Some sad news to share that legendary California winemaker Sean Thackrey passed away a couple weeks ago, at the age of 79.
Sean was a highly eccentric winemaker who was inspired by ancient Greek and Roman texts (he was a collector of rare books). He would use their methods of making wine outdoors, at night under the stars, field blending and co-fermenting, to create wines intuitively, and to use grapes and ageing techniques like an experienced chef would cook food – eyeballing certain parts of the recipe as required. This is what made his wines special, with his non-vintage dated Pleiades as the best example.
We had just launched two of his brilliant wines, including the latest edition of Pleiades XXVIII, through LCBO this month, and were hoping to announce these wines under better terms, and eventually meet him and introduce him to Ontario soon. Sadly that won’t be possible anymore except for within a wine glass.
Here is what is still available in the market. The Pleiades brand plus his other collectible wines – Orion, Sirius, Andromeda etc ; will continue on to preserve Sean’s legacy, so we hope this won’t be the last time these unique wines are here for people to enjoy.
- Pleiades XXVIII red blend
- Product number 22595, Vintages online exclusive, $39.95 – 350+ bottles available
- Orion Rossi Vineyard red blend 2016
- Product number 23607, Classics June 2022, $272.00 – sold out
Click here to read Sean Thackrey's obituary in New York Times.
