Lenamon-Pepi Negociant is the only wine that Napa Valley pioneer winemaker Bob Pepi makes under the Eponymous umbrella with a different brand. He and his friend/business partner Jeff Lenamon located a vineyard in Anderson Valley, which Bob had long thought of as one of the two best areas in California for making top Pinot Noirs. The name Negociant alludes to the long, successful search and discovery of a few great vineyards that allow us to make a Pinot Noir that truly inspires pride from our team.
The Lenamon-Pepi Negociant vertical offers an incredible opportunity to experience true Burgundian styling from one of California’s coolest climates Pinot Noir regions. These are wines of true terroir, each a lovely portrait of the vintage in Anderson Valley. With recent bottlings retailing for approximately $50 price tag, this exceptionally priced vertical is a unique opportunity and incredible value.
Picked from three different vineyard blocks on the property (with three different exposures and soils) on the same day. Immediately after de-stemming, a signee of about 10% of the juice volume was done. Cold-soaked for three days, and then Assmanshausen yeast was added. Reached temperatures of 70-75 degrees F early in the fermentation and then pressed at dryness. Then, it was placed in 30% new French oak barrels two days after pressing and oak-aged for ten months
2011 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
Tasting Notes
Stored neck down at 55 degrees since bottling, this deeply hued, beautifully preserved Pinot Noir presents earthy tobacco and mushroom notes mingling with spicy red cherry and chocolate bark with a kiss of seasoned oak. Given a few minutes the bouquet unwinds to become open-knit, elegant and complex. Exceptionally pure fruit is beautifully balanced with lingering spicy cherry and caramel notes astride a well-integrated structure that resonates through the finish. Stored perfectly, this is an exceptionally fresh Pinot Noir that offers a sumptuous experience on the palate and a compelling bouquet.
Specs
Aged 10 months in 30% new French oak barrels
Alcohol: 13.8%
2012 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
Tasting Notes
Like its brethren, this wine has been stored neck down at 55 degrees since bottling, reflecting a very deep garnet Pinot Noir showing almost no signs of aging from a color perspective. Meaty, earthy, and graphitic up front with tobacco and mushroom notes mingling with rose petals and cherry fruit that move to the fore as the bouquet complexes. Mouthwatering sour cherry and tobacco notes dance with well-integrated mineral-laced tannins offering juicy length and a clean finish.
Specs
Aged 10 months in 30% new French oak barrels
Alcohol: 13.6%
2013 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
Tasting Notes
Again, stored neck down at 55 degrees since bottling with a robust, deep garnet color with just a kiss or orange around the rim. This perfectly preserved Pinot Noir presents a bouquet of beautifully ripe, spicy cherry, orange rind, black raspberry, mineral freshness and nicely integrated chocolatey oak notes. Ripe yet fresh cherry notes are supported by chewy, mineral-laced tannins, exceptional purity and seasoned oak notes.
Specs
Aged 10 months in 30% new French oak barrels
Alcohol: 13.6%
What’s Included
3-bottles:
1x 2011 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
1x 2012 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
1x 2013 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
Case:
4x 2011 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
4x 2012 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
4x 2013 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
Price Comparison
Not for sale on winery website, $540/case MSRP
About The Winery
Négociant Winery
Lenamon-Pepi Negociant is the only wine that winemaker Bob Pepi makes under the Eponymous umbrella with a different brand. He and his friend/business partner Jeff Lenamon located a vineyard in Anderson Valley, which Bob had long thought of as one of the two best areas in California for making top Pinot Noirs. The name Negociant alludes to the long, successful search and discovery of a few great vineyards that allow us to make a Pinot Noir that truly inspires pride from our team. Bob recently switched his focus to consulting and has generously made his library of beautiful Pinot Noir’s available to us.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
The short version:
Excellent wines and values at the case price. Still very good value at the 3-pack price. Earthy and more restrained/acidic/old world style Pinot that is fun to do side by side and great drinks in their own right. Drink the 2011 soon, then 2013, then 2012.
