In contrast to our long-aging classic-style clarets, in 2021 we together created this lively young offering showcasing the New World at its best – brimming with cherry and blueberry aromas kissed by French oak. Its ample velvety tannins benefit from 2% each of Tannat and Malbec, which contribute to finesse and brightness.
Mike and Steve Heringer lead one of our favorite grower teams for a number of reasons. First, their vineyard is situated in the heart of Clarksburg, a remarkable AVA in the Sacramento River delta north of Lodi and cooled by marine air from the Golden Gate. Second, their fine-tuned organization is a joy to work and play with. Third, they are courageous experimenters from which we can source unusual varieties like Tannat and Norton.
Winemaking
Fermentation techniques: Anchor NT 112 yeast inoculum, 7.5 g.L Bois Frais Alliers chips, 14-day maceration
Elevage details: Four weeks microbüllage pre-ML, 20 months in neutral French oak
Delightfully drinkable now, its refined tannin structure promises further aging potential, perhaps a decade over which to acquire complexity.
We Smiths offer small lots of extraordinary hand-crafted wines which explore French winemaking traditions in California.
Clark Smith is an MIT drop-out who wandered out to California in 1972 and sold wine retail in the Bay Area for several years, where he acquired a love of Bordeaux, Burgundy, and all things French and observed firsthand the California winery explosion in the 1970s. After a three-year stint at Veedercrest Vineyards, he secured enology training at UC Davis and spent the 1980s as a founding winemaker for The R.H. Phillips Vineyard in Yolo County. In 1990, he founded WineSmith Consulting and patented a group of new winemaking techniques involving reverse osmosis, spinning off Vinovation, which went on to become the world’s largest wine production consulting firm over its 17-year history.
Frustrated with California’s winemaking trends, Clark started WineSmith Cellars in 1993 as a teaching winery to make Eurocentric wines to explore traditions beyond the mainstream, expanding for his winemaking clients the range of possibilities for California fruit. Choosing to create long-term partnerships with committed growers rather than growing his own grapes, Clark has become a renowned expert on Cabernet Franc, having vinified twenty vintages from a wide variety of sites.
Teaching at Napa Valley College gave him access to the Student Vineyard for Faux Chablis and his Pauillac-style $100 “Crucible” Cabernet Sauvignon. From Renaissance Vineyards in North Yuba County, he has made a sulfite-free Roman Syrah and also produces a Pinot Noir from Fiddlestix Vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills in a delicate, age-worthy Côtes de Beaune style. These wines are vinified in an ancient beat-up warehouse in Sebastopol, California.
WineSmith wines are noted for their longevity, classic balance, structural integrity, minerality, and understated soulfulness. They often are aged extensively prior to release. When drinking a WineSmith wine, always ask yourself “What is this wine trying to teach me?” Clark is a vocal advocate of living soil and graceful longevity, and generally avoids excessive oak, alcohol, or extended hang time. He is not shy about employing new tools when they are needed, such as alcohol adjustment to bring fruit into balance or micro-oxygenation to build refined structure, but always fully discloses techniques that are controversial and is outspoken in explaining his rationale.
His book, Postmodern Winemaking, is the culmination of four decades of reflection on wine’s true nature.
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Like all wineries, I had my ass handed to me in the pandemic when most of my restaurant and shop customers cancelled orders and often went out of business. Thus imagine my delight when in October of 2022, my custom crush host offered to buy a controlling share of WineSmith, pay my debts, open a tasting room and carry production costs going forward. Unfortunately, none of this actually happened. Thus I still have pretty much the entire inventory I had then.
Last year I lost patience and ask to unwind the deal, so now I am in the process of rebirthing the brand. Fortunately, I’ve always been committed to a very ageworthy style, so the wines are better than ever.
I’m eager to reconnect with my Casemates homies. You guys have understood what WineSmith is all about, swimming upstream against the trends of powerhouse prune juice and sparkling chocolate-flavored Cabernet in a can. I hope you will visit www.winesmithwines.com to explore my vast array of experimental wines in numbers too small ever to appear on Casemates. If you do, please take advantage of the promocode IKNOWCLARK for a 20% discount.
Let me share a few thoughts concerning the state of the wine industry for the small fry.
