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Macauley Vineyard was originally founded by Ann Macauley in 1984. After graduating from college Ann was thinking of either building a business centered around dairy products or wine and she chose the latter. The first vintage was a late harvest Sautern style Sauvignon Blanc produced by well known Napa winemaker Ric Forman. The original vineyard was just north of St. Helena near the old Grist Bale Mill. Tragically Ann passed away a few years later in a car accident while that year's current vintage was still in barrel. Enter Jeff Sowells who was helping make wine for Ann at the time. He always wanted to make a late harvest Sautern style wine and ended up purchasing the wine that was in barrel for his own label - with his first vintage (Topaz) containing a tribute to Ann on the label. Many years later, Mac (Ann's son) would hook up with Jeff after the owners of Groezinger's wine shop in Yountville recognized his last name and introduced the two vintners to each other.
Mac moved to the Napa Valley when he was a child and spent part of his childhood among the vineyards and growing up in the wine industry. A series of events would help lead Mac into the wine industry and revive his mother's label. During his teenage years he was in France and had an opportunity to taste a rare vertical tasting of wine at the famed first growth Bordeaux house, Château Lafite Rothschild. It was during this tasting that Mac realized for the first time just how special certain types of wines can be. Tasting wines dating back to 1961 from one of France's premier wineries certainly doesn't hurt in this regard! This tasting helped get him hooked on wine. Fast forward a number of years to when Mac was attending college in Colorado. Just by random chance he happened to stumble into the daughter of one of Napa's notable winemakers Robert Pecota (Mac's mother actually used their winery during the early years) and it was here that he reconnected with a number of his childhood friends from when he was living in Napa, a number of whom were actually working in the wine industry. He jumped at the opportunity to move back to the Napa Valley in 2000. It didn't take long to enter the world of winemaking and for the "Napa allure" to kick in. He worked a harvest at a well-known Napa winery and took classes at UC Davis and at the local college; as Mac says, he also "asked a lot of questions". His long time friend and well-regarded Napa winemaker, Kirk Venge was hired. The first commercial vintage released was in 2001 and Kirk as been the winemaker since day 1. Their focus is on high end Napa Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. As of press time they produce two Napa Cabernet Sauvignons, a vineyard designate from the famed To Kalon vineyard as well as their Napa Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from premium vineyards in the valley. Vineyard control is essential to Macauley's wines. Before they even choose a vineyard it must meet their highest quality criteria. They walk the vineyard, sample the soils and provide input on trellising and canopy management. They always try to enter long term contracts with specific vineyards, thus ensuring the consistency of fruit from year to year. When a winery conducts their harvest at another winery because they do not actually own a winery, they typically use the winemaking equipment already available to them. Despite not actually owning a physical winery Macauley has several times ordered custom tanks to be used for their wines only. All vineyard lots are fermented separately and then combined only when the final blendings take place. Native yeasts are used when possible during the fermentations and the wines are bottled unfined and unfiltered. The 2005 Zinfandel comes from several Napa Vineyards and is blended with 16% Petite Sirah. The nose is elegant. We typically reserve words such as delicious for the palate, but in this case this word is very appropriate for the bouquet. Wisps of vanilla, white chocolate and pepper spice complement cherry aromas. The palate is all about the fruit - it is rich and layered with flavors of ripe juicy blackberry and dark cherry. The initial entry of fruit is soft and remains smooth throughout with structured tannins on the finish. The 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from two premium vineyards, the Star (managed by David Abreu who is one of California's premier vineyard consultants) and the Kelham Vineyard. The nose is a chocolate mousse mixed with aromas of cherry - beautiful! The layered aromas lead to layered flavors including blackberry, black currant and licorice. The mouth feel is soft and rounded yet rich with fruit. Smokiness and a touch of spice grace the very long finish. This is an approachable wine now but has good acidity and structure to age well. Macauley does not produce a lot of wine; typically each vintage is no more than several hundred cases. You can find their wine locally at Groezinger's in Yountville, the St. Helena Wine Center and at Dean & Deluca. You may also join their quickly growing mailing list for the latest updates and chances to purchase new releases. Visit: www.macauleyvineyard.com |
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Madonna makes a wide variety of wines ranging from Chardonnay to Pinot Noir to their Cabernet Sauvignon. Their 2005 Reserve Pinot Noir named "Due Ragazze" or in English, "two girls" and is named after the winemakers daughters. This is an elegant and restrained Pinot - in other words its well balanced and not overly fruit driven. Dolcetto is a varietal not often found in Napa - it hails from Northern Italy and Madonna's 2004 Estate version has lots of blueberry and blackberry flavors with a very exotic spicy finish. Need something slightly sweet? Try their Riesling and Gewurztraminer. Need dessert?! They have a very light not overly sweet Muscat Canelli. This winery is on the large tourist bus stop circuit so the Tasting room can fill up extremely fast and then empty extremely fast. It all depends on your timing with the buses as to how crowded it will be. A good alternative to tasting when there are crowds is to taste in their special reserve room, which is available only for their higher end mostly Estate grown wines. Many winemaking families have trouble continuing the business to the younger generations - fortunately Madonna has been able to avoid some of the pitfalls and is a good case study for families who successfully hand down a winery business to succeeding generations. There are 4 alcoves in the Reserve Room, each of which contains photos from the 4 generations who have run Madonna since its inception. There is a small gift shop contained within the main tasting room with some nice trinkets and souvenirs including "seed postcards". Send Napa flower seeds as a postcard! They have been farming all their vineyards organically since they started this winery. Their official CCOF organic certification dates from 1991 making them among the oldest CCOF certified vineyards in the Napa area. Their primary vineyard is located across from Acacia winery just up from the cool often fog infested San Pablo Bay. On a clear day you can see into San Francisco from this location. Up valley they sometimes tell you there is only Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grown in Carneros and yes, these varietals are the dominant ones in this region, however Madonna also grows Cabernet Sauvignon. Their 2002 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon tops out at 13.1% alcohol well below the fruit bombs you will find "up valley". This is a very earthy wine from the aromas to the flavors - with some spices on the finish. Picnic tables are available for winery customers. Visit: www.madonnaestate.com |
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Their wine speaks for itself and even though their production is low they have a wide variety of wines. We started off with their 2005 Pinot noir sourced from the cooler growing climate of Anderson Valley. They have managed vineyards in this valley for a number of years and know all the "sweet spots" for the premium fruit. This is a rich full bodied wine and one of the few Anderson Valley Pinots you will find from a winery located in the northern part of the valley. The aromas remind one of leather and cedar followed by great fruit flavors including strawberry and cherry. They are well-known for their Petite Syrah with lots of fruit aromas and flavors in this wine; it would be great with grilled or BBQ meat. Also nice Merlots and Cabernets. Enjoy a good port? Their port of Petite Syrah is delicious. This is a varietal that is not often made into a Port in the Napa area. This one doesn't grab you like some ports that use cheap brandy, rather it is light without syrupy characteristics so that the fruit flavors really show through. Their wines are structured so that they can be consumed now or also aged. If you are going to be in the valley in September, Madrigal has an annual harvest party which is always a blast. Check their website for details. Visit: www.madrigalvineyards.com |
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We tasted at their old winery before they sold to Folio Winemakers Studio as well as at their tasting room in Napa. Their Taste at Oxbow tasting room is located right next to the new Oxbow market near downtown Napa and opened in mid January 2008 in conjunction with Waterstone winery (view our Waterstone review here). This is a corner location and is part of the new wine tasting area in Napa with Mason Cellars next door, Oxbow, and Copia all lined up on 3 blocks. The tasting room is very large and well decorated. They are in a "green" building which means the building materials and furnishings are environmentally friendly. Check out their mostly green wine bar countertop; it is made from glass pieces of recycled wine and olive oil bottles. This tasting room has a slight wine lounge feel with tables and chairs scattered about (even the cushions on the chairs are made from recyclables!). They have a kitchen on site and offer sit down wine and food pairings by appointment. For a set tasting fee you choose 5 tastes out of 10 wines, (5 Waterstone wines and 5 Mahoney wines are available). Ask about the Downtown Napa Wine Tasting Card - multiple downtown area tasting rooms participate in this - for a one-time fee you can visit & taste at each of their tasting rooms. You can buy this card in each of the participating tasting rooms. Visit www.mahoneyvineyards.com |
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Mansfield Winery is located mere minutes from the Napa Valley floor but off of a narrow winding road that makes it feel like you are totally in the country. This winery is run by Richard & Leslie Mansfield, both very accomplished in their respective fields. Richard has been a winemaker since 1979 having earned viticulture & enology degrees from the University of Geisenheim in Germany as well as a degree in Chemistry from the University of Oregon. He founded Callahan Ridge winery which grew to be one of Oregon's larger wineries. Leslie graduated from the prestigious Ecole Ritz Escoffier at the Hotel Ritz in Paris and has written a number of well-received cookbooks. She also spent a number of years in Korea and designed 50% of Nike's Olympic apparel for the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. Food is her passion, and their wines are in fact very food friendly.
Richard is a true believer in terroir driven wines and like other Napa wineries we have visited, will source fruit from areas outside of Napa Valley depending on the varietal and specific terroir. Case in point is their amazing Riesling which is sourced from the Umpqua Valley in Oregon. You will be hard pressed to find Riesling Vineyards in the Napa Valley (yes there are a few acres still planted), but the Umpqua valley is a perfect growing climate for this varietal. Their 2006 vintage is similar to a German Kabinet with low pH, some residual sugar and delicious flavors including lime, lemon and some citrus. It is a very well balanced wine which goes well with spicy Asian food. They also produce a nice Chardonnay from the Russian River in neighboring Sonoma County as well as a Dry Creek Zinfandel. We tried their 2004 Coombsville grown Cabernet Sauvignon. This is from a cooler growing region with slower ripening and this wine doesn't contain the higher alcohols that you will find in some of Napa's other warmer Cabernet growing regions. There are great flavors in this dark purple wine includign cherries, blackberries, black pepper and hints of tobacco which linger on the long finish. All of Mansfield's wines are made in limited production. Richard micromanages the winemaking starting from the vineyards, harvesting specific blocks only when ripe and keeping the lots small & separate from each other during fermentation and barrel aging until the final blending occurs. As of press time, they own one of the last un-restored ghost wineries in Napa County. We had the privilege of touring this, our first non restored Napa ghost winery! It is a huge building built by Italians and Chinese and for a number of years served as a processing plant for a nearby Perlite mine. We can't wait to see how this turns out once renovation and restoration are completed. They currently make their wine at a custom crush facility but will move all operations to this old Ghost Winery once it is restored and at that point it will be well over 100 years between this wineries last vintage. This ghost winery even has its own ghost story, but will leave that for later. Grapes used to be planted on site as evidenced by the old grapes stakes and future plans may include estate grown varietals. The Mansfield's host select winemaker dinners. You can find their wines locally at Whole Foods in Napa and Groezingers in Yountville or from their website. Visit: www.mansfieldwinery.com |
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Marco DiGiulio Wines is run by well-known Napa winemaker Marco DiGiulio. His family immigrated to San Francisco from Italy. With family roots in Tuscany, living in the Italian community of North Beach, and parents who were restaurateurs, good food and wine were integral parts of their lives. Marco earned his degree in Fermentation Science from UC Davis and soon thereafter was working with Napa and Sonoma wineries. Stints at Buena Vista, Pine Ridge and Atlas Peak led to winemaking at Pepi Winery. While here he was also put in charge of the esteemed Lokoya brand focusing on high end Cabernet Sauvignon. While here he established his reputation for making world class Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. Today he no longer is entirely employed by one winery, rather he is a consulting winemaker for a number of high end boutique producers in the Napa area.
