Burly Wine

Burly Wine, founded with their first vintage in 2004 by Hank McCrorie and his Sonoma County born and raised wife Bernice. Hank had a long career at Pzifer – starting relatively low in the company and retiring as the Executive Vice President of sales after some 40 years. Hank who along with his wife have long enjoyed California Cabernet Sauvignon and northern California’s wine country, purchased a retirement home in the hillsides of the Napa Valley. Many brand owners new to the business these days name their wine after themselves – not so with Burly. There is actually quite a unique story behind the name.

Hank grew up North Carolina where he was the captain of his college football team at Lenoir–Rhyne University (LRU for short) in Hickory. This private Lutheran University was founded by four Lutheran pastors and was called Lenoir College in its early days – named for Walter Lenoir (a local lawyer and judge who donated the property for the campus in his will). The name of the college was eventually changed to reflect the important contributions of Daniel E. Rhyne, a prominent businessman and donor to the college who in 1928 donated $150,000 to the campus.

During his collegiate career from 1956 through 1960, Hank helped take his team to the National Championship in 1959 and ranked number one among small colleges. He only lost three regular season games during his college career. His nickname at the time was “Burly Bear” (the school mascot is a bear) – little did his college teammates know that more than 40 years later, Hank would still carry the name with him and partially use it as the name for his winery. During his college days he won an award which honors athletes who place the team over themselves in competition.

Hank and Bernice donated a significant portion of the cost to build a 33,500 square-foot athletic center (with an upper and a lower level) at Lenoir-Rhyne. This center opened in 2002 and is named in their honor (McCrorie Fitness Center). Conveniently it is located next to a number of outdoor sports playing fields.

The athletic center with the adjoining Shuford Gymnasium also houses the university’s Sports Hall of Fame presented in display cases covering the sides of several walls; walking in from the main entrance, Hank’s plaque is found all the way to the back of the exhibit – as one of plaques on the bottom of the display case. He graduated from Lenoir-Rhyne University in 1960 and was inducted into their sports hall of fame in 1994.

Downtown Hickory (population of around 40,000) is conveniently located only a few minutes’ drive from Lenoir-Rhyne University. The downtown area is rather small and easily walkable – attractions in town and the neighboring vicinity include the Hickory Museum of Art, Lake Hickory (a man-made reservoir on the Catawba River) with its 100+ miles of shoreline and related outdoor water focused activities including being a top fishing destination, and about a 20-minute drive from downtown – Hart Square Village, the country’s largest collection of log cabins from the 1800s.

Hickory and vicinity have produced a number of notable athletes over the years including former San Francisco Giants pitching star, Madison Bumgarner.

We met with winemaker Massimo Monticello for our tasting (he has been Burly’s winemaker since their inaugural vintage). Massimo 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 regard to his winemaking, “the goalie is out of the cage and it’s his job to tap it in.”

Burly initially focused on producing a 100% varietal grown Cabernet Sauvignon, however in recent years they also produce a Chardonnay, sourced from Carneros and a Sauvignon Blanc. Their Cabernet Sauvignon comes from a 9.5-acre vineyard called the Simpkins Family Vineyard in the Coombsville appellation just east of the town of Napa. This vineyard site dates back to 1886 and is family owned by the Simpkins (Cliff and Joan Simpkins). Hank and Bernice lease the grapes on this property. Vineyard neighbors are excellent, including Maritas Vineyard and Covert Estate and some tiny ‘backyard’ vineyards, one of which we helped pick one year.

Coombsville is characterized as a moderate to cooler growing climate compared to up valley due to its proximity to the flat region and entry to the nearby San Pablo Bay with its cooling morning and afternoon breezes and often fog influence. The region is generally composed of short rolling hills with a diversity of microclimates even within this small region. It tends to be slightly warmer in Vineyards that are located towards the edge of the southern part of the Vaca Mountain Range tend to be slightly warmer areas then the rest of Coombsville. However, Coombsville tends to be cooler than many of the up-valley vineyards and as a result the Cabernet Sauvignon fruit often hangs a bit longer before it is harvested. This isn’t a bad thing as it only adds to the complexity of the wine.

