RRV and Napa Visit
Napa and Sonoma
Tasted Monday, July 7, 2014 - Saturday, August 30, 2014 by nzinkgraf with 1,438 views
Flight 1 - Kistler (6 Notes)
Vine Hill Vineyard is where the winery’s at. Where we’re at. Sandy soils, planted in 1988. Previous to 1992, Kistler Vineyard was were the wine was made. The house here was completed in Feb 2014. Their PNs are now all from west of the 101, that was not always the case. Vine Hill Vineyard is all Chardonnay and all planted on AXR1 rootstock. AXR1 results in higher yields. VHV is planted with the Hyde Clone, which is a Wente Clone. There are about 40 different Wente Clones out there. Steve Kistler took a massal selection from Hyde cuttings of low yielding, high acid, slow maturing Wente. All (estate?) Chardonnay vineyards are planted with this same virus-riden Hyde massal selection. Virused vines tend to give lots of ‘hen and chick’ berries, and in turn a higher juice to skin ratio.
If you buy Wente from a growner its still virus-riden. If you buy it from a nursery, it’s heat treated to get the virus out. Later, it is also said that you can propagate the virus away, but growing it out and taking a cutting of a new growth tip. Do this 10 times and there’s a good chance to rid the vine of virus.
Vine Hill is not irrigated, but has irrigation tubes for nitrogen. ?ok? They pick Vine Hill Chard at 3.15 to 3.25pH. They want the acid to drop from where they’re at. Usually you see lots at 3.05-3.1pH. Additionally 13.9-14.3% ABV on average. Vine Hill is Gold Ridge soils, sandy. There are Gold Ridge sand pockets throughout RRV, giving for nutrient deficient soils. They tend to get 2.5-3 tons/acre. Up to 3.5 tons/acre if everything goes in their favor. At 3 tons/acre this is about 150cs/acre, because they press quite gently. If they had cleaned up Wente here, they’d be getting 5-7 tons/acre.
Les Noisettiers is fruit from Trenton, Dutton Ranch, and Vine Hill. All picked at night by hand. 30% new French oak for 9 months. The single vineyard Chards get 50% new French for 12 months.
On the Chards, no cold settling, no lees stirring. They go in to barrel ‘dirty’ with 1% solids. The purpose is so the lees can scavange O2, rather than add richness (from stirring).
Dry ice is used on the PN, not so the color gets deeper, but to mitigate lots of lots of fruit coming in at once. ??
At the winery there are 7 different temperature controlled barrel rooms. Not a glycol jacket, but pretty close. There is no primary fermentation inoculation. Secondary ferment is inoculated. Primary ferment takes place in barrel, not in tank, no battonage. No racking until the wines are bottled.
Trenton Roadhouse, previously Splan family vineyards. All Chardonnay planted here. 2009 was the first vintage of this as a single vineyard wine. They finally purchased the entire Trenton Vineyard in 2011.
2007/08, there was outside investment in Kistler and a direction to increase PN production.
Flight 2 - Buena Vista Winery (6 Notes)
Purchased by Boisset in 2011. America’s oldest commercial winery dating back to 1854.? JCB’s exploration in Sonoma with Dolcetto, Charbono, Valdiguie. Overall very Carneros focused. Relative to DeLoach in RRV, Buena Vista is a fuller style expression.
Flight 3 - Hall Winery (7 Notes)
33 acre property, 22 acres of this are planted. They are the only winery in CA that is Gold LEED certified. They have an Oscillator AKA a digital sorting table. They use all recycled H2O. They don’t draw any H20 from Napa. ? 40% of their energy needs at the winery come from solar panels.
1873-William Peterson – Naval Captain
1885-built the barn that’s now Bergfeld Barn.
1896-Bergfeld bought it and carved out Peterson’s name and put his own in.
After this it became the Napa Valley Co-op, back in the 60s, 40% of Napa wine went through the Co-op.
Now its Craig and Kathryn Hall
Flight 4 - Raymond Vineyards (1 Note)
Roy made wine at Beringer until 1969 when Nestle bought Beringer. He then planted vines in 1970 with his first vintage in 1974. 85 of the 90 acres at the estate are planted to Cab and Merlot.
JCB buys Raymond in 2009
May 2013 – Vineyards are certified Demeter Biodynamic. ‘You need the best grape growing practices to make the best wines.
