Ziata Wines

Ziata Wines was founded by long time wine industry veteran Karen Cakebread. We first met Karen at her home in Calistoga and tasted several of her early vintages. While Karen was working for Hewlett Packard an opportunity arose to move to Asia. During that time, she worked as an international marketing consultant for Cakebread Cellars when Cakebread was just beginning to export wines to Asia. Upon returning to California, she was faced with the choice of where to work. As Karen says, “Silicon Valley or Napa Valley”? – she obviously chose Napa and worked at Cakebread Cellars from 1989 through 2006. She became their events director and was responsible for their educational, wine, culinary and hospitality programs.

Her long-term involvement tirelessly promoting Napa Valley includes formerly serving on the board for four years of the Napa Valley Vintner’s Association and on the steering committee in charge of the annual, Auction Napa Valley, now Collective Napa Valley and currently on the Board of Directors of the Napa Valley Grape Growers Association.

When choosing a name for her new wine brand, obviously her married name was already taken so she started looking at her own family names. Her mother Mary’s maiden name was Annunziata; the name Ziata is a tribute to her; Mary Annunziata Webb passed away in 2014.

Karen started this label as a way to become involved in all aspects of vineyard to bottle, as well as the fact that she enjoys lighter styled wines. She says, “I like all wines some of the time but Sauvignon Blanc all of the time”! While Karen began Ziata Wines with two varieties, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir; she has since expanded to produce wines from other varieties including Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon and now also makes a red blend.

Karen owns an acre of land in the northern part of the Napa Valley (Calistoga) planted to Sauvignon Blanc; the grapes from this tiny front yard and back yard vineyard as well as select other sites in the both the southern and northern part of Napa Valley are blended into her annual Sauvignon Blanc release. Her Calistoga vineyard is called KC Ranch (Karen Cakebread) and is planted to approximately 30% Sauvignon Blanc Wente clone and 70% Sauvignon Musqué.

Anne Vawter was the founding winemaker, although Nils Zacherle was also initially involved for a very short while and made several early vintages. Anne is no longer involved in the winemaking as she and her husband set sail on their sailboat, eventually settling in New Zealand. Anne is a graduate of UC Davis (Viticulture and Enology) and worked with Heidi Barrett at Paradigm Winery for several years and also made wine for Varozza in St. Helena. She kept when it comes to winemaking preferring to conduct most of the winemaking work in the actual vineyard. Regardless of the winemaker, we have found the typicity of each variety is well represented regardless of the wine or the vintage.

Select Wines
Whites
Sauvignon Blanc
The 2023 Ziata Sauvignon Blanc is pale straw in color. This wine is a compilation of Napa Valley, spanning six vineyards from Calistoga to Coombsville including grapes from one of the older Sauvignon Blanc vineyards in Napa Valley, Mary’s Vineyard in Calistoga, with average vine age more than 30 years old. Its breath is lively, youthful, fresh and smells like springtime. These associated scents include lime zest, lemon balm, lemon grass, white grapefruit, freshly cut grass, honeydew melon and guava. The brightness of the bouquet is also mimicked on the palate in terms of flavor. This wine tastes like grapefruit, pomelo, guava, lime, white nectarine, honeydew melon and not fully ripe Nam Dok Mai mango, the most popular mango variety growing in Thailand; our house in Thailand is surrounded by several trees of this variety. As a side, never build a house in a mango orchard or plant mango trees directly outside your house – reason: they attract significant populations of ants! Fresh, balanced and filled with plenty of movement, the palate features a juicy and mouth watering finish. The typicity of the variety is well represented in this bottling. This wine was 100% barrel fermented including 7% in new French oak, 68% in neutral French oak and 25% in stainless steel drums.

The 2008 Ziata Sauvignon Blanc is a sophisticated and delicately styled Sauvignon Blanc that is nicely balanced. The initial bouquet shows pleasant mineralities and notes of crushed rock, almost gravelly in nature. As the bouquet opens hints of honeysuckle are revealed and more fruit, most notably aromas of ripe pineapple. The nose is very aromatic in part from the attributes of the Musqué clone. The lively palate also shows some mineralities, green apple and lemon but is certainly not “green” in flavor. The wine is styled in a leaner fashion but with a hint of creaminess which rounds out the mouth feel very well. Lively acidity and bright young fruit make this an excellent wine to pair with food. In fact, some of Karen’s friends have submitted recipes they feel goes well with this wine and these are found on her website. Production is tiny – only 252 cases were made. And this was Ziata’s first ever release of Sauvignon Blanc; the grapes were from a small 1-acre site east of the town of Napa. This small vineyard sits at the base of volcanic bluffs which over the years dropped their rocks down to the soils which now make up the vineyard. As a result, this vineyard is on a very rocky and well drained site. Three Sauvignon Blanc clones are planted, each of which contribute something unique to the wine. The wine was fermented in stainless steel and then saw 4 months aging in neutral French oak barrels.

Chardonnay
The 2016 Ziata Napa Valley Carneros Chardonnay was sourced from Cuvaison Vineyard, located almost across from Domain Carneros, in Carneros and is a blend of Wente, 15 and 548 clones. This wine is the color of dandelion flowers; it offers intense aromatics including initially hints of graphite/mineralities with notes of melon, pineapple, caramelized sugars and citrus blossom. The bouquet is pretty. The palate offers a compelling richness – both in terms of fruit and influences from its barrel fermentation and 10 months aging in both new and used French oak. Feels supple and creamy and glides softly across the palate. Some dessert nuances show including butterscotch, toffee and honeycomb. A sweetness of fruit and vanilla linger on the finish. 400 cases produced were produced of this inaugural Ziata Chardonnay.