Long version:
Got an email from Alice last week asking if I was around. To my delight she told me I’d be getting a 3-bottle vertical and that rpm would be the other rat. Looking at my weekend schedule, I realised that there’d only be enough time to do this justice over Friday/Saturday nights.
molarchae and I decided the best way to do a vertical like this would be to have them side by side, even though it was just the two of us. So on Friday night I opened all three, immediately poured half of each bottle into a 375, recorked the full size bottles for the next day, and then worked on the decanted halves.
First impressions from each for the first hour or so, tasting starting with the 2013 and working backwards through the vintages:
2013
Aromas were savoury and fresh cranberry, raspberry, and strawberry with a touch of earth, and white pepper. Colour showing a touch of age but no bricking. First sips are strawberry, cherry, white pepper, hint of mushroom. We thought it had great balance and was a solid medium weight. Long finish, although not particularly distinctive.
2012
It was really surprising that the fruit in this vintage was, to us, more candied cherry aromas compared to the brighter red fruit of the 2013. The fruit was complemented by savoury herbal aromas I couldn’t place - not quite tea but maybe sage? Flavours followed the nose. Somehow both sweeter fruit and more savoury at the same time. Maybe it was a slightly riper year but also one with more depth and complexity? Similar medium body and longish finish as the 2013.
2011
Aromas were a bit more subdued than the other two vintages. More tart cranberry as compared to the raspberry and cherry of the other two vintages. Shorter finish. More herbal. This all made sense given that 2011 was a cooler year in most of California. It’s also possible this bottle was a bit past prime, but it’s hard to say. We didn’t notice excessive acidity or anything else to indicate the fruit was underripe.
For the first couple rounds of small pours it’s hard to overstate how captivating the aromas were for both the 2012 and 2013. They were the kind of wines I could just sit there and sniff for ages, with new pieces emerging every few minutes. Quite captivating for a while there.
On to dinner! The local Eataly was having a wagyu sale so we picked up a wagyu zabuton and a pork chop (good Shabbos dinner, right?) and had those with air fried Brussels sprouts. In all cases we found the wine complemented the food well, but the additional depth and complexity of the 2012 and 2013 was appreciated compared to the 2011. While all three wines had their own personalities, we didn’t notice any of them being significantly better or worse pairings with the meat or veggies. These wines held their own and the higher acidity from the coolness of Anderson Valley helped keep the fat from the wagyu in check.
Saturday night we came back to all three bottles. But rather than doing another round of side by side, especially given that we could tell the 2011 was likely not going to benefit from all that air, we decided to go one by one. Strangely, the day of being recorked at room temp (19 degrees or so) led all three wines to merge somewhat in their characteristics. The 2011 moved the least, staying subdued aromatically but keeping its strong acidic backbone. The 2012 lost some of its soaring aromatics, as did the 2013. None of the three were falling apart, but all had lost a step. This suggests that these are not wines to be aged another decade, and the 2011 should be drank soon. I’d say the 2013 is probably at or just barely past peak and should probably hold another 1-3 years. The 2012 may yet improve a touch and should probably hold up to 5 more years.
You won’t be sorry to get a single vertical to open with a group of friends for a fun and educational evening. Under $25 for well aged Anderson Valley Pinot?? And at the case price it’s pretty much a no-brainer. Well done again, WD. Thanks to you and Alice for giving me this ratting job - fun and educational!
Dionysus, Bacchus, Hathor, Varuni…and no doubt innumerable other gods and goddesses of wine were favoring WineDavid when he snagged today’s deal…and at least some of these celestial patrons of the vine were smiling on rpm when WD decided I would be one of your humble Lab Rats for this amazing offer!
This is a three year vertical offering of Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir from the 2011, 2012 and 2013 vintages! This is a single vineyard Anderson Valley wine made from four pinot noir clones in one of the coolest regions for Pinot Noir in California. They are a wonderful expression of the terroir - interesting that the best Pinot Noir in California is increasingly coming from the cooler, more western parts of Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, even more that Carneros.
