Hungarian-born Sandor Faludi grew up in a wine region where he says most of his neighbors tended a small vineyard for the purpose of making their own wine. With winemaking in his genealogy, Sandor and his wife Sabrina moved to Sonoma County in 2010 where he continued to hone his winemaking style as assistant winemaker at Derbès Wines, a five-acre estate winery in the Russian River Valley.
Sandor’s wines bring together his belief of Old World practices and minimal intervention that allow the terroir and the grower’s hand to speak through the fruit. “I don’t like to manipulate my wines,” says Sandor. “I don’t add acid, tannin, or water to adjust the flavor of the wine. I rely on the vineyards to produce quality fruit, so having good grower relationships is important.”
Following a move to the Greater Seattle area around 2017, Sandor and his wife Sabrina launched Prohibition Cellars in Woodinville. The wines sport eye-catching labels that play off themes and characters of the prohibition era, such as Scarface, nickname of America’s most famous gangster, Al Capone, and his arch nemesis, Elliot Ness, head of the Treasury Prohibition Unit often referred to as The Untouchables. The wines we have sampled are rock-solid, crafted from top vineyard sites that convey a brooding sense of purity and place, worthy of exploration.
Visit: Located in the Woodinville Warehouse District at 19501 144th Ave NE, Suite F-900, Woodinville. Phone (818) 431-0074 or visit online at www.prohibitioncellars.com.
Below are two releases we recently reviewed:
Prohibition Cellars 2018 Untouchables
93 Pts.
Lush and velvety in profile, this red wine shows impeccable balance, built primarily with Cabernet Sauvignon (82%) from Quintessence (Red Mountain AVA) and Stillwater Creek (Royal Slope AVA) vineyards. Deeply concentrated flavors of cassis, cherry paste, and red currant are seamlessly aligned with crushed rock, smoke and spice details. Chewy, yet ultra-fine tannins meld into the polished structure revealing raspberry, vanilla bean, cocoa and dried herb accents that round out the plush, endless finish. A real thriller. $55
Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec
Prohibition Cellars 2018 Scarface Syrah
92 Pts.
An expressive single-vineyard Syrah sourced from Les Collines Vineyard in the Walla Walla AVA. At its core, this version is hedonistic, full-bodied and strikingly rich, exhibiting whip-like structure and finely-etched tannins that course through macerated blue and black fruit flavors surging with savory black olive, leather, garrigue and distinctive mineral notes that lead to the powerful finish. $65