Reds
Pinot Noir
The 2022 Ziata Pinot Noir, Green Valley of Russian River Sonoma County is made with grapes sourced from three distinct vineyards including Chenoweth Vineyard, Stephens Vineyard and Graham Family Vineyard. And it is a blend of five Pinot Noir clones including 115, 37, 667, 777 and Calera. This wine is pale ruby; plenty of red fruits, floral characteristics and some of the varietal spiciness are all expressed in union on the bouquet. The diversity of scents include dried rose petals, African violets, red currant, cranberry, pomegranate, red plum, white pepper, black tea, assorted dried herbs including thyme and sage and immediately finishing with a beautiful aromatic that immediatley reminded us of the velvet lined cedar jewelry box gifted to us by our grandmother several decades ago prior to her passing. And as the wine evolves it opens to a layer of toasted oak spice. Brightly lit across the palate, but with a balanced acidity the red fruits rest on a soft and supple texture. This wine tastes like raspberries, strawberries, red plums, red cherries, root beer and several light but lingering spice notes including pink peppercorn, sage and lightly smoked oak. The grapes were fermented using indigenous yeast in open-top stainless steel tanks with both pump overs and punch downs occurring during fermentation. 15# of the wine was fermented whole-cluster. And the wine was aged for 10 months in 25% new French oak barrels.

Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2019 Ziata, Meteor Vineyard Cooombsville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby in color and nearly opaque; the ripe red and dark fruited bouquet offers aromatics of cherry, boysenberry preserves, blackberry jam and mulberry accompanied by a hint of dried dill seeds. Sometimes with riper bouquets we also notice a generous helping of baking spices, but not so with this bottling. Aromatically, the star of show here is clearly on the fruit. And this generosity also is extended to the palate with flavors of dark cherry, boysenberry, plum and blackberry picked at the peak of its ripeness. The finish is surprisingly brightly lit and refreshing anchored by a mouthwatering acidity. The gravelly and dusty tannins linger with a light to moderate grip and are accompanied by some savory characteristics including sage and a light lingering woodsy spice. For reference we tasted this wine 5 years post vintage. We would love to pair this wine with a medium rare grilled stead Thai dish of ‘Crying Tiger’ with dry chili dipping sauce.

The 2018 Ziata Mia Madre, Napa Valley is a blend of 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Malbec and 7% Cabernet Franc from three premium vineyards including the Cabernet Sauvignon from Beckstoffer Georges III in Rutherford, Malbec from Farella in Coombsville and Cabernet Franc from Young Inglewood in St. Helena. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; the heady and ripe bouquet offers loads of layering in terms of both darker fruits and barrel influences. These scents include blackberry at the peak of ripeness, Santa Rosa plum, dark cherry and Pakistani mulberry accompanied by notes of cocoa powder, dried tobacco leaf, dark chocolate, coffee grinds, roasted coconut and toast. Brighter than expected, both in terms of its listed ABV (15.1%) and age (7 years post vintage), this wine offers flavors of blackberry, boysenberry, dark plum, cherry and dark licorice with a savory finish featuring a diversity of spices including black pepper, smoked sage, dried bay leaf. The tannins are still grainy and gravelly and persist with a moderate fully coating grip on the palate, ultimately outpacing the fruit. The Malbec is playing nicely in this varietal union at this age, contributing a juicy and fresh character.

The 2016 Ziata Mia Madre (my mother) Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is dark maroon in color; the bouquet is very elegant with aromas of blueberry complemented with dried herbs, rose petal, tobacco leaf, hints of jalapeno, dust, espresso and hints of old cedar aromas similar to the inside of an ancient Lane Cedar Chest we own. A varied and captivating bouquet. On the palate showcases a density of both fruit and of tannins. Well layered across the palate showing mostly darker fruit (plum and blackberry) with a darker spice component to the finish. This wine also has good acidity. This bottling is a blend of 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Cabernet Franc, 9% Malbec from three different acclaimed vineyard sites; Farella Vineyard in Coombsville, Beckstoffer’s Georges III in Rutherford and Stagecoach Vineyard on Atlas Peak.

In our humble opinion the top four wine label designers who have worked with a number of premium Napa Valley based wineries and brands are: Susan Roach Pate of Pate International, Michael Vanderbyl of Vanderbyl Design, Chuck House of Icon Design Group and Mark Wiegard of Gauge Branding, based in Chicago. Karen had worked with Michael of Vanderbyl Design prior to Ziata, and when it was time to create a design for her new label, she called Michael. Silver lettering on white, the label is elegant and simultaneously expressive.

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In 2016 Karen partnered with the Trinchero Family Estates for additional exposure; the Ziata Wines are now listed in their limited production premium wine portfolio. And this partnership has opened up both additional vineyards and marketing and sales opportunities.

Karen has a strong passion for travel and exploring some of the off the beaten paths in various countries. She works with a number of charities including Wine Women and Shoes and was a founding board member of the Elaine Mackie Charitable Trust to raise money and awareness about Breast Cancer. Part of this organization’s fund-raising efforts included trekking around the world and reaching the summits of select mountains including Kilimanjaro. Karen’s work in Napa has not gone unnoticed, she was awarded the Woman of the Year in Napa County in 2017.

One can often find Ziata Wines locally at Backroom Wines in the city of Napa and a number of area restaurants including Press St. Helena and Cole’s Chop House in Napa. The wines also have a strong presence in Calistoga including at Sam’s Social Club and Lovina. For more information, to purchase wines including select library vintages, or to join their mailing list, visit: www.ziatawines.com