Pellet Estate

Pellet Estate has strong connections to some of Napa’s earliest wine making heritage. Henry Pellet (the namesake of this winery) is historically recognized as being the second commercial winemaker in Napa Valley after Charles Krug. Mr. Pellet was born in 1828 in the Swiss canton of Neuchatel and immigrated to the United States via St. Louis from Switzerland in 1848. Then he migrated west in 1850 when he organized his own team of oxen and supplies for the overland journey. He came to the gold mines in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains where he spent several years. He then moved to San Francisco and in conjunction with another man built a flour mill in what is now North Beach. He moved that mill to the city of Napa in 1853. In 1855 he left Napa Valley for the mines in Siskiyou County where he spent three years. He moved back to Napa Valley in 1858; in 1860 he leased land from John Patchett in the city of Napa and made wine for Napa Valley’s first commercial winery, Patchett Cellars that year and through the 1862 vintage. After Charles Krug, he was Napa Valley’s first winemaker.

Leaving the city of Napa, Henry soon moved up to St. Helena and purchased 45 acres of rich valley floor land with deep soils created from thousands of years of runoff from the nearby Mayacamas Mountains. At the time this property was supporting a rich thicket of Manzanita bushes – Mr. Pellet cleared these and planted grapes on what he called his Manzanita Vineyard.

With the grape varieties brought back from Europe (more then 60 cuttings of various European grape varieties) Mr. Pellet started a small nursery on his neighbor’s property – experimenting to see which varieties thrived in this climate. His neighbor was another pioneer in St. Helena’s wine making heritage, Dr. Belden Crane. Pellet also planted grapes for Dr. Crane and in 1863 was hired as Crane’s winemaker.

This vineyard location is surrounded by a rich viticulture history including the nearby Crane Vineyard, named in in honor of Dr. Crane and is currently owned and managed by long time grower Andy Beckstoffer.

Pellet co-founded his own winery in St. Helena in 1866 called Pellet & Carver (his business partner was D.B. Carver). By the 1870s he had built a wooden winery bonded as the name, Pellet & Carver which remarkably has not yet been restored and although deteriorating quickly, still stands on Vallejo Street in St. Helena (one of a number of historic buildings that have been identified by Napa County as priority landmarks buildings to restore).

Pellet was also among a select group of vintners including Charles Krug who met informally in the late 1870’s to determine how to improve quality of wines from St. Helena. They called themselves the St. Helena Viticultural Club. In 1880 they changed the name to the St. Helena Viticultural Society. This organization could be construed as the precursor to what is now known as Appellation St. Helena (which was founded some 125+ years after the St. Helena Viticultural Society disbanded). They were instrumental at the time in helping promote Napa Valley wine outside of the region in the 1880’s and 1890’s (as Appellation St. Helena does today).

Pellet was St. Helena’s first mayor in 1976. He also served in the State Legislature and was a Napa County Supervisor as well as spent several terms as a member of the Board of Trustees in St. Helena. But perhaps more historically significant than his political contributions were his contributions to the Napa Valley wine world. He died in 1912.

Original Pellet & Carver Winery, St. Helena

The property changed hands several times after Henry Pellet’s ownership and was subdivided over the years. Fast forward many decades to 2005 when 5 acres of the original 40 was purchased by long time numismatics expert, Greg Krill and his wife Robin. His first order of business was to pull out the existing vineyard and replant according to modern practices of trellising, row orientation and vineyard management techniques.

General Manager, Eric Risch is the ‘face’ of Pellet Estate – marketing the wine and pouring at various tastings. He is no stranger to this lifestyle. He grew up around food and wine – his father was a serious collector of French wines and enjoyed fine food. Eric recalls well-regarded chefs staying with them when growing up. He also remembers at age 12 his father brown bagging a number of French wines including First Growths and challenging his son to pick out the top wines in the lineup.

Tom Rinaldi, the founding winemaker at Duckhorn and longtime winemaker at Provenence/Hewitt is one of the nicest most personable winemakers you will meet in Napa. He has been working in the Napa Valley since the mid 1970’s. He retired from Provenance in 2014 and understandably was enjoying a slower pace of life in “retirement” after a long career in the wine industry. Eric has known Tom for a number of years and coaxed him out of retirement in 2015 to become Pellet Estate’s winemaker.

A significant amount of thought and design work went into their remarkable label. Based on Greg’s unique insights into the numismatic world of the United States history of paper money he based the label on a one-time series of bills ($1, $2 and a $5 note printed in 1896). He chose the image on the $5 bill from this year titled “Electricity Presenting Light To The World” – both the year and the theme tie in well to what Henry Pellet and the vintners in St. Helena were doing at that time – promoting and presenting Napa wines.

If you run your finger over the label, you can actually feel the embossing work.

