CALIFORNIA
The Advance Party had been to the frontier twice and reported back.
Zeren was talking with quivering voice about Sonoma Pinots. Unfortunately they were
all crazy money. Our California shelves were bare, tension was mounting.
Customers were baying for Chardonnay. We couldn't wait any longer, it was time
to head West again.
HAFNER
That night, we were in Ralph's Restaurant on the main square and spotted
an Alexander Valley Chardonnay we'd never heard of - Hafner. Struck by its
classic almost 80's type style, yet with restrained use of oak, that was
another ÒpriorityÓ meeting.
Beautifully located in Alexander Valley, surrounded by their own
meticulously kept vines, Scott and Parke Hafner have a different business model
to most. They only sell to private clients, no retail. We were lucky to spot a
bottle from the 5% they sell into restaurants in California.
And how are the wines - Chardonnay, Reserve Chardonnay and Cabernet
Sauvignon? While their winery was being built, back in the early 80's, Parke
Hafner did a stint at Comte Lafon in Meursault, influencing the style ever
since. Imagine lovely ripe Alexander Valley fruit unobscured by oak. Their
Cabernet is also fabulous, not overblown.
As for retail? We are proud to be the only retail outlet in the world to
have Hafner wines!
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CHARDONNAY Alexander Valley |
Sonoma |
2006 |
19.99 |
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CHARDONNAY RESERVE Alexander Valley |
Sonoma |
2005 |
28.99 |
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red |
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CABERNET SAUVIGNON Alexander Valley |
Sonoma |
2002 |
35.99 |
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CABERNET SAUVIGNON Alexander Valley |
Sonoma |
2003 |
35.99 |
WOODENHEAD
Spinetingling Pinots. Nick Stez and Zina Bower. Straight-up, no
nonsense. We visited them one cold, foggy morning working out of the bankrupt
Topolos Winery just outside Forestville. They were waiting for grapes for the
morning's crush with their team of friends, one a fireman from San Francisco,
another a local teacher, who had phoned-in sick.
Zina works in the office at Cult-Cabernet Winery Diamond Creek, Nick
worked a few months a year at Williams-Selyem and the rest of the time in
Construction. He must have been paying paying attention - he's making Pinots of
the Gods!
The Anderson Valley Wiley Vineyard - fragrant and dense. The explosive
Humboldt County Pinot, from Eel River where there are huge Redwoods and the
pines cover the riverbed which Nick thinks affects the taste. And finally the
Russian River Valley Pinot - ethereal and very very fine. We immediately
reserved the remaining seven cases. Woodenhead - you can't even find them in
San Francisco!
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PINOT NOIR Russian River Valley |
Sonoma |
2006 |
29.99 |
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ZINFANDEL Martinelli Road Old Vine |
Sonoma |
2006 |
34.99 |
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PINOT NOIR Buena Tierra, Russian River Valley |
Sonoma |
2006 |
44.99 |
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PINOT NOIR Wiley Vineyard, Anderson Valley |
Sonoma |
2006 |
47.99 |
RENARD
Bayard Fox is quite the Francophile. Fox – RenardÉget it? French
mother, importer of French barrels into the USA, Bayard is the epitome of the
Californian ÒRhone-RangerÓ concentrating exclusively on Rhone grapes; Roussanne,
Viognier, Syrah and Grenache. He makes a tiny volume of boutique bottlings in
the corner of Ballentine Winery on the outskirts of St Helena in Napa Valley.
His creamy, waxy Roussanne is from vines north of Santa Barbara. Bayard takes
his inspiration from the French with his Syrahs. Yes, itÕs ripened by the
Californian sun but heÕs is not afraid of the wilder, sweaty animal notes that
mingle with the hints of violet and cream. His basic Syrah is bold and
alcoholic at 14.5%, with the teeniest splash of Viognier to Òpop up the
aromaticsÓ, as Bayard puts itÉ Kick Ranch is simply stunning. One to try
side-by-side with a Cote-Rotie.
