Greer Wines. The Greer Vineyard is 7.54 acres of which 5 acres are devoted entirely to Cabernet Sauvignon. Located in western Rutherford on the lower edge of the Rutherford bench, the vineyard is planted on very slightly sloping soils; these are the tail end of deposits that have eroded off of the Mayacamas mountains over the millennia. An ancient creek bed with rounded alluvial rocks is located beneath the Bale Clay loam surface. The combination of the two soil strata creates excellent drainage for the vines. This 7-acre property was purchased in 1980 by Robert Greer and Dick Fredericks, colleagues at the time at Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. Fredericks spent a long career in investment banking and was also the U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein for about two years.
Two acres of Petite Sirah were planted at the time on AXR root stock but eventually had to be replaced due to phyloxxera; the property is planted entirely to Cabernet Sauvignon (3 acres) and the vines are managed by local vineyard management company. Two acres date from 2005 and the third acre was planted in 2011. Despite a small property and just one variety, the vineyard features clonal diversity including three clones of Cabernet Sauvignon: clone 4, the SEE clone (named after chocolatier Harry See) and the Weimer clone.
A California style bungalow built in the 1920s burned down in 2011 and hasn’t been rebuilt. The only structure on the property is an old barn which dates from 1912; inside is a massive redwood table harvested from an old redwood tree on the property years ago. From the second floor of the barn on a clear day there are excellent views in all directions but especially across the valley looking east into Atlas Peak, Stagecoach Vineyards and a nice view of Haystack, the prominent piece of Atlas Peak that loosely resembles a haystack. And to the west of the barn is the proprieties’ water supply, a small reservoir.
The property was previously owned by Astrid and Lowell Edington; Lowell was related to one of Napa County’s pioneer families. According to an article in the October 28, 1965 edition of The St. Helena Star, Thomas and Elvina Stice Edington were the first Edingtons to settle in Napa County. They originally left Missouri and crossed the country with other travelers in 1857 by covered wagon. An article in The St. Helena Star dated Friday April 1, 1904 indicated that Thomas Edington purchased 9 lots in Rutherford for $10 from a Wilhelm Krekler.
Astrid Edington was a newswoman who wrote a column for the Napa Register early in her career, later was their Society editor before covering local news including specializing in crimes. She was extremely active on the local community including serving as President of the Napa Soroptimist Club. And in the 1960s, Lowell, a prune rancher and insurance broker was also involved in numerous local organizations including serving as Napa County’s representative to the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District from 1964 until 1989 and serving as president of the Napa Valley Farm Bureau. For about nine years in the 1960s he was president of the Upper Napa Valley Association, a 400 member strong citizen organization focused on preserving the well being of Napa Valley including limited urban growth. And through this organization he was a strong proponent of the Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve (established in 1968). Hugh Davies, the founder of Schramsberg Vineyards succeeded Edinger as president of that organization in 1969. Lowell was also a private pilot; at one point he kept a Douglass Mono plane on the family ranch in Rutherford (Tumbling IQ Ranch).
Born in Visalia, CA, Rob served in the U.S. Navy including as a Nuclear Engineer on the USS Woodrow Wilson. After his time in the navy he worked in corporate finance at Morgan Stanley in New York and Montgomery Securities in San Francisco.
Robert’s wife Cyd is a prominent St. Helena based real estate agent with Coldwell Banker whose focus is on property in Napa Valley. Her listings at any one time are a record of some of the valley’s most luxurious private properties as well as select wineries. She has ranked as the top selling real estate agent in the Napa Valley since 2009 having sold nearly a billion dollars of property in her career and is consistently ranked among the top USA producing agents.
This is an exceptional vineyard neighborhood; Morisoli Vineyard is nearby, the vineyard that Joseph Phelps uses for part of their Insignia program borders one side of their vineyard as do vineyards for Inglenook Estate. Slightly to the northwest is Scarecrow Vineyard. Only one wine is produced from the property each year, a 100% varietal Cabernet Sauvignon.
Their vineyard is in the heart of Rutherford; founded as a sub appellation in 1993, its namesake is the tiny nearby town. When referring to this appellation its soils always play a prominent role. This region is characterized by the sometimes “dusty” quality found within its wines. The primary soils include gravel, loam and sand with volcanic deposits. Much of this came from alluvial fans which drained from both the Mayacamas and Vaca mountain ranges. Some of the bench land soils on both the western and eastern sides of the appellation are among the most coveted terroir in the valley.
This appellation is located within the widest point of Napa Valley and as a result annually sees more radiant exposure than the other appellations. Nowhere in the appellation is the elevation above 500 feet although there are certainly quite a few lower hillside vineyards.
Winemaker Aaron Pott
Conveniently one of their neighbors across the street from their residence in the city of St. Helena is accomplished winemaker Aaron Pott. The Greers met him in 2001. It was Aaron who ultimately convinced the Greers to begin producing their own wines starting with the 2007 vintage. For many years they sold their grapes to renowned wineries such as Opus One, Caymus Winery, Pine Ridge, Etude (back when Tony & Michelle Soter were the owners) and later were used in St. Clement’s Oroppas (their flagship Cabernet Sauvignon) where Aaron was general manager and winemaker at the time.
Aaron’s father was a Presbyterian minister who enjoyed German Riesling. Perhaps his father’s proclivity for wine influenced his own career as he was drawn to wine making at a young age. Aaron grew up in Eugene, Oregon but moved around with his family based on his fathers’ career. After graduating from high school, the family was conveniently living in the town of Davis, California home of arguably the best wine school in the country, the University of California, Davis.