As you all know, wine consumption, after 26 years of unbridled growth, has dropped precipitously. What’s dropping is the nationally distributed cheaper wines that offer a pleasant buzz and little more. There are only 65 bonded wineries in the US that supply this market, for which many alternatives are now motoring up: craft beer and cider, hard seltzer, and of course, cannabis.
This isn’t my market. WineSmith wines aren’t selling a pleasant buzz. The selling proposition is more like music. My wines carry emotion and speak of place. They aren’t cheap, nor are they particularly thirst-quenching.
I personally think the decline in wine sales is a good thing. When consumption grows, the added people are consequently complete newbies, so they tend to skew demand towards simple, quaffable wines for instant consumption – the opposite of what I do. I make wine for geeks, for folks who have outgrown white Zinfandel, buttery Chardonnays, and overblown Cabernets, and might even have a cellar or closet to lay wines away. These are my people. A shrinking market means these are thicker on the ground.
Since I only make less than 2,000 cases, all I need is a fan base of 4,000 of these geeks that I can rely on to purchase an average of 6 bottles a year. Good riddance to the riff raff.
I hope you will want to be one of those people.
2021 WineSmith Cabernet Sauvignon, Heringer Vineyards, Clarksburg
Tasting Notes
Winemaking
Specs
What’s Included
3-bottles:
Case:
Price Comparison
Not for sale online, $480.00/case MSRP
About The Winery
Available States
AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TX, VT, VA, WA, WV, WI, WY
Estimated Delivery
Monday, Mar 16 - Tuesday, Mar 17
2021 WineSmith Heringer Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
3 bottles for $69.99 $23.33/bottle + $2.67/bottle shipping
Case of 12 for $199.99 $16.67/bottle + $1/bottle shipping
Previous offer:
3/8/23
Like all wineries, I had my ass handed to me in the pandemic when most of my restaurant and shop customers cancelled orders and often went out of business. Thus imagine my delight when in October of 2022, my custom crush host offered to buy a controlling share of WineSmith, pay my debts, open a tasting room and carry production costs going forward. Unfortunately, none of this actually happened. Thus I still have pretty much the entire inventory I had then.
Last year I lost patience and ask to unwind the deal, so now I am in the process of rebirthing the brand. Fortunately, I’ve always been committed to a very ageworthy style, so the wines are better than ever.
I’m eager to reconnect with my Casemates homies. You guys have understood what WineSmith is all about, swimming upstream against the trends of powerhouse prune juice and sparkling chocolate-flavored Cabernet in a can. I hope you will visit www.winesmithwines.com to explore my vast array of experimental wines in numbers too small ever to appear on Casemates. If you do, please take advantage of the promocode IKNOWCLARK for a 20% discount.
@winesmith sorry to hear that your deal didn’t work out as you’d hoped, but I’m thrilled to see you and your wines back here. In for a case!
@winesmith
Indeed, welcome back, and hopefully on a recovery trajectory since now seemingly out of that dog house.
Hang in there Clark, the wine world needs your wonderful skills. Im in for a case.
Let me share a few thoughts concerning the state of the wine industry for the small fry.
As you all know, wine consumption, after 26 years of unbridled growth, has dropped precipitously. What’s dropping is the nationally distributed cheaper wines that offer a pleasant buzz and little more. There are only 65 bonded wineries in the US that supply this market, for which many alternatives are now motoring up: craft beer and cider, hard seltzer, and of course, cannabis.
This isn’t my market. WineSmith wines aren’t selling a pleasant buzz. The selling proposition is more like music. My wines carry emotion and speak of place. They aren’t cheap, nor are they particularly thirst-quenching.
I personally think the decline in wine sales is a good thing. When consumption grows, the added people are consequently complete newbies, so they tend to skew demand towards simple, quaffable wines for instant consumption – the opposite of what I do. I make wine for geeks, for folks who have outgrown white Zinfandel, buttery Chardonnays, and overblown Cabernets, and might even have a cellar or closet to lay wines away. These are my people. A shrinking market means these are thicker on the ground.
Since I only make less than 2,000 cases, all I need is a fan base of 4,000 of these geeks that I can rely on to purchase an average of 6 bottles a year. Good riddance to the riff raff.
I hope you will want to be one of those people.