K. Laz Wine Collection

K. Laz Wine Collection was founded by Napa wine insider Kerrin Laz. Few have the insights and access to Napa wineries and Napa wines that she does.

She grew up in Long Island in New York and while her family enjoyed wine, they were not in the wine business. She studied journalism and political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she worked in several restaurants including at Crooks Corner (which she considers one of the pioneers of ‘southern’ style gourmet food) and where she was introduced to fine dining family style meals.

She recalls her first day working there as a host was not a typical one – secret service agents came in and combed over the entire restaurant. Later that evening the distinguished guest who arrived was none other than former president Jimmy Carter.

Kerrin would travel to Washington DC from time to time and during one trip she stopped inside the Dean & Deluca in Georgetown for coffee. She asked the manager if they were hiring and in fact, they were looking for someone to work in either their food or wine department. Kerrin applied for a position and began working in their wine department. Ultimately, they offered her a position in Napa Valley (the Dean & Deluca in St. Helena), so she moved to Napa Valley in 2006.

She had many roles during her time at Dean & Deluca – all relating to wine and ultimately oversaw the wine program for all their stores and then wine sales for off premise sales (Internet).

After proprietor Leslie Rudd (owner of Napa’s Rudd Winery) sold Dean & Deluca, Kerrin branched out on her own and with Leslie’s support, opened her Yountville tasting room. Kerrin provided valuable wine services to a number of clients for many years while at Dean & Deluca and they were some of her initial clients here.

The focus of the tasting room is offering wines from boutique premium mostly Napa and Sonoma producers. The K. Laz Collection fills an important niche for both the wineries (gives them a retail outlet) and allows consumers to try their wines who otherwise would never have known about these brands. The wines represented are typically from small family-owned producers – most of whom do not have tasting rooms.

A very unique component for a Napa Valley tasting room is the ability to try rare and difficult to obtain wines from wineries that do not see visitors for tastings. Typically, these are wineries who sell most of their wine through exclusive mailing lists with a select few even maintaining waiting lists to join the mailing lists for an opportunity to buy the wines. Examples include BRYANT ESTATE, Fairest Creature, Scarecrow, Screaming Eagle and SLOAN.

Relationships in the wine business are extremely important. Kerrin has built many strong personal relationships with area wineries over the years. She keeps a diversity of wine in stock and varies both the producers represented and the varieties poured on an ongoing basis. As a result, repeat visitors have opportunities to taste other wines that they wouldn’t have necessarily tasted during prior visits. Wines represented are from long time vintners in the valley but also from new producers. And with such selection of wines, they are able to also tailor (when asked for) the tasting experience to the customer’s own palate and or variety preferences.

At the time of our visit four tasting options are offered. The Taster features wines that over deliver for the price point, the Artisan, features higher end wines and the Cult showcases some of Napa’s most exclusive and sought after wines. However, for collectors and serious wine enthusiasts there is even another level of tasting. This is the Centurion which features the flagship wines of several extremely exclusive wineries including Screaming Eagle as well as some harder to find older vintages from these producers. All tastings are private for your party.

Kerrin is also a prolific vineyard photographer (follow her Instagram here) and has printed and framed a number of her photographs of the Napa Valley – available in limited prints. Remarkably these were all taken with the iPhone, but some have that special Instagram flair. These are available for sale in the tasting room.

The floral arrangements are provided by local florist, Seth Chapin of Evermore Flowers. These add a nice visual component to the tasting room and include a number of air plants, fresh cut flowers (when in season) and tiny terrariums. All are for sale.

And did someone mention beer? A keg of beer from local vintner and brewer Nils Zacherle will be available for tasting. Nils is proprietor of Mad Fritz Brewing, based in St. Helena. He is creating some interesting brews including growing a malting barley on a vineyard property just south of Calistoga. After you have enjoyed a number of fine wines – sit back with this locally hand crafted brew.

