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Kapcsandy Winery is a small family owned and operated winery located just east of Yountville surrounded by prime vineyards and producers. This site was originally the Beringer leased State Lane property which produced some of the finest grapes for Beringer's wines including the fruit for their first Private Reserve wine in 1979. The fruit from this property provided the basis for their private reserve wine for 20 years.
The owner, Lou Kapcsandy was born in Budapest Hungary and has an interesting and diverse background. While in Hungary he played professional soccer. He left Hungary in 1956 and eventually came to the USA where he worked in petroleum and pharmaceuticals engineering and design and later ran Baugh Enterprises, a large industrial general contractor in Seattle. His first trip to the Napa Valley was in 1962 and subsequently he made many trips after this. He remembers personally knowing "all 14 winemakers" in the valley in the 1960's! Today that number would be measured well above one hundred - in the valley alone. Lou has long been interested in fine wine and in 1999 co-founded Grand Cru Imports, www.grandcruimports.com, a company that focuses on importing fine wines from Bordeaux, Hungary and Spain. Upon "retirement" Lou decided to follow his passion and with a little luck was able to find the property on State Lane. Today his wife, son and daughter in law manage the winery operations. He has his own degree in winemaking from the UC Davis Extension program and several prominent winemakers act as Kapcsandy's consultants including Rob Lawson from Napa Wine Co and Dennis Malbec. Denis came to Kapcsandy from Chateau Latour, the 1st Growth estate in Bordeaux. Renowned winemaker Helen Turley made the first several vintages and helped plant their initial vineyards. All wines are produced from fruit grown on the estate. The property is 20 acres of which 15.5 are planted. Despite a relatively small piece of property there are an amazing variety of soil types and they have the planted acreage separated into a number of individual blocks. Initially satellite illumination studies were conducted on the property to best help determine which direction to plant the rows and how to deal with the angles of the sun depending on time of day and year. The vineyards are all sustainably and hand-farmed. Despite being on the valley floor the soils are rather shallow with an extremely hard clay layer beneath the top soil - perfect terroir for stressing their red wine varietals. There are three things held close to the vest at Kapcsandy Winery. One is the micro-management and quality of their vineyards, two - picking fruit when it is physiologically ripe (wines with lower alcohols - usually between 13.5 and 14%) and lastly maintaining absolute cleanliness within the actual winery. You don't taste any Pyrazines or greenness in their wines (despite the lower alcohol) - they pick at lower brix but all of the grapes that make it to fermentation have been extremely carefully selected. They hand select a number of times beginning after set in the vineyard dropping significant amount of fruit that doesn't meet their exacting specifications. An elaborate sorting system is in place once the fruit actually comes into the winery. Only the premium highest quality "berries" are allowed to go to fermentation, nothing else. As Lou says, there is "no substitute for bringing in average ripe fruit". The winery is kept extremely clean and they use a number of techniques and materials to ensure this. Literally there is no wood inside the winery except for the oak barrels. Both French and Hungarian wood are used. For a small winery they produce a number of wines, but all in small production - usually in quantities of merely several hundred cases. Some of our favorites are spotlighted below. The 2008 Rose is quite unique to Napa. This is a robust Rose, it has flavor and character and body. How often have we said that about Rose's produced in Napa?! It was aged entirely in stainless steel and stirred on the lees for 9 months and then went through malolactic fermentation. It is predominately Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with smaller amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petite Verdot. It holds an orangish hue in the glass; the bouquet shows floral aromas as well as strawberry and rhubarb. The mid palate is slightly creamy. 