Winemaker Notes
A dark mauve core with a neon purple rim, the wine stains everything. Opening aromatics on the 2020 Machete are gorgeous immediately: ripe pluot, carne asada, new cowboy boots, lilacs, espresso bean and wet concrete. On the palate, layers upon layers reveal themselves, from a plum galette topped with fior di latte gelato to 85% cacao dark chocolate to barbequed tri-tip and sweet oak. Puckering tannins to finish, the wine closes on a high note with a touch of blood orange zest and lingering acidity.
Blend: Petite Sirah, Syrah, Grenache
About the Label
Rather than just one label, there are a dozen different labels for Machete – a red blend that makes a hero of Petite Sirah from Northern California, with supporting roles from Syrah and Grenache.
The challenge was developing a label that would match the boldness and complexity of the wine in the bottle. Phinney got the idea for the label while driving home from San Francisco one day. Spotting what he thought was a white police car ahead of him, as he got closer he realised it was an old cop car that had been resold. Behind the wheel was a postman with his arm hanging out of the window puffing on a cigarette. The word ‘Killers” had been keyed onto the side of the car.
Inspired, Phinney set up a photo shoot with the cop car using Calistoga’s moon-like landscape as a backdrop. His initial idea of keying the word ‘Machete’ onto the car and shooting a machete-wielding model behind the wheel didn’t pan out.
Shot over the course of two days, it took over 10,000 attempts to get a dozen Phinney was happy with. “The model is always high up in the frame of every image. She’s always in a position of power. That was important to me,” he says.
About Orin Swift Cellars
The history of Orin Swift Cellars dates back to 1995 when on a lark, David Swift Phinney took a friend up on an offer and went to Florence, Italy to spend a semester “studying”. During that time, he was introduced to wine, how it was made, and got hooked. A few more years of university led to graduation and eventually a job at Robert Mondavi Winery in 1997 as a temporary harvest worker. Deciding that if he was going to work this hard, it would eventually have to be for himself, he founded Orin Swift Cellars in 1998; Orin is his father’s middle name and Swift is his mother’s maiden name. With two tons of zinfandel and not much else, he spent the next decade making wine for others as well as himself and grew the brand to what it is today.
About the Machete Label
This rich and expressive Red Wine features 12 different labels in the series. The challenge was developing a label that would match the boldness and complexity of the wine in the bottle.
Rather than just one label, there are a dozen different labels for Machete – a red blend that makes a hero of Petite Sirah from Northern California, with supporting roles from Syrah and Grenache.
Phinney got the idea for the label while driving home from San Francisco one day. Spotting what he thought was a white police car ahead of him, as he got closer he realised it was an old cop car that had been resold. Behind the wheel was a postman with his arm hanging out of the window puffing on a cigarette. The word ‘Killers” had been keyed onto the side of the car.
Inspired, Phinney set up a photo shoot with the cop car using Calistoga’s moon-like landscape as a backdrop. His initial idea of keying the word ‘Machete’ onto the car and shooting a machete-wielding model behind the wheel didn’t pan out.
Shot over the course of two days, it took over 10,000 attempts to get a dozen Phinney was happy with. “The model is always high up in the frame of every image. She’s always in a position of power. That was important to me,” he says.
*Receive one of twelve possible labels.
*Specific labels cannot be requested.
