napaman.com: Atlas Peak – the Appellation that Dares Not Speak its Name!

Recent Wine Pleasures

1998 Domaine de Pegau
Good friends Barry and Lea Stern, brought this perfect, perfectly aged, 11-year-old Chateauneuf du Pape to our home to complement a roast chicken dinner. I know that it is early in the year -- only March -- and crazy to say, but this is likely the Wine of the Year. Already. I can't think of a wine that has brought so much pleasure to the dining table in half-a-dozen years. A complete, compelling beverage, filled with fruit, earth, complexity and elegance. A truly remarkable wine. At its peak. Not one day too young, not one day too old, on either side of Perfection. 100 points.
2001 Vieux Donjon, Chateauneuf du Pape
The only wine in my life of which I have drunk an entire case and rated every single bottle of the case a near-perfect wine was the 1990 Vieux Donjon. I LOVED THAT CASE. I was apparently justified in my thinking about the 1990 Vieux Donjon; in a recent issue of Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, he quoted sommelier Doug Mohr of Vidalia restaurant, in Washington D.C., who marveled that “the greatest wine he had ever tasted was the 1990 Vieux Donjon Chateauneuf du Pape.” Gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case. For dinner this week, to complement Carol’s perfectly prepared pappardelle with veal ragout (a variation of a Mario Batali recipe, only she did it better!), I opened the 2001 Vieux Donjon, which offered a near-duplicate experience of the 1990 vintage. Here was a wine of exceptional length, extraordinary quality. This is a perfect wine, a brilliant wine, elegant, rich, balanced. A 100-pointer. There was nothing missing, no flaws, only gemstone brilliance, bright mature fruit, terroir, minerality, and a finish that Burgundian producers would kill to have. The 2001 Vieux Donjon is long gone from retailer shelves, but look for the 2005 and 2006 vintages, which are helluva good. This is a wine that will improve with age; I like to drink my CDPs (Chateauneufs-du-Pape) with not less than seven or eight years on them.
1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
I have long respected Ed Sbragia’s work as wine director at Beringer and thought that his best-ever achievement (of many brilliant achievements) was his 2001 Beringer Private Reserve Cabernet. But the 1997 vintage, which we opened this week for out-of-town visitors from Canada and England, was, to my mind, perhaps the single most compelling wine of Ed’s that I have ever tasted; it is rich, rich, rich (did I forget to say rich?) in complexity, flavor, and texture. To be blunt: it is a textbook-perfect wine at this age and stage of evolution. You may have read reports in Wine Spectator that the 1997 Napa Valley Cabs are beyond their prime, dried up, finished, kaput. Forget that nonsense. I have opened more than a dozen different 1997 Napa Valley Cabs this year from many different producers and they have been spectacular. In essence, don’t believe what you read, unless, of course, you read it here. But not a one of the dozen or so 1997 Napa Valley Cabs, which we opened this year, stroked my palate the way Ed’s 1997 Beringer Private Reserve Cab did. A 100-pointer any way you look at it.
2006 Aterberry Maresh Pinot Noir, White Rose Vineyard
I could write a sonnet, a book, an encyclopedia about my love for this extravagant, balanced, elegant, mature, brilliant Pinot Noir from the Willamette Valley in Oregon. I learned about this wine at The Tasting Room, in Carleton, OR, during a May visit. I have opened many bottles in my home and every one gets a forehead-slapping, “I can’t believe how good this wine is” remark from Napa Valley winemakers, visitors, friends, and knowledgeable sommeliers for whom I pour it. 96-98 points. Available at The Tasting Room, Carleton, OR, at 503-852-6733. Or from the winery. Speak with talented winemaker Jim Arterberry Maresh at 503-434-7689.
1990 Ridge Montebello Mataro
Brought to dinner at one of my favorite Napa Valley restaurants, Bistro Don Giovanni, by one of my favorite wine-sharing friends, was this stunning, ethereal, syrupy rich wine, made almost exclusively from the Mataro (Mourvedre) grape. Call it the existential libation: "How do they get an 18-year-old wine to taste like a 3-year-old wine?" The wines from Paul Draper at Ridge continue to confound; even at 15... 20... 25 years... they are young, young, even younger. Is there a Ridge genie who goes around topping up older bottles with youthful juice while we sleep? How the hell does Draper do it?? A fabulous wine, screeching of fresh, youthful cherries, ambitious young fruit -- and yet the wine in the bottle is 18 years old! Easily a 97-point wine. Thanks for bringing it to dinner, Homer!
1959 Jaboulet Cote Rotie, Les Jumelles
Took this rare, 48-year-old wine to Redd restaurant, in Yountville, and experienced no disappointments as you might anticipate them from a wine of this age -- still sealed with the original cork. The wine, purchased from Garagiste, in Seattle, a year ago, was bright garnet in color with virtually no fading and no paleness at the rim. On the nose, the wine showed signs of well ridden saddle leather. We chose not to decant and after about a half-hour, the wine went into a phase of aromas which included a typical Syrah-ness. On the palate, the wine exhibited Burgundy characteristics, reminding me very much of a 64 Vosne Romanee. Toward the end of the meal (awesome braised lamb snippets with housemade pappardelle), the Syrah showed elements of black cherry and licorice that were not earlier noted. An inspiring wine, making those at the table think back to where each of us was in 1959 when the fruit for this bottle was harvested. 93 points. And worth every Garagiste penny.
1997 Robert Mondavi Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon
Deep, dark and delicious, exhibiting rich, ripe black fruit flavors. 10-years-old and at its prime. Surprisingly syrupy, with a velvet mouthfeel. A 97-point wine any way you look at it.
2004 Olabisi, Suisun Valley Syrah
A powerful wine from Ted Osborne, 100 percent Syrah. Rich aromas of earth and dark ripe fruit lift from the glass. There is deep extraction, lots of spice and dark cherry in the middle palate, and great depth of flavor on the finish. A serious Syrah, but it doesn’t cost like one - $30 retail. They ran through a case quickly at Gary Danko in SF. 91 points.
2003 Joseph Phelps Cabernet Sauvignon
Served at dinner at a friend's home with a series of other Cabs, this was the wine that stood out for the evening. Gorgeous mouthfeel, almost silken; lush fruit, supple texture and a pleasing finish. 92 pts.