He started his own label in 2001; as of press time he focuses on single vineyard high end mountain grown Napa Cabernet Sauvignon. Now considered a Napa winemaking veteran, Marco is very knowledgeable about the nuances and different terroir locations throughout the Napa Valley. With his connections and knowledge about area vineyards he has been able to secure premium fruit from Mt. Veeder and also Diamond Mountain. His fruit sources remain fairly consistent as he has used the same Diamond Mountain vineyard every year since his initial production. We caught up with Marco at Bin to Bottle, a high quality custom crush facility for a number of small Napa Vintners in South Napa. Marco is a partner in this project and makes his own wine here. As of press time he had just started his 25th harvest in the Napa Valley. Each of his two wines are produced in very small quantities - usually in the range of 200 to 300 cases. His approach to winemaking is fairly minimal, rather letting the vineyard and each vintage speak for itself. As he says, he wants to "taste" each vineyard. His wines are 100% varietal using native yeasts and are unfined and unfiltered. We tried both of his 2004 vintages just before their official release - these are completely different wines both in aroma and flavor and are true representations of the particular vineyards. The 2004 Diamond Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from a vineyard owned and managed by Norm Kiken, the owner of Reverie Winery. The vineyard grows on volcanic soils with a southern exposure and always ripens well. Besides taking a minimalist approach to the winemaking, and despite his many successes Marco is still a very humble winemaker. Case in point is the quote he puts on all his wines, "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing" ~ Socrates. How true, especially in the wine industry! This wine is considerably softer than the Veeder Cabernet; it is approachable now even at a young age. There are some nice mineralities on the elegant nose as the wine opens up, with some terroir driven dustiness. Nuances of smoked oak and spices are interwoven throughout the palate with a core being a thread of delicious black fruit including dark cherry. This is a very well balanced wine with lively acidity and a rich flavor profile, yet at the same time has a delicate finish. Buy this wine to drink now and then buy some for later! Marco's barrel program uses 100% New French Oak and he hand chooses barrels from a variety of coopers to ensure balance and more subtle influences from the oak. The 2004 Mt. Veeder Cabernet is a powerful massively structured dark inky wine. It sees extended maceration. Don't let the soft entry of fruit lead you astray. This is serious Veeder Cab. From the fruit forward entry to the large and incredibly long finish this wine has what big time Napa Cabernet drinkers seek out. Layered rich fruit (blackberry, blueberry) mingle with smoky spicy nuances. This wine has great structure, great acidity and great ageability. Because Marco's distribution is fairly limited, the best way to secure some of his wines is through his mailing list. He has select distribution in New York, Florida and several other states. You can find his wines locally at the Bounter Hunter in downtown Napa. Visit: www.marcowine.com |
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The release date of all wines is always June 1st - Marilyn's birthday and each vintage usually sells out rather quickly. Their Norma Jean wines are very affordably priced and are marketed as "A Young Merlot" and features photos of a young Norma Jean before she took the name Marilyn Monroe. This is the only wine to feature non Napa fruit (the vineyard source is near the historic town of French Camp in California's central valley). All other fruit is sourced from high end vineyards near the towns of Rutherford & Yountville including from the Beckstoffer Vineyards. We tried the 2002 Cabernet Sauvignon which was among some of the older "current" releases that we have tried. Extra age is not a bad thing when it comes to wine! There are pleasant toasty characteristics on the nose which continues to the palate with nice fruit, hints of chocolate and a smoky intense long finish. As with most of their other current releases, this wine is priced quite affordably. If you want to see the best vertical (each year's wine) display of Marilyn Merlot wines, visit Traverso's in Santa Rosa (about 50 minutes from the Napa Valley). All the wines for the Marilyn Merlot label are made at the famed Napa Wine Co along Highway 29. You can even taste these at Napa Wine Co's Cult Tasting room which is open to the public by walk-in. Visit: www.marilynwines.com |
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Marketta Winery & Vineyards is owned by Marketta Fourmeaux du Sartel who is also the winemaker. She came to the Napa Valley after the famous Paris tasting of 1976 - the French government wanted research conducted on Napa Wineries. After her initial contract with the French government ended Marketta decided not to return to France since she fell in love with the Napa Valley and instead built a winery called Chateau Potelle on Mt. Veeder. Chateau Potelle has since sold to Kendall Jackson and Marketta has now branched out on her own with this new wine. This is her third winery to date.
Currently Marketta focuses on a Sauvignon Blanc and a Mount Veeder blended red wine. We recently met Marketta at a trade tasting and will follow up and formally review the wines soon. |
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Choose from three tasting options ranging in price from $10 to $20. Markham is most known for their Merlot and this in fact comprises about 65% of their entire production. The big outlet for this is restaurants especially at steakhouses nationwide. All grapes used for their wines are 100% Napa fruit from vineyards entirely owned by Markham. Their prices for all their wines are quite affordable by Napa standards. Besides Merlot their Sauvignon Blanc is a big seller. We enjoyed two vintages of their Petite Sirah. These are their "biggest" wines, even bigger than their Cabernet Sauvignon. The Petite Sirah is a rich fruit forward "meaty" wine finishing with huge tannins. Their winemaker has been with Markham since 1992 and is very well respected in the industry. She has trained with several of Napa's most well-known winemakers during her long career. What is very nice is they often have older vintages available for tasting up to 7 and 8 years old, as well as even older wines than that for purchase (library and large format wines). Note that the reserve tasting is in their wine library located in the historic stone cellar. This tasting is only open on the weekends. Tours are also offered, by appointment. Visit: www.markhamvineyards.com |
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We've been here several times and when we first visited the sun was just breaking through the clouds with great views of the rolling hills and planted vineyards. History of grapes on the property dates back to the late 1890's when access to the vineyard was on the old Wells Fargo Stage Coach road which ran all the way to Santa Rosa. A drive up this road is through part of the Mayacamus mountains which form the western boundary of Napa Valley and separate Sonoma County to the west. The famous actor, Clark Gable used to visit frequently. He was also the best man at the wedding of the wineries' post World War II owner, Al Menasco - an aviation pioneer in his own right. Clark Gable actually spent his honeymoon in the main house on the property. The Marston's purchased this property in 1969 and until the late 90's exclusively sold their grapes to other wineries including Beringer who currently manages the estate vineyards. This property has long been planted to vineyards and even famed winemaker and soils expert Andre Tchelistcheff helped craft wine from the estate. The Marstons have only 10% of the entire 400 acre estate planted to vine, with much of the surrounding hillsides covered with native vegetation. A visit here is certainly not a Napa Highway 29 experience! 1998 was the first commercial release. Marston is known for their extremely high class elegant Cabernet Sauvignon and there is a reason for this. Combine world class terroir, incredible attention to detail in the vineyard (we've heard their vineyard manager speak of what goes on in the "fields" and it is extensive), and top winemaking skills and you have the perfect wine recipe for success. The total annual production is always around 500 cases exclusively of one wine, a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2004 is a very dark inky wine. The aromas are initially almost gravelly and as it opens up reveals additional mineralites and fruit including blackberry. The mouth feel is soft, well balanced and oh so smooth with a structured yet delicate tannins on the finish. It is extremely drinkable now yet has that bright fruit, lively acidity and structure to ensure that this wine will age successfully for a number of years. The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon is even smoother than the 2004 although it is still very full bodied. The nose has some floral characteristics with nuances of berry fruit and cocoa and chocolate appear as the bouquet opens. Rich ripe fruit dominates the palate, this wine pairs extremely well with food. In 2005 the wine-making program was changed so that the wine was aged in 400-liter puncheons (larger sized then normal wine barrels) which are custom made in France. These are actually rotated each day during the fermentation, rather than doing the standard punch-downs. The thinking behind this is the turning of the barrel allows the wine to receive less agitation than punch-downs. Once fermentation is complete, the wine is removed, pressed and then put back into the same puncheons for its aging. Marston's philosophy is to ensure the fermentation goes smoothly but with minimal intervention. It is always a challenge to tame mountain grown tannins and the 2005 vintage is a clear reflection of how successfully they were able to do this. Their wine maker is Philippe Melka who works with several select high end Napa Wineries - in the past he has been voted American Winemaker of the year by Robert Parker in Food & Wine Magazine. He has been Marston's winemaker since the first vintage. Marston was fortunate to acquire his services fairly early in his career as his time is so valuable these days. Philippe has a Geology degree (he knows his Napa terroir very well) and loves working with Napa hillside vineyards. As he mentioned to us, "hillside vineyards are more of a challenge"! It is always a fine line to craft wines with that special elegance and softness ready to be consumed now, while at the same time ensuring the wine has the acidity, fruit and structure to be aged and not be flat in say 10 years. This is a line that Philippe walks well - Marston's older vintages if you can find them, are rumored to be drinking very well now. Marston's Cabernet Sauvignon is available through their mailing list, high end restaurants and select retail stores. One year, their wine was voted the top ranked Cabernet Sauvignon by Wine News Magazine. You can also find it locally in St. Helena at Dean & Deluca. Visit: www.marstonfamilyvineyard.com |
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As the story goes his original intent was not to start a winery even though he had prior experience with home winemaking and had lived in Bordeaux for two summers. However after finding and resurrecting an old gate lying in the fields, the county got wind of this and said the gate was improper to use for a private residence because of its height. If this was a commercial operation the height of the gate would be acceptable. Never has a gate figured so prominently in the creation of a Napa winery! In addition, the property is in the well-known Rutherford wine district. Both of these reasons created the impetus to bond this location as a winery. Major renovation and retrofitting occurred, grapes were planted in 1997 in the rich alluvial soil that surrounds the property and their first commercial vintage was in 2001. That means this winery had a 90 year gap between vintages. Approximately 8 acres are planted in 3 clones of Cabernet with a small block of Merlot. Martin's main focus is on a 100% varietal high end Cabernet Sauvignon although as of press time they do make a delicious unfiltered Rose of Merlot. A visit is on a very limited basis for the serious wine enthusiast. Tastings are private and are strictly by appointment. The estate is stunning; the owner is a serious collector of antique armaments (guns, cannons, knives, other armor) as well as other historical paintings which are placed throughout the winery. It is like walking into a European museum. Be sure to take in the "great hall" - this is the largest room in the estate and is very well decorated including a knights armor, miniature canons, spears, and old muskets. The winery is downstairs with the residence rooms located upstairs. Great attention to detail is made during their winemaking with the owner involved in all aspects of this process. The fruit is often picked a number of times during the harvest in small lot bins to ensure only ripe fruit is used. Clones are kept separate and are fermented in large custom made French Oak fermentation tanks. We tried their 2003 Estate Cabernet. This delicious wine has a very soft velvety mouth feel. The fruit is definitely there but it is not an "in your face" wine, rather it is more of an elegant Bordeaux style with flavors of blackberries and plums on the palate. The structured finish is smooth with very well rounded tannins. They also produce a Martin Collectors Reserve Cabernet, as well as their limited production Bacchanal Cabernet. The owner designed the label which is a tribute to his passion for antique arms. Visit: www.martinestate.com |
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Their tasting room is casual, airy and simple keeping the focus on the wines. Step up to the marble counter top and choose from several Sauvignon Blancs. We tried the 2006 Pomelo, grown in Lake County (a county north of Napa county). With a name like Pomelo it is rather easy to guess some of the characteristics in this wine! It was all tank fermented, nice herbaceous aromas followed by grapefruit and pomelo flavors. This is a great wine for a hot day. Their 2006 Sauvignon Blanc is the only wine that sees any oak during its aging. This is their flagship Sauvignon Blanc and is sourced from Napa Vineyards. It is a crisp wine with citrus flavors and some subtle notes of fig. Very clean finish. The 2005 Reserve Sauvignon Blanc is sourced from vineyards in Sonoma. This wine was left on the lees and stirred for 4+ months; it is a very smooth wine with a long finish. Before having this tasting room Mason used to make Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon (last vintage was 2001 - which they are now sold out of), however stay posted. They have renewed their red varietal program and a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon will be the first "new" vintage. Ask about the Downtown Napa Wine Tasting Card - multiple downtown area tasting rooms participate in this - for a one-time fee you can visit each of their tasting rooms. Visit: www.masoncellars.com |
