In Napa Valley, where egos, formidable family names, and highly visible patriarchs are the norm in the wine business, you’d have to call St. Supery “the inside-out winery.” Because they sort of do things inside out.
Like quietly. Without fanfare. Without broad ego brushstrokes.
St. Supery in Rutherford.
While St. Supery is a first-class winery on Highway 29 in Rutherford, at the epicenter of the valley, one is not urged to visit for reasons so many area wineries compel: for extravagant architecture, or for an amassed art collection, or for a chance to shake hands with a celebrity owner.
No, the attraction at St. Supery is, quite simply… da-da!… the wine.
No ego, no architectural wonders, no photo gallery. Just great wine. Produced with care.
Even behind the behind-the-scene, you have to work hard to find out that the Rutherford winery is owned lock, stock, and fine oak barrel by a French wine family, the Skallis, who make wine in Europe from more 900 acres planted in the Languedoc region of France and in Corsica.
You also have to work hard to find out that that 27 years ago, when Robert Skalli landed on these shores, the first thing he bought was a 1500-acre ranch in a valley on the east side of Howell Mountain. Where nary a grape vine had ever been planted.
The entrance to St. Supery’s hidden valley ranch, Dollarhide.
One-hundred years earlier or so, the Dollarhide Ranch had been a horse trading property owned by Andrew Jackson Dollarhide.
Skalli, who had a vision, bought the property and planted 485 acres with his favorite Bordeaux reds: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Merlot, and for whites, he planted Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.
(Yes, Virginia, there is a small production of un-oaked Chardonnay, Muscat Canelli and Syrah on the ranch today, too, but that’s not what St. Supery wants to be known for and they don’t promote these wines.)
Skalli kept the original name, Dollarhide, but as new owner, he could easily have renamed the property “Skalli Valley.” Or something as equally goofy. Instead, in his quiet manner, he chose not to. So Dollarhide is still Dollarhide.
Geoff Gatto, assistant director of vineyard operations, stands beside one of 1,000 peach trees planted at Dollarhide.
“The valley is actually quite a diverse bio-system,” says Geoff Gatto, assistant director of vineyard operations. “Although this is one of the largest contiguous wine properties in Napa Valley, there is a huge diversity of soil and microclimates.”
How diverse? Well, there are seven distinct soil types on the ranch, which move through a spectrum starting with flat alluvial soils (great for Sauvignon Blanc) through to steep shale hillsides (great for Cabernet Sauvignon).
As well, Dollarhide Ranch is a natural setting with seven large lakes (the source of irrigation for the vines as well as for frost protection in the winter).
From afar, the vines, which look like a cushion of green, run downhill to two of the seven lakes on the ranch.
The ranch runs a gamut of elevations, too, from 600 to 775 feet above sea level. Different grapes, like Syrah and the meatier Bordeaux reds, prefer the higher elevations.
Little immodest St. Supery doesn’t shout this, but Dollarhide is planted with 10 percent of all the Sauvignon Blanc planted in Napa Valley. You only find out details like this when you are napaman – or read his column!
If you saw this shot out of context, by itself, would you ever guess this was Napa Valley?
As Geoff and vineyard director Josh Anstey wanted to add some bio-diversity to the ranch, they planted fruit trees. They started with peach and nectarine trees. And then they planted some more.
Today, they grow 60 varieties of peach, many which end up in the kitchens of Napa Valley’s finest restaurants.
If you’ve had peach desserts in the past month at Ad Hoc, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, Mustards Grill, Go Fish, Meadowood, French Laundry, or even as far south as Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, there’s a good chance that you enjoyed the fruit of Josh and Geoff’s labors. So to speak.
One of the benefits of supplying fruit at no, or next to no, cost, to the restaurants is the desire to put St. Supery/Dollarhide bottles on the wine list of the respective restaurants. In effect, turning a peach into a consumer reach.
Bee hives at Dollarhide dot the crown of a small knoll – where the bees can easily find them. Not to mention worker bees like Geoff and Josh, too, who need to find the hives to harvest their honey twice a year.
One recent effort made by Geoff and Josh to stretch for bio-diversity, was the introduction of half-a-million bees to the property, “to help pollinate the peach and nectarine trees and to produce a delicious honey,” says Geoff.
(Grape vines are self-pollinating and do NOT need bees for pollination.)
Honey-heads will find Dollarhide Late Harvest Wildflower Raw Honey at www.stsupery.com and the winery’s tasting room in Rutherford.
The 10-ounce jar is $15.
My honey tasting notes:
Like quietly. Without fanfare. Without broad ego brushstrokes.
St. Supery in Rutherford.
While St. Supery is a first-class winery on Highway 29 in Rutherford, at the epicenter of the valley, one is not urged to visit for reasons so many area wineries compel: for extravagant architecture, or for an amassed art collection, or for a chance to shake hands with a celebrity owner.
No, the attraction at St. Supery is, quite simply… da-da!… the wine.
No ego, no architectural wonders, no photo gallery. Just great wine. Produced with care.
Even behind the behind-the-scene, you have to work hard to find out that the Rutherford winery is owned lock, stock, and fine oak barrel by a French wine family, the Skallis, who make wine in Europe from more 900 acres planted in the Languedoc region of France and in Corsica.
