Tela Wines (not to be confused with the winery of the same name in the country of Georgia) is the definition of a small under-the-radar family owned boutique brand. Founded in 2005 by Eric and his wife Annie Bouthillette Mercier, the focus of their production has remained extremely consistent over the years: a single annual bottling of about 200 cases of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
Eric moved to California from Québec in 1991 after graduating from McGill University to study for his M.B.A in Agribusiness at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. He intended to spend only two years in the state but never returned to Quebec. He has built a successful career centered around the wine industry, primarily for wine cork/closure companies, initially working for Pechiney Cork & Seal. Then he worked for Sabaté USA in 1996 as a U.S. sales executive and by 2004 he was promoted to president of that company. Following his time at Sabaté USA, he worked for Oeneo Closures USA.
He is currently involved in a number of wine related businesses including as owner and president of Premier Wine Cask, a Napa based business selling a diversity of new and used wine barrels, concrete and stainless steel tanks, presses and other cellar equipment. The company attends a limited number of domestic based wine industry trade shows each year. Eric is also co-owner of ORION Warehousing Services, a wine industry storage company located in American Canyon providing a set of wine storage services including case goods, barrel and dry goods in combination with fulfillment services.
Tying together both their own heritage, love of art and winemaking, Tela is Latin for the French word “toile” which means painting or canvas. The wine is bottled under M.H.M. Wine Company; the M stands for Mercier, H for Herrera (Tela’s winemaker Rolando Herrera) and M for Murphy (Garret Murphy, co-founder of Vintner’s Collective tasting room in downtown Napa). Every vintage features a different label based on a piece of art painted by Annie and always depicts a woman enjoying a bottle of wine. Prints of her paintings used on each of their bottlings are sold at Vintner’s Collective and date back to 2005. Some of her works were on display in Vintner’s Collective as early as 2003. And Eric’s sister in law creates their overall label design each year.
Winemaker Rolando Herrera (Mi Sueno Winery) has made every vintage since the inaugural Tela bottling in 2005. Eric met Rolando through proximity; the cork company he was working for was a neighboring business of Mi Sueno Winery.
Rolando’s father immigrated to the U.S. from his hometown of El Llano in Michoacán and moved to St. Helena in 1968. His first job was working at a chicken farm on Zinfandel Lane followed by work at Valley Nursery on Whitehall Lane (owned by Jack Chandler). His father moved his young children including Rolando to be with him in Napa Valley in 1975. Rolando’s early career in Napa Valley was as a dishwasher at Auberge du Soleil, then as line cook at Mustard’s Grill. Rolando had often wondered what it would be like to work at a winery as he drove by wineries every day on his way to work. When a friend told him about a possible position at the iconic Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Rolando quickly took advantage of the opportunity.
During his first day of work he headed straight for the cellar but quickly found out this “winery job” had absolutely nothing to with wine; rather it was constructing a stone wall around Warren Winiarski’s home. However, Winiarski soon noticed Rolando was interested in wine and offered him a job working that year’s harvest. Over the years he worked additional harvests and gained invaluable experience in the cellar; at the young age of 21 he became cellar master for Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. Other winemaking positions included working for Chateau Potelle, Vine Cliff and with winemaker Paul Hobbs.
And through Rolando’s vineyard contacts, grapes for Tela are always sourced from the southern part of Napa Valley including a vineyard in Oak Knoll and also from Coombsville. Cabernet Sauvignon always makes up the majority of the wine each year with very small percentages of either Petit Verdot or Petite Sirah often included. Each vintage is usually aged in about 50% new French oak.
Select Wines
The Tela bottlings are some of Napa Valley’s best value to quality wines. They are styled to be comfortable and approachable in their youth while having the simultaneous character to age.
The 2021 Tela Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby and opaque; highly giving and immediatley open-knitted the bouquet is bursting with aromas of blackberry jam, cherry pie, fresh plums and ripe boysenberry. The layering in of non fruited aromatics keep the aromatic profile compelling including of mint, pipe tobacco, cloves, anise and old cedar box. As the wine evolves it expresses a layer of mocha. Dark fruited and ripe but staying well away from being jammy, this wine tastes like dark plum, blackberry, Persian mulberry, blackberry, cherry, dark currant and savory finishing notes of dark pepper, dried sage, dried bay leaf and smoked cedar. The acidity is bright and balanced. The well-tumbled tannins are felt with a light grainy and gravelly texture, more pronounced on the front of the palate than the back. We want to pair this wine with one of two consumable or inhalable products: a thick juicy medium rare T-bone steak on a BBQ or while smoking a luxurious Cuban cigar.
The 2017 Tela Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby in color; the bouquet is elegant and dark fruited including scents of blackberry, mulberry and dark plum along with licorice, dark chocolate and a light woodsy spice. Of the two bottlings, we were almost tempted to call this bouquet savory. This wine shows plenty of depth on the palate anchored by lively and mouth-watering acidity, especially noticeable on the finish. It offers flavors of plum, dark licorice and lingers with a persistent note of dried tobacco leaf. The earthy tannins are long-lasting, feel more dense than the 2016 vintage, sport a gravelly-like texture and continue to persist with a subtle dry note. The image of the happy woman on this label is titled: I do what I want.
