{"id":2618,"date":"2025-10-16T03:07:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=2618"},"modified":"2025-10-16T03:07:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T03:07:21","slug":"winemaker-interview-series-phillip-titus-of-chappellet-acumen-july-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/?p=2618","title":{"rendered":"Winemaker Interview Series \u2013 Phillip Titus of Chappellet &#038; Acumen &#8211; July 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Phillip-Corallo-Titus-Chappellet.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2195\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Phillip-Corallo-Titus-Chappellet-196x300.gif\" alt=\"Phillip Titus\" width=\"196\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>On Wednesday, July 30, 2025, we had the opportunity to interview <a href=\"https:\/\/chappellet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Phillip-Corallo-Titus-Bio-9-23-2024.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>Phillip Corallo-Titus<\/u><\/strong><\/a>, the winemaker for <a href=\"https:\/\/chappellet.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>Chappellet<\/u><\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acumenwine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>Acumen<\/u><\/strong><\/a> wineries. We covered a 2024 Chenin Blanc and four 2022 reds from Chappellet. A Cabernet Franc and three Cabernet Sauvignons. We also covered the 2023 Sauvignon Blanc and a 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon from Acumen. You can learn all about what is new with Phillip, both wineries, and these wines in this post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Before we get to the wines, I thought I would share some tidbits that Phillip shared in the interview.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Chappellet wine updates.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Chenin Blanc: They can always pick every block perfectly ripe because it comes in earlier than everything else.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Cabernet Franc is a combo of Estate and neighbor\u2019s fruit. For instance, Chappellet takes all they can get from Stagecoach and Acumen&#8217;s Edcora.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Hideaway is currently 15 acres. Long term another 20 acres is planned. They already have secured the permit.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Acumen wine updates<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Peak is going away. The wines will be &#8220;Estate.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sauvignon Blanc<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">40% new oak is used.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They pick the vineyards late.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They split the vineyard with Spottswoode.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They are very excited about the 2024 vintage.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Acumen wines going forward: Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Edcora. About 1,200 cases total.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Vintage Overviews<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">2022 \u2013 Light wines with lower tannins. Drink earlier.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">2023 \u2013 Late Harvest \u2013 lower tannins.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">2024 \u2013 A wet spell in October. Low tannin as well.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What is the story behind the Chappellet &#8220;Mountain Cuvee Proprietor&#8217;s Blend&#8221; wine.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is a distributed wine and can be found on a lot of wine lists.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">They buy a lot of the fruit to make it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The Cab is from Chalk Hill, the Merlot is from Napa and the PV is from Pope Valley. The wine also contains Cab Franc and Malbec.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The links below are to our full reviews. If you are interested in ordering and trying these wines, you will find the &#8220;Signature&#8221; Cab and the &#8220;Pritchard Hill&#8221; Cab via your favorite fine wine shop or on top quality wines lists. The &#8220;Napa&#8221; Cab, the Chenin, and the Cabernet Franc are also available for order via the Chappellet website. The &#8220;Pritchard Hill&#8221; and &#8220;Hideaway&#8221; are for members of the Pritchard Hill Estate Allocation list. If interested, you should join the list. As for the Acumen wine, the Sauvignon Blanc is available via their website. For the Cab you can call the winery and ask for it, as it has not been released yet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Acumen-Logo.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2347\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Acumen-Logo-300x122.gif\" alt=\"Acumen Logo\" width=\"300\" height=\"122\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Acumen-2023-PEAK-Sauvignon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Acumen 2023 Sauvignon Blanc &#8220;PEAK&#8221;<\/a> <\/strong>(Napa Valley) $55 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 93.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Acumen-2022-PEAK-Edcora-Vineyard-Cabernet-Sauvignon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Acumen 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon &#8220;PEAK Edcora Vineyard&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Napa Valley) $175 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 96<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Chappellet-Logo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1907\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Chappellet-Logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"111\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Chappellet-2024-Signature-Chenin-Blanc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Chappellet 2024 Chenin Blanc &#8220;Signature&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Napa Valley) $75 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 93.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Chappellet-2022-Cabernet-Franc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Chappellet 2022 Cabernet Franc &#8220;Napa Valley&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> $95 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 94.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Chappellet-2022-Signature-Cabernet-Sauvignon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Chappellet 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon &#8220;Signature&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Napa Valley) $95 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 94<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Chappellet-2022-Hideaway-Cabernet-Sauvignon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Chappellet 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon &#8220;Hideaway&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Napa Valley) $200 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 96.5<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine_review\/Chappellet-2022-Pritchard-Hill-Cabernet-Sauvignon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Chappellet 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon &#8220;Pritchard Hill&#8221;<\/strong><\/a> (Napa Valley) $325 (<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>KWGTP 97<\/strong><\/span>)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">You can find reviews of past and future Chappellet wines that we cover on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine.php?winery=56\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><u>Chappellet KWG winery page<\/u><\/strong><\/a> on our website. You can find reviews of past and future Acumen wines that we cover on the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/wine.php?winery=2965\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Acumen KWG winery page<\/a>.<\/strong> We hope you enjoy these terrific wines as much as we did. Cheers! \u2013 Ken<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, July 30, 2025, we had the opportunity to interview Phillip Corallo-Titus, the winemaker for Chappellet and Acumen wineries. We covered a 2024 Chenin Blanc and four 2022 reds from Chappellet. A Cabernet Franc and three Cabernet Sauvignons. We also covered the 2023 Sauvignon Blanc and a 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon from Acumen. You can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2103,2107,22,18,180,34,2275,1846,1189,88,11,95,10,123,1585,1586,2749,1201,1187,9,258,1186,126,8,6,1292,1288],"tags":[2114,2118,501,625,539,1047,2120,1428,1151,2276,507,2125,1587,2475,1590,2283,518,1589,574,2279],"class_list":["post-2618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acumen-wines","category-atlas-peak","category-cabernet-franc","category-cabernet-sauvignon","category-chappellet","category-chenin-blanc","category-edcora-vineyard","category-estate-wines","category-hideaway","category-high-end-wines","category-kens-wine-guide-tasting-panel","category-malbec","category-merlot","category-napa-valley","category-phillip-corallo-titus","category-pritchard-hill","category-proprietary-red","category-red-blend","category-red-wine","category-sauvignon-blanc","category-spottswoode","category-stagecoach-vineyard","category-wine-ratings","category-wine-recommendations","category-wine-reviews","category-winemaker","category-zoom-wine-tasting","tag-acumen","tag-atlas-peak","tag-cabernet-franc","tag-cabernet-sauvignon","tag-chappellet","tag-chenin-blanc","tag-edcora-vineyard","tag-estate","tag-hideaway","tag-mountain-cuvee","tag-napa-valley","tag-peak","tag-phillip-corallo-titus","tag-phillip-titus","tag-pritchard-hill","tag-proprietors-blend","tag-sauvignon-blanc","tag-signature","tag-spottswoode","tag-stagecoach"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2620,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2618\/revisions\/2620"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kenswineguide.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}