Headstock featuring “wine barrel” inlay of a true one-of-a-kind masterpiece owned by a real guitar aficionado, Dave Miner of Miner Vineyards
The link between fine wine and fine guitars can often rightly be called false or pretentious. But this is simply not a universal truth.
The Miner Benedetto Cabernet – 2007 Edition to be released at the Miner Benedetto Guitar Concert Event
This “crossover” audience of alleged guitar aficionados who also love wine is too often bombarded with advertisements from mass-production guitar factories (not to name any names, but we don’t carry them), and even the occasional Bentley or Aston-Martin ad. Likewise, you will find similar ads from many mass-market, mass-producers of wine.
By design, those that can successfully market to the crossover audience of fine wines and allegedly fine guitar “collectors” are trying to reach a wealthy demographic that doesn’t mind spending piles of cash on non-essentials. No offense intended here, but real “aficionados” don’t collect guitar brands sold at Guitar Center, no matter how “exclusive” or “limited” they try and convince you that they are. At least no more so than real wine aficionados guzzle cases (or boxes) of Sutter Home (no offense if you like Sutter Home).
My only point is that while the buyers of factory-production instruments are indeed “collectors,” they don’t really know a lot about boutique tone or they wouldn’t be wasting their money by basing their purchase decisions on the headstock name. While our Sound Pure Guitar Boutique sells numerous high-end custom guitars from a number of small luthiers and shops, we don’t sell gimmicky, short-run, high-priced guitars that come out of factories.
Dave Miner (left), Bob Benedetto (Right) in side the Miner Cave
You won’t find the likes of the finest archtop brands like Benedetto, Buscarino, Comins, or Jimmy Foster in the pages of these magazines, but you will find them at Sound Pure and in the hands of true aficionados of jazz archtop guitars. These instruments are truly too limited to even attempt to appeal to the masses, so they don’t attempt to market to them either.
Back of the Headstock of Dave Miner’s new Benedetto custom instrument with the Miner logo over a “cork” inlay
On a recent Sound Pure business trip to the West Coast, I took a day trip up to visit with one of my favorite winemakers and friend, Dave Miner of Miner Family Vineyards. Dave Miner is the real deal—a true guitar aficionado. Dave is someone who in my opinion successfully and legitimately bridges the gap of wines and guitars in a proper and totally impressive way. In addition to making monumental wines (he is famous for his flagship Bordeaux blend, “The Oracle”) Dave is a huge supporter of the jazz guitar scene, a legit collector of fine guitars, and on the board of directors of Benedetto Guitars… he’s even got some guitar chops of his own.
Dave Miner’s new Custom Benedetto featuring inlaid French oak on the fingerboard, and pickguard from real wine barrels.
Dave has established a wonderful friendship with both Robert Benedetto and Benedetto’s CEO Howard Paul over the years, and has even released an intensely delicious “Benedetto Vintage Cabernet Sauvignon” in honor of this great friendship (it will knock your socks off).
While with Dave Miner, he showed his pride and joy and latest addition to his collection, an archtop hand-built for Dave by Robert Benedetto. Since we at Sound Pure Guitars source a lot of custom guitars from Benedetto Custom Guitars for our customers, as well as some that we order in on spec (because they are just too beautiful to pass on), we were super psyched to see what Bob Benedetto had dreamed up for Dave, given their fantastic relationship.
While spending a fantastic afternoon with Dave, we had a chance to taste some remarkable wines. The Miner wines are a lot like world-class archtop guitars. They are subtle, sophisticated, balanced, and not over-engineered with chemicals. Miner lets the wonderfully well-sourced grapes do the talking. They are what you expect from a boutique vineyard that hasn’t given into all of the hype. It is clear that they don’t chase chemically engineering their wine to appeal to the less-discriminating mass markets, but instead produce wines that simply exhibit the best characteristics of wonderfully well-sourced grapes from the best parts of Napa. If anything, they are more French in their wine-making than they are American. I highly recommend joining the Miner Family Vineyards Wine club to taste some of their remarkable wines. If you join their club, you will also gain access to incredible deals (some that I’ve taken advantage of myself), as well as the best part: first-shot access to a once-a-year event that is truly unique (and one that always sells out.
I just got the e-mail for the Miner/Benedetto Jazz Guitar Annual Event since I’m a part of the club and mailing list, so I suggest you sign up too to have a chance to do the same. The gig is at Miner Family Vineyards in Oakville, CA on Saturday, August 14. They are serving a nice light dinner at 5:30, with the concert at 7 p.m. If you’ve never had a trip to Napa, there is no better time to experience some fine wine, fine guitar playing, and fine guitars. The event will feature Bucky Pizzarelli, Howard Alden, and Howard Paul. Miner will be releasing their 2007 Benedetto Cabernet. Let us know if you are interested in going, we can meet up!
The Miner-Benedetto 2010 Jazz Guitar Wine-Release Event
At the very least, if you are ever thirsty for some fine wine, give Miner a try. If the photos of this gorgeous Benedetto custom instrument have you itching for a Benedetto of your own, give us a call, we’d love to talk to you about the (endless) possibilities, as well as our private stock of custom-built Benedetto guitars and other remarkable archtops that we have in inventory.