2003 was their first vintage and the 2003 Proprietary Red was such a big wine and production was so small that they held it back for several years before releasing. It is available exclusively at the winery. Some of Napa's finest Merlot is being produced at Kapcsandy. They have several acres planted close to the Napa River on the west side of their property located in a slightly cooler area on top of heavy clay. Because of its particular location its much easier to keep the sugars under control. They have matched the rootstalk and clone very well for this micro-climate. Lou says, "we are trying to resurrect the nobility of the Merlot grape"..and that they are doing very well. This wine has already garnered very favorable reviews from a number of people in the industry. The 2006 Roberta's Reserve is a Merlot based wine named after Lou's wife. It hints of brown chocolate with subtle notes of cedar. The layers of flavor on the palate are big but are integrated beautifully, balanced by the wine's robust structure - it is a big Merlot but like their other wines, is in balance. The 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon is dark in the glass with spices and dark fruit on the bouquet. This is a rich wine - red and dark fruit flavors show throughout the palate with notes of leather, licorice and red currant. With well integrated flavors and good acidity this will be a good wine to pair with a variety of foods. The finish is very long and flavorful anchored by sweet tannins. Again this wine is lower in alcohol coming in at 13.7%. The 2007 Estate Cuvee is a winner and won't formally be commercially released until September 2010. This is a dark wine with a very pleasing bouquet (dark chocolate, herbs) and we think its even better integrated than the 2006. Layers of flavor are woven smoothly together with a tantalizing finish that is long and leaves traces of berry flavors. Both the entry and the finish are very clean. Like all their wines, this one is definitely built to age. A real treat, but produced in extremely small quantities is their Merlot based dessert wine, Vino del Sol. The 2007 is entirely Merlot however later vintages include other varietals grown on the property. This wine is perfectly enjoyable by itself; there is no burn from high alcohol (good quality grape brandy used) and this wine stays away from the sometimes syrupy characteristics of some port wines. A big part of enjoying this wine is the bouquet. The aromas are layered and elegant; you can keep on enjoying the aromas as the wine opens. Black cherry and apricot flavors run the breadth of the palate finishing clean, smooth and with lingering notes of berry. Tours are always private and are for serious wine enthusiasts - typically their mailing list customers or referrals. Either Lou or his son will give the detailed tour which ends with a tasting in their elegant tasting room. visit: www.kapcsandywines.com |
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Karl Lawrence Cellars is owned and run by the well-known Napa winemaker, Michael Trujillo and his partners. We caught up with Michael at Sequoia Grove during the midst of the busy harvest. This winery is all about premium Cabernet Sauvignon. In fact that is the only wine they produce. Karl Lawrence was founded in 1991 and the winery name comes from Michael's middle name as well as the middle name of his founding partner. Michael has a long history of winemaking in the Napa Valley - he studied under the famed Andre Tchelistcheff, and Tony Soter (founder of Etude winery) and worked for many years as wine maker at Sequoia Grove Winery. Today he is their President/Winemaker. Based on his long experience with high end Napa vineyards from his time working at Sequoia Grove he has been able to source from some of these same vineyards for his own wine.
All the grapes for Karl Lawrence's Cabernet are currently sourced from premium Napa Valley vineyards located in popular Cabernet producing districts such as Rutherford, Oakville and near Howell Mountain. However, Karl Lawrence has its own 40-acre vineyard on Howell Mountain that will be coming into production in the next few years (planted to the 5 major Bordeaux varietals). Michael is excited about finally having his own vineyards come into use for his label. As of press time, their total production is about 1500 cases. They have a mailing list which can be tough to become a member, as due to the popularity of this wine there is currently a hefty waiting list. High end restaurants in very select markets also receive some cases and you can find their Cabernet in some well-to-do restaurants in the Napa Valley. Michael was taught to make wine to express the "grape"and its varietal characteristics. As a winemaker he says you have to be patient and do not over manipulate the wine, especially when its still young. He strives to makes balanced wines that are enjoyable today but will evolve over the next 5 to 10 years. As he says, his wines are "pleasurable when you open it young, but even more pleasurable when you cellar it." When you smell the Karl Lawrence wines you are not going to be able to pick out which cooper and oak that was used during the aging! In addition, Michael Trujillo runs a second label called Aldin (also derived from another partner's middle name) of which their are two wines, a Red Table Wine which is a Cabernet Sauvignon based Bordeaux style blend and the only white wine Michael makes - a Chardonnay. The total production on these two wines is extremely small, only about 250 cases. We tried the 2005 Chardonnay. This wine has a nice golden color in the glass with aromas containing nuances of minerals, honeycomb, lemon twist and wet straw. The palate has a nice phenolic grip and is rich from the higher alcohol; flavors of lemon, and pear are most noticeable with some nice spices towards the finish, which by the way for a Chardonnay has excellent length. Visit: www.karllawrence.com |
