Napa Valley Wine Values, Second Labels

Many of us here in the Napa Valley are always on the look out for great wine values. It is a thrill when you go in a drug store in Napa, many of them sell wine, and you buy a bottle or two of wine which you have never heard of for under $10 and upon drinking it a few days later you discover it’s great. The next day you go back to the store and purchase all of this wine they have in stock. Generally it is only a few bottles for they never buy more than a case or two. However, you still scored and the next time you go out to dinner and see the same wine on a wine list for $40-50, you feel great from the deal you made.

Many of these wines are what is called second lables. These are wine made by some or the best know names in the business; Mondavi, Stag’s Leap Winery, Opus One and Harlan. Granted many of the so called “boutique wineries” second labels are much higher than $10, but still way under the $400  you would have to pay for a Harlan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon.

Today, I would guess at least 2/3 of all wineries in the Napa Valley make a second label wine. The problem is how to know which labels are the second labels of some of the better know wineries and when should you snap several bottles up when the price is too good to pass up. Paul Franson, who writes a weekly article in the Napa Valley Register in last weeks column wrote about many of the better known wineries second labels. Here are a few excerpts and for the full story see it here: “Weak economy energizes ‘second labels“.

• Anderson’s Conn Valley Cabernet Reserve $60 vs. Anderson’s Conn Valley Vineyards Prologue $24

• Darioush Signature Cabernet Sauvignon $80 vs. Caravan $35

• Dominus $150 vs. Napanook $55

• Gemstone Proprietary Red $150 vs. Facets of Gemstone $75

• Harlan Estate about $400 vs. The Maiden about $130

• Lail J. Daniel Cuvée $125 vs. Blueprint $55

• Louis M. Martini $40 vs. Ghost Pines Zinfandel $15

• Melka Melka Metisse Cabernet Sauvignon $155 vs. Melka CJ Cabernet Sauvignon $52

• Opus One Cabernet Sauvignon $175 vs. Overture $65

• Pahlmeyer Proprietary Red $105 vs. Jayson Red $45

• Seavey Cabernet Sauvignon $95 vs. Caravina Cabernet Sauvignon $55

• Spottswoode Estate Cabernet Sauvignon $136 vs. Lyndenhurst Cabernet Sauvignon $60

• Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Artemis Cabernet Sauvignon $55 vs. Hawk Crest Cabernet Sauvignon $10 

• Stewart Cellars Nomad $115 vs. Hollis $35