napaman.com: THE Wine Event of the Year

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Karen Williams and David Stevens, owners of Acme Fine Wines, surround themselves professionally everyday with brilliant wines. For their first-ever “atelier” event, they surrounded themselves with the brilliant winemakers who make them.
Karen and David are pictured here, surrounded by a number of artisan winemakers:
Back row, left to right: Karen Williams, Celia Welch Masyczek, Russell Bevans, Robbie Meyer, Sarah Gott, Mark Herold, David Stevens, Pam Starr, Philippe Melka
Front row, left to right: Mike Hirby, Andy Erickson, Craig Maclean.

Napa Valley wineries and wine retailers will have a hard time this year eclipsing the originality, elevated profile, and attraction of Acme Fine Wines’ first-ever “atelier” event, held this weekend at the merchant’s St. Helena store.

They’ll also have one helluva hard time beating the sheer number and quality of wines poured at the event.

Twelve of the valley’s most talented winemakers were on hand to pour at least three each of their sublimely crafted artisan wines. The winemakers present included, in alphabetical order, Heidi Barrett, Russell Bevan, Andy Erickson, Sarah Gott, Mark Herold, Mike Hirby, Craig MacLean, Philippe Melka, Robbie Meyer, Dave Phinney and Pam Starr. Many poured more than three wines.

Winemaker superstar, Celia Welch Masyczek, was on hand to pour nine of the wines she makes, most on a consulting basis.

Some 100 patrons each paid $175 for the privilege of tasting 50 of Napa Valley’s most treasured wines, the rarest of rare juice. Stuff that you customarily can’t get your hands on even if you have Barack Obama’s cell phone number on speed dial.

Some 120 guests, sommeliers and wine writers crammed into Acme Fine Wines’ small retail space. The food, which was supplied by David Katz of neighboring shop ‘panevino,’ was superb.

The one-of-a-kind tasting was the brainchild of David Stevens and Karen Williams, proprietors of Acme Fine Wines. They felt it was time to host “atelier,” what I’m calling The Triple W – the Who’s Who of Wine.

“At any one time, we stock 183 different wines, of which 65 percent are small production, artisan Napa Valley Cabernets,” says David Stevens. “Today’s event is simply an attempt to let our customers taste what our inventory is all about.”

As there were far too many near-perfect wines being poured, any attempt at scoring them individually seemed nonsensical. You don’t score wines numerically at tastings of this caliber any more than you score the sexy encounters you have on a far-flung beach holiday. You let your memory drift and wistfully think about the highlights of what you tasted….

Okay, let’s say you are a stickler for the point system. Here’s what you need to know:
This was probably the first time I have ever been to such a large tasting where I scored every wine in the mid- to high 90s. There wasn’t anything I rated below 92 points in the group, and there were a lot of 97- and 98-pointers.

From a learning perspective, I chose to focus on the rarest of rare opportunities – a chance to taste all nine offerings crafted by Celia Welch Masyczek, whose wines and talents I have long admired.

Craig Camp from Cornerstone Cellars, winemaker Celia Welch Masyczek and Kelly Fleming from her eponymously labeled Cabernet.

For the record, Celica told me publicly, for the first time, “to drop the ‘Masyczek’ from my name – it’s over! I’m officially now just Celia Welch.”

Thank God. I often found Celia’s last name and that of BV winemaker Andre Tchelicheff to be the two most difficult winemaker’s names to spell right.

What made the Acme tasting special was that it was the first time ever that the consuming public had a chance to taste all nine of Celia’s artisan wines at one time in one place.

The vineyard owners, for whom Celia Welch makes wine, were on hand to support Celia, named Food & Wine’s “Winemaker of the Year” last year.

The striking thing about these wines is their common thread of Celia-ness. You can recognize her DNA in all nine of the wines, eyes closed. They stand apart from all the other exceptional wines poured at the “atelier,” and there wasn’t a dud among the other wines poured.

The hallmarks of Celia’s wines: a core of silk, an abundant ripeness of fruit, impeccable balance and a delicate but persistent lingering finish. These are wines with textbook structure. Each wine is one that you want to “rent” for a few hours, not spit, to let them course through your body, so that you can tell you grandchildren what it was like to drink Perfection.

What’s the secret to your winemaking,” I asked Celia. “You have wines on this table from Stag’s Leap District, Yountville, Oakville, Howell Mountain, Calistoga and St. Helena and they all have an identifiable, common denominator. Call it The Celia touch.”

“The secret is… that I don’t have a secret… or a recipe, for that matter,” Celia told me. “I visit the fermentation tanks several times a day during harvest for each of these wines. The texture I seek – and which you call ‘silk,’ – comes from my winemaking techniques, not from the fruit itself.”

Guests jostled for space at the wine stations

Frank Husic, owner of Husic Vineyards, was at Celia’s station to pour his 2006 Cabernet, crafted by Celia. I found his description of the soil on which he planted his vines – on a ridge above and behind Chimney Rock – worth sharing.

“Until we came along in the mid-90s, our land had never, ever been cultivated. A huge swath was cut into the rock and forest; I tell people that the soil was like a bank into which animals and nature had been making deposits for hundreds of years – you can imagine how rich the soil was!”

Take Frank’s soil… add Celia’s magic… swirl them around in your glass.. and you have a stupendous artisan wine, actually one of my highest scoring wines of the event. But remember, who’s counting scores?

Additional shots from the event:

Winemaker Dave Phinney jokes, holding a bottle of one of his many exquisite wines.

Pam Starr and Charlie Crocker of Crocker & Starr fame kibbitz around

Winemaker Andy Erickson pours for guests

Winemaker Mark Herold pauses pensively for a minute between pours

Winemaker Sarah Gott’s wines are like her pearls -- they stand out in any crowd

Interested in ordering some of these limited artisan wines? Contact David or Karen at Acme Fine Wines, 1080 Fulton Lane, St. Helena, CA 94574. Tel: 707-963-0440