napaman.com: The Wine You Love… from the Winery You Can’t Visit

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. (*****)

November 27, 2007

The Wine You Love… from the Winery You Can’t Visit

As I write, I am a stone’s throw from America’s best restaurant (according to universal critics, The French Laundry). And no further, too, from my own favorite grill restaurant on the planet (Mustards Grill). Given these GPS hot points, you may well deduce: I am in Yountville, CA, at the midpoint of Napa Valley.

In fact, I am writing from a winery whose wines you love but whose facility you may never visit, thanks to county decisions and regulations made a long time ago in a galaxy far away.

In short: I am at Dominus Estate, making an official Press visit so that I may report back to would-be consumers of this estate’s great wines what is going on behind closed doors.

They’re not just “closed doors” – they’re rock walls! The entire structure is covered in a cage filled with rocks trucked in from nearby American Canyon. More on this architectural achievement later in the story.

For the record – and let’s get this bit of history out of the way now – Yountville (pronounced YAHNT-VIL) is named after prospector, land-lover and gad-about George Yount, who planted the first vines in Napa Valley, where Dominus is now perched, some 160 years ago.

Why I live where I live. Part 1. Vineyards out front of Dominus.

Dominus Estate is the brainchild of Pomerol winemaker Christian Moueix, whom I met (at Mustards Grill, of all places) last winter. If you are into wine, you will know Christian’s most famous label – Pétrus, a gorgeous Bordeaux from Pomerol that sells for $3,500 a bottle as a pre-arrival, which is three years before you can even take possession of it! (Kind of makes Dominus look like a bargain.)

Why I live where I live. Part 2. Vineyards out front of Dominus.

Christian’s family owns and operates more than ten chateaux (wineries) in Bordeaux, most of them in Pomerol and most of them making Merlot-based wines, not Cabernet, which is Dominus’ strong playing card.

Cabernet vines out the back of the building. Note: the vines that start to march up the Mayacamas hillside do not belong to Dominus.

Christian fell in love with our valley while studying at U.C. Davis in the late 1960s. After years of searching for an ideal vineyard, he entered into a joint venture in 1982 with the two daughters of winemaker John Daniel – Robin Lail and Marcia Smith, owners of Napanook Vineyard, which they had inherited from their father.

At that point, Christian became the “second high profile Frenchman in Napa Valley,” after the much-ballyhooed arrival of Baron Philippe de Rothschild, who had partnered with Robert Mondavi to create Opus One in 1979.

The property that Christian took over was planted exclusively on St. George rootstock (favored in the 70s) and was trained in the “goblet” fashion, (also called head-pruned), which encouraged the vines to grow like small bushes. Christian found this had an adverse effect on grapes planted in sunny, hot Yountville; grape clusters were often shrouded in shoots, or canes, which prevented sunlight and air from reaching internal, dangling clusters. In effect, grapes on the inside of the bush ripened at a much slower rate (if at all) than clusters on the outer edge.

What part of this are you not getting so far….? This place is Paradise!

Over the next dozen, or so, years, Christian and his small band of about 10 vineyard hands, repossessed, repackaged and replanted the property. Today there are about 100 acres replanted on six different kinds of rootstock, all grown on a double canopy trellis. In addition to Cabernet Sauvignon, Dominus now grows Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Merlot, according to Boris Chamby, Dominus winemaker. These varieties are the classic grapes of Bordeaux.

Winemaker Boris Champy, whose family has vineyard holdings in Champagne. Boris is leaving Dominus to become winemaker at Maison Louis Latour, in Burgundy.

Everyone at Dominus with whom I spoke for this story echoed Christian’s thematic overview of winemaking: “Wine is made in the vineyard.”

And you see it for yourself when you visit the property (if you’re lucky enough to ever get the chance; HINT: become a wine distributor, wine merchant, or wine writer and you just might get an invitation). At other wineries, they hustle you into the fermenting room, or chai (barrel-ageing room), or tasting room, to tell you their winemaking story; at Dominus, Boris first took me out into the vineyard where we spent 40 minutes in the broiling sun, looking at vines and soil.