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Today their two children are involved in the day to day operations with Jason Keever handling much of the cellar duties. After your initial tasting, you will take a quick tour of the actual winery equipment; this is interesting because you get to see up close some equipment that you normally will not see on general winery tours and a lot of of it is state of the art machinery. A great deal of thought went into the design of the actual fermentation room and it shows. Tours also enter their cave - you might be shown some neat acoustic cave tricks (by Olga) and then you will end the tasting in the main room with their Cabernet Sauvignon. All of their wine has been made from day one by the well-known Napa winemaker, Celia Welch who also produces her own small label here called Corra. Celia focuses her consulting efforts typically on single vineyard high end wineries. Keever produces one high end Cabernet Sauvignon which is often only sold at the winery due to the limited availability after it ships to their mailing list customers. This what you expect of a beautiful Napa Cabernet when everything comes together from the vineyards to the winemaking. It is smooth, velvety and a pleasure to drink. They also have a Chardonnay and recently sourced fruit from Pope Valley for their Sauvignon Blanc. Note that only specific amounts of wine are released through their website (not their entire production). Because of this wineries location, on a clear day you will have excellent views of the Napa Valley and the Palisades which rise behind the famous Stag's Leap district in the distance. Be sure to get directions and the gate code ahead of time as they are located in a gated neighborhood. Keever also has a mailing list. Visit: www.keevervineyards.com |
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You can choose to taste in their fancy wine room or outside on the veranda if the weather permits. Kelham currently produces a Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc but their real focus is on the Cabernets for the serious wine enthusiasts and collectors. Unlike other wineries who make Cabernets which are soft and low in tannins thus readily drinkable right out of the bottle, Kelham's philosophy has been to make Cabernet's that are extremely rich, bold, very high in tannins and are meant to sit for 10 to 15 years. We tried the 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon which is blended with 10% Merlot. Big aromas, good spices, rich fruit layers and strong tannins follow through on the finish. Releases tend to be a bit older than most other wineries giving these "big wines" additional aging time before reaching the consumer. Their best of the best is the 100% Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Letting these wines age properly will allow all components of the wine to come together, creating a balance that results in an extremely high quality wine. Visit: www.kelhamvineyards.com |
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While selling their fruit to a number of local well known vintners the Kelleher's never actually made their own wine. Guests would come to the restaurant and try to order wine made from grapes grown on the property as they could clearly see the vineyard behind the restaurant. Over the years more and more customers asked if Brix made their own wine which helped lead to the decision to bottle a wine unique to their own vineyard. Their vineyard is located in prime Cabernet Sauvignon country (Oakville Appellation) and is entirely planted to this varietal. In 2003 with the help of at that time their new winemaker Craig Becker, the vineyard began to be micro-managed; the farming techniques were updated to reduce vine size, crop load and introduce specific beneficial cover crops with minimal irrigation. All of these practices help produce lush, full bodied wines. As a result, several transitional years ensued while the new farming techniques were implemented. 