Books that I have enjoyed

Steve Toltz: A Fraction of the Whole
A wonderful, fun contemporary romp through the eyes of a wholly (nothing fractionated here!) dysfunctional Australian family. Steve Toltz, for whom this is a debut novel, had me laughing out loud to myself many times (the first sign of a GREAT read, or the early warning sign of serious mental instability to follow, take your pick). Imagine: you pour into a blender the novels of Kurt Vonnegut (Cat’s Cradle, et al), Tom Robbins (Even Cowgirls… Frog Pajamas, etc.) Evelyn Waugh (Black Mischief), John Irving (take your pick…) , Jonathan Safran Foer (Everything is Illuminated) , Voltaire (Candide) and pulse on High for 1 minute; remove cover, season with a bit of Malraux (Man’s Fate) and perhaps some H.L. Mencken (any of his backhanded witticisms) and voila! – you have Steve Toltz and A Fraction of the Whole! Ingest slowly to make the flavors last. I haven’t had as much fun reading a book since the early days of Vonnegut. Even though the book is 530 pages, I never raced through sections and, instead, found myself savoring every word. I didn’t want this book to end from Page 1. The plot twists and turns unexpectedly and the reader will never guess what’s coming up because Toltz has an inventive spirit, creating characters when he needs them to move the story along. (*****)
Chandler Burr: The Perfect Scent
Only the New York Times could dream up – or justify – having a writer who specializes in perfume – a scent columnist! I love Chandler Burr’s writing, especially his evocative, florid, colorful, imagery-rich descriptions of commercial perfumes. They should let this guy loose on restaurants – he’d make a killer reviewer. I read Burr’s previous book, The Emperor of Scent, and was dazzled by that story, a review of contemporary attempts to explain how we smell things, the last of our senses to be scientifically explored. We know how we see, we know how we hear, but, in truth, we haven’t got a fucking clue how we smell things! Now comes Burr’s best work, a stunning overview of the commercial perfume industry – The Perfect Scent (Henry Holt & Co.). This is the story of how Coty launched Sarah Jessica Parker’s perfume, Lovely, and how, at the same time, Hermes launched Un Jardin Sur le Nil – both told from Burr’s insider vantage. Both large commercial houses let Burr sit in on ALL aspects of the development of these perfumes. There are tons of wonderful, gossipy elements, scientific explanations of how they make perfume, gorgeous descriptive paragraphs in which Burr disses many popular perfumes. An example? “Yves Saint Laurent poured a river of money into launching M7, created by the star perfumers Alberto Morrilas and Jacques Cavallier of Firmenich. M7 smells like a Fiat engine engulfed in flame on a shoulder of the A6, an alarming chemical storm of burned rubber, charred metal, torched leather and toxic melting polycarbon. This is not necessarily a criticism; it was a well constructed, thoughtfully built scorched car in flames. But people stayed away by the million, and the scent was a disaster.” If you love good writing, have an interest in food or the industry that propels it to your table, this book is a good corollary backgrounder. For many of the firms, which I have hired to flavor the 8,000 food products that I have brought to market, are the same ones (IFF, Givaudan, etc.) that scent the perfumes that whisper behind your ear. And much of the way they invent new perfumes is how we invent new food products – often with more concern for the packaging than for the product, which goes into it. The Perfect Scent is a wonderful, entertaining, richly written book. I can’t recommend it enough. (*****)
Richard Preston: The Wild Trees
