Sylvie Estate was founded in 2010 by Henry and Christina Lopez and their friend and business partner, Brian Atwood. Henry is originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico and Christina is from the San Francisco Bay Area. They purchased a small plot of land on the lower hills of the Vaca mountains in 1989 and built a small pueblo architecture styled house. They planted less than an acre of vines (30 rows, 0.7 acre) on the site with a clonal selection from a nearby well-known vineyard. Known as the Lopez Vineyard, it was replanted again in 2000 and then again in 2024, continuing to grow entirely Cabernet Sauvignon. After a nearly four-year process, their vineyard became CCOF certified organic in 2013.
Henry runs MuriGenics, a Vallejo based company that focuses on a number of services including new drug developments to fight numerous diseases including Autoimmune Disorders, Cardiovascular, CNS, Infectious Disease, Inflammation, Metabolic Disease and Oncology. Christina is a very talented artist (sculptor and welder) and has created a number of pieces prominently displayed on their property including some from recycled materials. Brian has spent a career in biotechnology and as a venture capitalist. He is the co-founder of Versant Ventures an international biotechnology research and venture capital company.
Henry and Brian first made home wine in their garage in 1994. For many years they sold the grapes from their tiny vineyard at different times to producers such as Caymus, Lewis Cellars and Cardinale Estate. Deciding to make a small amount of wine to sell they began looking for a winemaker; their vineyard manager at the time connected them to winemaker Kurt Niznik. Kurt worked with vineyard manager Kendall Smith (Kendall Smith Vineyard Services) on a previous wine project and she has since taken over the management of the Lopez Vineyard. Her specialty is working with small organically farmed vineyards in Napa Valley.
Kurt was born in Florida and raised in Massachusetts; he went to Yale University where he studied biology and psychology. He recalls his first job was in New York City at the VA NY Harbor Healthcare System (the Manhattan VA Medical Center) working on research with schizophrenia patients. Tiring of New York and ready for a change he decided to pursue winemaking. In 1997, in late summer he packed some necessities into his Mercury Sable and drove across country (breaking down somewhere in Kansas along the way) before arriving in the Napa Valley to take a one-month intern position at what was Acacia Winery (now Calmere Estate Winery) in Napa’s Carneros District.
After finishing the internship, Acacia recommended him to the Chalone Wine Group. He took a full-time cellar position at what was Carmenet Winery (Moon Mountain District in neighboring Sonoma County). Looking to further his education he enrolled in the master’s degree program in Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis. Later winery jobs included working at San Juan Vineyard on San Juan Island in the state of Washington, Luna Vineyards, Caldwell Winery just as the winery was getting started and 5 years working on the winemaking team at Continuum Estate. Today he selectively consults for a number of small winery brands, mostly in the Napa Valley. And passionate about not only winemaking, he is also an accomplished paraglider, birdwatcher and avid environmentalist working to help acquire and protect rain forest in parts of South America including Colombia and Panama.
Kurt produced the wines through the 2023 vintage. Winemaker Sally Johnson (formerly of Pride Mountain) now makes the Sylvie wines, crafting them at Tamber Bey Winery in Calistoga. This is also where a limited number of tastings of the Sylvie wines are hosted. Johnson operates SJB Winemaking, a full-service winemaking firm providing winemaking services for a number of small brands both in Napa Valley and beyond. Her husband Max Blum provides the creative services for the company.
And in 2024, Sylvie produced their first white wine, a Napa Valley Sémillon.
The property is in a very special part of Napa Valley – slightly elevated and on the eastern side Oakville. Like many of their neighbors, the soils are iron rich and orange/red in color with plenty of rocks. This is a premium vineyard neighborhood; nearby wineries or vineyard neighbors include Dalla Valle, Rudd Estate, Joseph Phelps’ Backus Vineyard and Gargiulo Vineyards.
With a laser like focus on quality, over the years several vintages were made but never released; Sylvie Estate did not produce a 2011 vintage due to the challenges of a cooler year and rain at inopportune times. The wines typically see 50% or slightly less new oak during the aging and are not fined. Depending on the vintage, the wine is often blended with a very small percentage of non-estate Petit Verdot.
They take a hands-off approach to the winemaking including letting the wines sit on their natural lees for as long as possible. And for post fermentation, allowing extended maceration which typically lasts 25 to 35 days. Their vineyard is farmed for ripeness, an inherent attribute which comes from being on these western facing slopes, but not over ripeness and that is an important distinction in today’s contemporary Napa Valley. The canopy is carefully managed helping to reach ripeness earlier rather than achieving ripeness through long hang time. The grapes are usually picked at the end of September or into early October. This vineyard consistently produces a textural gentleness regardless of vintage.
