California's Napa Valley

 

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The American love affair with the car has spawned a subsidiary infatuation with the country’s highways, many of which have been immortalised by musicians, writers and artists. The Stones, Chuck Berry and Depeche Mode, for instance, all sang about Route 66, which runs from Chicago to California. 

For wine lovers, though, there are few American roads that have the appeal of Highway 29, which runs through the centre of Napa Valley. Arrow-straight, it sweeps past the cool vineyards of Los Carneros, heading through Yountville, Oakville and Rutherford, on its way to Saint Helena and Calistoga. As you drive northwards, you can’t help but notice how sleek the surroundings are. The cute little towns that line the highway are brightly painted, their streets crammed with cosy restaurants, upmarket delis and bout-iques selling knick-knacks.

Wineries speak a number of architectural idioms – Pennsylvania Dutch barns, Santa Fe adobe, presidential Palladian villas and space-age modernity rub shoulders along this stretch of road – but what they have in common is that they all give the impression that they’ve only recently been repainted. The lush green lawns look like they’ve been manicured with nail scissors, while the ranks of vines don’t appear to have a leaf out of place. But don’t be fooled by Napa’s picture-perfect prettiness: this is no viticultural Disneyland, all style and no substance. Scratch away Napa’s surface glamour and you’ll soon reach the beating heart of California’s prestige wine business.

Cabernet sauvignon is currently the area’s big-ticket grape, attracting critical plaudits and top-dollar prices, but it hasn’t always been this way. Napa’s vineyards were born in the era of the great gold rush of the mid-19th century, when immigrants flocked to the west coast in order to make their fortunes. Some of the cannier arrivals realised that more money was to be made by servicing the needs of the local population than by digging and panning, and so a handful of German, Swiss and Italian immigrants began to plant vines in the area. By 1889, the valley had more than 140 wineries.

Growers planted a curious mixture of vines, with grapes like chasselas, zinfandel and mission dominating the vineyards. But one disaster after another was about to bring this early flourishing of the Napa wineries to near-extinction. First came phylloxera, then, by the end of the 19th century, California’s gold rush was already over, and the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 not only halted the frenzied wave of westward immigration, it sent it into reverse. The advent of Prohibition in 1920, followed by the Great Depression of the 1930s, seemed to seal the fate of the new-born Californian wine industry.

But a handful of producers clung on to their Californian vineyards, largely by prod-ucing sacramental wine. By the end of the Second World War the bad times were nearly over. The return of thousands of GIs from the European battlefields saw a rise in demand for quality American wine, thanks, in large part, to downtime spent in sophisticated European cities, where good wine and good food were a part of everyday life.

And so the Californians began replanting their vineyards. And, as it turned out, many of the elements that had conspired against the wine market of the late 19th and early 20th centuries turned out to be, in hindsight, a boon. All of those vineyards that had been uprooted due to phylloxera and declining demand were ready to be replanted with high-quality rootstocks and clones of ‘international’ varieties like chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir and sauvignon blanc. In addition, the new wave of producers – men like Robert Mondavi, Louis Martini and André Tchelistcheff – were not only talented winemakers, they were also canny networkers whose marketing nous was about to revolutionise the way their wine was sold.

Mondavi, in particular, helped to spread Napa’s fame far and wide. He is credited with coining the term fumé to define Napa’s (often-oaked) sauvignon blancs, a word that created a link between the valley’s version of the grape and its prestigious Loire origins. He also managed to achieve the near-impossible task of creating a brand (Robert Mondavi Winery) that’s as much at home in the volume end of the market as it is in the heady heights of the connoisseur market. In achieving the latter, Mondavi was certainly not hindered by the deal he struck with Bord-eaux’s Baron Philippe de Rothschild in 1980 to create a joint venture initially named Napamedoc. These days the wine is best known as Opus One, and it was one of the first of Napa Valley’s cult cabernets.

But back in the 1970s any success enjoyed by the valley’s wineries was largely domestic. It took an Englishman to put the region on the global wine map. In 1976, a Paris-based English wine merchant called Steven Spurrier organised a blind tasting that pitted the very best of French wines – top-notch Bordeaux reds and white Burgundies – against their Californian (mainly Napan) equivalents. The results, what became known as the Judgement of Paris, are not as unequivocally favourable to the American wines as is sometimes reported, but nevertheless, they did well enough to open the eyes of the world to their potential.

These days, it’s taken more or less for granted that North America’s best cabernets and Bordeaux-style blends come from Napa Valley. Their desirability is largely due to the quality and complexity of the Napa terroir. Wedged in between two mountain ranges, the verdant Mayacamas range to the west and the arid volcanic Vaca range to the east, Napa is a geography textbook version of a valley. The flat valley floor is around 50 kilometres long, but it’s not terribly wide – you’ve got about five kilometres in any one direction before you start climbing. And although there are mountains to be seen from most viewpoints in the valley, none of them are all that high (few rise above 1000 metres).