Simpkins Vineyard was managed by Mike Wolf Vineyard Management Company; Mike Wolf has since retired and sold his business to Domenick Bianco, former head viticulturist for Joseph Phelps’ properties in both Napa Valley and Sonoma County. In 2024 the company transitioned its name from Mike Wolf Vineyard Services to Bianco Winegrowing.

Mike was born in New York City and grew up just outside of the city. Viticulture was not a part of his formative years – he graduated with a history degree at Alfred University. He first moved to California in 1972 – to Mendocino County as a farm worker helping manage pears, prunes and grapes. Eventually he oversaw vineyard operations at Juliana Ranch in Pope Valley (one of Napa’s larger vineyard sites) and in 1994 took a job managing 500 acres for Beckstoffer Vineyards. He branched out on his own in 1997 and formed Michael Wolf Vineyard Services. One of his early clients was Vine Hill Ranch.

Today Domenick oversees approximately 500 acres in the Napa Valley and has managed or is managing vineyards for BOND (Vecina), Lewis Cellars, Meteor Vineyards, Scarecrow, and Vineyard 29. And he has also worked with some of the top winemakers in the valley including Celia Welch, Philippe Melka, Bob Levy and Andy Erickson.

In 2015, Mike was awarded Grower of the Year by the Napa Grape Growers Association.

Select Wines
Chardonnay
The Burly Chardonnay is made from Razi Vineyard each year, a vineyard and winery located on the southern part of the Silverado Trail. The property used to be planted to more Chardonnay but in 2017, the owner Fred Razi grafted over much of the Chardonnay to Cabernet Sauvignon. But he did keep a 2-acre block of Chardonnay. Some of the Chardonnay was used for Razi’s own brand and previously for a number of years, this vineyard provided Chardonnay to Newton Vineyards (who popularized their “unfiltered” Chardonnay). Dr. Su Hua Newton, proprietor of Newton Vineyards at the time would walk through these vines every year marking off which vines she would harvest for Newton Vineyards. This southern part of Napa Valley is generally cooler during the growing season than to the north and is ideally suited for Chardonnay.

The 2023 Burly Chardonnay, Razi Vineyard is medium gold in color; ripe and intensely fruited but sans of scents of oak or butter, this wine smells redolent of honeycomb and honeysuckle, with additional notes including baked pineapple, an aromatic that reminds of us the smell of pineapple slices on our favorite dessert, Pineapple upside down cake, apricot jam, peaches in light syrup, fully ripe papaya, alphonso mango, creme Brule and butterscotch. This is a clean, balanced and bright expression of the variety, like the bouquet, also showing plenty of California sunshine. Its flavors include mandarin orange, pineapple, golden delicious apples, comise pear, apricot, yellow peaches, papaya, butterscotch and a lingering note of vanilla and a light citric tug. Its texture is subtly creamy, lifted high by its overall vibrancy of acidity. In terms of pairing, perhaps a grilled halibut. Its listed ABV is 14.1%. After harvesting, the grapes were pressed into new oak barrels and then fermented using indigenous yeast, slow and cold, lasting 45 days until the wine was fully dry. It was then aged sur-lie for 10 months prior to racking and bottling.