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Their focus is entirely on Cabernet Sauvignon from their two hillside vineyards. The 7-acre Butterdragon Hill Vineyard is located just north of St. Helena in the western hills (stunning views by the way looking out over Napa Valley from the vineyard) and their home 3-acre vineyard Baconbrook which is located in the Spring Mountain Appellation just west of the town of St. Helena. They do not source grapes for any of their wine as all the fruit for their wines comes from these two vineyards. As a result of two totally different terroir and microclimates (despite the vineyards being fairly close to each other as the crow fly's) you would expect the wines to be different from each other and this is exactly the case. Yes, these vineyards are not your normal Napa named vineyards and there are stories behind each name! When their son was young he was playing near their pool watching all the dragonflies buzzing around when a lone butterfly flew nearby. Being at that inquisitive age he wondered out loud whether butterflies would mate with dragon flies. His parents cleverly answered if that were the case, you have a "butterdragon" - cute and possibly something you might easily forget - but not in this case. Little did he know that the answer to his creative question would one day be memorialized in a vineyard! Baconbrook is a bit more straight forward; it is the English translation of their son's German last name. We started our tasting with several very young vintages, some taken directly from the barrel. In addition we tasted older vintages as well. This gave us a good indication of how the wine ages and common consistencies (and differences of course) between the vintages. The Butterdragon wines usually have a bit of Merlot blended in with the Cabernet Sauvignon. The 2005 Butterdragon opens up very nicely with some mineralities, hints of crushed rock and floral aromas. Yes, there is plenty of fruit in the bouquet as well! The entry on the palate is rounded and soft with lots of fruit up front followed by a nuance of smokiness from the oak with sweet tannins towards the finish. Compare this to their other vineyard - the 2005 Baconbrook (not yet released at the time of our tasting). This wine has both a bigger backbone and finish than the same vintage Butterdragon. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, the nose is very fruit driven most noticeably with its blackberry aromas. A touch of oak and spice are represented on the finish; this wine will do well with some cellaring. The 2003 Butterdragon Hill has been treated very well over time. This vineyard is typically a bit softer than the wine produced from their Baconbrook vineyard and age has even provided additional softness and balance. Despite the softness in the mouth this is still a very rich concentrated wine. Beautiful sweet fruit aromas grace the bouquet including black cherry and currant with notes of chocolate, additional cherry and nuances of smoky oak towards the finish. At the time of this review, their total production is fairly small at about 750 cases. They offer one release in Fall and one in Spring. As of press time you can find their wine locally at Meadowood, St. Helena Wine Merchants and at ACME or through their website. Visit: www.matchvineyards.com |
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Their white is a wine you will not find at any other winery in Napa. It is a unique blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon with two Italian varietals - Ribolla gialla and Tocai Friulano. Merely two acres of Ribolla gialla is planted in all of California; more is planted in the North Western part of Italy where the winemaker has visited and gained additional insights into how this varietal is used. Ribollo has been made into wine since the 13th century. The reason this esoteric fact is known is that it was mentioned on a wedding menu that dates back all these hundreds of years! Matthiasson's blend is delicious; it is very floral on the nose and crisp to the taste. White wine does have a tannic structure, even though tannins are usually not mentioned in the same breath as with whites because they are not as overpowering as you may find in some of the big reds. The tannins in this blend are light and well structured. The Matthiasson's are truly farmers with strong backgrounds in Agriculture. They have leased several acres of land in the Napa area and have planted two small fruit orchards. They run the Napa Valley Fruit Company which provides local grown fruits at the Napa Farmer's Market. You can find their wines at ACME Wine Shop in St. Helena and also at several local restaurants in the valley including Mustard's, Coles in Napa and Press. Visit: www.matthiasson.com |
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The winery itself dates from 1889, it was built by a German immigrant and has had several owners during its long history. It became dormant during prohibition although there is some evidence of bootlegging in the stone cellar during this time! The current owner Bob Travers, purchased the winery in 1968 and is still in charge of the winery operations. He started working in the Napa wine industry in his 20's after leaving a job in San Francisco. Much of his initial knowledge came from working with the legendary Joe Heitz of Heitz Cellars. Any Napa winery in operation today which dates from the 1960's, is still privately owned, and Bob is still very much in charge of operations (along with his son Chris) - puts that winery into a very select list of the "oldest continuously operating Napa Wineries". They are even an intricate part of more recent history - their 1971 Cabernet Sauvignon was part of Steven Spurrier's now famous Paris Tasting of 1976 which helped push the quality of Napa's wines to the International wine scene. There are many things which separate this winery from other Napa area wineries. Its unique location and history certainly make this winery stand out. A tour here will highlight additional factors. We visited during harvest and were able to see the winery equipment in action. This a gravity flow winery - the grapes are de-stemmed and then the juice flows down to neutral concrete wood covered fermentation tanks. Out of over 500 Napa wineries visited to date, these are the only such types of fermentation tanks we have seen. These fermentation tanks in no way take away from the varietal characteristics of the wine - and that is exactly what the Travers are after. The juice is eventually put into large wooden casks, one of which was here when the winery was purchased in 1968 and is over 60 years old. Mayacamas is not big on oak in their wines as their philosophy is let the wine speak for itself, so you will see mostly older oak barrels in their lower cellar room. Also check out their own bottling line - its the oldest bottling line we've seen at any Napa winery - this one dates from the 1940's. The majority of their fruit comes from on the property and their focus is on Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon although they do make a delicious Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. We tried several Chardonnays none of which go through secondary fermentation. As a result, these wines are more austere with great acidity. They don't show as well by themselves, as they really need to be paired with foods. Mayacamas releases Library wines each year - these typically have about 5 years of aging before they are available to the public. The 2001 Chardonnay vintage has aged amazingly well with very rich concentrated fruit and nice mineralities representative of their unique terroir. Speaking of which the steepness, nutrient poor soils, 50+ year old vines - combined with cool breezes produces a wine of exceptional quality combined with the perfect acidity for aging. In addition the yields are extremely low - often around 1 ton per acre. These are not your normal quick to release - quick to drink California Chardonnays! Mayacamas recommends drinking their Chardonnays typically between 5 and 8 years when they reach their peak maturity and complexity. So the point of this is if your budget is in your favor purchase two of each wine; one for drinking now and one for aging! Their 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon is smooth and silky with lots of fruit flavors most notably cherry, red currant and plum. By the time their Cabernet's reach the market they have already undergone 5 years of proper aging, which is a luxury that many wineries do not have. Maycamus also releases older vintages every year called the Library releases. Lastly, you may have heard of the movie called "A Walk in the Clouds" - this was partially filmed on site. Due to the history of the property, winery tour, vineyards, and of course the high quality wine, a visit here is among one of the more unique Napa and "out of the way" winery visits. Allow at least 35 minutes to reach the winery from Highway 29 in the Napa Valley or Highway 12 from the other side in the Sonoma Valley. Visit: www.mayacamas.com |
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If you don't want to make an appointment, visit them on the two weekends when they are open to the public during April & the Fall as part of the Carneros weekend winery events. This is a lively time to visit the winery as it can be extremely crowded in the barn with enthusiastic wine drinkers. During this event this is always a live local bluegrass band performing in the cellar barn if bad weather or outside on the grass during good weather. Pray for good weather as it can get a bit tight with the tasting and the musicians inside the barn! If you attend this event get there early or pay extra and try their Reserve Wines. This is an excellent opportunity to try not often opened older vintages (up to 10 years old). All their wines are unfiltered with minimal fining. We tried a 1998 Merlot which was still drinking great after 10 years and is testament to the structure, fruit and acidity of this wine. Another treat is their Pinot noir; the vintages we tried were fairly soft with silky tannins with great cherry flavors on the palate and slightly spicy finishes. Other varietals of note are their 100% Malbec and Cabernet Franc - both of which are grown on site. Also be sure to check out their permanent art gallery in the adjoining building. Photos and artworks from local artists are on display and are for sale. Visit: www.mckenziemueller.com or www.carneroswineries.org |
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Meadowcroft Wines is one of the few wineries we include in this project who make their wine outside of Napa (just a handful so far). This project is about being as inclusive as possible and we include a review here because this small winery owns a 2.4 acre Mt. Veeder located vineyard which provides all the grapes for their reserve wines, called Meadowcroft (under the Magito parent winery). Mt. Veeder is a sub appellation in Napa, and is sometimes referred to by us as the "wild" Napa appellation because of all the native forests and very steep hillsides. As a result this vineyard is surrounded by native vegetation and forest land, all of which plays a part in the specific terroir characteristics that come out in these Mt. Veeder grown wines.
We recently ran into winemaker and owner Tom Meadowcroft at an urban tasting in San Francisco and asked him how many cases he produces. We were taken back when he said 22 cases. Wow, that makes him the smallest producer we've tasted with to date. Actually there is more to the story as his production will be increasing relatively considerably and should be around 400 cases when he gets a full crop in the door. His first vintage was supposed to be 2003 but unfortunately the ravages of nature sometimes rear their heads. We've come across stories of freak hail storms and wild turkeys but in Tom's case gates were left open and deer entered the vineyard and destroyed more than 80% of the crop. Agg. The 2004 vintage was was his first release. He planted the entire vineyard in 2000. The vineyard looks a bit different from other vineyards you may see in the area as the vine's cordons are trained relatively low to the ground; this gives additional intensity to the fruit as well as an overall warmer ripening environment during season. Tom has worked with several prominent Napa wineries over the years including Robert Biale Vineyards, Duckhorn, Opus One and Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. His inspiration for getting into the wine industry started when he was living in Europe and was washing wine bottles for a living for a short time. That's an interesting story that only Tom can tell. His last name almost describes his vineyards perfectly as the word Meadowcroft means "fertile area" and the croft is the "cultivated area" that has been nurtured over time. Look for the honeybee on the label and you will know you have a Meadowcroft wine. We tried the 2004. As with all wines from this vineyard to date, it is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a dark wine with a huge nose of black cherry and cassis. Fruit combined with exotic spices on the palate and a rich lingering finish make drinking this wine a pleasure. Visit: www.magitowines.com/scripts/cpg.cfm?id=3 |
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Meadowood Lane Winery is a partnership between a retired shipping veteran who was instrumental in the design of modern day cargo shipping containers and long time well-respected Napa winemaker David Mahaffey. Their wine is bottled under the label Palladian Estate. The name comes from the small very European looking Palladian temple (imported from England) built on a hillside above the vineyards. This winery and vineyard is located just down the street from the plush Meadowood Resort and is right across from the prestigious Harlan Estate Napa Reserve. In fact Palladian's winery sign on Silverado Trail is right next to Meadowood's and if you don't know better you might think these wineries are one in the same. All varietals used in their single vintage Cabernet Sauvignon are grown on site including the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.
