Trois Noix is closing, and this is the wine Decanter called the best it has ever tasted from the estate. Ninety-eight cases were made. Sixty bottles were left at the winery, and after tasting it I took every one. They arrive Friday. Behind it, the last 36 bottles of the Chardonnay and the last 17 of the Sauvignon Blanc.

• Only 60 Bottles · 98 Cases Made

Arrives Friday, September 25th

A Personal Note

Dear Artisans,

Two weeks ago I wrote to you that Trois Noix is closing, and that we had secured the last of Jaime Araujo’s Chardonnay. I said the reds were next, if we could land them.

We landed the one that matters. The winery had sixty bottles left of its 2023 Rancho Pequeño Cabernet, from the family’s own vineyard on the Oakville bench. I tasted it and took all sixty on the spot. They are on a truck to us and arrive this Friday, September 25th.

The winery sold this wine for $150. Ours is $59.99.

The Best Wine Jaime Ever Made

That is not my line. It is Decanter’s, and it came with 97 points: “This is the best wine I’ve ever tasted from Trois Noix. It’s full-flavoured, complex, and rich without ever feeling heavy, framed by gorgeously polished tannins with a cocoa powder quality. The wine is supremely fresh and inviting… Really hitting all the marks in 2023.”

Ninety-eight cases were made. That is 1,176 bottles for the whole world, and sixty of them are ours.

If You Love Heidi Barrett’s Paradigm

Many of you bought Paradigm’s Oakville Cabernet from us this month, from Heidi Barrett’s final vintages there. If that wine is your kind of Napa, this one is close kin: the same Oakville bench, the same preference for structure and detail over sheer weight, and a price that makes no sense next to it.

It also stays true to the Araujo family style. Jaime’s parents, Bart and Daphne Araujo, bought the Eisele Vineyard in 1990 and made it one of the most collected Cabernet addresses in California before selling to François Pinault, the owner of Château Latour, in 2013. They went on to found Accendo Cellars. Precision over power is the house style, and this bottle has it.

The Vineyard And The Wine

Rancho Pequeño is the Araujo family’s own home vineyard: ten acres on the east side of Oakville, just west of the Silverado Trail, first planted to Cabernet in 1985 and farmed organically, on deep alluvial loam washed down from the Vaca Mountains. That bench grows some of the most sought-after Cabernet fruit in Napa.

Jaime did not make a big Oakville wine from it. She made an Old World one, aged in French oak with only 25% of it new, structure and savory character ahead of ripeness. In the glass it is brooding dark fruit, cassis and black cherry, with sage, cedar, graphite and iron underneath, and it runs long and linear rather than thick. With air, a savory leather note comes up and the tannins relax.

Decant it if you open one now. This is a ten-to-fifteen-year wine, and probably a twenty-year wine if you cellar it well. Decanter’s window runs to 2038.

The Whites, One Last Time

The Chardonnay you bought in September is down to its last thirty-six bottles, still $19.99. The 2019 Sauvignon Blanc, 93 points from Wine Enthusiast, is down to seventeen, also $19.99. Both are below.

James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

Why This Matters

The Wine · Only 60 Bottles

2023 Trois Noix Rancho Pequeño Cabernet.

Decanter 97. 98 cases made. Oakville, Napa Valley.

Trois Noix “Rancho Pequeño Vineyard” Cabernet Sauvignon 2023

Oakville, Napa Valley · The Araujo Family’s Home Vineyard

Cabernet from a 2023 season the estate describes as one of the longest Napa has seen in a decade, and one of the finest: ample rain after years of drought, a cool spring, then a warm and even summer with no heat spikes, so the tannins ripened fully while the acidity held. Decanter’s Jonathan Cristaldi tasted it in March and gave it the highest score he has ever given the estate.

Last Call · The Final 36 Bottles

2021 Trois Noix Muir-Hanna Chardonnay.

Decanter 93. Wine Independent 93. Oak Knoll District.

Trois Noix “Muir-Hanna Vineyard” Chardonnay 2021

Oak Knoll District, Napa Valley · 14.9% Alcohol

The wine from the September offer, from the Oak Knoll vineyard whose fruit went into the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay that won in Paris. Ten months in barrel with only 12% new French oak and a portion in concrete egg. Two of its four reviews are below.

Last Call · The Final 17 Bottles

2019 Trois Noix Sauvignon Blanc.

Wine Enthusiast 93. James Suckling 92. Vinous 91.

Trois Noix Sauvignon Blanc 2019

Napa Valley · 14.1% Alcohol

Jaime’s own summary is “Elegant, polished, and approachable but with structure to last.” The Musqué clone from a small lot of Ryan’s Vineyard, fermented half in neutral French oak and half in steel: rosemary and thyme, green apple and waxed lemon, crisp acidity and wet stone. One hundred seventy-four cases were made, and seventeen bottles are left.

The Bottom Line

A 97-point Oakville Cabernet from the Araujo family, for $59.99.

Ninety-eight cases made, sixty bottles left in the world that we know of, and a winery price of $150. This is what happens when a serious small producer closes its doors, and we are passing all of it on to you. The bottles arrive Friday.

Take the Chardonnay and the Sauvignon Blanc while they last, $19.99 each. When these three are gone, Trois Noix is gone with them.

Cheers,

— James Tran

Artisan Wine & Spirits

Only 60, 36 And 17 Bottles Left · Cabernet Arrives Friday, September 25th

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