Although Dominus doesn’t practice textbook “Biodynamic,” or “Organic,” farming, intervention is minimal and common sense, not chemicals, prevails. There are 50 birdhouses – “one every two acres,” Boris told me – for bluebirds, which are inveterate insect-eaters. They wing through the vineyard destroying crop predators. As well, no herbicides are used, and no fertilizer is applied to the soil, only compost.

While Dominus could likely be certified Organic, or Biodynamic, good sources tell me that Christian is so tired of all the laws, regulations and rules that must be met on his home turf in Bordeaux, that he doesn’t want to get into the same level of regulated minutia here in America. He’ll walk the near-organic walk – just won’t sign up to be over-regulated to do so.

There are three types of soil on the Dominus estate – a gravelly/volcanic block, a heavy clay patch and a loamy block. For the most part, only the heavily compacted clay soil is irrigated because the roots of the vines can’t get below four-feet in depth.

“Everywhere else on the estate – most of our 100 acres – are dry-farmed,” says Boris, meaning NO water is added to keep the vines happy. They have to fight for their survival through droughts and lousy weather times.

This is not new in the world of wine production; many regions in France prohibit the use of irrigation altogether. Chateauneuf-du-Pape, in the southern Rhone, for example, has prohibitions against irrigating. But it is very un-American to dry-farm; most wineries in Napa Valley rely on drip-irrigation to keep their vines happy and in harmony. (It is often said in wine-making circles that “stressed vines produce better wines,” so vines that must send their roots deep down into the soil for water, are likely to pick up micronutrients and flavors from way down there, too.)

I’m no mathematician, but four types of grapes (Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, Merlot) x three types of soil (gravelly/volcanic, heavy clay, and loam) leads to more permutations and combinations than the Republicans have candidates to consider.

“At Dominus, we overcome this complexity by having 60 different-sized stainless steel fermenting tanks,” says Boris, explaining how they manage production. “We want to optimize every single grape on the estate; Cabernet will ripen at a different time than Merlot, and even among Cabernet vines, grapes planted on different blocks will mature at different times.”

So, in order to optimize maturation in the field (“it’s all about the vineyard – not interventions you may make in the winery”), grapes are harvested by block and by sub-division of block. Hence every grape is given its fair day in court – is permitted (even enabled) to reach its optimum level of ripeness before being crushed and fermented with grapes of the same mini-block.

Contrast this to many wineries where ALL the grapes are picked AT THE SAME TIME from a HUGE tract and processed AT THE SAME TIME in the SAME vat.

At Dominus, there is virtual micro-control of small blocks, which are picked at different times from the rest of the vineyard, fermented separately, and once vinified, added back in to a master, blended beverage.

The second-label of this property is Napanook, honoring the name given the vineyard by George Yount. The primary, or first, label is Dominus.

I asked Tod Mostero, who has been technical director but who becomes winemaker at the end of this month, what are the differences between Napanook and Dominus.

“Napanook is aged in 20 per cent new oak for 12 to 14 months and will age 10 to 15 years. About 5,000 cases are made annually and the wine is priced at about $40.”

“Dominus is aged in 40 percent new oak for 18 months and has the ability to age gracefully for 20-15+ years.”

Tod, who is taking the reigns over from Boris (who is heading out to become a winemaker in Burgundy), says that he recently tasted the 1987 Dominus of which there are very few bottles left in private cellars and that at 20 years of age “it is still a baby. The wine has at least another 15 years to show off – it’s gorgeous now but will get even better with time.”

Dominus is called “The Stealth Winery” by locals – and you can see why. Even up close, the low, rock-encrusted winery is barely visible.

The winery, just off Highway 29, is a two-story, flat, elongated building, designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss design team Herzog and de Meuron. They are best known for designing the Tate Modern, in London, and for the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Their first project in the US was Dominus and today remains their only building in Napa Valley.

The winery’s exterior is made of “gabions” which are rectangular, wire-fenced cages that are filled with grey basalt rocks; the rocks act like a skin on the building, protecting the interior from light and heat.

You’re likely to hear of Herzog and de Meuron over the next 12 months, too. They designed the Olympic Stadium in Beijing for the 2008 summer Olympics.

