Bill Arbios – Winemaker

We first met Bill at the Small Family Winemakers Expo in Pasadena about 10 years ago. Little did we know that we were already fans of his wine making! In fact, it wasn’t until a couple of years ago while while walking with him in his vineyard in the Alexander valley that we found out that he had been the winemaker at Lyeth, whose wine we had been carrying in the late 80’s and early 90’s. “Down there,” he said, pointing far down to the valley floor, “is what used to be Lyeth, It’s now a little company called Silver Oak.”

Artisan food and wine makers put a lot of extra care, thought, effort and expense into their work to deliver the most delicious products possible. Bill is no exception. Take his Cabernet Sauvignon, for example. This year most wineries are releasing their 2008 vintage wines. A lesser number are releasing their 2007. Bill is just now releasing his 2005! Why? Because it needed more time in the bottle to meet his standards. Buy some for yourself and see what this means in your glass – you’ll be glad you did! Or send it to your friends and clients in one of our wine gift baskets.

We’re featuring Several of Bill’s wines in our California Harvest basket, notably his Alexander Valley Cabernet and his Praxis Lagrein (lagrein is an Italian grape). It makes an outstanding Holiday Gift.