Half of all the living species in nature are unknown -- and even more bizarre, they live in forest canopies hundreds of feet above the earth in the planet's tallest trees, according to non-fiction writer Richard Preston. I have read everything Preston, who is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, has written, including The Hot Zone (about the Ebola virus scare...), for which he is probably best known. But in reality, his best works may be his two earliest; I LOVED his account of the Hale Observatory in First Light, and his take on Nuco Steel, in the book American Steel, was a classic. Preston's new book, The Wild Trees, is a perhaps too-detailed, but very compelling look, at the ecosystems abundant in the verdant, earth-filled canopies that are 200+ feet off the ground in the majestic redwoods of northern California. This is NOT one of those anti-logging treatises but, instead, is a positive spin on how fragile, how vital and how important is the biodiversity of the towering redwoods. Preston micro-paints his lead protagonists in such fine detail that we learn extremely intimate details of their lives and you find yourself asking, "How the hell did he get THAT piece of information out of the subject?" If you're into botany, biology, or Richard Preston as a writer, this book is a must-read. If you're interested in well-crafted sentences, colorful writing, or have a basic interest in tree hugging, this book could be for you, too!
Elizabeth Gilbert: Eat, Pray, Love
Everyone around me was reading this book - my good friend Richard, my wife, our friend Wendy - so I picked up a copy. And couldn't put it down. This is a must-read diary of a woman who left her husband, her lover and her life in New York and hit the road for a year, one third of it spent in each of Italy, India and Indonesia. It has food, philosophy, laughs, and a textural richness not often found in non-fiction. Each one of us, hooked on this book, read the last third more slowyly than the first; we didn't want this search-for-self saga to end. (*****)
Bill Buford: Heat
A compelling, and fabulously written, book about Mario Batali. The writing is as colorful as the chef. (*****)

August 07, 2007

Atlas Peak – the Appellation that Dares Not Speak its Name!

A typical scene from the “Shangri-La appellation,” Atlas Peak.

The growers and wineries of Atlas Peak, a craggy, rocky, mountain appellation on the eastern side of Napa Valley, ask why their wines aren’t better known and don’t get better press.

A local growers’ association recently invited a jumble of journalists to tour the appellation to introduce them – and me – to the land where a lot of fruit for Caymus, Pahlmeyer, Paul Hobbs, ZD, Cardinale, Cain, Duckhorn, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Stags Leap Winery and Silver Oak comes from. That’s right -- all of these major Napa Valley wines stuff the bright, intense, mineral-rich fruit grown in Atlas Peak into their “Napa Valley” wines, but choose not to tell you about the source. It’s a wine-maker’s secret.

Atlas Peak is one of 14 sub-appellations in Napa Valley. It’s a rugged domain planted with fruit nearly up to the top of the Peak itself at 2,663 feet elevation.

But the secret stays secret, even on the mountaintop. Atlas Peak growers and winemakers compound their invisibility by making, and bottling, gorgeous, deep-fruited reds, which they label “Napa Valley,” instead of labeling them “Atlas Peak,” to designate the true origin of their fruit.

“We’re afraid no one will know where Atlas Peak is if that’s all we put on the label,” one local winery owner told me on the tour.

A swale of potential swill

Of 25 wines tasted at an informal growers’ and winery presentation, only two wine labels acknowledged that the wine was from Atlas Peak on the front label.

