Why you’ll be hearing more about Napa’s Outpost

Six years after it changed owners, a niche Napa wine estate is ending an era of international obscurity as it seeks global recognition for its fine hillside Cabernets and Zins – and db finds out why that might be.

Called Outpost, the property is based on Howell Mountain in California’s Napa Valley, and was owned by Frank Dotzler, who had bought it in 2002, before it was sold to AXA Millésimes in July 2018.

Importantly, the estate, which producers around 3,500 cases of wine annually, has been selling almost exclusively to private clients via a database of customers it has built up over the decades.

However, while it wants to protect this important, reliable and profitable source of business, Outpost – under its new owner – wants to build its worldwide status by selling to new customers in key wine importing markets.

AXA Millésimes MD Christain Seely explained the rationale at the first UK press event for Outpost, which took place in London’s Trivet restaurant yesterday, and which followed a similar event for wine writers in Paris.

“We have been selling wines to a very enthusiastic list of private clients and we are not reducing their allocation, but while it means that we [Outpost] are extremely well known to 14,500 people, we are not well known to anyone else,” he explained.

“So over the next few decades we will carry on looking after our private clients, but we will be opening up distribution around the world; so sharing Outpost a bit and getting the brand better known,” he said.

Continuing, he commented, “When we [AXA] bought Outpost, a lot of people said, ‘what’s that, and where is it?’ – so, over the next few decades, I hope they won’t be asking that.”

This means seeding the wine into “key states in the US,” as well as the UK – where Seely hopes to have a distributor before the end of the year – as well as importers in places such as South Korea, while he is presenting the wines over the next few days in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan.

Outpost won’t be listed on La Place de Bordeaux, which would see its global distribution put in the hands of French négociants (like, for example Napa’s Quintessa), but the brand will have a range of exclusive distributors in each nation it seeks to gain a foothold.

As for supplying this expanded distribution without affecting Outpost’s current customer base, Seely said that production from the property “will rise over the next few years” following the acquisition of 16-acres (6.5ha) of additional vines in 2021, which have been “meticulously replanted”.

Dotzler, who has remained in charge of Outpost since the acquisition by AXA, and was in London this week to present the wines alongside Seely, said that building up a direct sales business for the Napa brand “was not easy, but has worked for us.”

Indeed, looking back, he said “There was a time when Outpost had 15 distributors in the US, but now we have just two – which are in New York and California – and that’s because we were selling out so fast to private clients, it was taking the wine away from the distributors.”

Continuing he said, “Our DTC business has got us to where we are today, so we want to take care of them, but it does box you in in terms of how many know about you.”

Outpost currently comprises 44 acres (18ha) of vineyards on Howell Mountain which are planted primarily with Cabernet Sauvignon, along with other Bordeaux grapes, as well as a tiny plot of Grenache and some old-vine Zinfandel – which is used to produce a notably good expression of the grape.

The Cabernets from the property are extremely fine, particularly the single-varietal bottling of Cabernet from the True Vineyard, of which “never more than 700 cases” are made in any one vintage, according to Dotzler.

Seely found Outpost after two years of looking for a property in Napa, having decided that AXA ought to have an estate in the region to complement its flagship Bordeaux château, Pauillac’s Pichon Baron.

“In Bordeaux, we had one of the great Cabernet-based wines in the world, and we thought it would be interesting to go to another part of the world where Cabernet reaches a great expression,” he said.

It wasn’t until Seely discovered Outpost, with its Howell Mountain location, and vineyards on rocky, volcanic soils “above the fog” at 1,800-2,000ft, that he “knew this was the one we wanted to buy.”