“Wield the axe.” — Hazel
Four California wines made the way our grandmother would have wanted them poured — generously, at a full table, without ceremony.
Hazel & Axe by Erikson & Caradin
Erikson & Caradin is a small Napa Valley producer with an outsized obsession: find the site first, then get out of the way. Hazel & Axe is the label we built so that obsession could reach a weeknight table. We scour California for the best sites we can get our hands on and make accessible wines our Grandma Hazel would have been proud to set in front of her friends and family.
Current releases
2025 · California
Fresh citrus and tropical fruit, cut clean down the middle.
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2024 · California
White peach, crisp pear and lemon curd over a saline spine.
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2024 · California
A Right Bank posture — plush plum, cocoa, gentle grip.
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2023 · California
Blackberry and cassis, velvet tannin, 94 points from Decanter.
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The name
Hazel didn’t have much use for hesitation. Wield the axe was what she said when someone in the family was circling a decision instead of making it — and it is the reason her name is on this label.
The wines carry that plainly: no hedging, no over-manipulation, nothing dressed up to be something it isn’t. Just fruit from good ground, handled by someone who has done it for thirty years, at a price that lets you open the second bottle.
The winemaker
A research internship at Gallo that turned into an obsession. A harvest at Quintessa. Covert Estate under luxury winemaker Julien Fayard. Head Winemaker at Quixote working alongside Philippe Melka.
That résumé usually ends up behind a hundred-dollar price tag. Here it ends up behind a Tuesday.
Sourcing
We buy fruit, not addresses. Every block earns its place in the blend on taste alone — and the blocks that earn it happen to sit in three of California’s best-argued-about growing regions.
Structure and spine for the Cabernet, including fruit from blocks neighboring some of the valley’s most celebrated sites.
Cool-corridor sites that keep acid intact — the backbone of the Chardonnay and a lifting element in the reds.
Higher, wilder, later-ripening fruit that brings aromatic top notes and tension to the whites.
A bold, attractive Cabernet with firm, muscular tannins — dark-toned savoury spices redolent of saddle leather, earth and tobacco.Decanter · 94 points · 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon
For the trade
Tech sheets, bottle shots and brand assets — all in one place, all downloadable.