Interestingly enough, when sending the label into the TTB Eric received a call indicating it might not be accepted because of partial nudity. All Eric had to do was reference its use as an official Treasury note and it was then approved. This wasn’t the first time the image was questioned – it drew the attention of those in Boston in 1896 and earned the ire of some as “questionable content” commonly referred to at the time as, “banned in Boston”.

Select Wines
Chardonnay
Their non estate wine comes from the premium Sunchase Vineyard in the “Petaluma Gap” in the hills just east the city of Petaluma in neighboring Sonoma County. This is a cool part of Sonoma County; simply drive this gap in the early morning or summer evening along the 101 freeway and chances are it will be foggy – where further to the north or south may be warmer and clear. They source Chardonnay from this vineyard – making two distinctly different styled wines, their oaked and unoaked wine. Eric calls the unoaked Chardonnay his “driveway decision” wine. In 2013 workers delivered 1.5 tons Chardonnay above what the work-order called for. He had already purchased the exact number of barrels corresponding to the expected tonnage of Chardonnay. Not to waste good grapes, he and Greg made a quick decision to ferment and age these grapes in stainless steel.

The 2019 Pellet Estate Chardonnay Oaked Sunchase Vineyard was aged for 18 months in French oak barrels. This wine is medium gold in color; for reference, we tasted this bottling six years post vintage. This wine is medium gold in color; the bouquet smells like golden apples, honeysuckle, white, nectarine, and an unusual aromatic which we don’t often find in wine, a very subtle kiss of wasabi. Very much fresh at this age, both on the bouquet and the palate, this wine tastes like apricot, peach, pineapple, white nectarine, Babcock peach, papaya, yellow apple skin and pineapple guava. This wine persists with both long lasting flavors and a bright acidity. And a light drying and light spicy note, presumably from the oak.

The 2019 Pellet Estate Chardonnay Un-oaked Sunchase Vineyard is entirely fermented and aged in stainless steel vessels. This wine did not go through malolactic fermentation; it is light gold in color. The bouquet smells fresh, fruity and unencumbered. Its scents include pineapple, guava, lychee, golden delicious apple, bruised apple and white nectarines. This wine is highly aromatic six years post vintage and very much retains its freshness and fruit. And the same can be said for the palate; its flavors include pineapple, apple skin, golden delicious, apple, golden kiwi, beeswax, golden plum and lychee. This wine is so far removed from the oaky, buttery and flabby profile, that those used to tasting wines in that style may not even be able to identify the variety here.

Merlot
Tom made his name with Merlot including for 20+ years at Duckhorn where he produced their first vintage of Three Palms Vineyard Merlot in 1978 – remembering he added 15% Cabernet Sauvignon to that particular wine from Beatty Ranch on Howell Mountain. Tom later produced excellent Merlot during his time as winemaker at Provenance Vineyards.

The 2018 Pellet Estate Merlot is blended with 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. Tom referred to Merlot as often needing “fellow actors” to beef up the wine, but this particular Merlot is already rich in stature. The wine is medium to dark ruby in the glass; shows dark aromatics including plum, some darker spice notes including cedar and dried herbs. Slightly savory. A very elegant bouquet. Offers an initial softness on the palate with plenty of primarily red fruit flavors including cherry and cranberry. The tannins are medium bodied, earthy and slightly dusty, lingering with a hint of cedar. This wine has ‘zip’ carried by its bright acidity. Very food friendly.

Cabernet Sauvignon
The first Pellet Estate wine was the 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon.

The 2019 Pellet Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Merlot; this wine is deep ruby in color. At six years post vintage, the bouquet has both character and plenty of fruit. Its scents show dried herbs, including dried sage, bay leaf, tobacco spice and bramble. Savory. More red fruited than dark on the palate, this wine, tastes like red cherry, dark raspberry, boysenberry, red licorice and a finishing note of dried tobacco leaf. The tannins are seamlessly integrated into the finish with a light gravelly, but persistent texture. This wine finishes juicy and bright. Beautiful. And it has lots of years ahead of it with the proper cellar care

The 2013 Pellet Estate Cabernet Sauvignon shows a continuity on the bouquet that appears in previous vintages a mix between both gentle oak influences complementing the pretty fruit. This wine is young and is lively on the palate – bursting with flavor and mouthwatering acidity. The somewhat dry tannins will soften over time, but for now they linger along with higher toned fruit including red cherry and currant on the finish.

The 2012 Pellet Estate Cabernet Sauvignon shows darker color in the glass compared to the previous vintage. The bouquet is generous; with darker fruits including sweet blackberry tinged by an earthy component, black pepper spice and cedar notes. This was an ideal vintage for Napa Valley and this wine is certainly well endowed with flavor. The palate offers dark cherry and black cherry flavors with sizable and firmly gripping tannins anchoring a long-lasting finish.

The 2011 Pellet Estate Cabernet Sauvignon was carefully sorted both in the vineyard and when it arrived at the winery. This was a challenging year as early rains during harvest were not helpful. This is a lighter style wine. It shows a unique nose, perhaps representative of this particular vintage. The bouquet offers various spices including black pepper; it is earthy. The wine drinks well in its youth and is already balanced and framed by smooth tannins.