David's philosophy is of course that winemaking starts in the vineyards and he describes his vineyard management of Palladian as not being farmed, rather it is gardened (organically). He lets the fruit ripen to peak perfection and opens up the canopy to allow for even ripening. The real art of a winemaker is in the blending and David excels at this. All the wine making is conducted with as little machine intervention as possible with much of the work done by hand. A simple forklift is essential for their gravity flow operations! Earlier in his career, David was instrumental in designing what is now an essential piece of equipment for many wineries, the wine ozone machine used for controlling contamination, treating barrels and sanitizing applications. At the time of his invention this type of machinery was unheard of in the wine industry. Today, it is available through one company only (Carlsen & Associates) and many of Napa's wineries use this in their wine production. A visit here is always with the winemaker, is very personable and is for serious wine enthusiasts. You will park below at the main house and walk up the dirt road a short distance to the actual cave. This is one of the smallest caves in the valley - the original plans called for drilling 50% further into the hillside, but there is one rock that stops even the most determined cave drillers and that is obsidian. They ran into a solid chunk of this rock and that is where the cave ends - maybe 50 feet in from the entrance. Despite the small cave they have additional cold storage - note the cargo containers next to the side of the hill built into rock. These are used for storing wine and in addition are an example of the types of cargo containers one of the partners helped design. 2003 was their first vintage. Cabernet Sauvignon is Palladian's primary varietal and Merlot and Cabernet Franc are blended in as necessary. David's philosophy is to create a wine that is not a huge typical Napa Cabernet high alcohol, fruit dominated wine, but rather a wine that yes, has ripe California fruit characteristics, but is lower in alcohol with a Bordeaux type structure (open top fermentors and a moist humid cave in part help the wine lose alcohol). We tried several blends that will go into their final 2007 vintage. Cedar and cigar box aromas are intermingled in with the fruit on the bouquet followed by nice fruit layers and hints of vanilla on the palate. For such a young wine the fruit was already showing very nicely. With additional aging and blending the tannins will soften out. For high quality wine to price ratio, this is one of the better value wines in Napa. Total production is only 450-500 cases of this single wine each year. It is distributed in select high end restaurants nationally. Visit: www.heronlakewinery.com/releases.html#palladian until their main winery site is up and running which is: www.meadowoodlanewinery.com |
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She sources from the Morisoli (Rutherford) and Lewelling (St. Helena) Vineyards. The Lewelling Vineyard was originally established in 1864 which makes this one of the oldest continuously family owned and operated vineyards in the Napa area. Each vineyard brings a certain component to the wine; the fruit from the Morisoli adds the backbone and structure and the fruit from the Lewelling vineyard brings an elegance and more of the fruit flavors. She uses all French Oak with about 65% of it being new. We tried her 2004 vintage. About 50% of the fruit comes from each vineyard for this wine. It has strong firm tannins (not overly tannic) rather it has a softness and mouth feel that is very well balanced. It is a very dark well extracted wine with lots of fruit on the palate including some licorice flavors. The finish is very long and one wine taster even timed the finish and said it timed out at 28 seconds! We also tried her 2005 version which as of press time is still a young wine. However it shows even more fruit characteristics when compared to the 2004 vintage and we can't wait to see how this wine ages. You can also buy Magnums of this wine. The wine can be found locally at Backdoor & Cal Wine in Napa and ACME wine shop in St. Helena. In addition, you can join the mailing list online. Possible future plans include a tasting facility in downtown St. Helena. Visit: www.meanderwines.com |
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Merryvale has two primary labels, Starmont and Merryvale. The Starmont contains their lower priced wines and are made at a huge new production only winery located south of Napa. This is a very environmentally friendly building with large solar panels on the roof and a recycling program for the winery wastes. The Merryvale label includes their higher end labels which are made on site. They take great care in their winemaking and recently purchased 32 small tanks. The reason for these tanks is that they often pick their vineyards many times during the harvest season and want to ferment each picked block separately, even down to separately fermenting specific rows in a vineyard. We tried a large lineup of their wines, as we result we will mention only our favorites here. They produce quite a few Chardonnays. The 2005 Merryvale Chardonnay from the Carneros grown Hyde Vineyard is whole cluster pressed (they often use triple sorting to ensure they are getting only the highest quality fruit) - this wine is very full bodied with beautiful aromatics. Merryvale makes a variety of Cabernets and their top of the line Cab is simply called the Profile. This was the first wine they ever produced. The 2003 we tried is a very dark rich unfiltered wine. It is a big bold Napa Cabernet now that will continue to develop with age. Not to be left out is the affordably priced square bottled Antigua, Muscat de Frontignan. Rich amber colors shine through the clear glass, and black walnut and hints of orange peels make this a classical Dessert Wine. Two tastings are offered in the tasting room - a classic and a reserve. Wine events are held on weekends including a Wine and Food pairing. Typically their Cask room is open during normal business hours and this is well worth visiting. It is the only one of its kind in the valley. This Cask room has a real medieval feeling with all the lighted candles, wine cellars and very long table in the center. This is where they hold the majority of their popular wine seminars. The tasting room can be very crowded especially on the weekends as this is a popular tourist stop (many of their special wine events are held on the weekends). They also stay open later than most Napa wineries. Private tours and tastings are available by reservation. Merryvale definitely has one of the more advanced and extensive winery websites that we have seen - especially the educational section. Visit: www.merryvale.com |
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The name Merus in Latin means undiluted, unmixed or complete as in referring to wine. Time and time again on this project we've heard the wine making mantra uttered, "it all starts in the vineyards". Here at Merus this is a truism that is held close to the vest. While having never owned vineyards for their own wine, Merus works with 20-25 small growers each year whose micro vineyards range in size from merely a tenth of an acre to vineyards much larger. Merus has significant input into how they want these vineyards managed, from cover crops, to trellising, to harvest decisions. This attention to detail is carried over into the winery and as they say at Merus about their winemaking, it is "obsessive enology"! Such is their demand for quality that typically only a percentage of barrels are selected each year for the final blends (usually less than 55%). While their source vineyards are small, they do not pick each vineyard in one pass rather they hand select the fruit down to the individual rows and vines thus ensuring they are picking fruit that has the flavor profile they desire. As a result during harvest they continuously manage many small lot fermentations. Their focus is on one wine each year - always a Cabernet Sauvignon from various vineyard locations (St. Helena, Stags Leap) including Napa's Coombsville region. Merus has sourced from Coombsville since their first vintages, before Coombsville was "hot". We've mentioned this before in regards to the Coombsville region. While not yet a sub appellation of Napa over the past few years it has received more coverage and is slowly coming onto the radar to the rest of the valley. While generally accepted that this is a cooler growing region, Coombsville has many micro-climates especially on the east side of the region against the warmer summertime slopes of the Vaca Mountains. Wine from this region is surprisingly complex, soft and layered in flavor and typically not vegetal on the nose or on the palate. Merus also makes another wine under the name Altvs (a more recent entry into their portfolio as the first vintage of this wine is from 2005) - and as they say at the winery, this is the wine to enjoy drinking while your Merus wines are aging. Their current production of Merus is around 1200 cases with the production of Altus not much more. Each wine is stylistically different from the other. The 2006 Merus Cabernet Sauvignon is slightly blended with 3% Malbec and 2% Petite Verdot. It has good color in the glass with both red and purple characteristics. The bouquet shows a unique dustiness, with notes of shaded forest floor and cedar intermingled with dark fruit and red licorice. The palate leans decidedly towards blacker fruits including blackberry and dark plum. These flavors are broad, expansive and layered running the entire length of the palate. The finish is rounded and elegant and the softer styled yet structured tannins show where they should and are well integrated into the wines' structure. Balance can be a key word used by wine writers, winemakers and others when describing wine. This wine has got it and not just partially - it is balanced beautifully from start to finish. We have sampled hundreds of Cabernet Sauvignon's on this project and it is always a joy to find a wine that fits our palate like a glove, like this wine. All of Merus wines are built to age; the winery estimates this wine will last at least 3 decades. Perhaps so, but it is hard to resist drinking it now. Winemaker Camille Benitah is a native of Bordeaux France and has extensive viticulture and enology experience in a number of European locations. She studied at Chateau La Tour Blanche in Bommes (Sauternes region) and worked at a number of various wineries in the area before moving to California. Paul Hobbs is their consulting winemaker. Owner, William Foley has a background that reads like someone who has lived 2 lives - he is a graduate of West Point, has served in the Air Force and has both his MBA and law degrees. He has been Chairman of CKE (controls Carl's Junior) where he helped turned that franchise around in part by appealing to younger generations. Currently he serves as Chairman of two Fortune 500 companies including Fidelity National Information Services, a major title company that is one of the largest in the nation. Also of note is his golfing ability; he was voted among the Top 20 Executive Golfers in a recent Golfer's Digest Magazine! Bill has enjoyed fine Cabernet Sauvignon for many years and his foray into the wine industry started in 1996 with the acquisition of Lincourt Vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley (Santa Barbara County). He soon purchased several other wineries in the Central Coast region and over the years has branched out to other parts of California and the state of Washington. Merus wine is made in the old Rossini Ghost Winery on the Rossini Ranch at the base of Howell Mountain. This winery was originally founded in 1891 by an Italian-Swiss, Carlo Rossini; the winery has a long history. It was active until prohibition where like many of the other wineries in the valley was shut down. It remained shuttered down until it was sold to the Venge Family where they made wine for a number of years until they sold in mid 2008. One of Rossini's grand daughters (now in her 80's) still lives near the winery. Other notable landmarks on the property are a petrified wood bridge which dates from 1903 and is the only known surviving petrified wood bridge in Napa County. Not to be outdone by the bridge, is the outdoor brick oven. This oven is in excellent condition, it dates from 1882 and may be the oldest oven of its kind in the county. Tastings at the winery are held in their elegant tasting salon and are for mailing list customers or serious wine enthusiasts who typically have been referred. There are about 7000 square feet of caves which is more than ample for their current production. The tasting room is in an chic furnished large room in the cave and the eclectic chandeliers (made out of hanging metal) and unique lighting was all contributed by Erika who is an owner of the Amsterdam based UXUS design firm. Their "Altvs Alcove" interestingly enough contains a number of previous vintages all with formidable Robert Parker quotes (from each year) painted above the wine! Merus Wines are found in fine restaurants in select locations nationwide including CA, FL, NV, NY and other states. You can find their wine locally at Cole's Chop House in the town of Napa. For more information and or to signup for their mailing list visit: www.meruswines.com |
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This is certainly more of the southern range of Cabernet Sauvignon in the Napa, aside from a few select growers in the Carneros region. Coombsville is among the cooler parts of the valley and is a region strongly influenced by the cooling effects of the San Pablo Bay. During the summer fog often moves up and down this region like waves in the sand, albeit much slower. At night the fog moves in from the south and tends to cover the entire area but then usually burns off by mid to late morning. There can certainly be heat spikes in the southern part of the valley but on the whole this is a fairly stable growing climate that tends to create long hang times with even ripening conditions. Meteor vineyard was planted in 1999 by Mike Wolf, a veteran of some of Napa's top vineyards. Mike originally worked for the Beckstoffer's (the largest and most prominent vineyard management company in Napa) and today runs his own vineyard management consulting service. He has over 30 years experience in the industry. He must spend a fair amount of time in the Coombsville region as we have met with several vintners in Coombsville whose vineyards he manages. Meteor Vineyards is owned by Barry and Tracy Schuler, east coast natives who fell in love with the wine country many years ago. The name Meteor is fittingly based on an early design program called Medior that Barry and Tracy sold to AOL & Apple back when these companies were just getting off the ground. As with many others who have come to the valley their original intent was not to end up in the wine business (although they had been collectors of fine wines for many years) but when you acquire unplanted pasture land and have a property surrounded by already proven vineyards, its hard to resist the "wine bug". Barry is a former CEO of AOL/Time Warner who still keeps his hands in the high tech world. In fact he was a keynote speaker at the recent wine bloggers conference in our home town of Santa Rosa. After planting the Schuler's initially sold fruit to area producers and it was in 2003 they sold fruit to Bill and Dawnine Dyer for their own label, Dwyer. Dawnine crafted some wine from this vintage for Barry and Tracy and in part upon enjoying how balanced the wines were, they decided to produce their own wine commercially. In 2004 they only made a barrel and 2005 was their first official commercial release. The vineyard site is situated on gentle rolling hills planted on volcanic ash based soil (has excellent drainage - always an important component of a vineyard) with a unique terroir aspect of having a historical river channel on the property. Today the remnants of this channel are found in the rounded rocks that are spread throughout the vineyard soils. There was obviously water action on the property at one point but today there are no nearby creeks or steams. Winemaker, Dawnine calls this vineyard a "natural site" as in it does not need a huge amount of manipulation and support to produce high quality fruit - in other words, these soils already naturally have the components to produce superb wines. Today Meteor focuses on two very limited production wines, the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon typically representing all of their Cabernet Sauvignon clones (usually around 700 cases) and the Special Family Reserve (usually around 100 cases) which usually focuses on just one clone - typically Clone 7. Only the highest quality free run juice is used in their wines and each Cabernet Sauvignon clone is always fermented separately until the final blending decisions. The 2005 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon shows a wonderful elegant floral based nose, spiced with violet and lavender aromas and just a hint of cocoa. There is also a dried floral component including rose petal. The mouth feel is rounded and the palate is intense yet refined and balanced at the same time; it shows red and darker fruit including cherry. The finish has significant power with broad dusty tannins, a note of tobacco as well as dark fruit that lingers for quite some time. The 2006 Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is a bigger wine than its older brother. It is very dark in the glass with notes of dark chocolate, a note of earthiness and blackberry on the bouquet. The entry is fairly soft but builds in intensity rather quickly by mid palate. This is an unparalleled example of what cooler Coombvsville fruit can do by creating a wine with some serious power yet at the same time retaining its balance. This is a wine one would almost suspect comes from a vineyard further up valley. Like the 2005 this wine has an intense long lasting finish. The tannins are chewy, broad and expressive of the terroir as they reveal a dusty and earthy quality. The 2005 Special Family Reserve showcases both their vineyard as well as clone 7, which is planted entirely on the St. George rootstalk, a proven rootstalk that has been in use for many years (100% varietal Cabernet Sauvignon). The bouquet is alluring with notes of brown chocolate, black fig and baking spices. The initial mouth feel is smooth and supple with delicious flavors of dark fruit including black cherry. The finish is well structured and lingers beautifully leaving notes of dark berry fruit on the palate. These wines have great color in the glass, complex layered aromas, an expressive note of earthiness from the vineyard as well as showcasing intense flavor. Meteor's wines while showing this rich layered fruit are not only about the fruit - they contain good structure and balance and they are certainly built to age. These are wines for serious wine enthusiasts as well as for long term collectors. The wine can sometimes be found locally at Dean & Deluca and ACME Fine Wine, both in St. Helena as well as several area restaurants including at Meadowood and Auberge du Soleil. The best way to acquire their wine is via their mailing list (still open at the time of this review). Visit: www.meteorvineyard.com |
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Mi Sueno Winery (means "my dream" in Spanish) and was founded and is owned by long time Napa winemaker Rolando Herrera. As Rolando says, it took him 20 years to realize this dream but just 20 seconds to come up with the name! The story that leads to the founding of this winery is actually quite amazing. Rolando's family immigrated to the USA seeking a better life in 1975. His Napa Valley beginnings were very humble, starting as a dishwasher at Auberge du Soleil then a line cook at Mustard’s Grill...talk about starting at the bottom and working your way up. Rolando had often wondered what it would be like to work at a winery as he drove by the wineries every day on his way to work. When a friend told him he had an extra job at the already famous Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Rolando jumped at the opportunity. During his first day of work he headed straight for the cellar but quickly found out this "winery job" had absolutely nothing to with wine; rather it was constructing a stone wall around the home of famed vintner, Warren Winiarski. Talk about a let down! However Winiarski soon could see the Rolando had interest in wine and he was able to work a harvest soon thereafter. He then moved into working additional harvests and gained invaluable experience in the cellar; at the young age of 21 be became cellar master for this very well known winery. Other winemaking positions included working for Chateau Potelle, Vine Cliff and Paul Hobbs. With a resume like Rolando's it was only a matter of time before he jumped into making wine for his own commercial winery.