They are solar powered at the estate, selling energy back to Napa County. They have 3 wells for H2O, pulling 100 gallons/minute. On a very hot day a vine can process up to 60 gallons of H2O.
Biodynamic applications 501 to 508. 501 is manure. Others are stinging nettle, valerian, etc. They were numbered so the Nazis (?) didn’t know what growers were referring to back in the day, as these practice were (more than) looked down upon.
Unbury the horn after winter and add the contents into a barrel and dynamize the water. They apply this solution to the vineyards.
R Collection plus Reserve wines is 100,000cs.
2013 Sauvignon Blanc R Collection
Lemongrass and herbaceous. Some tropical fruit aromas.
Chardonnay is non-malo (Reserve?) 200 acres, 100% from Jamison Canyon, which bridges San Pablo Bay and the Central Valley.
Merlot Reserve. ‘Merlot that drinks like a Cabernet, thicker skinned Merlot on the property. With 5-10% Cabernet Blended in.
Flight 5 - Hess Collection (3 Notes)
Mt Veeder, the facility is an/the old Christian Brothers facility. Hess is 1/3 of the Mount Veeder AVA. New-ish regulations say they can’t disc plow hillside sites for issues of erosion. There is going to be a re-focus on Bordeaux varieties and Chardonnay.
Dinner at Hess with Winemaker Dave Guffy, the taco shirt was a real hit. A very impressive lineup of wines. Lacking more detailed notes due to the engaging conversation at the dinner table.
Flight 6 - Chateau Montelena (6 Notes)
The building was completed in 1886, with the estate being founded by Alfred Tubbs in 1882. They have a winery only bottling called the Senator as an homage to him. The Chateau is built into the hill with cellar renovations done between the 2010 and 2011 harvests. It was never intended as a residence. They re-opened after prohibition and made wine there until 1946. Tubbs sold the estate in 1958 to a Chinese couple that ran a TV repair business out of what was the tasting room. They lived there until 1968 with Jade Lake being their mark on the property. The Barretts purchased the property in 1972.
Jim Barrett (who passed away in 2013) planted 110 acres. 90 acres Cab Sauv with Zinfandel and Cabernet Franc. Bo Barrett now runs the estate. There are volcanic, alluvial, and sedimentary soils on the estate property. All the Chardonnay comes from Oak Knoll. 2/3 reds and 1/3 whites. Reds are all closed top tanks, all pump overs, no punch downs. 50,000cs capacity, but usually around40-45,000cs.
Flight 7 - Alexander Valley Vineyards (4 Notes)
1975 the winery was started. Previously grapes were sold off to Simi, Krug, Mondavi and the like. Now they’re at 150,000cs.
Flight 8 - Mauritson (4 Notes)
6th generation, 13,500cs, they keep 10-15% of their grapes. 1868 homestead in Rockpile, now sits under Lake Sonoma. They have 350 acres planted in Sonoma, 100 acres in Lake County, and there’s another 200 acres that they manage for others.
1997 was the first vintage for the winery. The Rockpile AVA was established in 2002? (12 years ago). Rockpile has an elevation requirement of 800 ft, so vineyards are above the inversion layer of fog during the growing season. Hence no Botrytis at Rockpile. Rockpile runs along 1 ridge between the two arms of Lake Sonoma. It stops at the Mendocino County line and does overlap with Dry Creek AVA just a little. Lake Sonoma does a great job of holding its temperature. Hence, not a lot of diurnal shift. All the same, the grapes here maintain acid, because of the relatively cooler days, where they don’t burn off acid, that in other regions is talked about as being maintained by the cool nights. Mauritson grows 40% of the Rockpile AVA. Initial plantings in 1994 before the AVA with more in 1998-2001. In theory there could be 300 acres planted in Rockpile, but currently there is 200-205 planted in the AVA. Sonoma hillside erosion control ordinances make more plantings difficult to get approved.
Zinfandel has the most uneven ripening bunches. See Plavec Mali (sp? Check Jancis R book) Zin or mom of Zin?
Emma on the bus ride up to Rockpile… with SB and Cab, yields that are too low can concentrate the vegetal pyrazenes too much.
The Mauritson family lost 1000 acres (3000acres?) to the US gov’t through Eminent Domain for the Lake Sonoma Dam project.
There are no wineries located in the Rockpile AVA.
We’re in Westphall (sp?) Ridge Vineyard.
Flight 9 - Emeritus (4 Notes)
Brice Cutrer Jones. Sold Sonoma Cutrer.
