Mirror Wine Co

Mirror Wine Co began as a partnership with Notre Dame football star and 12 year NFL veteran, Rick Mirer and longtime Napa winemaker Rob Lawson. Rick was born and raised in Goshen, Indiana; his father Ken was the football coach for the high school Goshen team for 20 seasons. Rick was already talented in football; at the age of only 8 in 1978 he won the Illinois-Indiana regional punt, pass and kick contest before an NFL game which led to a further competition prior to another NFL game in Detroit. Interestingly enough, during this competition, Rick wore jersey number 16, which would later be another Notre Dame alumni’s jersey number, worn by Joe Montana a couple years later when he began playing for the San Francisco 49ers. And 1978 was the same year the Goshen football team would win the state 2A championship, coached by his father. Mirer later played for the Goshen high school team just missing being coached by his father who retired during the start of Rick’s freshman year. Rick not only played quarterback but also spent some time as a kicker.

After his standout time at Notre Dame including leading them to the Orange Bowl in 1991 but losing by one point, he led them to victory the next two years in the Sugar Bowl and the Cotton Bowl respectively. He was the second pick in the first round of the 1993 NFL draft. During his time in the NFL, he spent time as quarterback on seven different teams, seeing game action for five of them.

It should be mentioned that there are a number of Notre Dame alumni who have been or are involved in Napa Valley’s wine industry including Paul Hobbs, Ray Duncan co-founder of Silver Oak, Jack Novak (Spottswoode), Carmen Policy (Casa Piena), Jim Knighton (Knighton Family Vineyards) and Tim Busch (Trinitas Cellars), among others. Rick was inducted into the Indiana Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

Rick’s time in Napa Valley a number of years ago was quite different than what most people experience when visiting the valley for the first time. Rick was the man behind the football at Napa Valley College 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 Napa Valley. He has enjoyed fine wines for a number of years and continues to collect wines from around the world.

Goshen, Indiana

Goshen High School

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 wine making decisions. We originally caught up with Rick at his office in St. Helena; from our time with him 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 (this restaurant has since closed). Today Karen operates one of Napa’s most respected boutique wine shops Acme Fine Wines in St. Helena. Until 2020, David and Monica Stevens operated 750 wines, also in St. Helena but sold their brand to Wine Access and closed their wine salon/shop. Rick struck up a conversation and got to know both David and Karen; he remembers trying a 1998 Hourglass Cabernet Sauvignon and being blown away by the quality and intensity of the wine.

With his football career behind him this was the perfect time to get into the wine industry. After his initial experience with the Hourglass wine, 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, Rob produced the Mirror wines at Napa Wine Co through the 2016 vintage.

In 2017, talented Kirk Venge joined the team as the winemaker. Venge operates his own wineries Venge Cellars near Calistoga and Croix Estate near Santa Rosa and he also consults for select premium producers. As of our latest update to this review, the Mirror wines are made at the state-of-the-art customer crush winery, Eleven Eleven just north of the Napa city limits.

When deciding upon a name for the wine, one that made sense was clearly a play on Rick’s last name. As each of the back labels on their wine reads, “Mirror refers to a polished or smooth surface that forms images by reflection”. Mirror also refers to “a true representation” as in a true expression of the terroir of their source vineyards. With Rob’s background in the valley, he introduced Rick to a number of premium sites, which Kirk continues to use as well as work with his own vineyard contacts for grapes for Mirror Wines. The same vineyards have been used in all their vintages which include Cabernet Sauvignon from two vineyards in St. Helena and one in Oakville which incidentally are two of Rick’s favorite appellations in the valley; their Malbec comes from a vineyard between St. Helena and Calistoga.

Select Wines
Whites/Rosé
The 2023 Mirror Chardonnay, Petaluma Gap Sonoma County is medium gold in color; ripe and bright with loads of California sunshine and barrel influences expressed here, the nose offers heady aromas of grilled pineapple, ripe golden apples, honeysuckle, honeycomb, caramelized sugars including of creme Brule, butterscotch, vanilla, yellow nectarines and peaches in light syrup. On the palate there are flavors of apple pie including a lingering phenolic grip that perhaps could resemble the dryness of a pie crust. Additional layers mimic the bouquet to some extent, including ripe pineapple, papaya, honeycomb, yellow nectarines, ripe cling peaches, warm honey, melting butter, caramel, creme Brule and butterscotch. The palate is almost perceived as being sweet due to its ripe character. Its texture is silky and creamy and balanced nicely by the richness of flavor and brightness of acidity. This wine was made entirely from clone 17 and was barrel fermented slow and cold for several months sur lie with frequent battonage. It fully finished malolactic fermentation; it was aged for 16 months in 50% new Francois Freres Cooperage French oak barrels. This wine far overdelivers for the price.