Eric takes a different approach then many wineries when it comes to creating the Pellet Estate Reserve Wine. There is no formula for making this wine. He approaches building this wine from the same perspective a chef would take. Each year he stands in front of all the barrels of wine from the estate; he compares this to standing in front of a refrigerator before deciding which ingredients to use in cooking – or perhaps in a garden before deciding what to pick. It is a similar approach to when his best friends are coming over for dinner and he is cooking; he wants to make a good impression and only use the finest ingredients.

He then pulls samples of wine from each barrel and then tastes every one – evaluating for different criteria; he places chalk marks to note the best barrels. Then he begins to make the initial blends and he and Tom evaluate each of these trial blends for their final blend. There is no formula and the percentages of the three estate varieties available change rather dramatically based on the vintage. Production is typically around 100 cases each year.

Henry’s Reserve
The resulting wine (2013 vintage), titled Henry’s Reserve is as close to a robust Napa Cabernet Sauvignon as one can find in Napa Valley, however, the majority of this wine is not made from that variety. The bouquet is elegant showing red fruit with notes of plum and blueberry framed by appealing aromas of vanilla and mocha. The wine is big but balanced with a noticeable mid palate richness, concentration and density. This wine is rare (only one or two barrels are made each year) and this bottling will certainly age for quite some time. And this is not a Cabernet Sauvignon based blend but rather Merlot dominates at 80% (only a quarter acre of this variety grows in their vineyard) complemented with 20% Cabernet Sauvignon.

The 2017 Pellet Estate, Henry’s Reserve (76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot) is dark ruby in the glass; reveals aromas of plum and blackberry along with dried herbs, cedar, and dark chocolate. Well layered, both aromatically and on the palate. Shows flavors of red and dark cherry along with licorice. The well integrated tannins linger with both fruit and hints of cedar. This wine offers an intensity of fruit without an intensity of tannins; as a result, it is well balanced and drinks very nicely in its youth. There is plenty of aging potential on this beauty.

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The wine is available in select markets in the United States including Texas (a strong market for them) and on the East Coast. Locally you can find some of their wine a few minutes from where their estate vineyard grapes are grown – at Sunshine Market in St. Helena. For more information visit: www.pelletestate.com

ARCHIVED NOTES
Mia Carta Napa Valley
Pellet Estate was part of a small collective of boutique Napa Valley based wineries represented at Mia Carta Wine Lounge in downtown Napa but their wines are no longer available here. We keep our notes here for historical reference. This space is located at 1209 1st Street next to Rebel Vintners near the intersection of 1st and Coombs Streets. It had a soft opening to the public on May 22, 2021, and officially opened on June 17, 2021.

This space houses several premium boutique Napa Valley producers including Earthshine, Essere Franco and Majuscule Vineyards. Sharon Harris, proprietor of Rarecat learned about the space early on, and then invited several of her friends to join including Redmon Wines and Ilsley Vineyards.

A significant amount of thought and effort went into the renovation of this space. A couple of items inside quickly catch one’s eye including the Italian Piaggio “Ape del Vino” or in English, referred to as the Wine Bee. It was purchased in Italy, restored and then shipped over, however, unfortunately it was stuck for quite some time at the port of Galveston in Texas before it cleared customs and reached Napa Valley. It is fully functional and is operated by a two-stroke Vespa engine. The back opens up to reveal wine kegs with spigots on the side of the vehicle – making this ideal to take to various wine tasting events. And the 145 piece ‘puzzle’ of walnut wood built against the back wall is in the three-dimensional shape of a street grid of downtown Napa – complete with an outline of Napa River and a red marking to indicate Mia Carta’s location on the map.

Recycled cork from cork manufacturer, Amorim Cork America lines the east wall of the space. If one casually glances at this wall, one will think it’s one entire piece of cork, but each piece is a quarter offset, so the lines are hard to see between each of the pieces. With Norm’s background as President & Co-founder of Calgary based ZeroSound Systems, his knowledge and expertise were used during the renovation of the interior space. Acoustic tiles are placed on top of the tin stamped metal ceilings – if one looks carefully one can almost see the tiny holes punched in each of these tin squares, which are part of the design to help mitigate noise. The bar and some of the tabletops are constructed from Richlite, a recycled paper/resin composite.

Visitors taste either inside or outside weather permitting (heat lamps are built into the outdoor overhang), choosing flights from any of the vintners or by the glass or by the bottle. This part of the building used to be recessed – set back more from First Street but during the renovation it was expanded, providing more interior space. And a private tasting room is located in the rear of the space.

For those into wine, it is easy to spend an afternoon in this part of downtown Napa – numerous tasting rooms are within several blocks of Mia Carta. For more details about this beautiful space and or to make a reservation, please visit: www.miacartanapa.com