Most wine drinkers never have an opportunity like this, to taste three successive vintages from the same vineyard with enough age to be mature – kept at 55F cellar temperature their whole lives! It’s a short course in learning about Pinot Noir’s life cycle. Not only are you likely to just plain enjoy these wines, you will learn more about Pinot Noir from tasting these wines than you will from a decade of drinking current release Pinot Noir from California and Oregon.
This is an rpm AUTOBUY – You are unlikely to ever get wines of this age and quality for anything like these prices – the case deal is amazing. Have these with beef, game, even some firm fish like cod!
Most people know the Anderson Valley in Mendocino County these days for sparkling wines – especially Roederer which is one California’s very best (along with Iron Horse and Schramsberg) – which of course means Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are grown in there in quantity – and sometimes, as here, there’s Pinot Noir made as still wine.
rpm assembled a quartet of tasters, including a very experienced couple who often figure in rpm’s lab rat reports, and a stand-in for SWMBO who is out of town: another friend who is becoming more serious about wine and has tasted in France and California
.
As always, we use a UC Davis (modified) 20 point scoring system. We tasted each of the wines separately, from oldest to youngest, then compared them some side by side, and proceed to drink what was left with a lovely dinner of grilled beef tenderloin, baby potatos and green beans.
To keep our notes and scoring from being too long, our notes are presented as a comparative table:
You really can’t go wrong here unless you hate Pinot Noir from everywhere!
@rpm Nice touch with the table and notes; really makes side-by-side comparisons much easier.
Curious about some of the “-” and “–” ratings.
Could you elaborate a bit on those and the UCD format in general for those unfamiliar?
@rjquillin I’m aggregating notes from 4 tasters (with only one hard override), where the tasters were not uniform (e.g. evenly divided, or used a decimal that was > than .5), I use - or - - to indicate the consensus was a little lower, but not a full .5 lower. Or, just that after adding up points, consensus wanted to take it down a bit. I try to avoid decimal points at all, but have used where tasters are evenly divided between 1 and 2.
I’ve posted on Davis before, will dig something up later today.
@rjquillin The form I use was based on the American Wine Society’s modification of the Davis system by making Aroma & Bouquet max. 6 rather than max. 4, and picking those points up by substituting sweetness max. 1 for volatile acidity max 2. and reducing astringency from max. 2 to max. 1… I really like having the additional points to work with for aroma and bouquet, so I’ve used this version since 2008 when we did the first rpm Magical History Tour.
Here’s an explanation of the original Davis method: UC Davis System
@rpm I’ve been trying to work off what I already have, but stocks of pinots are getting low. A review like that, from a trusted reviewer, just might get me to pull the trigger.
@coynedj@rpm I doubt you’d be disappointed. It’s not an opportunity you get all that often. Even after getting more than I should have on Berserker Day and being under strict instructions to stop buying wine, I’m considering this.
@coynedj As @klezman writes, I doubt you’ll be disappointed…consider drinking 4 bottles of the 2011 over this year, then three of the 2013 next year and one of the 2012, then in 2027 drink the three 2012s and the other 2013.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
Négociant Pinot Noir Vertical - $50 = 17.85%
Of course Wine Enthusiast had a spit of the 2013 back in 2019, so relevant? Maybe. But not as relevant as our rats but gives one a place in time right? Maybe.
87 points. This is a sturdy, structural and somewhat lean-tasting wine that will make a good foil for beef or birds. While the fruit flavors are underripe, this helps the moderate tannins and good acidity to give the wine a tangy quality that’s appetizing. — Jim Gordon 4/1/19
Randy Fuller, Now And Zin Wine (?) had a drink of the 2013 around the same time:
This Anderson Valley Pinot Noir is a California masterpiece.