A couple standouts from our recent tasting was the 2013 Kelly Fleming Sauvignon Blanc (predominantly a Sauvignon Musqué with a tiny percentage of a Sauvignon Blanc clone), the 2013 Vice Versa Le Petit Vice (extremely good price to quality ratio) and an always favorite producer, Switchback Ridge (the 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon).

There are several K. Laz Wine Clubs you can join which mirror the names of their tastings and the types and prices of wines offered in each of those tastings. Clients can choose shipments either 2x or 4x per year.

2018 was a productive year for Kerrin. She founded Inspire Napa Valley, a charitable organization that raises awareness and funds for Alzheimer research. Their inaugural event was held in a series of locations around the valley in May 2018 including an exclusive dinner at Abreu Vineyards (Las Posadas Vineyard) on Howell Mountain. The initial Inspire Napa Valley raised over 1 million dollars supporting the Alzheimer Association and has since raised significantly more money from subsequent events.

We attended one of the early walk-around Inspire Napa Valley tastings hosted at COPIA in the city of Napa. This annual event is always a rare opportunity to meet owners and winemakers and taste wines from some of Napa Valley’s most limited production and rare wines. A number of these producers rarely pour their wines at events.

Select Wines
These are tasting notes from some of the often listed Napa Valley based wineries or brands available for tasting here.

BRYANT ESTATE
The 2022 BRYANT ESTATE DB4 is 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9% Cabernet Franc, and 15% Petit Verdot and was aged for 22 months in 85% new and 15% neutral French oak barrels. This wine is deep ruby and opaque. A true definition of aromatic elegance and harmony; its scents include dried rose petals, violets and a light minerally/ferrous character, true to this site. This scent began to express itself more prominently starting with their 2019 vintage – perhaps an indication of converting to biodynamic farming. Its fruit includes dark raspberry, red plum, and a finishing savory character including old cedar box, library book and a light tobacco spice. And as the wine evolves it opens to a note of white chocolate and toffee. Superbly balanced and seamless, this wine tastes like red plum, red cherry, dark raspberry and blueberry. The focus here is on the fruit with the oak providing a lighter complement and a supporting role. The brightly endowed finish lingers with lightly gravelly tannins in tandem with fruit. The listed ABV is 14.9%. DB4 is always a separate barrel selection created in harmony with the BRYANT ESTATE Cabernet Sauvignon and Bettina.

Harlan
The 2021 Harlan Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is blended with smaller amounts of Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. This wine is deep ruby and nearly opaque. Multi-layered with loads of aromatic depth including both fruit and savory terms, the bouquet smells like dried rose petals, dried bay leaf, old cedar box, chalkboard, a light note of pipe tobacco, cocoa powder and dark fruits including plum and dark raspberry. The fruit is more expressive on the bouquet than the palate with flavors of blueberries, dark raspberry, currants, boysenberry and plum with non fruited notes including dark chocolate and a minerally character including chalk. Remarkably soft considering this vintage in Napa Valley, the lightly dusty, chalky and polished textured tannins linger in tandem with the fruit on the seamless finish. Already balanced at this age, 4 years post vintage, this wine will remain balanced for years to come.

Kinsman Eades
The 2022 Kinsman Eades Hierothesion is a blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Cabernet Franc and 4% Petit Verdot. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; like all the Kinsman Eades red wines, this bottling is not lacking in terms of its color intensity. Multi-layered, the bouquet expresses an intertwined presence of both ripe, yet fresh fruit and an assertive barrel influence at this age three years post vintage. This wine smells of dark raspberries, boysenberry, Santa Rosa plums, red cherries, dark mulberry, dark chocolate, cocoa powder, pipe tobacco, pencil shavings and smoked cedar. And like on the bouquet, both fruit and barrel are strongly vying for presence. Its flavors include red plum, dark raspberry, boysenberry, blueberry, pipe tobacco, toasted cedar and a dusty character. The widely dispersed and fully coating but well tumbled tannins linger beyond the fruit on the finish with a dusty and gravelly character. Features a balanced acidity. This wine is best enjoyed solo at the end of the afternoon, reflecting on all the intricacies and personal interactions of the day, while listening to Marc Cohn’s, Walking in Memphis.