-Gold Ridge Soils – Sandy clay loam, that run from Sebastopol to Forestville. 8 miles, runs along the 116 more or less.
William Wesley Vineyard. 967ft elev. They started dialing down the water from the 2007 vintage, until dry farmed by 2011. Per Aubert de Villaine.
‘dry farming allows the flavor of the soil to marry with the fruit. Without giving as much of the RRV red fruitiness.
The reason nights here get below 50 degrees is because of the marine layer. The Pacific Eye? (High?) creates a warm current with air supersaturated with H20. When this hits the west coast, fog is created. The fog can come in at a couple points, the RRV and the Golden Gate. Heat from the Central Valley also helps to draw the fog inland.
W/ Emeritus Vineyard Mgr. Name alludes me, but he reminds me of Swayze’s side kick at the bar in Roadhouse. The bigger guy with the suspenders and jeans. A real ass kicking truck driving cowboy.
Emeritus has 115 acres between Peachland, Hallberg, and Wesley. 2014 has been very warm early on. You notice the tendrils of the vine are even with the leaf growth at the tips, so know the vines are slowing down. Not the fog quite as normal this year. Its been 56 at night, as opposed to the 46-48 average. You also know that growth is slowing down when you look out at a vineyard and see dark green (old) leaves, vs light green, new growth. Generally speaking, vine growth should be complete by the 4th of July.
Guyot trained. A spur one year, produces next years cane. This years cane will be cut back to become next years spur. Keep the spur in the same direction as the rows.
They go for 2.5-3 tons/acre. That’s 15 bunches per vine. They thin 5 of the 20 clusters. They thin the clusters that are touching. Take of the shoulders, because they bloom and ripen later. 2013 was a huge crop. They thinned 3 times, where as normally they’d thin (grapes) twice. Speaking of thinning (leaves), they’d only thin the morning sun side. If you do this to the afternoon sun side, you risk some sunburn if it gets too hot. AKA what we saw at Hess.
Clones.
114/115 – more fragrant, smaller clusters
Pommard/828 – middle of the road, all about mouthfeel.
777/667 – higher tannin, more structure.
Hallberg 2012 Pinot Noir 13.8% ABV
This site was previously an apple orchard. Emeritus bought the Orchard and Purple Wine bought the apple processing facility in Graton, and that’s now the Purple Winery.
Dark cherry color. Dark cherry aromas, not all raspberried up and such. Much more mineral and structure than a plush fruit palate. Nice concentrate, but not over the top. More mineral than spice. Wow wine. Great mouthfeel.
w/ Nicholas, winemaker. Frenchie.
Pick at 23-23.5 Brix. About a third new oak, but it varies by vineyard. Medium toast to medium/- toast barrels. ‘ABVs that are too high, can extract more oaky notes’ in reference to French vs USA ABVs.
Nicholas looks to the wines of Gary Farrell for inspiration in the USA.
Clones at Emeritus:
Cruz – Virused DRC in a suitcase. They cleaned this up and its…
Elite – Virus cleaned up Cruz.
Hyde – from Larry Hyde.
Not that leaves that turn from green to red are virused. That’s why Burgundy after harvest looks BRILLIANT. Green leaves that turn yellow are not virused.
Keep an eye out for a 2013 bottling – Aubert and Brice. It’s Elite from Wesley.
Flight 10 - Kosta Browne (9 Notes)
They have almost 60 acres of estate fruit between Crown Gap (37 acres) and Keefer (20 acres). They started in 1999 with some Lake County Sauvignon Blanc. 3 appellation Pinot Noir, these total 65-70% of their production. 1. Sonoma Coast – 3 Vineyards. 2. RRV – 12 Vineyards. 3. SLH.
They use yeast RC212 from Burgundy for every Pinot. This makes for an intense wine, moderate rate of ferment, but a strong finisher. They start with 1 punch down a day, move to 2 and then back to one. The wines are never racked. This was also the case at Kistler.
Flight 11 - Freeman (5 Notes)
5000cs total. 2002 was their first vintage. Akiko is the winemaker and Ken’s wife. She wasn’t trained as a winemaker, she’s just been learning as she goes. A stand out stop.
Flight 12 - Benovia (5 Notes)
w/ Mike Sullivan, winemaker
42 acre Martaella Vineyard surrounds the winery. This is one of three estate vineyards. Chard and PN planted here.