Mi Sueno sources all their fruit from select vineyards both in Napa and neighboring Sonoma County. Rolando's brother Richardo has been a much sought after vineyard manager and winemaker (with stints at Screaming Eagle, and Dominus) and today exclusively works with Mi Sueno. What is unique about this winery regarding their vineyards is that despite sourcing all fruit for their wine (they own no vineyards), in actuality they essentially "own" the vineyards, just not the land. The reason for this is all vineyards they source from are locked up in very long term contracts allowing them to build consistency into their wines as well as gain control of the actual vineyards. In addition, they micro manage these vineyards themselves and in some cases actually planted the vines. If they take over a "new" vineyard and its not up to their exacting specifications (pruning, quality of fruit etc), they will retrain the vines to their specifications before they even use the fruit in their own wines. This is a very unique level of involvement not often found with a winery that "sources" fruit and does not actually own the land. Ease of work and shortcuts are always a temptation in any industry; Mi Sueno does not take these shortcuts - quality is of the utmost concern with everything this winery does. The winery itself does not usually see visitors due to its industrial park location, however you are in luck - their wines are poured at the multi winery tasting room Vintner's Collective in downtown Napa. Their first vintage was in 1997, merely several hundred cases of Chardonnay. Today they make about 5000 cases and growing. The 2005 Los Carneros Chardonnay is straw like in color - nice golden hues with robust aromas of toasted almond and crème Brule. This wine undergoes 100% malolactic fermentation and like many of Rolando's wines, the fermentation is with natural yeasts. There is a lot of depth represented in this wine which you feel in the viscous and layered palate. The mouth feel is soft and silky with nice citrus driven fruit notes as well as hints of honey and subtle oak towards the finish. An older vintage of this wine was also served at a White House State dinner for at that time the President of Mexico, Vicente Fox. The 2006 Russian River Pinot Noir from the Ulises Vineyard in neighboring Sonoma County is not a light weight Pinot Noir! This is pretty obvious starting with the deep ruby color and a nose full of flower characteristics, rose petals and lavender with a undertone of spices. This is a full bodied Pinot with a layered palate that packs a rich array of lively fruit including pomegranate and raspberry. The mouth feel is round and very well balanced. This was served at a Cinco de Mayo White House dinner in 2008. The El Llano Red Blend (Cabernet Sauvignon & Syrah) is their most produced "workhorse" wine. It is very versatile and in much demand. Invariably your first impression of this wine will be its dramatic dark color. Like Rolando's other wines it has an excellent mouth feel - plush, velvety and smooth. Nice dark fruit flavors are present including blackberry and black cherry - with almost a briary characteristic. Spices and an interesting earthy nuance round out the finish. The Herrera label features wines that are available in only very limited quantities - typically fewer than 100 cases. These are only released when they have a barrel with superb quality wine or a specific vineyard block that does especially well one year. As a result, unfortunately these are typically sold out and unavailable for tasting at Vintner's Collective however, you can contact the winery for specific release dates and to get on their mailing list. Should you be a well-known sports player, ask about their signed jersey for wine program! Visit: www.misuenowinery.com |
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Initially Midsummer Cellars custom crushed their fruit at several wineries before they found this excellent location. The winery is about as small a winery as you will find in the Napa Valley. It has a tiny crush pad and a few storage cellar sheds for the barrels. A visit is for small groups and weather permitting is held outside under what is one of the largest Valley Oaks (Quercus lobata) in the Napa Valley. This oak is extremely old and was chosen as a "corner marker" in a land grant many years ago, as even then it was a significant tree. The tasting is always with Rollie as he is the grape grower, vineyard manager, and winemaker and is about as personal a tasting experience as you will find in Napa. In other words he exclusively runs this winery! You will start your tasting with a barrel sample which is an early glimpse of his future vintages and then you will try the "good stuff" which is his current vintage. We sampled his 2004 Canon Creek Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a very smooth velvety Cabernet with sweet tannins anchoring the pleasant long finish. There are lots of fruit flavors in this wine including blackberry and black cherry especially in the mid palate. The nose is strong and complex. This is a very high end Cabernet but is reasonably priced by Napa standards. Because of the small size of the winery Rollie can micromanage all aspects of the growing and winemaking. He plans to bring additional Cabernets from other vineyards to market and ramp up his production slightly in the coming years. You can join his mailing list. Visit: www.midsummercellars.com |
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Your tasting is always with one of the Milat family members as they rotate themselves in front of the public every week. They like to compete between each other to see who sells the most wine in the tasting room! It is refreshing to actually talk to the owners/winemakers themselves at a winery situated along Highway 29 - compared to many of the corporate or private large wineries in this area where you will never even meet the owner or winemaker. Milat has about 20 acres planted (behind and around the tasting room) and they are the vineyard managers as well as the winemakers. For $5 you can try 6-7 wines. Their wines are well balanced and are structured to be consumed upon release. In addition, all their current release wines are priced extremely reasonably when compared to so many of the high priced wines in the Napa area. Their Chenin Blanc is among the best we've tasted in the valley - the 2005 Chardonnay is a very rich full bodied example of what you can do with this varietal. It sees both barrel and tank aging and undergoes no malolactic fermentation; there are lots of good fruit layers in this wine. Their Merlot, Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon are all 100% varietal (no blending). Their Merlot is noteworthy because its very representative of its terroir and with Eucalyptus trees planted nearby, the only way you would miss the big herbal, mint and menthol aromas in the nose is if your sense of smell had been destroyed. These aromas carry into the palate only slightly with more cherry and plum flavors to follow towards the finish. Both their Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon's are very rich in flavor. Their Zivio vintage Zinfandel Port is not a syrup bomb; yes it is sweet but it is a well balanced sweet between body, flavor and structure. It has a nice name to, Zivio means "cheers" in Croatian. Because this family has been in the valley for so long and they actually work the tasting counter - its well worth a stop here just to talk about winemaking in general or about any of the other wineries, owners or winemakers. We've been here several times and once Mike Milat (one of the two brothers) was working the tasting counter. Mike knows many Napa winery owners and winemakers and is one of the better winemaker story tellers we've come across in the valley. One of their labels is a sketch of one of their homes. The property is very historical as well. Guest rooms are also available on site. This is a winery one would hate to ever see become corporate. Visit: www.milat.com |
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Miller Wine Works is owned by Gary Miller who was a professional chef for a number of years. His is as passionate about wine as he is about food and now devotes his time to running all aspects of his own winery including the winemaking. His first introduction to wine came in the late 1970's when he was a wine buyer. Gary has a culinary background having graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in New York. He worked as a chef for some very high end restaurants from Chicago to Aspen which gave him a unique appreciation of fine wine and great food. When you think about it, a culinary background is good training for the types of decisions that are inherently part of making wine - the "recipe" if you will. As he says, wine is "liquid food". Gary moved to the Napa Valley in the late 90's and soon took wine making related jobs with Napa wineries, La Jota and Robert Biale Vineyards. It was here that he received his first hands on experience making wine which would well serve as his platform for his own wine making efforts. Great ingredients in food can be compared to finding great vineyards in winemaking. Through his local wine connections he has been able to secure grapes from several high end vineyards on a consistent basis (the majority being in Napa but also Sonoma, Marin and Lake Counties).
The 2005, The Works - Kimberly's selection (named after his wife) is a Rhone styled blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre - all grown in Napa. It is a unique proprietary blend that is dark crimson in color with a luscious and supple mouth feel. The nose is somewhat smoky and earthy with floral nuances. This is a great food wine. The 2005 Syrah is a mouth coating rich juicy wine well layered in flavor. The bouquet hints of vanilla and violets with a palate that is full of dark fruit including blackberry and blueberry. Well balanced tannins anchor a very long finish. It is always refreshing to find "unique - non typical Napa" wines on this project being produced from Napa wineries- Miller makes two of these types of wines. One is a Pinot noir from Marin County. Marin County is certainly not known for its wines compared to say Napa or Sonoma as there are only limited areas where grapes can be grown here. For instance close to the ocean its too cold and urban development and rugged chaparral covered hillsides also limit the vineyard terroir. The growing season tends to be fairly long with ocean and bay influences moderating the temperatures in the winter more than vineyards to the north while in the summer provides a cooler long growing season. As a result flavors can really develop slowly, the grapes have excellent acidity and typically do not reach uber ripeness, thus keeping the sugars lower. Miller's 2005 Pinot noir is certainly representative of what Marin county can offer as far as terroir. After trying the wine you might think Sonoma Coast, Russian River or Carneros - no, its from Marin County! This wine has great structure and is absolutely loaded with fruit. The nose has nuances of spice and chocolate mixed with cranberry leading to a palate that is well structured and well balanced with appealing flavors including cherry cola, raspberry and dark cherry. Only 163 cases of this wine were produced. The other "not usually found in Napa" wine is a Non Vintage Port called Teodoro (named after his grandfather) from the Sage Canyon Vineyard located in the eastern Vaca mountain range. Normally when a Napa winery produces a Portuguese styled port they source from vineyards located outside of Napa County. It is unusual to find the following varietals in Napa - this wine is a blend of Tinta Cao, Touriga National and Souzao and each varietal contributes its own characteristics to this wine. In addition, it is very rare to find any non vintage wines in Napa; the beauty of these types of wines is you combine wine that has the benefit of being aged with younger wine which shows more fruit. Port lovers take note, this is a rich wine both in alcohol and flavor. The bouquet is very pungent with notes of candied sweet fruit. The mouth feel is rounded, somewhat soft but full of fruit, nuances of cloves, spices and browned sugar. This wine is guaranteed to warm you up on a cold winter's day! Oh, and the price is quite reasonable to. For more information and some of Gary's special recipes, visit: www.millerwineworks.com |
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We tried the 2003 vintage which was their current release as of press time. Its nice that it has an extra year or two of bottle aging before release. It is a Bordeaux blend of grapes from the aforementioned Stagecoach Vineyards. Just a side note regarding these vineyards; we met with the owner of Stagecoach, Jan Krupp who told us when he originally planted the vineyards how he had to make 40-50 cold calls to even find a winery to purchase the grapes. Wow, its amazing how fast this vineyard has come to fruition and is now producing extremely high quality fruit for a variety of wineries. This wine has a real elegant nose with nice notes of free run blackberry juice which carries onto the palate with even additional fruit. This is a classic Bordeaux style blend. Miner's philosophy is that their wines are nearly eighty percent complete before they harvest the season's first grape. It is the old adage that winemaking starts in the vineyards. A walkway outside of their main tasting room provides good views over the central part of Napa Valley. Also from a distance you can check out their large array of solar panels on the hillside near the actual winery. You can't miss seeing these as you drive by on Silverado Trail. Several wine clubs are available. If you have time, make an appointment for one of their winery and cave tours. They have a pretty extensive working cave system (other small wineries use parts of their caves for custom crushing). Talk about nice names for the caves as each of the cross caves is named after the "crossroads" in the valley, and the two main tunnels are named Highway 29 and Silverado Trail! The 'Grand Cru Tasting' is the ultimate Miner experience and takes place in their nicely decorated cavern at a long table. Of note, Miner's wines are fairly well distributed across 42 states. Of note x2 is Miner is part of an "urban tasting room" collective located in San Francisco which features just a handful of high end mostly Napa and Sonoma Wineries. Visit: www.minerwines.com |
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Mirror Wine Co involves a partners ship with long time Napa wine veteran winemaker Rob Lawson and his friend Rick Mirer. Rick's time in the Napa Valley a few years ago was somewhat different than what most people experience. He was the man behind the football at the Napa Valley Marriott for the NFL's Oakland Raiders during their football training camp. It was during this time and subsequent visits that Rick fell in love with the valley. He has enjoyed fine wines for a number of years and continues to collect wines from around the world.