Négociant colors up to a medium-dark ruby, showing some browning along the edges. The nose offers lavender and tea aromas, while the palate is simply elegant. Beautiful, muted dark fruit is joined by gentle savory notes and easy tannins. It’s a wonderfully balanced wine that finishes lovely and floral. Pair it with salmon, goat cheese, lamb or mushrooms. 5/20/19
Well the hits just keep coming on the 2013…The Drunken Cyclist March of 2019 of course:
This is my first time even hearing of this brand, and, well, I am ashamed. Why? The easy answer: it’s good. Really good. A lovely nose of ripe, but reserved fruit, but also considerable earth–even on the nose, this seems to be an effort to meld the Old and New Worlds. A bit dark in the glass, but good fruit buoyed by earth, tar, and anise. Very, very nice in a very Old World way. Excellent. 91-93 Points.
@kaolis@klezman@rjquillin Indeed, even given the differences in our palates - known to each other - and allowing for bottle variation, our evaluations were remarkably similar.
Has WD been listening to the cries in the force. I’ve been lamenting that I don’t have much in the way of pinot noir in my cellar. And violin! Problem solved!
2011 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
Tasting Notes
Specs
2012 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
Tasting Notes
Specs
2013 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley
Tasting Notes
Specs
What’s Included
3-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not for sale on winery website, $540/case MSRP
About The Winery
Négociant Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Feb 24 - Wednesday, Feb 26
Négociant Pinot Noir Vertical
3 bottles for $69.99 $23.33/bottle + $2.67/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $229.99 $19.17/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
2011 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir
2012 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir
2013 Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir
Rat report forthcoming…
The short version:
Excellent wines and values at the case price. Still very good value at the 3-pack price. Earthy and more restrained/acidic/old world style Pinot that is fun to do side by side and great drinks in their own right. Drink the 2011 soon, then 2013, then 2012.
Long version:
Got an email from Alice last week asking if I was around. To my delight she told me I’d be getting a 3-bottle vertical and that rpm would be the other rat. Looking at my weekend schedule, I realised that there’d only be enough time to do this justice over Friday/Saturday nights.
molarchae and I decided the best way to do a vertical like this would be to have them side by side, even though it was just the two of us. So on Friday night I opened all three, immediately poured half of each bottle into a 375, recorked the full size bottles for the next day, and then worked on the decanted halves.
First impressions from each for the first hour or so, tasting starting with the 2013 and working backwards through the vintages:
2013
Aromas were savoury and fresh cranberry, raspberry, and strawberry with a touch of earth, and white pepper. Colour showing a touch of age but no bricking. First sips are strawberry, cherry, white pepper, hint of mushroom. We thought it had great balance and was a solid medium weight. Long finish, although not particularly distinctive.
2012
It was really surprising that the fruit in this vintage was, to us, more candied cherry aromas compared to the brighter red fruit of the 2013. The fruit was complemented by savoury herbal aromas I couldn’t place - not quite tea but maybe sage? Flavours followed the nose. Somehow both sweeter fruit and more savoury at the same time. Maybe it was a slightly riper year but also one with more depth and complexity? Similar medium body and longish finish as the 2013.
2011
Aromas were a bit more subdued than the other two vintages. More tart cranberry as compared to the raspberry and cherry of the other two vintages. Shorter finish. More herbal. This all made sense given that 2011 was a cooler year in most of California. It’s also possible this bottle was a bit past prime, but it’s hard to say. We didn’t notice excessive acidity or anything else to indicate the fruit was underripe.
For the first couple rounds of small pours it’s hard to overstate how captivating the aromas were for both the 2012 and 2013. They were the kind of wines I could just sit there and sniff for ages, with new pieces emerging every few minutes. Quite captivating for a while there.
On to dinner! The local Eataly was having a wagyu sale so we picked up a wagyu zabuton and a pork chop (good Shabbos dinner, right?) and had those with air fried Brussels sprouts. In all cases we found the wine complemented the food well, but the additional depth and complexity of the 2012 and 2013 was appreciated compared to the 2011. While all three wines had their own personalities, we didn’t notice any of them being significantly better or worse pairings with the meat or veggies. These wines held their own and the higher acidity from the coolness of Anderson Valley helped keep the fat from the wagyu in check.