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ROUSSANNE Santa Ynez |
Santa Barbara |
2006 |
16.99 |
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SYRAH |
California |
2006 |
19.99 |
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SYRAH Kick Ranch, Rincon Valley |
Sonoma |
2005 |
33.99 |
WHITE ROCK
Then it was off to see Henry Vandendriesche of White Rock. His son Chris
has been making the wine recently. Their amazing cellar dug out of the white
rock, a compacted layer of volcanic ash, has one section at the back with they
rent out for Òcustom crushÓ - which basically means many of Chris' mates make
their own boutique wines there. One particularly fascinating one is Scholum
Project, made by former philosophy professor and part-time web designer, Abe,
who is fixated with minimal intervention. He allows his wines to ferment as
long as they want, sometimes up to two-and-a-half years! He goes to religious
lengths to avoid opening his barrels, and believes in totally starving his
wines of oxygen (which does make them a little stinky at first). His tanks and
handful of barrels are festooned with Japanese good luck charms. The wines are
extreme and sell for $50-80 locally.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the cellar, Henry and Chris continue to make
their beautifully-crafted Chardonnay and Bordeaux blends.
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CHARDONNAY Napa Valley |
Napa |
2006 |
23.99 |
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red |
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CABERNET SAUVIGNON Napa Valley |
Napa |
2003 |
36.99 |
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CABERNET SAUVIGNON ÒLaureateÓ Napa Valley |
Napa |
2004 |
39.99 |
ANTHILL FARMS
Mega-scarce, mega-tiny, mega-boutique, mega-Pinots. Oh, and a bit of Syrah.
Three young guys, Anthony Filiberti, Webster Marquez and David Low met at
Williams-Selyem and decided to make wine together. They have a handful of
barrels in the corner of Papapietro Winery just outside Healdsburg on the road
up to Dry Creek. Pure, ethereal and with a blessed lightness of touch with the
oak, these are state-of-the-art un-showy Pinots for Pinot lovers.
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red |
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SYRAH Windsor Oaks Vineyard, Russian River Valley |
Sonoma |
2006 |
24.99 |
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PINOT NOIR Peters Vineyard, Sonoma Coast |
Sonoma |
2006 |
36.99 |
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PINOT NOIR Tina Marie Vineyard, Green Valley |
Sonoma |
2005 |
42.99 |
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PINOT NOIR Abbey Harris, Anderson Valley |
Mendocino |
2005 |
45.99 |
DAVIS FAMILY VINEYARDS
Then there was Guy Davis of Davis Family Vineyards on the outskirts of
Healdsburg. We have met Guy before - known for his pricey Napa Red - who never
seems to have any wine too sell and this time was no different! We hadn't
realised he also makes an amazingly intense Chardonnay from Dutton Ranch fruit
with a splash of nutty oak. ÒOver the years I've been jockeying for position in
the Dutton Vineyard, which is divided into very spread-out parcels. I now get
the fruit from the far West side, near Occidental and it's way cooler there.Ó
He also makes an impressive Russian River Pinot, full of ferny,
autumnal, raspberry notes, from 15% Dutton Ranch and 85% from his own vines.
Needless to say. he had nothing left to sell, and assured us we would be
first in line for the next release. We have held him to that!
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CHARDONNAY Dutton Ranch |
Sonoma |
2006 |
26.99 |
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red |
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PINOT NOIR Russian River Valley |
Sonoma |
2005 |
29.99 |
GREEN & RED
It was time to visit old friends too - Zinfandel specialist Jay Heminway
of Green & Red, who showed us his first vintage of pure Syrah from his ÒTip
Top VineyardÓ. He is just using his own fruit now and has stopped buying fruit
from the valley floor, so there will be no more Village Zin (as we call it) or
the Chiles Valley Zin. His 2002s were all classic Green+Red, ripe, focused,
muscular! Each time we visit, more of his past is revealed: trained as a
sculptor, studied in Italy as a sculptor, taught sculpture, had a gallery in
San Francisco. Became disenchanted, got divorced. Bought a place here in the
Napa hills to get away from it all. A guy who was putting in a septic tank,
when he saw the geology of his plot, said Òyou should put a few acres of vines
in.Ó It wasn't long before Jay was off to Bordeaux do a season at Chateau
Lascombes followed by a spell with NYC wine merchants Sherry Lehmann and Alexis
Lichine. Planted the vines in 1972 and started selling his wines in 1977. Now
joined by his second wife he has never looked back.and neither have we!