2003 and 2004 were transition years leading to 2005 which is their first full year of farming under the new methods. Craig consults for a number of small Napa wineries and his specialty is working with small single vineyards. He intentionally seeks out small high end vineyard terroir for a number of his projects as he can quickly see the results of his vineyard management practices in the quality of the wine. The majority of winemaking is actually conducted within the vineyard and if you already have excellent terroir (as in the case of the Brix Vineyard) then a truly great wine comes from well cared for vines. We tried the 2004 “Brix Vineyard” unfiltered Cabernet Sauvignon. It shows a smoky dusty earthy quality in the nose which over time opens up to fragrant aromas of candied fruit. The mid palate is smooth and rounded showing red and black cherry flavors. The wine is medium bodied with good tannin structure but not overwhelmingly so - the finish is pleasant leaving lingering flavors of plum and red cherry. And in regards to their newest releases made under the new farming methods, as the Kelleher's say, "we believe it has been well worth the wait." We agree! With a current production of merely several hundred cases, the wine is limited but you can find it on the wine list at their own restaurant of course as well as select restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area. They also maintain a mailing list. Brix Restaurant provides a number of private dining options as well as garden space for outdoor weddings overlooking their "Brix Vineyard. This is a special spot and we even have family who have been married here. For more information visit: www.kelleherwines.com and www.brix.com |
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Kelly Fleming Winery is located in the northern part of the Napa Valley, nestled in a narrow canyon against the steep hillsides. From this part of the Napa Valley you hardly know you are in the Napa area. Rugged hillsides, narrow secluded canyons and forested slopes all form the backdrop for Kelly Fleming's 12 hillside planted acres of Cabernet Sauvignon. This is prime Cabernet Sauvignon country and nearby neighbors include the Araujo Estate and Kenefick Ranch. Kelly is the founder of this winery; she and her husband visited the Napa Valley for over 20 years and and like many others before them fell in love with the area. They purchased property in 1998 and soon thereafter planted various Cabernet clones on an assortment of rootstalks. This particular hillside soil is extremely rocky and well drained. As a result, cover crops and the addition of organic layers to the surface are extremely important which help with erosion control as well as ensuring the soil retains additional moisture. The vineyards are certified CCOF organic.
As Kelly says building a winery and brand come in small steps. She is making these steps one at a time. The wine is currently made at Laird Estate in Napa but as of press time twin caves have been dug into the hillside. Much of the caves were drilled through solid rock so the gunnite covering that you normally see isn't used and the natural rock is left exposed. Additional plans call for a stone winery to be built on site and once this is complete Kelly Fleming will be an entirely self contained winery. The property is 300 acres so the vineyards take up only a small portion of the total acreage. Kelly is a firm believer in creating a healthy balance between the vineyards and the natural environment. Bee hives have been introduced to the property, a native plant reseeding program is in place and additional plans call for possibly solar and wind generated power sources. Speaking of winds, it is often breezy in this area from the steep canyons that rise behind the property. One advantage of this over the valley floor is these winds really mitigate stagnate air and colder temperatures which can produce frost damage during and after bud break. Kelly Fleming's first vintage was in 2002 with merely 300 cases released at that time, but since then each vintage has grown slightly and they do have the capacity to produce additional amounts. Look for a French styled Sauvignon Blanc to be released which as of press time is still in barrel. The well-known local winemaker, Celia Welch consults for a number of boutique high end Napa wineries including Kelly Fleming. Celia's specialty is working with single vineyard estate properties such as this one. We tried the 2004 100% Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. All the Cabernet clones in this wine are picked separately based on individual ripeness, and are also fermented and aged separately until the final blending. This wine is inky and dark in color which are perfect color characteristics for hillside fruit. As the wine opens up seductive aromas of ripe juicy blackberries come to the forefront along with some exotic earthy spices. The palate is rich and well layered with lots of fruit on the mid palate which leads to a well structured elegant finish. You can find this wine locally at Dean & Deluca, Enoteca in Calistoga and Backroom Wines in Napa. Visit: www.kellyflemingwines.com |
