Sean Thackrey, until his death in 2022, was quite possibly the most iconoclastic winemaker in California winemaking history (with apologies to our good friend Randall Grahm and the late Martin Ray). A contrarian from the day he produced his very first vintage in his garage back in 1981, his wines, and the philosophy that drove them, were anything but mainstream. He called himself a ‘terroir agnostic,’ and eschewed the UC Davis-driven, scientific, ultra-clean approach to winemaking that was driving the industry in those days in favor of more instinctual, non-traditional bottlings that challenged the status quo. He experimented relentlessly, and for every wine scored in the mid-nineties by critics like Robert Parker (and there were many), there were quite a few that Sean left to die in the cellar. 

His legacy, though, will be best-remembered for the amazing Syrah he called Orion and the ground-breaking kitchen-sink blend he called Pleiades, a name he chose because, like the constellation, there could be seven (or, in practice, even more) constituent parts. He never bottled Pleiades as a vintage wine with a set formula, rather each cuvee was bottled annually from whatever good fruit he could lay his hands on, calling it ‘A chef's special. You trust the chef so you're prepared to order the dish of the day.’ He favored grapes like Syrah, Petite Sirah, Barbera, Carignan, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvèdre and Pinot Noir, all sourced from vineyards that knew Sean and ‘got him.’ We have in our hands Sean’s final ‘dish of the day,’ the thirty-second and final version ever made of Pleiades. Assembled by longtime Thackrey associate winemaker Dustin Durfee, XXXII was made from Sangiovese, Pinot Noir, Viognier, Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah and, perhaps, a few other assorted goodies. 

We love this kind of wine because it reminds us of a different era in California, and we’ll miss it terribly. A dusky red color, it gives off a definite Old World vibe that, in a blind tasting, you might confuse with a savory Côtes-du-Rhône, an old-school Chianti or even a Rioja from Spain. Mulberry, plum and red cherry lead the way, but there is a lot more going on than just fruit. It’s underpinned with earthy, savory notes that evoke hoisin, star anise, dried tobacco and brambly blackberry vine. 

I was remarking to Thackrey’s longtime distributor that I would imagine opening this the same way as any of the above European wines, when there’s good food on the table, a crowd around to enjoy it and you’re looking for a red that everyone will love and effortlessly pair with everything on the table. And, sad to say, you want to celebrate the final act of one of the state’s great vinous visionaries. We’ve got it at a price that will make it an easy call!