Nevertheless, this relatively small growing zone contains over 100 different types of soil. It’s been estimated that around half of the world’s different soil types are represented somewhere in this complex valley system. Broadly speaking, however, the soils on the valley floor are deep, fertile alluvial clays, while the mountain slopes are poorer and often volcanic in origin.

The climate is essentially Mediterranean. Most of the rain (usually) falls within the cool winter months, while summer is long, warm and dry. The temperatures during summer are usually mitigated by morning fog, drawn inland from the San Francisco Bay and the Pacific. In a strange quirk of geography, the highest slopes of the mountains stand proud of the mist, ensuring that the warmest vineyards are often those planted at the highest altitudes.

In addition, there’s a temperature gradient that climbs from the cooler south of the valley to the warmer north – afternoon temperatures can vary by 5C or more along this axis. As a result, the southern AVA (American Viti-cultural Area) of Los Carneros is largely planted with pinot noir and chardonnay, while zinfandel, which needs warm temperatures to ripen properly, thrives in the northern AVAs of St Helena and Rutherford.

There are 15 small AVAs within the greater AVA of Napa Valley: Los Carneros, Howell Mountain, Wild Horse Valley, Stag’s Leap District, Mount Veeder, Atlas Peak, Spring Mountain District, Oakville, Rutherford, St Helena, Chiles Valley, Yountville, Diamond Mountain District, Oak Knoll District and Calistoga. With the exception of Carneros, which straddles both Napa Valley and Sonoma, cabernet sauvignon dominates the vineyards of Napa’s AVAs. Planted alongside cabernet sauvignon, you’ll also find plenty of merlot, some cabernet franc and small amounts of petit verdot. Syrah and petite syrah are also planted, particularly in the warmer AVAs, while the key white grapes are chardonnay and sauvignon blanc, along with a few hectares of viognier.

Although many of the wines made in Napa during the 1970s were designed to cons-ciously emulate the wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy, by the 1980s and 1990s the region’s winemakers seemed to have developed a more is more philosophy – more concentration, more extraction and more new oak were the order of the day. In addition, a combination of rising land and labour costs, allied to the rise of the cult winery, pushed prices skyward.

These days, though, many of Napa’s wine-makers seem to be questioning their direction. It’s unlikely that prices are ever going to come down, especially when it comes to wines that are in high demand, but the region seems to be at a stylistic crossroads. Some winemakers are choosing to continue their quest for the sweet spot of full phenolic ripeness, while others seem to be searching for greater subtlety and nuance. It’s increasingly unlikely that, in the future, we’ll ever be able to pinpoint a ‘Napa style’, but this growing stylistic diversity is, in a very real sense, a reflection of the complexity of terroir, history and culture within the valley.

WINERIES TO VISIT
Even though most Napa Valley producers are geared up to receive visitors, it doesn’t hurt to check out their websites in order to find out about opening hours and the charges made for visits and tastings. Sadly, due to ordinances governing the way wineries are defined, few producers have on-site restaurants. However, the valley is so small and so well provisioned that you’re never far from somewhere where you can take a quick break for a cup of coffee, a snack or a more substantial meal.

CLOS DU VAL
5330 Silverado Trail, Napa, CA 94558, +1 707 261 5251.
Clos Du Val was one of the pioneers of the Napa Valley renaissance in the 1970s. In fact the winery’s first cabernet sauvignon (the 1972), made by French winemaker Bernard Portet, was one of the iconic wines that put California on the map in the Judgement of Paris tasting. These days Clos Du Val makes 14 different cuvées, all of which are characterised by an almost European sense of elegance and restraint. Most of the grapes are grown in the vineyards of the Stag’s Leap AVA, although the pinot noirs and chardonnays come from the cooler vineyards of Los Carneros. Visitors can enjoy several levels of tastings, from the basic Five-wine Package to the Romance Package – an intimate, rose petal-strewn tasting for two in the winery’s olive grove. There are even picnic tables on site for those clever enough to have brought a portable lunch.

GARGIULO VINEYARD
575 Oakville Crossroad, Napa, CA 94588, +1 707 944 2770.
The Gargiulo family have been making wine in Napa for just over a dozen years now, and their winery is close to the vineyards of cult winery Dalla Valle. Even without the glitzy neighbours, Gargiulo Vineyard is located in blue chip Napa territory, with both the Money Road Ranch and 575 OVX vineyards firmly within the boundaries of the Oakville AVA, home to a high concentration of the most sought-after wines in the Americas. A visit (by appointment only) is a tailor-made affair, winding up with a tasting in the ultra-chic tasting room. The style of the wines is big and bold, but not so overblown that they lose their sense of proportion.