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However today, not all fruit is sold; in 2002 he released his first commercial vintage under his own label as he holds back select blocks on his estate for his own wines. He has a large number of varieties and clones planted (mostly Bordeaux varietals). As of press time they produce a slightly blended Cabernet Franc and a Cabernet Sauvignon. Future vintages will include a Merlot. Kenefick strikes a balance between the high alcohol fruit bombs that may not age very well and the lower alcohol wines that contain additional acidity with less sugar in the fruit at the time of harvest. We tried the 2004 Cabernet Franc. This is one of the nicer Cabernet Francs we have tasted in the Napa area. Sometimes Cabernet Francs are associated with vegetal or bell pepper characteristics. Not so with this wine. Their Cabernet Franc is a reflection of where it is grown and the type of climate that Kenefick's vineyards experience. The nose is complex with various spices and hints of cedar and the smooth tannins do not overwhelm the black fruit flavors on the palate. It has a very velvety mouth feel. We also tried their 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a dark wine with a great nose that includes touches of chocolate and some vanilla imparted from the New French Oak aging. The tannins are mild and the fruit flavors include ripe cherry and plum. Both of their wines are very reasonably priced and hold up extremely well in competitions in which the other wines are often priced significantly higher. The fruit for their Cabernet Sauvignon was used in a Behrens and Hitchcock (a local winery) wine which was "wine of the year" in a recent Sunset Magazine "Western Wine of the Year" competition. Kenefick produces only about 1500 cases and has national distribution in select markets. In the valley, you can find their wine at Enoteca wine shop in Calistoga and at the fancy Solage Resort just south of the town of Calistoga. They also have a mailing list which of press time is still open to new customers. Visit: www.kenefickranch.com |
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Their focus is on his favorite varietal, Pinot Noir. They own 15 acres of vineyards in Carneros not far from the San Pablo Bay, all planted to Pinot. The vineyard was planted in 1979 making it one of the earlier Pinot Noir vineyards in this part of Napa. Kent remembers standing in his vineyard and looking out at grazing land in all directions. Today in Carneros you are hard pressed to find any grazing land among the rolling sea of vines! The Carneros region skyrocketed in popularity for cooler weather varietals such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in the 1980's. The current winery and surrounding property was purchased in 1995 and since then has been the production facility for every vintage. However their real "roots" so to speak are in the Carneros where they used to make wine and as of press time they are planning to upgrade the original winery and in a few years start making their wines there. The one wine that sets themselves apart from most of the other wineries physically located in the "up valley" is their delicious Pinot Noir. In fact this varietal comprises about 70% of their total production and is their flagship wine. They currently offer three different labels: 1. the Kent Rasmussen wines are all from Napa vineyards, 2. the Ramsey label includes wines priced affordably that are from mostly from North Coast vineyards (Mendocino and Lake Counties to the north of Napa). Most of their wines are produced under this label which is about 30,000 cases. Their third label is called Esoterica. This label incorporates its own flagship wine, the Petite Sirah as well as non mainstream very limited production wines which often include varietals from Napa and beyond that only the most hard core of wine lovers will have heard of. Try, Touriga Nacional, Sousao (both Portugese varietals), and Carmenere (hails from Bordeaux France). Some of the past vintages have included late harvest Viognier and a rare Napa grown Riesling. The word Esoterica means "secrets known only to an initiated minority", well the secret is out on these wines. Combined with their small productions and uniqueness they often sell out rather quickly. We tried the 2006 Chardonnay sourced from Rutherford. It should be pointed out that for any fruit sourced, Rasmussen has locked up these vineyards in long term contracts thus ensuring the consistency of the terroir each year. Due the abundance of Chardonnay in the Napa Valley and the scope of our project we have tasted more than our fair share of this varietal. As a result, it is always refreshing to find a take on this varietal that is slightly different than what we are used to. Try this. It was barrel fermented (both the initial and the malolactic) and aged for about 7 months in American Oak (50% new, 50% used). A portion of the wine was fermented very cold to help retain additional fruit flavors. Is this wine "oaked" as you would think it would be, both in aroma and on the palate? Not so at all. This is a crisp golden colored wine, not overly creamy in nature with tropical notes including honeysuckle on the nose as the bouquet opens up. The palate is refreshing with lots of fruit including apple and even a touch of stone fruit flavors. The 2006 Estate Pinot Noir is their flagship wine. It is quite dark for a Pinot and is sourced from some of the oldest Pinot vines in Carneros (their own vineyard). It has a wonderful herbal, somewhat floral bouquet with lots of fruit