Aaron earned his undergraduate degree in Enology from UC Davis – having been one of the few Napa based winemakers who actually lived in Davis before attending college there. He later graduated from the Université of Bourgogne in France with a master’s degree in Viticulture. His first winemaking job in the valley was under Napa legend John Kongsgaard at Newton Vineyard as assistant winemaker in 1990. Later Aaron moved to France where he earned his master’s degree in Viticulture from the Université of Bourgogne. Upon returning to California, he landed a dream job at Beringer as their “International winemaker” flying to countries such as Chile, Italy and France to make wine. He has been the primary winemaker at St. Clement and at Quintessa and now much of his time is in demand as a consulting winemaker for a select group of premium Napa based producers.
Select Wines
The 2019 Greer Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby in color and nearly opaque; the aromatics need some time to open and when they do, they offer notes of dark fruits plus old cedar/toasted oak spice. The bouquet also offers scents of plum, dark chocolate, dust and sage. This wine is superbly balanced and seamless across the palate with a gentle textural approach. This wine features flavors of plum, blackberry and a bright fruited finish including of currant, and red cherry along with an earthy/dusty note. One can feel the tannins but they are rounded. If we were to characterize a Napa Valley grown Cabernet Sauvignon as having the perfect palate profile, this bottling would be an ideal candidate. The tannins parallel the fruit on the finish for some time; many red wines show either the tannins or the fruit, dropping off before the other, but neither do on this wine. This wine was aged for 19 months in 60% new and 40% once-used French oak from Taransaud, Bossuet, Sylvain, and Darnajou.
The 2017 Greer Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby. The bouquet is open-knitted with baking spices, blackberry, dark, cherry, and plum. The nose is primarily about the fruit with a light cedar accompanying spice from the barrel aging. The palate is opulent with flavors of plum, cherry and blackberry. There is an appealing intensity of both flavor and structure that stands out in this particular Greer vintage. Grainy, stony tannins. The savory finish shows notes of dried sage with a long-lasting drying and dusty character. This is very much one of the most textural wines we have tried from Greer. The finish lingers with dense and chewy tannins. Dark fruited. There is lots of life ahead of this; for reference we tried this wine 7 years post vintage. A medium rare T-bone steak would be a suitable partner for dinner.
The 2016 Greer Cabernet Sauvignon is ruby in color initially offering some dry earth notes on the bouquet with additional aromatics of cigar smoke, dried tobacco leaf, cassis, blackberry and as the wine continues to open, reveals mocha and brown chocolate. A fun wine to smell. Features an appealing softness, yet with depth of flavor across the palate with tannins that are mature, fine grained, and rounded in texture. Flavors of blackberry, boysenberry and plum linger with hints of cedar, a slightly dusty nuance and light note of dried tobacco leaf. Very balanced. We noticed that the infamous Rutherford dust shows more in this vintage than the 2015.
The 2015 Greer Cabernet Sauvignon offers very attractive aromatics including bright and lively fruit of raspberry, red cherry and floral hints including dried rose petal. Superbly balanced there is a fine integration of fruit, acid and structure – this wine is seamless in its presentation. It has also held its freshness very nicely over the years; for reference we tasted this 4 years after its vintage date. Gravelly well-integrated tannins showcase this wine’s lovely texture. Perhaps a bit more robust structure then the 2016 vintage. Lingers with mouthwatering fruit including notes of red cherry and cranberry.
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The label is intriguing; it depicts a hand-drawn lion. Robert’s great-grandfather, J. Owen Greer taught calligraphy in Coshocton, Ohio in the late 1880s; this image was taken from a poster dating from around 1880 advertising one of his classes for writing services and is in Rob’s own collection. Two other pieces from that series are an elephant and a rabbit. The label design is the work of Napa Valley based Marianne Agnew. Every label is adhered to the bottle by hand.
The Black Lab
The impressive winemaking headquarters of Aaron Pott’s operations are located in a business/industrial park about a 10 minute drive south of the city of Napa. This winery is used for production for a number of other brands that Aaron makes wine for including Covalence. All tanks are hooked up to their own pumps, each tank can be controlled remotely and several high-tech presses are used during harvest. One aspect of the winery immediately evident from a walk-through is its overall cleanliness. And there is an element of fun at play here including a disco ball and part of a wall on one side of the winery is painted with a colorful mural.
A wastewater system is located directly outside the winery, processing waste water and sludge which is then hauled away and used as fertilizer. And a bonus of their location is they are hooked up to the same power grid that serves nearby Napa Valley College and Napa County EMS Agency so theoretically they should have power even during outages. And when the wines are ready to be bottled, a mobile bottling truck pulls up to the back of the winery.
Their initial sales were buoyed in part by high praise heaped by wine enthusiasts on popular wine forums including Robert Parker and the Wine Berzerker’s websites. Currently they have no domestic brick and mortar distribution although some vintages can be found through select online retailers such as Benchmark Wine Group. Greer also has very limited distribution in select markets in Asia and Europe including Switzerland. The wines are primarily sold direct. Only about 400 cases are produced each year.
Interested parties can also order 3 and 6-liter larger format hand-etched bottles, however these must be ordered at least a year in advance of their release date.
Despite purchasing the property more than 40 years ago, and producing wines for the better part of several decades, Greer is still very much under the radar. And perhaps that is their intent with interested parties having to really seek them out. For more information and or to join their mailing list, visit: www.greerwine.com
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