While not making the wines himself he is certainly not a hands off owner as he is involved in the blending decisions and often makes trips up to Napa from San Diego for events and for other critical winemaking decisions. We caught up with Rick recently at his office in St. Helena and from our discussion it is clear that he has a genuine passion for wine and is a subject he truly enjoys talking about. During one visit up valley a number of years ago he stopped in at Tra Vigne Restaurant in St. Helena back when Karen Williams and David Stevens were working here. Today Karen and David run one of the more accomplished boutique wine shops in the valley - ACME Fine Wines in St. Helena. Rick struck up a conversation and got to know both David and Karen; he remembers trying a 98' Hourglass Cabernet Sauvignon and being blown away by the quality and intensity of the wine. During later years with his football career behind him this was the perfect time to get into the wine industry. After his initial experience with Hourglass he later struck up a friendship with owner Jeff Smith and Jeff introduced Rick to long time Napa winemaker Rob Lawson at Napa Wine Co. Rob is 3rd generation in the wine business; his father was Vice President of Marketing at Robert Mondavi Winery and his grandfather was the President of Beringer. Rob has been CEO of the Napa Wine Co and has made or helped make a number of what are today established and well respected brands. Along with his own label Pavi, and wine for a number of other producers, he also makes Mirror wine at Napa Wine Co. Mirror is a name that of course ties in well with Rick's name yet in addition as Rick pointed out the two "R's in the name tie both of their names into this project. Also, mirror means "a true representation" as in a true representation of their vineyard sources. With Rob's background in the valley he has a number of contacts for premium vineyards. The same vineyards have been used in all their vintages which include Cabernet Sauvignon from two vineyards in St. Helena and one in Oakville (incidentally two of Rick's favorite appellations in the valley) and their Malbec comes from a vineyard between St. Helena and Calistoga. Rob has become very familiar with the Malbec varietal as he is involved in a project in Mendoza Argentina, the heart of Malbec country in South America. The 2005 vintage is blended slightly with 3% Malbec. This is a wine that will certainly appeal to a wide variety of palates. Rick does not enjoy a wine that is overly oaked and his wines are definitely not crafted in that style. As a result his wines are expressive of the fruit rather than the winemaking aging techniques. The 2005 vintage saw 50% new French Oak and 50% neutral. This wine is rather dark in the glass; the initial aromas are quite elegant. The bouquet shows red and black cherry with nice notes of cocoa complementing rather than dominating. The mouth feel is soft and supple upon entry showing fruit flavors that tend to be on the darker side (blackberry) with cocoa, hints of vanilla and notes of cigar paper towards the finish. The finish is smooth with round delicate tannins and super long. It is always nice when we find a wine that fits our palate like a glove and this wine certainly does that. Rick prefers to give his wines a bit more age before releasing them rather than driving them to market after a previous vintage sells out. As of press time they are almost out of the 2005 but will release the 2006 sometime in early 2010. Their total production to date has run between 500 and 700 cases and they are distributed well in parts of San Diego (Rick's current hometown), Chicago as well as can be found locally at a wide variety of locations including ACME Wine Shop in St. Helena. In addition you can join their mailing list online. Visit: www.mirrorwine.com |
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Marin's family originally comes from Croatia and he grew up with his relatives making wine and having a wine cellar and barrels in his own home. Even today his family in Croatia continues to make wine. Looking to get into the wine industry he started searching for a unique Napa winery and vineyard. Not owning a winery for several years but slipping into the wine business Marin sourced fruit from several Napa Vineyards for his first few vintages. This was a smart way to get his brand out there while not actually yet owning a winery. After looking for just the right property, he found the original home of Judd's Hill and the actual winery from which Judd's Hill takes its name. This winery truly is perched on a hillside and as a result flat land is at a premium. At the time of our visit a new 5000 square foot cave was getting very close to completion. Using the dirt spoils left over from the drilling of this cave he built a parking lot on the side of the winery where steep slopes used to be. The winery is small but very functional - one shaft of the cave actually comes right out into the original barrel room. There are 12 planted acres on site, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyard has already proven itself based on Judd's Hill's success; MJA Vineyards first estate release will be from 2008. A visit here is by appointment only and for serious wine enthusiasts who want a very personalized intimate experience. Tastings are either inside the elegantly furnished main room with its interesting mix of Hawaiian and Croatian art influences, or outside on the deck with beautiful views overlooking their vineyards and the native vegetation covering the nearby hills. MJA Vineyards plans to start taking appointments sometime in November 2008. The winery has been completely remodeled in the style of an old world Italian or Croatian looking building. There is nice stone and woodwork inside with a kitchen for wine and food pairings. Note the wood table that is the centerpiece of the main room - a metal compass is embedded into the wood; this compass originally sat in the floor of the Royal Academy in London. Coffee lovers take note - Marin has moved in several roasting machines from his Coffee business and in addition to the wine, plans on serving fresh high end coffee as well. How many Napa wineries have the ability to serve up high end fresh coffee! After visiting the vineyards and standing out on his deck one word comes to mind, "serene" and is in fact how Marin chose the name for his wines. We started our tasting with a 2007 Sauvignon Blanc. This is a very golden Sauvignon Blanc. Marin wanted a leaner crisper style and has been successful with this in this vintage. With his Hawaiian background it is almost no surprise that the bouquet on this wine is very aromatic and somewhat tropical in nature. The palate has good phenolic grip or weight and shows some pineapple and kiwi with a smooth finish that hints of citrus. The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon is blended with Cabernet Franc and is from several area vineyards. This wine has a very fruit forward nose with subtle spices and hints of oak - either decant this wine or let it open further and the nose will change nicely and evolve over time. The palate is full of plum and black cherry with well integrated oak nuances. The finish is extremely smooth. In the future, also look for a second label called DaVine Cellars - a Cabernet Sauvignon. Visit: www.mjavineyards.com |
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Modus Operandi is operated by Jason Moore, a Texas transplant to the Napa Valley. Jason worked for several years in the restaurant industry waiting tables at fine establishments while living in Dallas and during this time earned his real estate license. He would wait tables by night and sell real estate by day. Ambitions of going on to a successful career in real estate were slowly squelched when he realized this was something that he was just not passionate about. Racking his brain for a career that would combine "fun" and education with something he was already passionate about clicked one day when his wife said "how about doing something with wine".
This seriously hit home and within months they had sold most everything they owned and moved to Davis, California with the possible intent of attending UC Davis (prominent enology and viticulture programs) down the line. While in Davis he started to learn as much about wine as possible by immersing himself in wine making books, talking to other UC Davis enology and viticulture students and those in the industry. Being a hands on guy and describing winemaking as "art supported by science" he eventually decided he needed to get some hands on experience. What turned into a fortuitous event occurred at a wine tasting. He met a Napa vineyard owner who had bought a piece of land for a vacation home which happened to have a sizeable vineyard. At the tasting, this gentleman told Jason about his vineyard and that he knew next to nothing about vineyard management and winemaking. Jason asked if it would be ok if he took his second crop and the reply came back that he could have the entire first crop. Many things are often said at tastings and you never know if someone is serious or not. Several months later Jason approached this man and the deal was still on. In addition, he bought Jason all the necessary wine making equipment and setup a small lab containing everything he needed in a garage. Jason was able to put all his theory and studying to the test and he made several garagiste produced vintages. During this time he was still working in the hospitality industry, in this case at the well regarded La Toque Restaurant which at the time was located in Yountville. These were extremely long days in Napa (while still commuting between Davis) - besides his job at La Toque and his own winemaking project he was also on the winemaking team at Viader where he furthered his winemaking experience. It is clear that Jason has a well focused passion for his art and truly enjoys winemaking. Working with a number of small lots he has the flexibility and interest to experiment with different yeasts, barrel programs and a number of other winemaking techniques using grapes from the same vineyard. This experimentation is more of a long term philosophy by over time choosing what works and applying this to future harvests. His first vintage was in 2004 and 2009 will be the first vintage at "JuiceBox", a state of the art new "business park" winery located in south Napa. A number of wines are made here including several already well established brands. Jason also makes wines here for a few other small boutique producers. We met with Jason soon after he returned from visiting small family owned vineyards in France - as he says, his plan is a long term one for his own wine. He wants to pass this business down to his family similar to how generations run small wineries in France, Italy and other European countries. He currently makes three labels; Modus Operandi, Vicarious and Antithesis. The 2008 Sauvignon Blanc is sourced from an organic vineyard in Rutherford. This wine strikes a very nice balance between the more grassy New Zealand styled Sauvignon Blancs and the Napa more fruit forward versions. It is a wine that is a result of several years prior experience using fruit from this vineyard as well as testing different yeast regiments and barrel programs. This wine saw both tank and barrel during its aging, is pale straw in the glass with excellent aromatics including notes of citrus blossom and honeysuckle. The palate is not overly creamy or for that matter too lean. It is crisp and clean with a super long finish leaving lingering notes of citrus on the palate including grapefruit. All of the Modus red wines are blends - the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon is from some excellent vineyard sources including the Rocca Vineyards in cooler Coombsville (just east of the town of Napa), Merlot from Oakville and a bit of Cabernet Franc from the Crocker Starr Vineyard in St. Helena. This is a dark wine with lots of black fruit showing on the nose as well as touches of cocoa powder and cedar. The entry is soft and juicy but builds up structure rather quickly by the mid palate leading to a finish with broad dusty tannins. Jason is very careful in his tannin management and his red wines do not display huge chalky tannin based finishes, rather they are meant to be enjoyed now and with food. The 2007 Vicarious is a unique red blend including the majority varietal being Cabernet Sauvignon as well as smaller amounts of Petite Sirah, Cabernet Franc, Syrah and Merlot. This wine will be released in October 2009. It is a wine that over delivers for the price. It is a soft and voluptuous wine that is extremely dark in color. In our opinion, this is the type of wine that will probably appeal to a wide variety of palates. It shows dark berry fruit, dark chocolate and is a good candidate to pair with something gamey or something BBQ'd. Rounded dusty tannins anchor the pleasing finish. His Antithesis is a very unique proprietary red wine which combines two varietals we have not yet seen in a wine from a Napa producer. If you are lucky to get your hands on this wine you can test your palate to try and identify these two red varietals! The Antithesis is made in such small quantities that is sells out rather quickly. Modus Operandi wines are generally distributed in a number of select restaurants in certain states nationwide including California, NY and Florida. Their total production is currently under 1000 cases. As expected you can find the wines at La Toque Restaurant in Napa and also V Wine Cellars, an upscale wine shop in Yountville. Modus maintains a wine club. A bonus for being a member are the small lot wines - these are made from the individual components that will appear in the final blends. Also of note is Jason's Sauvignon Blanc made it to the White House. It was served at President Obama's first State Dinner for the Prime Minister of India. Visit: www.moduswines.com |
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As with many vintners we have met with on this project, the "Napa Allure" kicked in and they found themselves with a vineyard manager and selling all fruit every year to local wineries. With their fruit in high demand they began asking the question every grower in the valley asks who doesn't actually make wine. They started taking some courses in winemaking and quickly decided to retain some of their fruit for their own wine. This is truly a family owned and operated winery with all members handling some role ranging from the actual winemaking to cellar operations as well as the sales & marketing. As of press time they are waiting for their new vineyards on Howell Mountain to start producing. They are not open to the public but do accept appointments from interested serious wine enthusiasts. There is no signage for their location so be sure to get directions ahead of time. Look for the mailbox located at the top of a 20 foot pole near their dirt driveway! You will always taste with one of the owners - typically the winemaker himself. They produce a variety of wines including their Gemstone which is predominately Cabernet Sauvignon with several Bordeaux varietals blended in. This is the one Livingston Moffett label that will be continued as the rest of their labels will be called solely Moffett. All vintages from 2008 onwards are now found under the Moffet label. This Cabernet Sauvignon is from the Gemstone vineyard in the Yountville district and has an interesting story as only women are allowed to manage the actual portion of this vineyard. Also be sure to try their Syrah. Syrah can be a difficult wine to make properly and they do a very good job with theirs. It is bottled unfined and unfiltered, native yeasts are used during the fermentation and a small percentage of the white varietal, Viognier is blended in. Trent and his wife Colleen produce another label called C&T Cellars which had its first commercial production in the early to mid 1990's. This name comes from the first initials their names. C&T is a fun wine with lively names such as Skinny Dip Sauvignon Blanc, Patio Pinot, and Rooftop Red among others. We tried the 2006 Sauvignon Blanc. Its a crisp clean wine that will pair well with food. The bouquet has notes of pear and citrus with the citrus following onto the palate. These Napa wines are all priced extremely affordably especially by Napa standards. Visit: www.livingston-wines.com |
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Monticelli Brothers Winery is owned and operated by two brothers, Massimo and Mario - both 4th generation winemakers. In Italy small towns have a "local winemaker" which was a role their grandfather filled in a small town in Tuscany. After WWII he and his family including Massimo and Mario's father immigrated to the USA. Bringing cuttings in a suitcase, their grandfather literally brought his business with him and had the beginnings to start a vineyard in California. For many years he grew grapes in the Central valley for making raisins but kept a number of rows planted to Italian varietals for home wine. As a result both Massimo and Mario have spent their entire lives in and around the wine industry. Their father was winemaker and later an executive for Gallo Winery. Don't confuse this winery with nearby Monticello Winery (named after Thomas Jefferson's estate and no relation to the family) - Monticelli Brothers actually made the first few vintages of their wine at Monticello Winery perhaps contributing to some confusion at that time.
