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Secret Wine, Secret Club, Secret Handshake
September 5, 2022
Okay, there’s no secret handshake. There is, though, a Keenan Winery Secret Club and a number of secret Keenan wines. If you’re reading this, you are one of the select few who have been invited here to learn about these extremely rare Keenan creations. Each of the wines has its own story, as does the club itself. In the adjoining videos and the Newsletter excerpt below, Keenan Winery President, Michael Keenan, tells you about Secret Wine and the Secret Club.
This club ships members four bottles from the secret portfolio, every year, just before valentine’s day. There’s no cost to join and you will be billed for the four bottles just before they are sent.
“Who else does this? Nobody. It’s bad-ass. There’s no other word for it.”
– Michael Keenan
Members receive:
4 bottles total (2 bottles of each of two unique Secret Wines) shipped yearly in February (all red)
Exclusive access to our Secret Wines for purchase
20% off all wines and merchandise
4 free passes to the Open House
Complimentary tastings for up to 4 guests
A Private Barrel Tasting for up to 6 guests when you join two or more clubs
A Barrel Tasting AND Summer Open House passes for 6 when you join three or more clubs
2012 | $180.
Side by Side | Napa Valley
2016 | $175.
Tribute Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley
2017 | $175.
Encore Cabernet Sauvignon | Napa Valley
2016 | $70.
Zinfandel Nod to History | Napa Valley
2015 | $88.
The Original | Napa Valley
2018 | $195.
Holy Trinity, Spring Mountain District, Reserve
This wine, to say the least, has been quite a journey for me. It started as an attempt to make a special wine for a Country Club in Los Angeles. The F & B director and 5 members of the wine committee came up to the winery to ‘blend’ their special wine. This is often a recipe for disaster, but in this case, I managed to give everyone a tour of the vineyards, a blending trial, and lunch, all in 3 hours. Unfortunately, we couldn’t agree on a price. They wanted a wine they could sell to their members for $90, and I disagreed; it was worth way more.
We parted ways, but I was enamored by the blend we had created. I made a few changes to it over the next week or so and ended up with a blend of equal parts Cabernet Franc, the Father (and actually, it is the genetic father of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot), Cabernet Sauvignon, the Son, and Merlot, the Holy Ghost. A return to my Catholic roots, perhaps, sure made me think about it. Oddly enough, when I was a young church-going lad, the Holy Ghost was always my favorite part of the Holy Trinity, and now, as a winemaker, my favorite varietal is Merlot.
In this equal blend of the three, the Cabernet Franc provides a wonderful lift in the nose and beautifully complex aromas of fruit with an herbaceous tinge and spice. Cabernet Sauvignon provides the baseline power and great varietal complexity, and then the Merlot laces of an almost magical richness through the blend, giving it an unmistakable sense of deliciousness.
I used the Holy Trinity for our PNV Auction wine in 2020, and it sold for over $250 a bottle. Keep in mind that this is a wholesale price; the retail price would likely be over $300, so I guess I was right about the value of this wine.
Join The keenan Secret wine club
The secret club is like no other.
Members receive:
- 4 bottles of Secret Wine shipped yearly in February (all red)
- Exclusive access to our Secret Wines for purchase
- 20% off all wines and merchandise
- 4 free passes to the Open House
- Complimentary tastings for up to 4 guests
- A Private Barrel Tasting for up to 6 guests when you join two or more clubs
- A Barrel Tasting AND Summer Open House passes for 6 when you join three or more clubs
2014 Nod to History Napa Valley Spring Mtn. Dist.
$68.
2015 The Original Napa Valley Spring Mtn. Dist.
$88.
JOIN THE KEENAN SECRET WINE CLUB
$175.
The Secret Club is like no other.
Members receive:- 4 bottles of Secret Wine shipped yearly in February (all red)
- Exclusive access to our Secret Wines for purchase
- 20% off all wines and merchandise
- 4 free passes to the Open House
- Complimentary tastings for up to 4 guests
- A Private Barrel Tasting for up to 6 guests when you join two or more clubs
- A Barrel Tasting AND Summer Open House passes for 6 when you join three or more clubs
2012 Side by Side Napa Valley Spring Mtn. Dist.
$135.
2016 Tribute Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Spring Mtn. Dist.
$175.
2017 Encore Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Spring Mtn. Dist.
$175.
“In August of 2006 I came up with a new wine (I literally dreamed it up) for the Premiere Auction, which takes place in Napa every February. Then a month later thought I had a brilliant outside the box idea to promote it. Every October I’d meet with a very famous wine critic who would review the vintage we had just bottled and two barrel samples of the vintage still in barrel. His review would come out at Christmas, in time to generate some buzz for the February auction. Well for the first time this wonderfully talented assessor of wines’ true virtues didn’t rate our barrel sample, great plan shot down. Nonetheless at the Auction that year the wine, on its’ own merits, generated a great buzz throughout the room and we ended up getting a record price and made some great new friends from Arkansas.
Coming home after the auction I then had the idea to make this wine as a ‘secret’ wine. A wine that would be at the top of our Bordeaux portfolio but would never be rated by any wine critic and never be shown in public. If a restaurant bought it they couldn’t print it on their list and if a retailer bought it they couldn’t put it on their shelves or advertise it on their website or anywhere in public. It would be a total back room ‘secret’ wine! I remember the first time I told Reilly, our son, about the ‘secret’ wine, he thought I had lost my mind. He’s slowly coming around on that topic. Now there are 5 wines in the ‘secret’ portfolio and it’s time to start the ‘secret’ club! These are all small production wines ranging from 100 cases to as low as 50 for the latest edition, a single vineyard Merlot from the 2013 vintage, which btw, is the greatest Merlot vintage I have ever seen. Some of the wines are from the ’06 and ’07 vintages, so we are able to age these even more than our current releases.Some of these wines are one of a kind, meaning I will not ever make them again.” – Michael Keenan
