Our story
Two words from a grandmother who had no patience for hesitation — and the reason a Napa Valley house makes a wine you can afford to open on a Wednesday.
The woman
Hazel raised a family through the postwar years — bridge nights, a meticulous garden, dancing to Jimmy Dorsey, and a grief she turned into generosity after losing a daughter too soon. When someone circled a decision instead of making it, she gave them the same instruction every time: wield the axe.
It was not a slogan. It was how she cooked, how she worked, how she set a table — and how she poured. There was always enough. Nobody counted glasses. Nothing on the table was being saved for an occasion that might never come.
When her grandsons founded a winery, they had a hundred names to choose from and picked the only one that carried an instruction with it.
The house
A boutique Napa Valley producer working in Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, with a straightforward conviction: terroir does most of the work, and the winemaker’s job is mostly knowing when to stop.
That conviction shows up first in sourcing. Erikson & Caradin buys precision — specific blocks, specific rows, from growers in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino who are farming for flavor rather than tonnage — including sites that neighbor some of the most celebrated addresses in the valley.
Hazel & Axe is the label that lets that access reach past the collector. Same fruit sources. Same winemaker. Same cellar. A different point on the price curve, on purpose.
Erikson & Caradin founded in Napa Valley 2012, focused on Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.
Hazel & Axe created to honor a grandmother whose strength set the standard — wines worthy of sharing with the people you love.
Kevin Morrisey — Pétrus, Stags’ Leap, Etude, Ehlers Estate — takes the cellar and makes the wines through the 2023 vintage.
Robert Smith — Quintessa, Covert Estate with Julien Fayard, Quixote with Philippe Melka — joins as winemaker for the 2024 vintage.
Decanter awards 93 points to the 2022 Cabernet, then 94 to the 2023.
Four wines in East Coast distribution via Monsieur Touton Selection — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, DC/Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida.
Why it matters
Most wine in this price band is made backwards: a price is chosen, then fruit is found to fit it. Hazel & Axe was built the other way around.
01
Robert Smith’s career runs through Quintessa, Covert Estate alongside Julien Fayard, and Head Winemaker at Quixote working with Philippe Melka. That kind of hand is normally priced at three figures. Here it is priced for a Tuesday.
02
Napa for structure, Sonoma for acid, Mendocino for aromatics. A California appellation is not a compromise here — it is what lets us take the best block from each county instead of everything from one.
03
Second-use French oak on the reds. No malolactic on the Sauvignon Blanc. Partial on the Chardonnay. Every one of those is a decision to let fruit lead rather than to cover it.
04
94 points from Decanter for the 2023 Cabernet, on the heels of 93 for the 2022. Two vintages in a row is a pattern, not a fluke.
05
Alcohol in check, acid intact, tannin polished. These are wines designed to be finished with dinner rather than admired next to it.
06
Hazel was a real person. The story on the back label is not agency copy — and in a category full of invented heritage, that difference sells itself across a counter.
Wines our Grandma Hazel would be proud to offer her friends and family.Erikson & Caradin
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