedavid49 Just wanted to say I have been slowly working through this case and have been super happy with it! Great wine and for me a neat and interesting variety of wines. I know some people were disappointed with the mixture but I have really enjoyed it thus far. By the way, just had our first bottle of the Painted Merlot - what a delicious wine and what a gorgeous bottle!! Thanks again.
@sammypedram thanks!!
@sammypedram Thanks so much for the kind feedback! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed the wines and hope the rest of them hit the same note for you. I appreciate you following up!