All their wines are named after family members and as of press time they produce four different wines. We met with Massimo for our tasting. He is spirited, enthusiastic and extremely passionate about the hands on part of wine making. Once on the fast track to be a doctor, his family roots called out and he changed career paths eventually earning his masters in winemaking from UC Davis. Along with making his own wine, he also consults for a number of select fairly small producers. He often works with great Napa vineyard sources and he uses a soccer analogy in regards to his winemaking, "the goalie is out of the cage and its his job to tap it in." Nice! He has done a fantastic job with the 2003 Mario Sangiovese which is made in an Italian style. True to the Italian way of making this wine it is 100% varietal. It has bright fruit, lively acidity and very fruit driven aromas. Red cherry with an assortment of spices is found on the mid palate; the finish is very smooth. One varietal that Massimo loves is Cabernet Sauvignon and he said he would rather drink a mediocre Cabernet Sauvignon than any other varietal. The 2006 Massimo Cabernet Sauvignon (named after himself in regards to his passion for this wine!) is anything but mediocre. It is sourced from several high end Napa vineyards. It is dark and inky and conveys very nice balance both on the bouquet and on the palate. This is a rich mouth watering wine. The lengthy finish is somewhat dusty and almost earthy in nature. Out of more than 500 Napa commercial wine producers we have visited and tasted with on this project we have run into only a non vintage red wine a handful of times (we are not counting non vintage sweet Port wine). So as you can see, this is very rare to find this type of wine in Napa! This is the wine that both Massimo and Mario would drink while "making" wine in the cellar. They determined (correctly) that since it was something they enjoyed (even while working), why not bottle it commercially. Little did they know how popular of a wine it would become as now it is their best seller. After tasting it, we can see why. By bottling a modified Solera style non vintage wine you combine the characteristics that aging brings to the wine as well as additional fruit from the younger "juice". They strive for consistency with this wine always using the same oak program from year to year as well as 50% of the wine left in barrel always carries over to the next year's vintage. This wine is called Rolando Rosso, named after a great Uncle. It is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Merlot. We tried the current release; the aromas are floral and hints of violet are intermingled with very ripe fruit. The palate is juicy ready to drink now and the mouth feel is smooth and velvety with great fruit flavors. Lastly, as a complete change from their normal wines is the rich dessert wine called Lito Vin Santo. The grapes for this wine are harvested late and are laid out on mats to dehydrate. Then they are pressed off and the resulting juice is of course very rich and concentrated in flavor. Fermentation and aging then takes place in sealed oak barrels. After 3-5 years of aging the clear wine is removed from the cloudy lees and other yeast material. The "mother yeast" is always left in the remaining barrels which are then filled with the current years vintage. Historically this same yeast has been used in their family for this type of wine since the 1950's! Some interesting varietals are used to make this wine including Muscat Canelli, Malvasia Bianca, followed by Sangiovese, Aleatico and very small amounts of Brachetto, Semillon and Trousseau. The 2003 is a pleasant wine (residual sugar only 2% with a relatively low alcohol content) with a honey profile on the nose followed onto the palate in the flavors. We also found apricot, crème Brule, a toasted nuttiness and a slight baking spice to the finish. Their focus of distribution is within restaurants - you can find them locally on the wine list at Don Giovanni's in Napa and the Rutherford Grill. The have select distribution in New York and Florida. www.monticellibros.com |
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Monticello makes two types of wines; their Monticello Vineyards label which are affordably priced and are approachable now food friendly wines, as well as the Corley label which includes their reserve and higher end wines (smaller production, longer aging). They also make a Brut sparkling wine from a Pinot noir/Chardonnay blend...French style, with low acidity. We tried the 2005 Chardonnay; this is a well balanced wine with notes of caramel, pear and apple with a very nice rounded mouth feel. The owners have always enjoyed Pinot noir and their 2006 vintage is medium bodied full of raspberry notes and hints of vanilla towards the finish. Also very nice Merlots and Cabernet Sauvignon including their 2004 Jefferson Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon. Choose from two tastings, either their Monticello wines or the Corley wines. If you've tasted here before, when you return you can ask for a complimentary tasting. Monticello also offers a variety of sit down wine seminars in the "Monticello" house including their popular Bordeaux Component Seminar in which you try unfinished blends and then the final wine. These are by appointment only. www.corleyfamilynapavalley.com |
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Morlet Family Vineyards was started by French winemaker Luc Morlet and his wife Jodie; 2006 was their first vintage. Luc comes from 4 generations of winegrowers and has worked over 20 harvests. He literally grew up among the vineyards and in the winery. His family has been growing grapes and making wine since the early 1800's. Their winery is Pierre Morlet & Fils, in Avenay-Val-d’Or, Champagne France and their focus is on Champagne varietals using the primary varietals Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
Luc holds several degrees in winemaking and viticulture from France and after working at his family's winery for many years he had stints in Burgundy, Bordeaux, Champagne and the southwest part of France. His first introduction to the Napa Valley however, came in 1993 when he replaced a winemaker at a French subsidiary winery in the valley. He returned to Napa permanently in 1996 where he took over for John Kongsgaard at Newton. Before Luc became their Director of Viticulture and Enology he had a chance to work with John and later continued crafting their well-known, Unfiltered Chardonnay. Luc also consulted with French blending master Michel Rolland during his time at Newton. Later Luc became the full time winemaker at Peter Michael Winery (just north of the Napa Valley in Knights Valley) and more recently was winemaker at Staglin. He is still the consulting winemaker at Peter Michael - helping his brother Nicolas who is their primary winemaker. Luc is an extremely talented individual whose knowledge about wine and passion has helped create some of the top wines in valley as well as work with some of the most sought after vineyards including Beckstoffer's To Kalon. He is also an inventor; he created a special type of sorting/destemmer device and had it patented under the Le TrieurTM name. It is now sold under P&L Specialties with over 150 in production and it is used at some of the top wineries in the valley. Not only does Luc source from premium vineyards in Napa County, but his philosophy is to source from a variety of micro-climates and terroir seeking out regions that best match the varietals. As a result he sources from a number of vineyards in both Napa and Sonoma County as well as to the north. His winemaking is certainly "old world" in style and influence but uses the best of California fruit from specific terroir within Northern California's wide range of wine regions. Luc calls his own style "neo-classic laissez-faire without compromise". He takes a minimalist approach to winemaking but with one important factor: start with premium vineyards. While the focus is unwavering from a vineyard perspective the winemaking is no less demanding in attention to detail. Using Luc's own destemmer they double sort any fruit that comes in to the winery. The wines are mostly unfiltered and native yeast is used for the fermentations. Luc has access to a number of artisan French coopers. Some of his fermentations are conducted in demi-muid barrels - large style puncheons. It is unusual to find an artisan Napa producer with such a varied lineup of wines. There are 12 different wines in production at the time of this review under the Morlet Family Vineyard label as well as a number of his family's own Champagnes imported from France. The Morlet Family wines are produced in small quantities usually from 50 cases to several hundred cases. All his wines have French names, each with a specific meaning. First lets start with one of his imported wines. The 2002 Champagne Pierre Morlet Grande Reserve is a softer styled Champagne with appealing subtle aromas of melon, peach and watermelon on the bouquet. White toast, strawberry, watermelon and other delicate fruit show on the slightly creamy palate. This Champagne was partially fermented in the larger demi-muid barrels (a rarity in Champagne). This Champagne is an excellent value. For more information about their Champagnes and the family winery in Champagne, France visit: www.champagnepierremorlet.com The 2008 La Proportion Doree is a unique white wine blend from neighboring Sonoma County. This wine is a blend of Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle. La Proportion Doree means "the golden proportion" in French. This wine was fermented in barrel using native yeasts. It shows a golden yellow hue in the glass. Notes of ripe red apple and honeysuckle make up the bouquet. The entry is soft and rounded which continues across the palate. This wine has a wonderful depth of flavor including Muscat and apricot with lingering zesty spices on the finish. The richness of flavor continues for some time. This is also their most produced wine - about 500 cases. The 2007 Knight's Valley Mon Chevalier or in English, "my knight" has a dual meaning - named in honor of his son as well as for the Knight's Valley source vineyard. This wine was made in a Rhone style and includes the 5 major Bordeaux varietals - the majority being Cabernet Sauvignon. Dark fruit and sage on the nose lead to a palate that shows predominately blue and black fruit including blackberry and black cherry. There is rich kiss of tannin on the finish, it is soft and rounded. This is an elegant food friendly wine. As with his other wines Morlet uses a judicious amount of French Oak often from artisan coopers - with the oak adding complexity to the wine rather than dominating; the focus being on balanced wine. One of our favorites is the 2007 Bouquet Garni, 100% varietal Syrah or in English, "Garnished Bouquet". This wine is from a vineyard in Santa Rosa's Bennet Valley in neighboring Sonoma County - incidentally mere minutes from where we live. Dark fruit aromas on the nose along with hints of toasted oak lead to an initially soft palate which quickly gains complexity across the mouth. This wine is voluptuous without being too big and shows finesse without being too delicate. Notes of spice on the palate include pepper and cloves. The finish is anchored by rather soft delicate tannins and is wonderfully in balance. Morlet's eight-acre estate vineyard is located in Knights Valley - just north of Calistoga. Fruit from this vineyard will be used in upcoming vintages. Morlet Family Vineyards has long term contracts with all their growers; this allows them to consistently use specific vineyard blocks each year. All Morlet's wines are verifiable and easily authenticated by the Bubble Seal and Prooftag that appears on every bottle. This seal certifies the authenticity of every bottle of wine; the identity codes can be entered on the company's website. For more information about this unique and innovative way of securing the authenticity of every wine bottle visit: www.prooftag.com Morlet produces inspired wines that have a certain finesse to them. These are classically created wines using some of the best of Northern California's vineyards. These wines stand in front of the quality that goes into making them both in the vineyard and in the winery and are anchored by a rich winemaking heritage. Morlet also makes a premium late harvest Semillon dessert wine which we have yet to try. 2000 cases of his family's Champagne are imported each year; for a fairly small producer and high quality of the wine, this Champagne is available at a very reasonable retail price. Most of their wines are sold direct through the mailing list although you can find the wine locally at 750 Wines in St. Helena. They also have good distribution in Los Angeles and are found at Spago Beverly Hills. For more information visit: www.morletfamilyvineyards.com |
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The Moskowite's planted grapes here in 1972 and sold the fruit to other wineries. Today the winery is run by George and Ann Moskowite (they re-opened the winery after it was dormant for several years). They cannot use all the grapes on site for their own wines (160+ planted acres) so they still sell some of the fruit to high end wineries - Markham, Raymond and Saddleback Cellars among others. Moss Creek uses grapes from the highest quality blocks on the property to make their own wine. Often during harvest they will pick a single block multiple times, ensuring only the ripest fruit will be processed. Our visit coincided with harvest and there were several open top fermenters already in use with the wonderful smells of fermenting grapes and juice hanging in the air almost tempting one to start tasting! Harvest is always a nice time to be visiting wineries and we were able to try several samples of partially fermented juice from several varietals. Moss Creek has the privilege of having one of the finest winemakers in Napa Valley in Nils Venge. Nils has been with Moss Creek since Day 1 and he is most well known for producing a Cabernet at Groth Winery which earned a perfect 100 score from the Wine Advocate which made him the first American winemaker to earn such a score. Moss Creek also has the luxury to hold back their wines for aging longer than many wineries. This means when their wines are finally released to the consumer, they have already been properly well aged. Speaking of aging, they also have older library wines available for sale - as of press time vintages up to 11 years old were available. Moss Creek is most known for their Zinfandels and you will see why once you taste one of these! In addition they also produce Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc. We tried several vintages of a wine only sold at the winery which is their Zinfandel port. What a difference several years of aging make, as the alcohol in the earlier vintages has blended nicely with the actual fruit flavors and has really come together as a wine. Their late 90's Zinfandel Ports are amazing and we have one properly cellared for future special occasion imbibing! A small tasting room serviced by whoever happens to be there at the time of your visit is on site as well as a small event area under the oaks where tasting may also occur - weather permitting. A small but functional cave is located in the back of the winery and serious wine enthusiasts are sometimes brought here for some barrel sampling. At press time production is several thousand cases although there are plans to ramp this up slightly. Visit: www.mosscreekwinery.com |
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Muir Hanna Vineyards . Every so often during our project we stumble upon a very special winery and this is certainly one of those. They are one of the very few wineries in the Napa Valley who grow and make their wine locally but have an open to the public tasting room located elsewhere. Their tasting room is located in the historical downtown of Sonora, California about 4 hours east of the Napa Valley in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Once you find out more history about this winery, this location makes a lot of sense as Sonora is on the way to Yosemite National Park and family members used to live in Tuolumne county. This is a completely family owned and operated winery from the vineyard management, to the winemaking to the marketing and distribution of their wines.