The 2019 Burly Chardonnay, Razi Vineyard Napa Valley is deep gold in color; for reference we needled and nosed this six years post vintage. The pronounced honeyed and sweet bouquet offers scents of glazed pineapple, warm honey, vanilla, apple butter, apricot jam, orange marmalade, butterscotch, bruised apples, almost overripe cantaloupe, dried nectarines, peaches in syrup, creme Brule, toasted hazelnut & almond and yellow mango. Ripe, dessert like and hedonistic, this bouquet delivers plenty of aromatic and lasting pleasure at this age. Pulling away from the aromas to the palate, and perhaps not as intense as the bouquet, but still very much a rich expression of the variety, this wine tastes like ripe pineapple, baked golden apples, honeycomb, apricot, alphonso mango, ripe papaya, yellow nectarines, butterscotch, warm butter, vanilla and light but lasting note of toasted almonds. Not oaky. This bottling has transitioned into more mature fruit characteristics. The lightly fleshy and supple mouth feel is supported by a balanced acidity. A bit more acidity would probably contribute a tangy character to the finish. Lingers with loads of flavor and a light perceived sweetness from the ripeness of fruit.

Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2022 Burly Cabernet Sauvignon, Simpkins Vineyard Coombsville Napa Valley is deep ruby in color and completely opaque; dark fruited, the bouquet sings bass with aromas of black plums blackberry, dark raspberry, black cherry and dark mulberry. Its non fruited scents include chocolate, cocoa powder, the inside of a humidor, mint, cinnamon stick and cloves. This is a highly enjoyable wine to smell. Easy drinking with layers of fruit, this wine tastes like blackberry, dark raspberry, cherry, and plum, with a lingering note of dark chocolate and smoked cedar. This wine features a soft but balanced acidity. In terms of texture this is a lighter bodied expression of the variety; the broadly dispersed tannins are tumbled and well polished in their youth. Seamlessly integrated into the finish, they linger with a gentle light and dusty caress. While we perhaps would not keep this in the furthest reaches of the cellar, it should show well for the next 5-10 years. This wine was aged for 20 months in 100% French oak barrels of which 80% were new.

The 2022 Burly Cabernet Sauvignon, Sciandri Vineyard, Coombsville Napa Valley (100% varietal) is deep ruby and nearly opaque; primarily dark fruited, this wine smells like Satsuma plum, blackberry jam, boysenberry, cherry pie and dark mulberry, with some accompanying darker more savory notes including of African violets, lavender, smoked cedar, toast, sweet pipe tobacco, dried meats and dried sage. The palate offers a union of both red and darker fruits including plum, boysenberry, blackberry, dark cherry and Persian mulberry (a fruit we are highly familiar with, as every spring we frequent a giant U-pick mulberry farm in Brentwood, CA). This wine is fresh, savory and shows more vibrancy than many of the 2022 Napa Valley bottlings. But perhaps that is a character of Coombsville, despite the intense heat that year, this appellation was marginally cooler than some of the up valley appellations. The grainy and gravelly tannins linger in tandem on the finish with fruit, dried herbs, including sage, toasted oak and a light note of crushed peppercorns. Tri-tip please. And a BBQ.

The 2005 Burly Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley spent 20 months in French oak and then another year in bottle before released. The nose is well layered with notes of vanilla and toffee along with raspberry. The palate is juicy rich and concentrated. This is not a robust overly tannic wine in its youth and never will be, although with noticeable structure and bright acidity it will age well. The mouth feel is soft and smooth; its flavors include a hint of vanilla, a forest floor earthiness and loads of black fruit. Delicate but well-defined tannins anchor the extended finish. This is a beautiful wine showing extremely well at the time of our tasting in 2008. For a premium wine, this 2005 bottling priced quite reasonably.

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Look for the easy to identify image of the massive “burly” tree on the label; this is a nod to oak trees that both Hank and Bernice grew up with at their childhood homes located at opposite ends of the country. And it makes for a unique label in terms of printing; the oak leaves form the top of the rectangular design.

Burly has limited distribution in more than 20 states including North Carolina although they can ship direct to consumer into most states. And select vintages can easily be found through a diversity of online retailers. One can also order wine through becoming a mailing list member. Total production is usually around 2,000 cases annually. For more information, visit: www.burlywine.com

Simpkins Vineyard, Coombsville