Select Wines
Sémillon
The 2024 Sylvie Estate Sémillon is 85% Sémillon from Carneros and 15% old vine Chenin Blanc from Pope Valley; this wine was fermented and aged sur lies in neutral French oak barrels with battonage conducted periodically for five months prior to bottling. 45% of the wine went through malolactic fermentation. This wine is medium gold in color. The highly aromatic bouquet is intense and layered with forward and honeyed aromas of honeysuckle, honeycomb, peach, apricot and yellow plum. Additional scents include orange blossom, star jasmine, not fully ripe pineapple, green apple, lemon zest and a hint of chamomile. Highly aromatic. Oh wait, we already said that. The palate offers a perceived sweetness of fruit, but this wine is bone dry. Brightly lit with a refreshing but not bracing acidity, the generous palate reveals flavors of golden apples, pineapple, yellow peach, yellow nectarine, apricot and fully ripe papaya. The citrus and herbal notes on the bouquet are much less expressed on the palate. The finish lingers with a light phenolic textural grip including a subtle drying character. Persistent. Its texture is rounded, oily and saline but has just enough lift from the acidity that it never feels heavy or viscous. The Sémillon is harvested early for freshness while the Chenin Blanc is blended for its acidity; the union of the two varieties makes for an extremely expressive wine.
Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2019 Sylvie Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby and opaque; the bouquet is a union of red and dark fruits along with barrel influence spices. These scents include plum, dark cherry, mulberry and a hint of licorice. One of its most prominent scents is that of bottarga, the dried and pressed roe of mullet. We have to make a shoutout here to Cortez Conservas, producers of our favorite bottarga which we often shave into salads (reference Lola Wines in Calistoga). Other aromas include dried sage, dried rosemary, tobacco leaf, old cedar box and dark olive. Well layered, the bouquet needs time to evolve. The palate is generous with flavors of dark plum, blackberry, Pakistani mulberry, dark cherry and notes of chocolate on the finish. It presents a certain plushness, a softness if you will from the entry through to the finish. But also a brightness. The broadly dispersed tannins sport a gravelly character with their light to medium dusty and chalky grip eventually outlasting the fruit on the finish. This bottling would go well with brisket and a BBQ. And its showing in a sweet spot 6 years post vintage at the time of our most recent tasting.
The 2016 Sylvie Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby and opaque; the bouquet offers a diversity of primary and secondary aromatics. These include dark raspberry, blackberry, mulberry and plum, with additional scents of honeycomb, library book, dried herbs and as it evolves further, notes of mocha and cocoa powder. This is a balanced wine showing in a sweet spot 8 years post vintage at the time of our tasting. On the palate there are flavors of dark cherry, Pakistani mulberry and plum with lingering notes of dried tobacco (more noticeable then some of the other vintages we tried) and chocolate. Minerally and chalky on the finish, the ripe tannins feature a light gravelly but overall rounded character.
2015 was generally a low yielding vintage in Napa Valley. The 2015 Sylvie Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is dark red in the glass; it offers slightly darker aromatics than the 2013 vintage. One can smell the site in the bouquet with aromas of dry earth along with blackberry, black licorice, a hint of toasted oak and dried herbs. Also, some subtle desert spices. The palate sports darker flavors including plum and blackberry with notes of espresso and mocha. This wine offers an appealing texture with a density of tannins especially noticeable on the finish but without being heavy or coarse in feel. Texturally inspiring, these ripe and slightly chalky tannins feel firm yet are simultaneously polished. This wine was aged 22 months in both new and neutral oak and another 22 months in bottle before it was released. And this was the first the bottle transitioned to a paper label.
The 2013 Sylvie Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby and nearly opaque in the glass. It offers ripe fruit aromatics including immediate notes of blackberry along with a raspberry thread of sweetness and dried cherries. The bouquet is primarily about the fruit rather than secondary characteristics from the oak aging although there are subtle scents of chocolate and mocha. For reference, we first tasted this wine 6 years post vintage and then again 11 years post vintage. As the wine breathes notes of sage and dried herbs are revealed. In a vintage in the Napa Valley that often produced muscular and intense wines, this wine is more restrained, certainly helped in part by some age. On the palate there are flavors of mulberry, blackberry, boysenberry, dark licorice and a note of dark chocolate. A hint of dried tobacco leaf lingers on the finish. Fine-grained well-integrated tannins linger with a supple texture along a richness of fruit complemented by bright acidity.
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The Lopez’s used to manage a small organic farm on the property; Christina and her daughter Sarita oversaw this and would sell some of the vegetables at the St. Helena and Napa farmers’ markets. While no longer farming this garden, in part because of the nopales cactus growing on the property, Sarita was inspired to start her own beverage company called Green-Go focusing on Cactus Water. She ran this business for several years.
The name Sylvie was chosen in honor of Christina’s mother (Sylvi Rintanen, originally from Finland). Total annual production is minuscule and they are one of Napa Valley’s smallest vineyard owning producers. Yields are usually between only 1 to two tons per acre with a total production each year of around 100 cases but sometimes as low as 60 cases. The wines are primarily sold direct to consumer through their mailing list and at their first and only retail outlet, the French Laundry in Yountville. A very limited number of older vintages are available for purchase. For more information and to join the Short List, for access to current release allocations, visit: www.sylvie-estate.com
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