The owner is the great grandson of conservationist John Muir who founded the Sierra Club and who helped support the establishment of the National Park service. You may have seen the famous photo of John Muir standing with President Teddy Roosevelt overlooking Yosemite. Muir is quoted as saying, "Everyone needs beauty as well as bread", and this quote appears on their labels. Muir-Hannah planted their own initial vineyards in 1972 - they are 6th generation California grape growers. Some grapes were already planted on site and much of the chardonnay for the now famous Chateau Montelena's 1973 winner at the Paris Tasting came from their vineyards. The vineyards are located just north of the town of Napa in the southern part of the valley. It is a cooler climate here than up valley and as a result they are able to grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay as well as other varietals. They have always farmed environmentally friendly, but as of press time they are in the middle of becoming CCOF certified. For a fairly small winery they produce a wide variety of wines. We started with the 2004 Chardonnay. Quite a bit of the fruit for this wine comes an older clone called Wente (the bud wood for this clone was originally from Stony Hill's vineyards). Their current release chardonnay's are typically a year or two older than most current release chardonnays on the market. They undergo no Malolactic fermentation - the color is a golden amber hue with a very fruity floral nose. There is lots of fruit on the palate including notes of pears and other tropical flavors. It is a delicious wine. Their 2004 Pinot Noir is a lighter fruiter style Pinot. It is not heavily extracted so it's not a dark wine. It has a pleasing flinty nose that hints of strawberries. Their Bordeux style blend is a tribute to John Muir and is appropriately named, Muir's Legacy. The grapes for this wine come from a family vineyard near St. Helena; it is a lighter Cabernet with reasonable tannins. Some notes of cherries and cedars are on the palate. This wine is usually only available through their Sonora tasting room. Lastly we tried a delightful wine called Alpenglow. Great name! The wine is orangish pink in color which is the color you see on the snow fields on high mountains during fading sunsets. It is a somewhat unusual wine in that it is a Rose of Pinot Noir and it is slightly sweet. It is not a sticky syrupy wine, rather it is very refreshing with slight hints of strawberries on the palate. There are lots of photos, history and winery information here: www.muir-hanna.com |
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Complimentary 45 minute tours are given every hour from 10am to 3pm. This is an excellent "production behind the scenes tour" in which you learn about sparkling winemaking techniques and get to see the machinery in action especially in parts of August and early September during crush. Meet Big Al, their large blending tank towering above all their other tanks and also BOB, their amazing robot which handles 36 bottles at one time with its suction cup "fingers". BOB consistently wins employee of the month and our human tour guide was quite bummed about this fact! You will also see trellising on several vines that mimics how vines are trellised in Champagne region in France - which is very low to the ground. You never see these types of vines planted commercially in the Napa Valley! The main reason for this low type of trellising in Champagne is that area has a very cool growing climate and the vines are trained low to the ground to maximize the soil heat. Sparkling wine needs to be turned or "riddled" to move the dead yeast down to the end of the bottle where it can be eventually removed. Mumm has automated this entire process and their "riddling" room is quite a sight to see, especially if you are lucky enough to see the machines in action. A beautiful indoor tasting salon is surrounded by windows affording one excellent views of the outside vineyards. Tables are also setup outside on their patio, weather permitting. Sit down, wait for your server and choose from several tasting flights ranging from the "Best of the Best" to their slightly sweet "Palate Pleaser". You may also order a plethora of sparkling wines by the glass. Did you know that Mumm, a popular sparkling house also makes several still wines? These are usually released in the spring and are the same varietals used to make their sparkling wines (Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris). Our favorite of the off dry wines is the Cuvee M Red, a sparkling that captures some delicious fruit flavors. We also tried their 2002 DVX Rose, a wine not in distribution and is only available for purchase at the winery. It is slightly pink/orange with aromas of strawberry and lavender and pleasing red and black berry flavors. Note the informative wine quotes under the coasters. A small gift shop selling wine knick knacks and winery clothing is located adjacent. This winery has one aging room that has a capacity of over 1 million bottles! There is a large window overlooking this room from their main gallery facility and you look down over a sea of oak barrels. A must see with any visit to this winery is their gallery; often times well-known exhibits rotate here and admission is free of charge to the public. When we visited the exhibit contained original Sierra Nevada mountain photographs by well-known photographers such as Ansel Adams and Galen Rowel. The photos in this gallery topped out in the 20 and 30 thousand dollar range! Check their website for current exhibits and other details: www.mummnapa.com |
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Murphy Vineyards was founded by Peter Murphy in 1995. However, he was managing vineyards and working in the wine industry, long before this dating back to the mid 1970's. His first job was with the well-known Cuvaison winery in their cellar training under Philip Togni who has owned his own winery on Spring Mountain for many years. In later years, Peter founded a vineyard management company called ATS Ag Tech Services, Inc. which allows him vineyard contacts and plenty of land to source grapes for his own wine. All fruit sourced for Murphy Vineyards is from vineyards managed by Peter Murphy and today his son Kevin is actively involved in all vineyard management decisions. Peter has developed a number of very high end vineyards now producing fruit for Napa notables such as Hartwell Vineyards, Bryant Vineyards, and Bravante Vineyards.
This winery focuses on wine from two regions - Napa Valley and the Sierra Foothills and they make the actual wine in the Napa Valley. Their wines have done very well in regional and statewide judging competitions including placing high every year in the San Francisco Chronicle competition. In our opinion the Murphy wines are among the best values to quality ratio in the Napa area. They have found a recipe for success all the while keeping their prices extremely reasonable. All their wines are quite well balanced and the smooth mouth feel is a Murphy Wine hallmark. They are styled to be food friendly wines with bright fruit and lively acidity. We tried the 2004 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon which is a medium bodied wine with as you guessed it, a smooth soft mouth feel. The finish has moderate tannins and is slightly spicy in a pleasant kind of way - balanced in other words. The nose on this wine is completely different than the 2003 vintage despite most of the grapes for both vintages coming from the same vineyard sources. Ahh, the wonders of wine and vintage variations! The 2003 is a very fruit forward wine with lots of ripe blackberry flavors and a smooth somewhat smoky finish. All their wines from the Sierra Foothills are what Peter calls his "Artist" series. They are easily distinguishable from the Napa wines in that their colorful labels are artwork of flowers or other landscapes. Out of their Sierra wines, the Cabernet Franc stands out, especially the very fruity bouquet - think candied fruit. All wines are made at the state of the art custom crush facility near St. Helena called The Ranch Winery. They will ship to a variety of states. Visit: www.vinegrow.com |
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Myriad Cellars was founded by winemaker Mike Smith with his first vintage released in 2005. The name "myriad" has its origins in Greece and one of its translations means "innumerable" which can directly equate to winemaking based on the "innumerable" aspects it takes to create a great bottle of wine.
Myriad Cellars is Napa artisan winemaking at its best; extremely small production (even by artisan standards), hands on winemaking, use of limited production premium French Oak barrels and a clear and focused attention to detail. Mike does all the cellar work himself; as he says, by doing all the cellar work himself, he is "closer to the wines" and has complete control of the entire winemaking process from start to finish. As a long time consumer with a passion for old and new world wines he made a career change after a family business in Oregon sold and then he moved to the Napa Valley. Initially, for three harvests he trained under the well respected winemaker Thomas Brown and has helped make wine for Napa notables including Schrader Cellars, Maybach and Outpost. The wine industry in Napa has a number of producers who have not come from wine making families and we have met several of these winemakers during this project. Fueled by passion and a willingness to learn these individuals move to the area and learn the trade. It is always admirable when we meet producers who are in this situation - those who have changed directions mid career and have become successful winemakers after taking a risk to follow their passion. Mike describes his winemaking as "purist" in style. He is not tied into one type of wine making, rather he bases his efforts on each particular vintage. He is a versatile winemaker having already built up a resume of making various styles of wines for boutique producers. Myriad has been able to source fruit from a variety of high end vineyards including on Spring Mountain, in Carneros as well as from one of Napa's better known sites, the Dr. Crane - Beckstoffer managed Vineyard. If you want a mouth filling Spring Mountain hillside grown wine available at an affordable price considering the quality of the vineyard source and attention to detail with the winemaking, Myriad's Cabernet Sauvignon is an excellent choice. This is a classic show of this appellation's fruit. The vineyard sits at about 900 feet and has provided the fruit for Myriad's Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon since day one. The site is extremely steep and rocky with only 1 to 1.5 tons produced per acre. With a small production like this no dropping of fruit is necessary; the grapes are already extremely concentrated and intense in flavor, which directly translates to the wine. The juice is fermented to become slightly sweet and then placed in barrel. This process helps round out the oak influence from the new French barrels and in part helps make the oak a contributing component to the wine rather than a dominating one. The 2006 vintage starts with an elegant bouquet that features ripe blackberry and boysenberry, a dustiness and just a delicious hint of vanilla in the background. Some of the earthiness on the nose continues to the palate which also shows some unique mineralities. The mid palate is rich, layered and focused. The super long finish is intense and definitely carries some weight. Mike also makes a Cabernet Sauvignon for Quivet Cellars which we have reviewed **link here** from the same part of this vineyard but based on the winemaking style and aging program it is very interesting to note its unique characteristics (when compared to the Myriad Cabernet Sauvignon). Myriad also makes a very limited Syrah, usually around 50 cases so this wine does not last. Hint - can't get this Syrah from Myriad? Try Quivet Cellars as their Syrah sources from the same vineyard. Because production is so limited their wine has a narrow distribution and vintages tend to sell out rather quickly. For the extremely small production, quality of the vineyards and winemaking, Myriad's wines are priced very well. Several wine shops in Southern California carry Myriad and locally V Wine Cellars in Yountville and ACME Wine Shop in St. Helena sometimes have it. However the best way to acquire their wine is via the mailing list on their website. Visit: www.myriadcellars.com |
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