Mascot
The 2021 The Mascot is deep ruby and nearly opaque; this wine smells of a union of both red and darker fruits including blackberry, dark plums, cherry, boysenberry, mulberry and dark raspberry. The oak is comfortably seated in the back seat here, letting the fruit take the lead. The secondary scents include lightly smoked cedar, crushed rocks and a hint of dark cocoa powder. Balanced bright and loaded with layers and complexity, this wine tastes brambly including flavors of mid summer blackberries, boysenberry and raspberry. And higher toned notes are of currant, cranberry and red cherries. And chalk. This bottling and vintage in particular from The Mascot is built for the long haul. The bright and vivacious acidity keeps the palate entirely fresh. The finish lingers higher toned with a light red fruited tart character in tandem with firmly gripping long lasting, gravelly, grainy and dusty textured tannins. This might just be our favorite of The Mascot bottlings we have tried over the years.

Realm
The 2024 Realm The Bard, Riverbound Edition (Gamble Vineyard, Yountville) is medium gold in color; the breath on this bottling is immediately generous and inviting. Its scents are tropical fruited and floral and include ripe pineapple, passion fruit, pineapple guava, white pomelo, star jasmine an a subtle lemon zest. Smelling this beauty reminds of us vacationing somewhere tropical, perhaps Hawaii or the French Polynesia. Equally tropical on the palate, its flavors mimic the bouquet to some extent with notes of pineapple guava, golden delicious apple, passion fruit, white peaches, white nectarines, and apricot. And there is a minerally and chalky thread running the length of the palate, but this attribute is dominated by its ripe fruit. This wine is hard to put down – a crowd favorite across all ages and all palates.

Screaming Eagle
The 2020 Screaming Eagle The Flight is a blend of 64% Merlot and 36% Cabernet Sauvignon.. This wine is medium ruby in color. The initial aromatic is of rose petals, accompanied by red cherry, Santa Rosa plum, suede, violets and a light herbal note first described to us as rose stems by Opus One winemaker Michael Silacci. The palate is primarily red fruited with flavors of currant, tart plum, red cherry, cranberry and cran-apple. Tart and mouth watering with an herbal but not green character, this attribute reminded us of Icelandic crow berries; this wine finishes like it started, red fruited and bright and filled with a vibrant energy. It is exceptionally soft from entry through the finish with seamlessly integrated finely-polished tannins. Their texture lingers with a light gravelly character.

And not one to rest and perhaps not unexpected, Kerrin operates her own wine brand – appropriately called LAZ. The first release was a 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon from vineyards her winemaker Celia Welch has been sourcing grapes from for years, including from Oakville, Pritchard Hill and Rutherford. We have spotted vintages of this wine at V Wine Cellars (also in Yountville).

Tasting notes for the current vintage of K. Laz coming by end of 2026 or 2027.

K. LAZ WINE COLLECTION at Four Seasons
In late 2019 Kerrin partnered with the Four Seasons to offer private tasting experiences at the Four Seasons Private Residences at 706 Mission Street in San Francisco. We will visit this location and update our notes here as time permits.

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For more information, to request an appointment, to purchase wines or join the K. Laz wine club, visit: www.klazwinecollection.com

K. Laz Yountville

ARCHIVED NOTES
K. LAZ WINE COLLECTION Room at CIA Copia
*NOTE: this space is no longer occupied by K. LAZ and has since been converted to the Wine Bar at Copia. We keep our notes and photographs here for reference only.

In July of 2018 Kerrin opened the K. Laz Wine Wine Tasting Experiences Room at CIA Copia, located in the Oxbow District of the city of Napa. This private room is exclusively reserved for K. Laz tastings (the same caliber of tastings as offered in her Yountville space – although an added dimension here are the pairings by the CIA’s executive chef). Expect to spend 90 minutes for a tasting here – all tastings are by appointment. And like in the Yountville space, Kerrin’s Instagram worthy photographs were displayed and were for sale. Excellent maps produced by Antonio Galloni’s Vinous were displayed and helped complement the tastings.