The 2016 Tela Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby in color and almost opaque; the bouquet is sweetly fruited including aromas of dark licorice and plum along with leather, white pepper, dried herbs and some darker spices. This bottling is showing very well 7 years post vintage at the time of our tasting. We immediately noted two words to describe its polished character: balance and seamless. The brightness of acidity and freshness of fruit keeps the palate vibrant from start to finish. This wine offers flavors of plum, dark cherry and blackberry along with a hint of chocolate and mocha. The well-integrated tannins feature a rounded and light dusty character. The image of the attractive brunette wearing a striped dress on this label is titled: Talking in Cursive.
The 2015 Tela Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby and opaque; immediately open-knitted upon opening its scents are generous and sweetly fruited. In terms of a descriptor, we feel comfortable calling this aromatic profile crowd friendly, or as Garret Murphy, the owner of Vintner’s Collective said as we were simultaneously tasting this wine – luscious. This wine smells like prune, blackberry jam, almost overripe Himalayan mulberry, a fruit we are intimately familiar with due to our numerous visits to Very Mulberry, the country’s largest mulberry farm in Brentwood, CA, milk chocolate and an assortment of sweet baking spices. This wine still shows loads of fruit and layering at this age, 10 years post vintage; on the palate there are flavors of blackberry, Santa Rosa plum, red licorice, cherry and raspberry with a lasting dark/earthy character. The tannins show a noticeable and persistent grip with a grainy and gravelly texture. Tri-tip and a BBQ please.
Photo by Garret Murphy
The 2013 Tela Cabernet Sauvignon is dark, opaque and deep ruby; the bouquet smells sweetly fruited and ripe. This is still an expression of the riper vintage in Napa Valley. Its scents include cherry pie, cassis, fully ripe blackberry, boysenberry and Himalayan mulberry. Among the ripe darker fruits are layers of dessert spices including dark chocolate, chocolate brownie, mocha and espresso. This wine tastes like dark plum, blackberry, boysenberry, Persian mulberry and dark cherry with a finishing note of dried herbs. The fruit dominates over any influence of oak at this age, 12 years post vintage. The grippy tannins that this vintage was known for in Napa Valley have softened considerably with time in the bottle. However, their character is still firmly gripping but with an overall rounded, dusty, dense and chalky feel which outruns the fruit by far on the finish.
The 2012 Tela Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby and nearly opaque; in terms of color, this is a darker expression than the 2011 vintage. It shows some bottle bouquet at this age (13 years post vintage) with a noticeable transition from primary to tertiary aromatics. The bouquet is ripe with aromatics of blackberry pie, boysenberry jam and dark plum with plenty of non fruited sweet scents in the aromatic sandbox including mocha, espresso and chocolate brownie. Ripe, with a softer fruit and textural profile, this wine tastes like red plum, cherry, boysenberry and dark raspberry. The tannins are barely perceptible due to their soft and supple texture but by subsequent sips their presence lingers with a more noticeable light dusty character outpacing the fruit on the finish. This wine is easy drinking at this age with a balanced friendly cadence.
The 2011 Tela Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby and nearly opaque; the bouquet smells like the vintage, but not all of the vintage. And by this we mean it offers some herbal and spice notes but its aromatic profile is not green. It scents include a light note of red chili spice, dried sage, bramble, dried tobacco leaf, cherry, raspberry and plum. And as it evolves, it expresses a layer of dark cocoa powder. Superbly balanced across the palate at 14 years post vintage, the fruit is still very much present. Its flavors are red fruited as expected from its southern Napa Valley source in combination with the cooler vintage. This wine tastes like red cherry, plum and dark raspberry with a finishing note of dried tobacco leaf. The tannins sport a soft and supple texture and are integrated smoothly into the finish. This wine is in a sweet spot right now and is one of the finer bottlings from this vintage we have recently tried. It has probably plateaued in terms of its aging and will remain so for additional years.
Vintner’s Collective connection
Eric is co-founder with Garret Murphy (Las Bonitas wine) of Vintner’s Collective, founded in 2002. Eric initially met Garrett through their wives who were taking a painting class together at Napa Valley College from musician, artist and teacher, John Hannaford. Eric remembers meeting Garret for the first time and Garett introducing himself with a French accent as, “I am an American”. Garret was born in Boston but raised in Paris and like Eric, speaks French.
Vintner’s Collective showcases wines from a select group of mostly Napa Valley based producers – most of which do not have their own tasting rooms. And it’s not easy to have one’s wines represented here. Vintner’s Collective has an in-depth vetting process to make sure the wines match what their customers are interested in, including varieties, price points and wine styles. Demand from producers far exceeds space available in their portfolio; with only one of up to 40 interested brands being selected for placement. It wasn’t always this way; in their early years, Eric remembers having to introduce themselves, needing to explain their concept and convince vintners of their ‘collective’ idea. In Napa Valley, Vintner’s Collective no longer needs an introduction.
As of our latest update to this review there are approximately 40 winery tasting rooms in and around downtown Napa. Vintner’s Collective is one of the oldest still operating tasting rooms in the city of Napa and is always one of our favorites. When they opened there were very few other tasting rooms in the city of Napa. Gustavo Thrace also opened in 2002 and was initially a wine collective, Dan Dawson, the founder of Backroom Wines (a wine shop which also offered tastings) opened in 2002 and JV Wines, also a wine shop which is no longer in business was offering tastings for their clients at that time.
Tela was among the early producers represented at Vintner’s Collective.
—
The Tela wines are nearly exclusively available through Vintner’s Collective in downtown Napa with often multiple vintages available to taste and purchase including bottlings slightly older than most wineries’ current releases. A limited number of magnums are produced each year for charities, typically education related. For more information or to purchase wine, visit: www.telawines.com
Leave a Reply