If you’d be so good, please bring back the transcendent currant, black cherry and oak. And, if you can keep the dustiness in the tannins that scream Rutherford, Napa Valley, I’d really appreciate it. Oh, and if you could keep it at the same absurdly low price, well, you’d have a fan for life!

Lastly, if you did something different with the label that’d be fantabulous. Not that it matters, but a graphic that’s clean, a little edgy and ‘pops’ would help a lot.

Thanks for your time,
Todd

With the 2003 Avalon, Alex Cose wrote me back:
“Done,” he said. “Hope you like the ‘new’ label. We had it last year, too.”

Please do thank Mr. Cose with the purchase of a couple bottles. It’ll be far from a strictly altruistic action, I assure you.

Cheers,
TSW

This couldn’t have gone better if I had given Avalon’s wine maker Alex Cose a wish list.

It would have gone something like this if I had:

Hi Alex,

Keep up the great work. I’m diggin’ just about everything that comes out a Purple Wine Co. bottle, including Mark West pinot and chard, Rock Rabbit syrah and sauvignon blanc and, of course, Avalon cab.

The first vintage of Avalon I tasted was 2000. It was good, and damn good for the price. But it was the 2001 Napa Valley bottling that floored me. ‘Man, this guy must be pissing off a lot of cab makers charging $40+,’ I thought.

If I may be a complete prat, kindly indulge my few suggestions for your next release. If you could go back to the “whoa nelly” quality of that ’01 vintage, that’d be swell. The ’02 was good, but not the sort of wine worth taking hostages over.