Wilson Arizmendi, Wine Manager at our Woodbridge store, recently visited California wine country on just such a trip with other Joe Canal's team members. Here's his report:
Life's experiences are sewn together by the fabric of relationships and memory. They say one of the biggest factors that may determine if you like a particular wine is the ambiance that surrounds you while you drink it. What kind of company are you around? Are you laughing? Are you stressing? Where are you? How's the weather? Is it a place you've never been but are excited to be there? Are you eating? Is the food amazing? Could you do without it? There are times when all these things click on a level of utopian measures and what you have left is a great memory of good times, great people and a wine that was absolutely more memorable than any you might have previously had. A wine that you will forever remember and a wine that will always remind you of that particular time. Like fabric is to a crocheted blanket or your favorite pair of jeans, so is the connection between feelings of memory and environment that intertwine together to produce an experience.
Recently, I was able to take a trip to California's renowned Napa Valley with some of my co-workers. Not only was this my first-ever trip to wineries, but I was going to the the heart of it! There are the wonderful wine producing regions such as France, Italy, South America, Spain, Germany and New Zealand but, to me, this is the top of the totem pole. Ok, it may be MY heart but if you were creating a Mt. Rushmore of wine producing regions of the world, undoubtedly Napa Valley has a reserved spot. The first 2 bottles of wine that ever blew my socks off and that left a lasting impression on my psyche were both California produced, so, needless to say I was extremely excited.
The wine-making process itself has always fascinated me; Maybe I watched too much Reading Rainbow as a child but the journey of a grape from vine to glass is enthralling. The entire process needs a cohesion of events that will ultimately result in the juice that we so rigidly judge. Sometimes hard work is taken for granted in the shadow of good results. The unfolding of the end of one step quickly rolling into the beginning of another step seamlessly is a work of art. Take for example what needs to be done at the Hess Collection Winery property on Mt. Veeder. It gets really hot at the end of a growing season and water is sometimes scarce, which is very crucial to the development of ripe grapes. To solve the problem of maybe not getting enough water, at the end of harvest season (between October and December) after the last grapes have been picked and the winery goes through their dormant stage, their workers dredge trenches from the top of the mountain to a man made reservoir at the foot of the mountain. It collects water all year long and provides a reserve supply of water during the summer. They do it manually. Good old fashioned shovel and man power. Without that one step, the process either gets highly expensive, requiring the purchase of extra water or it's left up to chance, with fingers crossed for a good wet season. The connections between man and nature are of utmost importance in the cultivation of wine, and exemplary wine is a result of natural processes enhanced by the influence of man.
For our first stop, we headed north past Rutherford and St. Helena to Trinchero Estates Winery. After getting a wonderful tour of the winery grounds, we sat on a back porch sipping one of the best Merlots I have ever had (their Vista Montone Daybreak Block Merlot) while looking over the vineyard with a direct view of the Mayacamas Mountains in the distance. We got to talking and the question was asked if all the vineyards that we saw were theirs. The tour guide informed us that it wasn't and their property ended by a light post in the distance and that after that, those vineyards belonged to their neighbor. I asked, "So do you ever go them and ask to borrow sugar?" After some abbreviated laughter she replied, "No, but they used to take Bob into their vineyards to teach him about the production of wine." Bob was the son of Mario and Mary Trinchero who purchased the vineyard and who eventually would take it over in the 1970's. It made me think that maybe Napa Valley was more of a tightly interwoven community rather then my prejudged idea of it being a bunch of business conglomerates elbowing each other out of the way. But not all circumstances are like that, and the picture of community took its first brush stroke in my mind.
Caves at Trinchero
Mt. Veeder, while we were at Hess
Because our trip was during the second week in October, we missed the grape harvest by only a couple of days. But that meant that there were some bunches of grapes still on the vines. The taste of a grape off of one of these cultivated Caberent vines was so concentrated, so sweet and absolutely so delicious. That would be a peek into the Hess Block 19 Cuvee Cabernet Sauvignon, which we would later taste, a Cabernet that I would later fall head over heels for. From the vine we also had a shriveled grape, dried of all its water by the sun, which would also be one of the tastiest raisins I have ever had.
At one time, the mountains that the vineyards sit on were dominated by huge Redwood trees. Large formations of Redwoods are detrimental to the survival of anything around it, as they are Natures instrument of population control, periodically starting anew through natural forest fires. So that land was cleared of all of the Redwoods and the first wines that Hess actually produced where aged in huge vats made from felled Redwood. As time passed and techniques perfected the Redwood vats became outdated. They were so enormous, well-constructed and beautiful they didn't want to just toss them in the garbage. They found a home when the owners of Merryvale winery bought them and displayed them at their winery. Another example of the interweaving I've seen in the valley.