Compare this to more secure winemakers on the valley floor who are not only unafraid to label their wines by appellation, but even proud to do so. Think “Oakville,” or “Rutherford,” or “Stags Leap District,” on wine labels, an origin-naming practice that actually earns a winery more pizzazz (and sales, and maybe even more dollars, too). In marketing wine, it’s largely about the specificity of appellation.

(For the uninitiated: Napa Valley is itself an AVA – an American Viticultural Area. Within Napa Valley there are 14 sub-appellations, designating geographic or microclimatic zones, which produce different styles of wine. Atlas Peak is one of the 14 sub-appellations. Within the Atlas Peak AVA, there is one winery that has trademarked the name as its own brand – Atlas Peak. To be clear: whenever I speak of “Atlas Peak,” I am talking about the sub-appellation and not the winery of the same name. Got it?)

Based on my one-day visit to Napa Valley’s hidden wine Shangri-La (Atlas Peak), local growers have nothing to hide, nothing to cower from, and nothing of which to be ashamed. In fact, wine makers should be proud to label their wines “Atlas Peak.”

One of the reasons that tourists haven’t discovered Atlas Peak wines is that this mountainous region is not explorable in the average rental car. The roads – you should pardon the expression – between mountain wineries could be used to test a new medical procedure; drive fast over the rocky terrain in a four-wheel vehicle and you just might invent a method to break up kidney stones.

Another reason you haven’t heard much about this appellation is that most of the growers are small-timers. The largest estate property in the AVA, which is leased out, belongs to Piero Antinori, of Italy. He has so many other properties and ventures that he doesn’t appear to have had time to promote this AVA the way he has done in other regions of the world where he also owns land.

On the property belonging to Italy’s Piero Antinori, leased by Atlas Peak Winery, is a man-made reservoir, so large they call it 'Atlas Lake.' “It’s so large that you could water ski on it,” one wine maker told me.

Grapes grown in Atlas Peak derive benefits that grapes grown on the valley floor of Napa Valley don’t:

1. They are grown in lean, volcanic soil, forcing the vines to work extra hard to nourish themselves. Mountain fruit often has a more intense flavor profile.

2. They are grown about 1,500 feet above sea level – which is even above fog level. When fog rolls in and covers much of Napa Valley (as it often does mornings in the warm summer growing season) the fruit grown in Atlas Peak is ABOVE the fog; it’s still being warmed by the early morning sun when the rest of Napa Valley’s fruit is fogged in. “We often get three or four hours more sunlight on many summer days than grapes grown on the valley floor, “ explains Tony Hernandez, vineyard manager for the Atlas Peak brand of wine. “We get a later start in the spring because it’s cooler up on the mountain, but by mid-summer, our grapes have caught up with the valley floor in maturity,” he adds.

3. The mountain soil adds a discernible mineral quality that I swear I could taste in the reds; I tasted 25 current release Atlas Peak Cabs and Merlots and many of them had a detectable mineral component that added a pleasing complexity to the beverage.

Atlas Peak -- the peak itself – is a crown in the Vaca Mountain range. Vines were planted and a hotel built for tourists here in the 1870s. Today, the appellation has a meager 1,500 acres of vines planted, accounting for less than a third of a percent of all the acreage planted in Napa Valley.

Atlas Peak wineries, for the most part, have planted Cabernet Sauvignon and its sister varieties, often called “the Bordeaux blend,” which includes Petit Verdot, Cab Franc, Merlot and Malbec.

One winery has tried to make a serious go at growing Sangiovese in the Atlas Peak appellation, but it has not been particularly well received. When I think of Really Great Napa Valley Wines that I have tasted and loved, not a single Sangiovese-based wine from the valley is on my list. Kind of tells me this ain’t the place, or time, for Sangiovese up on Atlas Peak.

Notes from a tasting of 25 Atlas Peak (appellation) wines

The purpose of this website is NOT to attempt to play the ratings game, deftly played by Robert Parker and marketed so well by Wine Spectator. My game is not to dump the ratings of 25 wines tasted in your lap but rather to highlight the wines that I believe are chase-worthy, the ones that stand out above their peers.

There were many fine wines tasted at the growers’ presentation. But three brands stood out and need to be identified in detail.

