Current Shipment

Hello Mountain Wine Club!

We’re excited to share two very special wines with you for the April 2025 Mountain Wine Club shipment: the 2022 La Jota Howell Mountain Cabernet Franc and the 2021 Jett Walla Walla Syrah.

We want our MWC members to get to try anything new we’re working on, so we set aside a small amount of Syrah for the club. If you like it, be sure to sign up for the allocation list on the Jett website. Moving forward, that will be the only way to get wines from our Jett project.

You might be wondering how Jett came about. One of the great pleasures of my work is visiting and learning about new wine regions and the unique character of their terroir. When our ownership asked where we should go for our next project, I saw it as an opportunity not only for the company and me but for my team, particularly Giana Ghilarducci, my partner in crime in the cellar, and also Rafael (Rafa) Jimenez, who oversees our vineyard operations in Napa Valley. In the end, we identified the Walla Walla Valley in eastern Washington State. I asked Gianna to be the primary winemaking creative for this project, with me acting as her advisor and sounding board. Without Gianna and Rafa I would be lost, so giving them the opportunity was a natural.

The 2021 harvest in Walla Walla—our first—turned out to be early and light. There wasn’t much rain, and the early part of the season was warm. Thankfully, late-summer temperatures were more moderate, and the wines are supple and fresh. We sourced the Syrah from the esteemed Les Collines Vineyard, a certified sustainable site on a ridge just north of the Washington-Oregon border. Gianna sums up the 2021 Jett Syrah as adventurous and fun, with black plum, star anise and hints of stem.

The 2022 La Jota Cabernet Franc in your shipment comes primarily from one of the oldest Cab Franc blocks in Napa Valley, planted in 1976 at our La Jota Vineyard. The old vines self-regulate, so we do not need to thin the crop, pull leaves, or otherwise adjust the grape-to-canopy ratio. We’re proud to provide you with such a unique wine, especially given that people are starting to pay more attention to Cabernet Franc in Napa.

As you collect and taste these wines, we hope you’ll think about the exceptional fruit that went into them and the devotion we feel crafting them. Enjoy!

Peace,

Winemaker Chris Carpenter