Friendships inspire a lot of things: dinners, deep conversations, weekend trips.
If you’ve just found us, well, welcome to a VERY small, wildly devoted tribe. Not just the good people who collect/drink (well, mostly drink) our wine, but those of us who make it. Here’s our story in a nutshell, with plenty more detail below. But quickly: the core of our philosophy.
It’s almost a trope in the wine business (of which we’ve been in for several generations) that the wines you remember most vividly are actually formed around the occasions of drinking them. “There are no great wines – only great bottles” as the saying goes, and damn if it isn’t true. That’s why that $8 carafe of Chianti you had in Tuscany at that one osteria, or the $10 glass of Chablis at L’Assiette in Paris is JUST as burned into your cortex as that mind-bending 1989 Chateau Haut-Brion you had at that once-in-a-lifetime French Laundry experience. It’s an extremely pleasurable and satisfying mini-brainstorm that locks the moment in your cells and heart forever (probably why we’re always chasing it!). These disparate wine experiences arrive at the same point: formative, thrilling, breathtaking even, but always unforgettable. Our Cabernet might tumble your soul, set your skin a-tingle, or it might just be the perfect companion to glide through a quiet (or, hell, raucous) Friday night. That’s how we drink it, how we envisioned it and we’re extremely grateful and kids-on-Christmas-morning stoked to offer (more or less for the first time outside of our restaurants and friends/family) a few cases (finally!) to you. Here is some data points:
KHK is vineyard partnership and tribute to longtime friendships between 4th generation Napan Jim Keller, Thomas Keller (who lends his incredible palate and Obi-Wan-level guidance), and the Hall family (of Hall’s Chophouse fame). We all have deep roots in wine, food, memorable experiences and hey, unadulterated FUN after 40+ years of camaraderie together. Our ideas for the perfect all-the-time Cabernet coalesced perfectly.
Staying true to our homegrown Yountville roots, we source primarily from a unfortunately-shall-have-to-go-nameless vineyard (lawyers, you know), meticulously farmed by the legendary Bettinelli family. This Cabernet is augmented by another vineyard extremely close to us, the vaunted Shifflett vineyard carefully and beautifully nestled in between Yountville AVA and Oak Knoll District AVA, just south of Yountville.
Winemaker: Thomas Rivers Brown. Thomas brings decades of much-admired excellence to the raw material, but he also brings his sensibility and passion for the wines of Burgundy, Barolo and beyond (he is a blast to drink with!). Thomas is driven to create a wine that has broad appeal and that is EVERYTHING to us.
Our KHK Cabernet is $75 - Not $250, or $450. This is key: wine is a way of life for us and it needs to be accessible while holding a very high standard. As restaurateurs and relationship-builders, we sometimes can work in a rarified air, but the fact is 95% of the time, life rolls around the same as everyone else – work, family, friends etc. and we wanted, NEEDED a wine that hits our sweet spots for everyday and beyond.
For years, our wines were only sold in top-tier restaurants across the country, crafted by Thomas to specifically to hit that emotional and pricing sweet spot for people of every stripe. In 2023, we were incredibly fortunate to have not only head-spinning quality, but a bit more yield, too. It’s the finest we’ve made yet and we decided to share a bit of it going forward. You’ll dig it, promise.
We’re all about food, so we make a wine with BALANCE, harmony, complexity, generosity, length and warmth. A wine to drink effortlessly with abandon, or to drink with attention and intent. That’s the holy grail for us.