The 2023 Mirror Sauvignon Blanc, Kick Ranch Sonoma County is deep straw in color; the bouquet is not sure what it wants to express, either riper tropical characteristics or more restrained herbal notes. There is plenty of both at play here. It is always interesting to note the aromatic information presented as a result of the connection between the olfactory nerves and one’s brain. For example, if you consciously attempt to smell the herbal notes here you most certainly will – but if you focus on its riper more tropical fruit notes, those will then dominate. Its scents include pineapple, golden delicious apples, passion fruit, grapefruit, citrus blossom, lemon juice and orchard fruits including nectarine and apricot. Additional layers include honeycomb, vanilla and a hint of tarragon. The palate is brightly lit with flavors of grapefruit, pomelo, not fully ripe pineapple, passion fruit and honeydew melon. Its rounded and creamy mouth feel is offset nicely by a vivacious acidity. Since Kick Ranch is in the Fountaingrove AVA, we would have enjoyed walking up to the old site of the Fountaingrove Round Barn soon after it burned in the 2017 Tubbs Fire, sitting with nostalgia and a glass of this wine and watching sunset fall over the Santa Rosa plain. This wine is fully ripe at its listed 13.5% alcohol. It was fermented cold and slow in stainless tanks and then transferred to neutral oak barrels where it aged sur lies for 7 months.

The 2017 Mirror Sauvignon Blanc was sourced from the Beckstoffer Melrose Vineyard in Rutherford. Contemporary Rutherford is mostly known for its red wines, especially the Cabernet Sauvignon from this sub appellation, but if there was a white wine associated with Rutherford, it would be Sauvignon Blanc. Pale straw yellow in color this bottling offers a lovely and lively bouquet showing a pretty interplay between floral and tropical notes with aromas of citrus blossom, jasmine, nectarine and apricot. There is plenty of aromatic intrigue to look forward to before the first sip. On the palate the texture is rounded and supple – soft but immediately noticeable is the intensity of fruit including flavors of lime and white pineapple. This wine reveals more citrus flavors than tropical on the palate.

The 2021 Mirror Rosé of Pinot Noir is deep salmon in color; for reference we needled and nosed this 4 year post vintage. Its bouquet holds plenty of fruit still including strawberry, raspberry, cherry, pomegranate, watermelon jolly rancher, blood orange, grapefruit zest, orange blossom and a hint of dried thyme. And as the wine evolves, it opens to a light note of vanilla and its citrus characteristics become more pronounced. At this age, the fruit on the palate falls somewhere between fresh and bottle evolution, resulting in a more mature palate profile. Its flavors include candied citrus, raspberry, kumquat, pomegranate, red delicious apple and lingers with a note of dried cranberry and a light phenolic grip. Still bright, but best consumed by the end of 2025. This wine was direct to press with little skin contact, although time aging in flint glass has certainly deepened its color. Fermentation was cold and slow followed by aging six months sur lie in neutral French oak barrels. 13.95 alcohol.

Reds
The 2022 Mirror Cabernet Franc Sugarloaf Vineyard Napa Valley. This large vineyard is located southeast of the city of Napa presumably a cooler part of the county. This wine is 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Malbec and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon. It is deep ruby in color; in a blind tasting we hopefully would have noted this as being from Napa Valley and probably would have guessed from an up valley vineyard, but we probably wouldn’t have been able to predict the variety based on its fully ripe character. We often describe certain wines as being plush on the palate, but we will confidently use that adjective to describe the aromatics in this bottling. It scents include dark cherry, blackberry, boysenberry jam, Satsuma plum and Pakistani mulberry with secondary scents of all spice, sweet pipe tobacco, mocha, cocoa powder and melting milk chocolate. On the palate there are flavors of cherry, Santa Rosa plum, dark raspberry, mulberry, boysenberry and blackberry. The grainy and lightly gritty and gripping tannins are felt more on the front of the palate than the back. Finishes highly flavorful with both texture and fruit paralleling each other for quite some time.

When Rob was making the wines, he would often blend in small amounts of Malbec, a variety that he became very familiar with over the years due mainly to a winery project in Mendoza Argentina, the heart of Malbec country in South America. And Kirk also sometimes uses Malbec to blend in the red wines.

The 2005 Mirror Cabernet Sauvignon is blended with 3% Malbec. This wine will certainly appeal to a wide variety of palates. Rick does not enjoy a wine that is overly oaked; his wines are never crafted in that style. This vintage was aged in 50% new French oak and 50% neutral barrels. This wine is deep ruby in the glass; the initial aromas are quite elegant. The bouquet shows red and black cherry with attractive 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 dried cigar paper towards the finish. The extended finish is smooth with round and delicate tannins. 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 bringing them to market after a previous vintage sells out. Their wine portfolio has expanded since the early years.

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Rick also runs the Mirer Family Foundation (a nonprofit established in 1996) with a focus on helping children in regard to health and education. The foundation has been supportive of a number of organizations over the years including The United Way and Boys and Girls Clubs. Tied in somewhat with Mirror Wines, their wines have been used in a number of outreach and tasting events.

Total annual production is around 1,000 cases; they are well-distributed in parts of San Diego (Rick’s current hometown) including at La Costa Wine Shop in Carlsbad, north County, Chicago as well as can be found locally in Napa Valley at a wide variety of locations including ACME Wine Shop in St. Helena. A second brand called Play Like a Champion produces wines from non Napa Valley locations including Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. Winemaker Jean Hoefliger crafts these wines.

For more information, to purchase wine or to join their mailing list, visit: www.mirrorwine.com