Stand back, please, everyone stand back. We’ve crossed the bargain-hunting streams of Wine.Woot and C&T Cellars, and there’s no telling what might happen.

You know us and what we do: track down ridiculous deals on great wines. Well, that’s what Trent Moffett of C&T Cellars does, only a little further upstream. As a négociant winemaker, he’s kind of a one-man Wine.Woot. He strikes deals with winemakers and wineries to purchase their grapes and wines at steep price breaks. Trent’s a native Napa-ite, so he knows people. He works the grapes or wines over as needed and bottles the results under his C&T Cellars label. The result is high-grade fruit from high-demand appellations turned into high-quality wines… at low, low prices. It’s either extremely savvy business or some kind of paranormal phenomenon.

Take, f’rinstance, this C&T Cellars 2006 Backyard Chard. You will be forgiven for assuming the price above is a typo, or that we’re selling three glasses instead of three bottles. It’s nigh-unto unheard-of for a Russian River Chardonnay to sell for this river-bottom price. We are talking about an appellation that’s widely celebrated for producing perfect Chardonnay, with a fine balance between acidity and fruit. And we’re talking about a stellar example of said Chardonnay, opening with apricot, peach, melon, and toasted oak aromas before a palate of citrus, melon, and oak, followed by a lingering, vibrant tropical finish. And Trent put it all together.

Then we, in turn, drove our usual hard bargain with Trent. That’s how we created this hybrid double-deal, with discounts coming and going. C&T does their thing before the bottle, we do ours after, and you do yours to finish the job. Of course, now that you know all this, there’s no reason your guests have to…

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