Freeman '19s on tasting today
(Plus a very small selection of 2021 Burgundy)
One of the three best wine experiences of my life involves a bottle of Freeman.* It was 2017, and my family and I had visited the Freemans at their redwood-ringed estate. My toddler son rampaged round the semi-circular cellar tunnel, alarming Akiko. Later, we had dinner at the Freeman's Sebastopol local, where Ryo-Fu Chardonnay was on tap. Then we headed east, crossed gold rush country, and spent a day trekking through Yosemite National Park. In the Yosemite evening, we sat round a barbecue and enjoyed a beautifully maturing bottle of Freeman (2011 Sonoma Coast, if you're asking). I vividly remember drinking it while staring at the mountains in the sunset and thinking, life doesn't get much better than this.
Ken and Akiko Freeman have always believed that from the right sites, California can produce wines as complex and compelling as those of Burgundy. They built their early success on close relationships with some of the best growers up and down the Sonoma Coast. They were also busy planting their own vineyards, which are now in their prime. The home vineyard Gloria is a steep hillside site that tends to make a more voluptuous wine; Yu-ki is a cooler, coastal vineyard where the tiny Pinot grapes produce a darker, more savoury juice. Akiko's Cuvee is a barrel selection, blended from the top barrels across the range.
Akiko and Ken are delighted with their 2019s: `we couldn't have asked for a more perfect growing season - a mirror image of the spectacular 2018`. Specially for Uncorked, the winery is boxing 120 bottles each of Gloria, Yu-ki and Akiko's in horizontal six bottle boxes, perfect for cellaring. What`s more, Akiko is maintaining the price at the level of the 2018s enabling us (despite the less favourable exchange rate) to do likewise as a special, pre-shipment offer. Better still, if you take one of each, there's an additional saving, and the opportunity to compare and contrast these three great wines as they evolve. With Burgundy prices on the march, and a shortage of wine in the subsequent vintage, now's the time to buy 2019 Freeman. /NT
*tell me what yours are, and I'll tell you what my other two are
And on tasting today: Thanks to the general paucity of wine, we haven't been able to manage a general 2021 Burgundy barrel sample tasting. But from noon today, as well as these Freeman 2019s, we will have a small number of Burgundy 2021 samples on show; join us and see how the sunshine state is doing against the golden slope.
And for those of you wondering where our Burgundy offers are, stay tuned! We're busy allocating and offers will follow. public offers will follow. You can read our vintage report here, and there is a link here to currently available wines.
Offered subject to remaining unsold; available late Spring 2023