showing through - mainly raspberry. Balance is the key to this wine as in... perfectly balanced! The mouth feel is rich, smooth and rounded, anchored by wonderful fruit on the slightly spicy finish. This is a great food wine; think of anything tomato based. We have slowly been developing our palate to Pinot Noir which is harder than you think with the focus of this project entirely on Napa wines. There are certainly fewer Napa Pinot Noir producers in comparison to the hundreds of Cabernet Sauvignon producers in the valley. However, this is definitely one of the nicer Napa Pinot's we have tried. If you would like to pick up some wine, you should call ahead to make sure someone is at the actual winery as most of the time when we drive by (and it is often), there are rarely cars parked in the gravel parking lot. By in large the majority of their wine is sold only through distributors and as of press time they typically do not sell direct to the consumer. However you can find their wines in select markets in about 35 states and locally in Napa's Whole Foods. Visit: www.kentrasmussenwinery.com and also their blog here: http://kentrasmussenwinery.blogspot.com |
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Jan told us about rocks the size of his own vehicle which were moved. This has been a major undertaking and Jan estimates over 500,000 tons of rock were moved to make way for the vineyards. There were vineyards planted in the area in the late 1800's but those owners did not have the equipment to move the large rocks and they just planted around them. After workers would dynamite the huge rocks, it would then take a week to even clear them. For the most part Stagecoach Vineyards are off the radar of most Napa wine consumers. This is slowly changing as Krupp Brothers increases their production, other vintners use their grapes, their vines mature and the word gets out that these grapes are producing quality wine! After the vineyard tour we sat down with Jan and tasted through several of his wines. His son has been the winemaker and convinced his father to branch out into other wines besides the core varietals of Cabernet and Merlot. As a result, Krupp Brothers now makes a well-rounded selection of wine including several nice white wines. They have three labels; Veraison, Black Bart and their Estate Wines. The Black Bart label was named after the notorious stage coach robber Black Bart who took down some stagecoaches nearby the main vineyard property. We started out with their Marsanne a delicious structured floral wine with a slightly viscous mouth feel and flavors of peach. For a white wine, this has a very long finish. Not every Napa winery makes a Marsanne and it was a treat to taste it here. We also had the privilege of sampling their Black Bart's Bride before it was released. Again this is a delicious white composed of Marsanne, Viognier and a lower amount of Chardonnay. That is just the whites! They have a large selection of wonderful reds including our favorite, their Cabernet Sauvignon made under the Estate label; it is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Enjoy Syrah? Krupp Estate makes a 100% varietal and also a Syrah Rose. You can taste their wines at A Dozen Vintners in St. Helena and if you would like to taste & buy additional Krupp Brothers wine, consider making an appointment. Visit: www.kruppbrothersestates.com |
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Arguably the highlight of the tour is the scenic overlook next to Pat's weight room and the pool. Here you sit under stately oaks and drink wine looking out over Napa Valley far below you. If you visit during a warm spell, well groomed men and women may be lounging around the pool enjoying life. The pool literally seems to end at a cliff and where the water ends, the sky begins - when the fog rolls in here, it is truly a walk in the clouds. When its clear as it often is - it seems as if you are perched on the edge of the world watching nature unfold below you. When we were sitting here dreamily sipping excellent wine the wine dog shows up and someone says "oh the dog has brought us some wood" - the concierge then says, nope its just another dried frog!" Not even that could wreck the "it" or ambience of the moment we were enjoying. Kuleto has excellent Sangiovese. Also try their Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. Their "lightest" wine is the Rosato which is a blend of several types of grapes. They also make a Muscatto and Port in extremely low quantities which pretty much guarantees these wines will be sold out. Several cheeses, fruits and nuts are provided at the end of your tasting. A gourmet chef's kitchen is located upstairs as well as beautifully furnished rooms. The parties here are supposed to be out of this world and are available for wine club members. One party had 500 people; we don't know where they all park! www.kuletoestate.com Note: Major update coming by early to mid 2010 at the latest. |
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