Spoiler alert! The first brand highlighted is made by my winemaking partner in a completely different enterprise. Jamey Whetstone is a consulting winemaker to several wineries and is my partner in Manifesto! Sauvignon Blanc. When the group of wine writers was taken to Jocelyn Lonen Winery on Atlas Peak Road, I actually had NO flipping idea who the wine maker is, or was; Jamey has not spoken to me of his other wine consulting projects and I feel it would be unfair to the mother-daughter owners of Jocelyn Lonen, and to Jamey, if I excluded these wines from my report just because I have a business relationship elsewhere with Jamey. I have been a professional wine writer for nearly 30 years; I am not swayed, or influenced, by free dinners, expense-paid trips, or pre-existing business relationships. As long as that is understood, we can proceed.

Susan Curtis and her daughter (not pictured) Brandi Jocelyn Pack, oversee the production of Jocelyn Lonen wines.

So, about Jocelyn Lonen. It is run by a mother and daughter team, Susan Curtis and Brandi Jocelyn Pack. They took over the business after Susan’s husband, Lonen, died from a brain tumor at age 56. I tasted three 2004 Joceyln Lonen blends and liked them all:

2004 Jocelyn Lonen Cabernet, Napa Valley ($35)
Made with fruit from nearby Stagecoach Vineyard, this mineral Cab exhibits ripe fruit flavors and has an uncommon balance for a wine of this price. Aged in only 50% new oak, which makes it much more enjoyable to drink young. 91 points

2004 Jocelyn Lonen Cabernet, Reserve, Napa Valley ($60)
This is a gorgeous wine, regal really. Lovely middle palate in both texture and taste. Rich with fruit and minerals. 92 points.

2004 Jocelyn Lonen Cabernet, Founders Blend, Napa Valley ($85)
Tied for my favorite wine of the tasting. Made from seven specific blocks of Stagecoach Vineyard fruit, which Whetstone handpicks. This wine introduces a level of deep, dark, wholly ripe plum that is not present in either of the cuvees above. Hugely intense, yet still elegant wine, with a gorgeous finish. Very complex. 93 points.

“... the grapes were this big!”

The wine that tied the Founders Blend as my favorite of the tasting was the 2002 Elan Vineyards Proprietary Red, made by Patrick Elliott-Smith. He grew up in Larchmont, NY, and in Paris, and landed in Napa Valley in 1975, when he bought his first land here.

Patrick looks like one of those guides you hire for a safari in Kenya and his knowledge of the mountainous appellation is rich. (Hey! The guy’s planted enough vineyards for enough different owners in Atlas Peak over the last 35 years to know every nook and cranny, so he COULD be a guide if he wanted…)

Patrick Elliott-Smith is vineyard manager and winemaker of Elan Vineyards, Linda, his wife, is responsible for sales and marketing.

Patrick poured two wines:

2003 Elan Vineyards Cabernet ($50)
Lots of cloves and spice, minerals and mountain intensity. A mouthful of wine with a somewhat angular finish at this particular age. 90 points.

2002 Elan Vineyards Proprietary Blend ($90, available to club members only)
Patrick uses four of the five Bordeaux grapes to make this stupendous wine (no Malbec). There is elegance right out of the gate on the nose, the robe is gorgeous, the texture of this wine is silken, soft, yet complex on the finish. My notes conclude: “One helluva wine!” 93 points.

One other winery whose wines are worth searching out:

2003 Cobblestone Cabernet ($39)
The husband-wife team of P.J. and Camilla Ochland (sounds like Oakland when you say it properly!) hired the talented Sam Baxter (who makes Terra Valentine wines) to make two cuvees. I actually think there is great value in this, the lesser priced, wine. Lovely attack, very spicy, an indulgent wine that would complement any grilled meat. Ends with elegance. 92 points.

2003 Cobblestone Cabernet, Reserve ($69)
This is a marketing conundrum; how do you price a Reserve wine of nearly identical taste and sensual pleasure as your workhorse wine? The Ochlands have chosen to nearly double the price, but this wine is so similar in engine output, smiles to the gallon and race to the finish that I have to rate it the same as the workhorse above, 92 points.

The license says it all – Atlas Peak is the Mountain Home of King Cabs.

To get a better understanding of the Atlas Peak AVA, and of the various wineries in Napa Valley’s Shangri-La appellation, go to http://www.atlaspeakappellation.com

To learn more about the three featured wines above, check out:

http://www.jocelynwines.com

http://www.elanvineyards.com/html/index.cfm

http://www.cobblestonewine.com

Posted at 06:08 PM in Napa Valley General, Wine | Permalink

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August 07, 2007

Atlas Peak – the Appellation that Dares Not Speak its Name!

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