Saturday night we came back to all three bottles. But rather than doing another round of side by side, especially given that we could tell the 2011 was likely not going to benefit from all that air, we decided to go one by one. Strangely, the day of being recorked at room temp (19 degrees or so) led all three wines to merge somewhat in their characteristics. The 2011 moved the least, staying subdued aromatically but keeping its strong acidic backbone. The 2012 lost some of its soaring aromatics, as did the 2013. None of the three were falling apart, but all had lost a step. This suggests that these are not wines to be aged another decade, and the 2011 should be drank soon. I’d say the 2013 is probably at or just barely past peak and should probably hold another 1-3 years. The 2012 may yet improve a touch and should probably hold up to 5 more years.
You won’t be sorry to get a single vertical to open with a group of friends for a fun and educational evening. Under $25 for well aged Anderson Valley Pinot?? And at the case price it’s pretty much a no-brainer. Well done again, WD. Thanks to you and Alice for giving me this ratting job - fun and educational!
@klezman Nice job! And a 3 bottle taste off, fun. And not only was '11 cool it was a bit of a challenge with rain.
@klezman Solid review! Thanks!
LabRat report forthcoming….
Another site that ends in ‘O’ has the 2019 for $18 if buyers want to add a vintage
@kaolis just need '14~'18 now
@rjquillin in fact they had a couple others but no longer
@kaolis
Dionysus, Bacchus, Hathor, Varuni…and no doubt innumerable other gods and goddesses of wine were favoring WineDavid when he snagged today’s deal…and at least some of these celestial patrons of the vine were smiling on rpm when WD decided I would be one of your humble Lab Rats for this amazing offer!
This is a three year vertical offering of Lenamon-Pepi Négociant Pinot Noir from the 2011, 2012 and 2013 vintages! This is a single vineyard Anderson Valley wine made from four pinot noir clones in one of the coolest regions for Pinot Noir in California. They are a wonderful expression of the terroir - interesting that the best Pinot Noir in California is increasingly coming from the cooler, more western parts of Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, even more that Carneros.
Most wine drinkers never have an opportunity like this, to taste three successive vintages from the same vineyard with enough age to be mature – kept at 55F cellar temperature their whole lives! It’s a short course in learning about Pinot Noir’s life cycle. Not only are you likely to just plain enjoy these wines, you will learn more about Pinot Noir from tasting these wines than you will from a decade of drinking current release Pinot Noir from California and Oregon.
This is an rpm AUTOBUY – You are unlikely to ever get wines of this age and quality for anything like these prices – the case deal is amazing. Have these with beef, game, even some firm fish like cod!
Most people know the Anderson Valley in Mendocino County these days for sparkling wines – especially Roederer which is one California’s very best (along with Iron Horse and Schramsberg) – which of course means Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are grown in there in quantity – and sometimes, as here, there’s Pinot Noir made as still wine.
rpm assembled a quartet of tasters, including a very experienced couple who often figure in rpm’s lab rat reports, and a stand-in for SWMBO who is out of town: another friend who is becoming more serious about wine and has tasted in France and California
.
As always, we use a UC Davis (modified) 20 point scoring system. We tasted each of the wines separately, from oldest to youngest, then compared them some side by side, and proceed to drink what was left with a lovely dinner of grilled beef tenderloin, baby potatos and green beans.
To keep our notes and scoring from being too long, our notes are presented as a comparative table:
You really can’t go wrong here unless you hate Pinot Noir from everywhere!
@rpm Nice touch with the table and notes; really makes side-by-side comparisons much easier.
Curious about some of the “-” and “–” ratings.
Could you elaborate a bit on those and the UCD format in general for those unfamiliar?