Also, Cohn Vineyard – 18 acres of PN and Zin
Freestone Vineyard – 13 acres, all PN
high density plantings, irrigated but with an attempt to be dry farmed down the line.
PN planted at the estate is a Chalon/Gevrey Chambertin Clone, prone to lots of millerindage.
Dbl Guyot – 2 canes with no replacement spur. AKA cane pruned.
Shoulders on the grapes set later than the cluster, so they clip them off.
Here they have Wachica (sp?) soils, not Gold Ridge. Wachica is loamy.
Dinner on the patio at Benovia:
Flight 13 - Hudson Vineyard (4 Notes)
Yashika Creek (sp?) is where we are. 100 acres. More volcanic, more of a coastal feel
Henry Rose Vineyard, 100 acres over Milligan Peak. Carneros Creek is over there, Sandier.
‘Assembling California’ – Eldridge. Book on CA Geology.
17 varieties planted, principally Chardonnay. 50% of the ranch is Chardonnay, then Merlot, Syrah, Cab Franc, plus 6 acres of PN.
Speaking of Chardonnay clonal material. In the 1930s, Mirrasou (perhaps Paul Masson) Chardonnay in Gilroy went to Mt Eden, while Wente material from Livermore went to Stony Hill.
Lee has Horticulture and Viticulture degrees from Davis. Farming First. 35 families are a part of their CSA. He’s had the ranch since 1981. He went to UC Davis in 77&78 with John Konsgaard, who is the consulting winemaker @ Hudson.
The star on the label is a reference to both Texas and CA. Lee notes, that overall he wants his wines to show nuance, not hedonistic, but he doesn’t dictate his style to others that buy his grapes. He sells 100 tons to Prisoner Wine Co at 27.5-28.5 Brix, sells to Frank Family, sells to Rombauer, but they can’t use the Hudson name.
Carneros is 30,000 acres total.
Hudson Vineyards use all returning workers, no migrant labor.
Speaking of farming, some blocks are disc’d 100%, others 50%, others 0%.
Cab Franc is planted on Rock. Red Tufa Volcanic Soils.
Merlot loves Clay.
‘Vigorous Franc is disgusting.’ Franc needs to be leaner, Merlot to be fat.
They harvest their first Chardonnay on August 15 @ 21 Brix for the French Laundry.
200-650 ft elevations at the ranch.
Grapes picked between 19.5 and 25 Brix depending. They have 35 buyers of fruit, of which 13 buyers can use the Hudson Vineyard name on their label.
Rose is picked at 20Brix. Chard @ 24.5 Brix.
Brix x (.6-.65) = ABV
New Buyers start with a 2 year fixed price per ton or per acre contract.
Fructose is twice as sweet as Glucose.
Flight 14 - ZD (11 Notes)
@ ZD Carneros Estate.
Rosa Lee De Leuze founder is here. ZD for Norm de Leuze and Gino Zipponi.
They purchased the ZD Carneros Estate in 1996 and converted it to all organic. Originally planted in 1981 on AXR1. Organic helps the AXR1 to survive. The house at the Carneros Estate was originally built in 1897. Redone, but the frame, front façade and floors are original. The winery is located on the Silverado Trail.
ZD was founded in 1969. They did some Riesling in 69. They did Chard starting in 70. First focused on Sonoma Carneros. They purchased some Pinot in 1969 from Winery Lake Vineyard which was planted 3-4 years prior.
ZD Carneros Estate is a 6 acre block of Hanzell selection PN, plus 23 acres of Chardonnay.
The Cabernets are Rutherford based. 3.5 acre vineyard planted in 1979. The winery moved from Sonoma Carneros to Rutherford in 1978.
Robert De Leuze
-ZD Carneros is broken up into 3 acre blocks. 10 months in barrel for CA wines, 15 months in barrel for Reserve wines. ZD style is Barrel ferment and all American oak.
At ZD Carneros there are rainwater collectors on the barn and house. They over produce solar on this property and sell some back. Bio diesel for the tractors. Previously this property belonged to Doyle and Kathy Moon.
Flight 15 - Lewis Cellars (4 Notes)
Randy was a race car driver, had a bad wreck at Leguna Seca in ‘81/’82.
Cab comes from two 700ft elevation sites from slopes/benches on opposite sides of the valley. Randy suggests his lack of patience and the (current) consumers lack of patience when it comes to wines like old Inglenook that often times took 30-40 years to come around.
