Pause

With a number of 90+ point, gold-medal winning wines under his belt, Joe Otos is one of the most acclaimed winemakers working in California today. Famous for his meticulous attention to detail and deep knowledge of winemaking, we trust few people more than Joe when it comes to making delicious, high-quality blends for our members. And after one sip of the award-winning Pause 2013, you’ll understand exactly why.

If building a blend is like composing a symphony, then each grape variety is like a unique instrument that has to both distinguish itself at certain moments and harmonize at others. Adding more instruments opens up the possibility for displaying more voices, but, at the same time, makes achieving harmony more difficult. And it requires a genius composer to hold the balance between instruments and unify them into a harmony greater than the whole.

Which is exactly what Joe Otos managed to do in the Pause 2013. Blending 10 grape varieties from some of the finest vineyards across California’s, Pause is symphonic in the way it weaves each distinct grape together into a complex, superb wine. From the largest component, Zinfandel, which makes up a third of the blend, to the smallest, a drop of Touriga, which makes up just 0.5% of the wine, Otos carefully selected each grape with a deep understanding of the way they relate to one another to bring out particular flavors.

The name Pause, in fact, is a suggestion for how you should drink the wine. To really appreciate the subtleties of this blend, though, we recommend opening this wine when you have the time to sip it; over a long meal, for example, or while staying inside during a cold, snowy Saturday. Part of the joy of this wine is taking some time in your day to pause. To truly taste the sweet tartness of the blueberry, blackberry, and sweet plum flavors balanced with hints of exotic spices. These are the notes that led to Pause winning the bronze medal at the 2017 West Coast Wine Competition. Trust us—this is the kind of wine you’ll want to savor all the way down to the last drop.