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ZINFANDEL Chiles Mill Vineyard |
Napa |
2004 |
21.99 |
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ZINFANDEL Tip Top |
Napa |
2003 |
22.99 |
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SYRAH Tip Top |
Napa |
2002 |
22.99 |
STARK
We met the young, goatie-bearded Christian Stark in the Oakville Grocery
in Healdsburg Sonoma, where he works part-time. He makes this high-class, sleek
Syrah with fruit from two vineyards in Dry Creek Valley just north of
Healdsburg. Violets and cream!
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SYRAH Teldeschi & Unti Vineyards, Dry Creek |
Sonoma |
2003 |
29.99 |
WILD HOG
We were sitting on the verandah at Flowers Winery on the Sonoma Coast
admiring their $30million all-singing, all-dancing estate. New oak, new tanks
from Italy, new winery, new everything - apart from some old vines, of course.
Our next meeting was at Wild Hog. We asked for directions. Daniel lives over
that hill there, about three and a half miles as the eagle flies. HeÕs quite a
character, back to nature, really sweet. Directions were faxed. An hour later
we had gone cross-country. Forded streams, looked for marks on trees where
tracks diverged, been up and down several narrow hillside tracks, through dark
woods, thick (we imagined) with men with guns fleeing the authorities. Finally
we descended into another valley and there was Daniel Schoenfeld, his pick-up
truck and two dogs asleep in the sun. DanielÕs set-up is the exact opposite to
FlowersÕ. A small barn he built himself, rammed with barrels, a small kitchen
which doubles as his lab and some gorgeous wines.
ÒI moved out here with my wife almost 30 years ago - back to nature,
self-sufficiency, looking for another way. I was a hippy at that time.Ó He
started making wine at college in demi-johns as a hobby. Then some years later,
now settled in the woods, he planted a few vines and started making a little
for family consumption. They would then bring wine round to friends for dinner
who all said - why not sell it? So Wild Hog was born.
Daniel makes just 4,000 cases a year - 1,000 more than he wants to! He
tries not to mess with the grapes much, producing natural wines with
distinctive characters. Unfussy, but not unsophisticated. Brambley, savoury
Zinfandel and a bright dense Carignan, rarely seen as a single varietal
bottling in California.
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red |
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CARIGNANE Saini Farms, Dry Creek Valley |
Sonoma |
2003 |
19.99 |
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PETITE SIRAH Dunnigan Hills |
Lake County |
2004 |
21.99 |
RABBIT RIDGE
We visited the new Rabbit Ridge winery outside Paso Robles at the
beginning of the 2003 harvest. It was still very much a building site, the
fermentation tanks had only been delivered a few days earlier and were being
connected as the first crush arrived! Erich and his wife Joanne James are crazy
about things Italian, so the new facility is a rhapsody on an Italian theme - a
palazzo on the desertÕs edge. Many of you have already tasted his Barbera, the
Super-Tuscan ÒMontepianoÓ and his Sangiovese (in our opinion, the best version
of the Chianti varietal to come out of California). Although Rabbit Ridge has
expanded rapidly over the past five years, it is still very much a family
concern - both JoanneÕs sisters are now on board and ErichÕs brother-in-law is
now helping with the winemaking. The Paso Robles palazzo is surrounded by
vines, part of ErichÕs masterplan to increasingly rely on his own fruit and to
experiment more with lesser-known varietals such as Primitivo and Carignan.
Olive oil is also part of the plan!
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white |
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CHARDONNAY Barrel Cuvee |
California |
2005 |
10.99 |
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red |
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CABERNET SAUVIGNON |
California |
2005 |
10.99 |
BACIO DIVINO
Claus Janzen also works for Caymus. This is his own wine, Bacio Divino,
Divine Kiss, getting incredible reviews.
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red |
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BACIO DIVINO Cabernet Sauvignon/Sangiovese/Petite Sirah |
Napa |
1995 |
59.99 |