You also have to work hard to find out that that 27 years ago, when Robert Skalli landed on these shores, the first thing he bought was a 1500-acre ranch in a valley on the east side of Howell Mountain. Where nary a grape vine had ever been planted.
The entrance to St. Supery’s hidden valley ranch, Dollarhide.
One-hundred years earlier or so, the Dollarhide Ranch had been a horse trading property owned by Andrew Jackson Dollarhide.
Skalli, who had a vision, bought the property and planted 485 acres with his favorite Bordeaux reds: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Malbec, Merlot, and for whites, he planted Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon.
(Yes, Virginia, there is a small production of un-oaked Chardonnay, Muscat Canelli and Syrah on the ranch today, too, but that’s not what St. Supery wants to be known for and they don’t promote these wines.)
Skalli kept the original name, Dollarhide, but as new owner, he could easily have renamed the property “Skalli Valley.” Or something as equally goofy. Instead, in his quiet manner, he chose not to. So Dollarhide is still Dollarhide.
Geoff Gatto, assistant director of vineyard operations, stands beside one of 1,000 peach trees planted at Dollarhide.
“The valley is actually quite a diverse bio-system,” says Geoff Gatto, assistant director of vineyard operations. “Although this is one of the largest contiguous wine properties in Napa Valley, there is a huge diversity of soil and microclimates.”
How diverse? Well, there are seven distinct soil types on the ranch, which move through a spectrum starting with flat alluvial soils (great for Sauvignon Blanc) through to steep shale hillsides (great for Cabernet Sauvignon).
As well, Dollarhide Ranch is a natural setting with seven large lakes (the source of irrigation for the vines as well as for frost protection in the winter).
From afar, the vines, which look like a cushion of green, run downhill to two of the seven lakes on the ranch.
The ranch runs a gamut of elevations, too, from 600 to 775 feet above sea level. Different grapes, like Syrah and the meatier Bordeaux reds, prefer the higher elevations.
Little immodest St. Supery doesn’t shout this, but Dollarhide is planted with 10 percent of all the Sauvignon Blanc planted in Napa Valley. You only find out details like this when you are napaman – or read his column!
If you saw this shot out of context, by itself, would you ever guess this was Napa Valley?
As Geoff and vineyard director Josh Anstey wanted to add some bio-diversity to the ranch, they planted fruit trees. They started with peach and nectarine trees. And then they planted some more.
Today, they grow 60 varieties of peach, many which end up in the kitchens of Napa Valley’s finest restaurants.
If you’ve had peach desserts in the past month at Ad Hoc, Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, Mustards Grill, Go Fish, Meadowood, French Laundry, or even as far south as Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, there’s a good chance that you enjoyed the fruit of Josh and Geoff’s labors. So to speak.
One of the benefits of supplying fruit at no, or next to no, cost, to the restaurants is the desire to put St. Supery/Dollarhide bottles on the wine list of the respective restaurants. In effect, turning a peach into a consumer reach.
Bee hives at Dollarhide dot the crown of a small knoll – where the bees can easily find them. Not to mention worker bees like Geoff and Josh, too, who need to find the hives to harvest their honey twice a year.
One recent effort made by Geoff and Josh to stretch for bio-diversity, was the introduction of half-a-million bees to the property, “to help pollinate the peach and nectarine trees and to produce a delicious honey,” says Geoff.
(Grape vines are self-pollinating and do NOT need bees for pollination.)
Honey-heads will find Dollarhide Late Harvest Wildflower Raw Honey at www.stsupery.com and the winery’s tasting room in Rutherford.
The 10-ounce jar is $15.
My honey tasting notes:
“A delicious, old-fashioned tasting honey, rich with honey and glycerin notes, and exhibiting a very long Golden treacle-like finish. (Did I say “long?” I meant “l-o-n-g!”)
If you knew you had some of this in your cupboard, you wouldn’t mind getting a sore throat next winter! What a throat-coater! Rating it as we do wines, I’d have to say this is a 95 point honey!”
I like your blog, because we have similar outlook and outlook on life!
Posted by: Ajf 6 | July 02, 2010 at 08:57 PM
The blog article very surprised to me! Your writing is good. In this I learned a lot! Thank you!
Posted by: Rerto Jordans | June 24, 2010 at 05:20 PM
I love St. Supery! They were fantastic for a group of my pals when we visited for a (well-behaved ;)) bachelorette party. Tina and her team of crack marketers are onto something very good.
Posted by: Büyü | June 08, 2010 at 04:05 AM
Thanks for your beautiful and attractive blog. It is very much appreciated.
Posted by: Penny Stocks | February 23, 2010 at 12:02 AM
This is an amazing property, very very beautiful and clean. So nice to have a property like this. So much fun to play and stay outside to bond with your family.
Deirdre G
Posted by: Philippines property | February 09, 2010 at 06:11 PM
Yes their wine is outstanding. I have never visited the winery, but it looks like I should make the trip next time I'm in Napa when it is especially busy. It's always nice to have somewhere to go that is a little less touristy!
Posted by: Wine Club Guy | July 31, 2009 at 08:56 AM
I love St. Supery! They were fantastic for a group of my pals when we visited for a (well-behaved ;)) bachelorette party. Tina and her team of crack marketers are onto something very good.
Posted by: Courtney Cochran | July 31, 2009 at 06:41 AM