The winery is a sort of drive-through experience; note the exterior cages, or gabions, filled with rocks. Small deliveries of whole cluster grapes can be driven into the heart of the building through two major portals such as the one shown here.

I asked Boris and Tod if they agree with a theory that floats in Napa Valley – that the wines of French winemakers here somehow taste “French, or more Bordeaux-like, than the wines produced by American-born winemakers. I was thinking of Bernard Portet, winemaker at Clos du Val in the Stag’s Leap Wine District, who makes a delicious, balanced, thoroughly enjoyable Cabernet that tastes more Bordeaux-like than his neighbor’s wines.

“At other wineries in Napa Valley, they spend much of their time worrying about their barrels, about ageing their wines, about the process of making the wine. That is the American way,” say Boris and Tod.

“Here, at Dominus – and I am sure they do the same thing at Clos du Val – we start making wine in the vines and we stay in the vines. That is where great wine is made: in the vineyards. You cannot make a great wine, or a balanced wine, if you do not have great fruit to work with. Maybe that’s a French thing,” they theorize.

Winemaker Boris Champy, left, is leaving Dominus, and winemaker Tod Mostero, right, has come on board to replace him.

Talk about meticulous fruit; because there is so much dust on the grapes in the dry days of September and October, starting back in 1990, Christian told his winemaker team to start hand-washing ALL the grapes as they were picked, before being crushed.

It’s a little known fact that this practice has actually caught on a few other Napa Valley wineries. At Nickel & Nickel, for example, they have been spraying grapes as they come in off the field for the last five harvests, according to winery spokesperson Mary Grace. (I asked how they dry the grapes so that excess water doesn’t dilute the juice; she says they use air driers, a sort of variation of those hand-driers you find in commercial bathrooms. I trust they work better than those! Otherwise, I can see a line of field workers having to dry off the air-blown grapes on the front and back of their trowsers!)

But Wait… There’s More!

The chai, or barrel-ageing room, at Dominus holds between 450 and 500 barrels.

I asked to sample the current release of Napanook and Dominus while at the winery. Here are my tasting notes. And PAY ATTENTION! Because this is as close to the winery as you are going to come. You get to taste the labor of love – you just can’t ever come to the place where all the heavy lifting is done!

2004 Napanook
Dark fruit and vanilla on the nose. A harmonious blend of Asian spices, sandalwood, dark ripe fruit all combined seamlessly, elegantly. This wine has a lovely texture, a gorgeous weight in the mouth. Totally food friendly, even though a new release. Elegant. You would never guess that this wine is pushing 14 percent alcohol. Retails for about $40. 92 points.

2004 Dominus
On the nose there are whiffs of pitch and tar, organic earth and burnt mesquite. This wine is more minerally and earthy than the Napanook, and it has even darker ripe fruit. Also, there is a floral component that is not evident in the Napanook. A hint of lavender about three-quarters of the way through the swallow and a black pepper finish.
Retails for about $110. 93 points.

In case you don’t know how to read (this story) or take NO for an answer, you may still wish to plan a visit Dominus Estate. Although you cannot reach your goal (this is NOT the castle in the Rocky Horror Picture Show – they won’t let you in!), here’s what you’ll need to know:

Dominus is at 2570 Napanook Rd., Yountville, CA 94599 and there are NO TOURS, NO APPOINTMENTS AND YOU ARE NOT WELCOME. But the wine is glorious so go find it at a neighborhood wine store. Tel: (707) 944-8954.

Posted at 06:24 PM in Napa Valley General, Wine | Permalink

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Comments

Hi Jim,
Great article thanks, the winery has been a interest of mine for a while! The method they use has long been my belief, in fact, I just wrote a comment yesterday on Alice Feiring that echos this attidude. The best and latest equipment is all for nothing without having the finest fruit. The best wine starts in the vineyard it is not possible to make good wine from mediorce fruit!
By the way, I just finished making Carols navy bean sausage and kale soup, used Fermani sausage and organic Kale wow it is great thanks for the recipe!

Posted by: Mark V Marino | November 30, 2007 at 04:05 PM

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November 27, 2007

The Wine You Love… from the Winery You Can’t Visit

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