@rjquillin I’m aggregating notes from 4 tasters (with only one hard override), where the tasters were not uniform (e.g. evenly divided, or used a decimal that was > than .5), I use - or - - to indicate the consensus was a little lower, but not a full .5 lower. Or, just that after adding up points, consensus wanted to take it down a bit. I try to avoid decimal points at all, but have used where tasters are evenly divided between 1 and 2.
I’ve posted on Davis before, will dig something up later today.
@rjquillin The form I use was based on the American Wine Society’s modification of the Davis system by making Aroma & Bouquet max. 6 rather than max. 4, and picking those points up by substituting sweetness max. 1 for volatile acidity max 2. and reducing astringency from max. 2 to max. 1… I really like having the additional points to work with for aroma and bouquet, so I’ve used this version since 2008 when we did the first rpm Magical History Tour.
Here’s an explanation of the original Davis method:
UC Davis System
@rpm I’ve been trying to work off what I already have, but stocks of pinots are getting low. A review like that, from a trusted reviewer, just might get me to pull the trigger.
@coynedj @rpm I doubt you’d be disappointed. It’s not an opportunity you get all that often. Even after getting more than I should have on Berserker Day and being under strict instructions to stop buying wine, I’m considering this.
@coynedj As @klezman writes, I doubt you’ll be disappointed…consider drinking 4 bottles of the 2011 over this year, then three of the 2013 next year and one of the 2012, then in 2027 drink the three 2012s and the other 2013.
How much more are you saving by buying a full case?
(Note: tax and shipping are not included in savings calculations.)
Négociant Pinot Noir Vertical - $50 = 17.85%
Of course Wine Enthusiast had a spit of the 2013 back in 2019, so relevant? Maybe. But not as relevant as our rats but gives one a place in time right? Maybe.
87 points. This is a sturdy, structural and somewhat lean-tasting wine that will make a good foil for beef or birds. While the fruit flavors are underripe, this helps the moderate tannins and good acidity to give the wine a tangy quality that’s appetizing. — Jim Gordon 4/1/19
Randy Fuller, Now And Zin Wine (?) had a drink of the 2013 around the same time:
This Anderson Valley Pinot Noir is a California masterpiece.
Négociant colors up to a medium-dark ruby, showing some browning along the edges. The nose offers lavender and tea aromas, while the palate is simply elegant. Beautiful, muted dark fruit is joined by gentle savory notes and easy tannins. It’s a wonderfully balanced wine that finishes lovely and floral. Pair it with salmon, goat cheese, lamb or mushrooms. 5/20/19
Well the hits just keep coming on the 2013…The Drunken Cyclist March of 2019 of course:
This is my first time even hearing of this brand, and, well, I am ashamed. Why? The easy answer: it’s good. Really good. A lovely nose of ripe, but reserved fruit, but also considerable earth–even on the nose, this seems to be an effort to meld the Old and New Worlds. A bit dark in the glass, but good fruit buoyed by earth, tar, and anise. Very, very nice in a very Old World way. Excellent. 91-93 Points.
fwiw (very little)
@kaolis Interesting that @rpm’s and my experience was much more similar than these three tasters’ experiences!
@kaolis @klezman @rpm
Well, those tastings are now nearly six years ago.
Would you not expect some changes?
@kaolis @rjquillin @rpm I mean those three are less similar to each other than Rob’s and my tasting notes are today.
@kaolis @klezman @rjquillin Indeed, even given the differences in our palates - known to each other - and allowing for bottle variation, our evaluations were remarkably similar.
Has WD been listening to the cries in the force. I’ve been lamenting that I don’t have much in the way of pinot noir in my cellar. And violin! Problem solved!
@WkdPanda Violin? Perhaps a viola!
The 2019 version of this Pinot is for sale for 17.99 on WTSO/Last Chance.
jeez, rpm autobuy, don’t you know there is no space!?
/giphy level-eclectic-wheat
I have ordered a case, if anyone would like to share: boston/so NH area.
@netcommsyn I would be interested in sharing. I drive through souther NH almost every week.
In for a case. West Side LA / SoCal if anyone wants 3 bottles / a vertical