Drawing a barrel sample at Franciscan
At the Franciscan Winery I learned that the business was heading toward bankruptcy when two gentleman bought them out and steered them straight. Those two gentlemen were the owners of the Silver Oak winery at that time and implemented a more hands-on, boutique style that saved Franciscan. At one time Mr. Augustine, the Chilean owner of Veramonte, bought Franciscan winery and operated it between 1985 and 1999. He would later buy Montes, Quintessa and Flowers wineries, as well as the Prisoner wine company. Gloria Ferrer winery, producers of outstanding quality affordable sparkling wines, are an offshoot of the Freixenet family which is the largest producer of Cava in Spain. The family doesn't stop there as they collectively own about 18 wineries throughout the world. Domaine Chandon winery, which produces still wines but mostly are known for their high-quality sparkling wines is the American venture of Moet & Chandon, the producers of champagne with the same name and Dom Perignon. When we we drove past the Grgich Winery, there was a big banner that read "Come celebrate Mike Grgich's 90th birthday with us." This is the man that created the Chardonnay that eventually put California Chardonnays on the map when he won the Paris Wine tasting of 1976, infamously called "The Judgement of Paris". But it wasn't his label that won, but it was his work as winemaker for Chateau Montelena. The Robert Young vineyard grapes are shared by two big wineries: Simi winery and Chateau St. Jean. This is just a minuscule tip of the proverbial iceberg when you start to realize how interwoven the wine community in California is to each other. There are hundreds of other examples of winemakers starting out in well-known wineries, then venturing off on their own and leading those new wineries to international recognition. Or even business owners from other parts of the world taking over already established California wineries or continuing, in the US, their visions from back home by creating new American labels. This interweaving of stories is fascinating and layered with history.
Vineyard at Gloria Ferrer
Like the communal connection of the people in wine country, the vines and their surroundings are interwoven deeply, which reveals itself in your wine glass. Whatever is planted around the vines will impart some of its character into the grapes. At Hess, there is Lavender planted in the same field as the grapevines, thus imparting some of its aroma and even taste into the wine. There is also a lot of fennel that grows in vineyards all over Napa, and it is a common nuance in the wines. Since there is an abundance of fennel in Napa Valley, you will also notice a lot of Napa restaurants that use fennel extensively, creating a complete circle of symmetry between the wine and your food. Larry, our tour guide at the Hess winery, explained how the little lizards that you see scurrying all along the property where integral to the organic sustainability of the vineyard. When harvesting is complete, the leftover grape bunches (those that don't fill the requirements in making any particular wine) that stay on the vines eventually fall off, and birth swarms of fruit flies. Those lizards have no qualms about lending their pest control services for the vineyard. At the Gloria Ferrer winery in Carneros, they brought in blue jays that also help them do their own little pest control. This allows nature to sort things out, instead of using harmful chemicals that would also be imparted into your bottle of wine. The climate in Carneros is also very important to the varietals of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, as during the day it gets scorching hot, allowing the grapes to ripen quickly. To keep them from ripening too quickly or burning from the heat, nature sends gusts of wind from the San Francisco Bay over the mountains and into the Valley everyday around 3 o'clock, cooling the grapes off.
etoile, where we had dinner one night
An incredible amount of factors within this trip made it a lasting memory of both professional and personal pure pleasure. There was dinner at etoile, a 5 star restaurant located on the Domaine Chandon property, where it was my first time I ever had rabbit, as they served a rabbit roulade, paired with their Chandon Pinot Noir. An absolutely perfect combination. Also, the first time I ever tried Squab (a pigeon of sorts, but don't tell them that) paired with the first Pinot Meunier I ever had. That falls between, in body, a Beaujolais and a Pinot Noir (Pinot Meunier is one of the 3 traditional grapes, along with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, that are used in the production of champagne). There was the awesome hospitality of our hosts at Trinchero, Hess, Stag's Leap Winery, Chandon, Franciscan, Simi and Gloria Ferrer. The amazing personalities of our guides highlighted by Larry (Hess), Gillian (Simi) and Andrew (Franciscan). The amazing cuisine that paired so harmoniously with our wine selections. The tour at Hess was also highlighted by the visit to the art gallery on their property, which houses some of Mr. Hess's own private collection of fine art. Art is a passion of mine (and obviously his) and they have one of the most amazing paintings I have ever laid my eyes on: Franz Gertsch's "Johanna II". A real life, meticulously and perfectly constructed painting of a fabricated women's portrait, which conveyed different emotions that stood larger than life on its enormous canvas. I still get chills when I look at the painting in the souvenir book I bought there, and happy that I was able to see that personally.
There was also dinner with the remarkable Cameron Hughes in San Francisco, on our last night in California. Cameron Hughes is a Negociant; he doesn't grow grapes but he buys the best grapes he can find in California (and elsewhere) and makes his own wine from them, giving you high quality wine at affordable prices. He breathed a fresh unprejudiced breath of air into the business. As we sat in the steak house overlooking the Bay Bridge and its dancing light show, all the pieces had finally connected. Interwoven themselves in my memory of an experience that I will euphorically forever remember, where all the pieces matter. Where all the components are relevant.
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