He wants freshness, not oak. Oaky barrels end up going into the lesser wines. Winemakers palate perhaps? The Napa Chard is not particularly woody/oaky, but as a barrel sample, I guess it’ll show that side of its youth more than not.
Flight 16 - Prisoner Wine Co (2 Notes)
We’re at the Tiedeman Vineyard (sp?) in Yountville, planted in 1978. Head trained and dry farmed in the back. Trellised and irrigated in the front. 8 acres of Zinfandel here. $5500/ton of Napa Cab. Napa Zin gets about half as much. 1 ton gives ~50cs
Flight 17 - Chappellet (9 Notes)
w/ Cyril Chappellet and winemaker Philip Titus.
~120 acres of vineyard at the 650 acre estate. Sonoma Loeb has been made here since 1990 as a custom project for John Loeb. Ambassador to Denmark during the Reagan administration. He retired and Chappallet took over the brand. It was just a Chardonnay project, but then PN was added in 2009. Now, 3 Chards and 2 PNs.
1868/1870 was when the Chappallet estate vineyard area was first planted.
Cab prices: $5,700/ton for Napa Cab. $11,000-15,000/ton for Pritchard Hill Cab, $50,000/ton for To Kalon Cabernet.
Flight 18 - Round Pond (5 Notes)
Jan and Bob McDonald bought 60 acres here in 1982. Then they bought an additional 250 acres. Or brought the 60 upto 250. One or the other. Named after Round Pond, NY near West Point. 8,000 cs 3 years ago, then 18,000, and 30,000cs total at the estate right now. They sell 70-80% of their fruit to clients
Olive Mill was installed in 2002. 16 acres of olives. 14 of 5 cultivars of Italian cultivars, 2 acres of 3 Spanish cultivars. The olives are harvest up to New Years Eve. Organic. Granite press, a 1 ton wheel over a 2 ton plate. The left over solid material is composted. The cultivars here are best for oil. Not filtered. The more bitter the oil, the more anti-oxidant properties. In a productive year, a tree will produce ~1 gallon of oil.
Check out the book ‘Extra Virginity.’
0.8% acid for EVOO internationally, 0.5% in CA, 0.05% at Round Pond.
2011 Kistler Chardonnay Vine Hill Vineyard
USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley
(7/7/2014)
Glowing tree fruit palate. Clove spice and not too oaky, as I remember my last Les Noisettiers experience. I guess that was probably new Noisettiers and this a year behind the other current releases. A slightly confected white fruit palate. ‘lean and linear.’
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2012 Kistler Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Mountain
(7/7/2014)
More ethereal and not as fruity as the Vine Hill ’11. Vintage or site? A peek at clove spice, wonderfully structured, feels like a touch more extract or gumption on the palate. Needs a couple years to come together, but already a fabulous wine. For CA, a leaner feel with killer spice. More taut and compelling. ‘broader and richer,’ is another's comment, so...
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2012 Kistler Chardonnay Les Noisetiers
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
(7/7/2014)
Doesn’t have the focus of the single vineyard wines. A lot more, ‘meeting in the middle.’ Less confident fruit, but still has the clove and spice breed. And treads into more circus peanut territory on the palate. ‘not structured for lots of age. 3-5 years really’
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2012 Kistler Chardonnay Sonoma Mountain
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Mountain
(7/7/2014)
Has a slightly darker lees aspect to the aromas than the Noisettiers ’12 and the palate shows a crustier diamond-like fruit. Palate gets into mineral and candied lemon. Majority of this is McCrea fruit, ‘more cellarable relative to the Noisettiers.’
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2012 Kistler Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
USA, California, Sonoma County, Sonoma Coast
(7/10/2014)
Dark cherry fruit aromas. Concentrated red fruit that hints at some medicinal band-aid. Not so band-aid, really just mineral laden and not a fruit bomb. Cherry cherry to the palate, cherry skin palate.
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2012 Kistler Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
USA, California, Sonoma County, Russian River Valley
(7/10/2014)
Not quite raspberry, but a meatier berry fruit next to the SC PN ’12. Still lots of mineral and brings some light mineral spice to the palate. Not barrel spice, not herbal spice. Spice. ‘Aloxe-Corton in style, with a 2-5 year consumption window. It will go longer, but it’s not the breed for the cellar.’ PN production in the 2013 vintage is increasing substantially, x2 to x3.
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