HDV WINES
588 Trancas Street, Napa, CA 94558, +1 707 251 9121.
HdV Wines is considered by many to be one of the most influential wineries in Napa Valley. Founded in 2000, it is a winery with a blue-blooded pedigree, the offspring of a joint venture between Larry Hyde, a member of one of the oldest farming families in California, and Aubert de Villaine, winemaker at Burgundy’s renowned Domaine de la Romanée Conti (and husband to Pamela, Larry Hyde’s cousin). Grapes are sourced from Hyde’s Carneros vineyards and vinified by winemaker Stéphane Vivier to create four wines: a cabernet sauvignon-merlot blend, Belle Cousine; a cool-climate-style syrah and two elegant chardonnays. Visits are by appointment only, but are well worthwhile if you’re interested in the terroir of the Carneros vineyards.

GAMBLE FAMILY VINEYARDS
By appointment only, +1 707 944 2999.
At the moment, Gamble Family Vineyards exists in a kind of virtual state. Although Tom Gamble and British-born winemaker Jim Close have five vineyards to manage, they won’t have a winery until harvest-time 2012. Wines are currently made in a custom-crush facility, and tastings take place in a temporary building located beside the Family Home Vineyard in Oakville. Don’t be fooled by appearances though, flimsy as the tasting room might be, the wines are pretty serio-us stuff. Tastings are led by young, enthusiastic team members, making a visit to Gamble a far cry from the big corporate set-ups you’ll encounter at many Napa wineries.

CORISON
987 St Helena Highway, St Helena, CA 94574, +1 707 963 0826.
Cathy Corison’s career in wine came about by accident, the result of a wine-appreciation course taken on impulse while she was studying biology as an undergraduate in the early 1970s. Bitten by the bug, she took a post-graduate degree in winemaking at UC Davis before becoming one of the first female wine-makers in Napa Valley. After spending the best part of two decades making wine for other people, she set up her own winery in 1987, where she makes some of the most elegant, refined cabernets in the valley. A visit (by appointment only) to the Pennsylvania Dutch-styled barn that houses her winery also includes a walk through the organically farmed Kronos vineyard, a low-yielding
parcel of 50-year-old vines whose fruit is used to make Corison’s top cuvée, the Kronos Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.

SCHRAMSBERG
1400 Schramsberg Road, Calistoga, CA 94515, +1 707 942 4558.
Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island, published an account of his travels in northern California in The Silverado Squatters (1883). In it, he notes that his interest in the state’s nascent wine industry drew him to visit a vineyard owned by a Mr Schram. Over a century later, Mr Schram’s winery is still going strong. Schramsberg, as it’s now known, is one of the most prestigious prod-ucers of sparkling wines in California, although the viticultural focus has shifted from the warmer Calistoga AVA to cool vineyard sites in both Napa and Sonoma. Visits include a tour of the 120-year-old cellar, where you’ll get an insight into how sparkling wine is produced, as well as a tasting of four Schramsberg wines.

QUINTESSA
1601 Silverado Trail, St Helena, CA 94574, +1 7070 967 1601.
Agustin Huneeus, the Chilean owner of Quintessa, made his name as the man who took over the ailing Concha y Toro in the 1960s and helped turn it into a world-beating wine producer. Political turbulence in the 1970s led to Huneeus’s departure from his home country, and he eventually found his way to California. He fell in love with the stunning Quintessa vineyards, 280 acres of rolling Rutherford hillside, three-fifths of which are now planted with Bordeaux varieties. Tailored visits to the property usually include a walk through the organic vineyards, as well as a tour of the sleek winery and a leisurely tasting of three vintages of the Quintessa blend.

ROBERT MONDAVI
7801 St Helena Highway, Oakville, CA 94562, +1 707 226 1395.
You wouldn’t be drawing too long a bow if you regarded the program of visits laid on at the Robert Mondavi Winery as being an extension of the slick marketing nous exhibited by the winery’s eponymous founder. There are six versions of the tour on offer, ranging from the basic 30-minute Discovery Tour to a 90-minute Twilight Tour. Once you’re done tasting, you can stroll round the winery’s art collection or, if your timing’s right, enjoy one of the regular concerts staged in the winery grounds (2011’s performers included Chris Isaak and K D Lang).

OPUS ONE
7900 St Helena Highway, Oakville, CA 94562, +1 707 944 9442.
If you happen to be in the area anyway, it would be silly to pass up on the opportunity to taste at Opus One – after all, it’s just across Highway 29 from the Robert Mondavi Winery. There’s a synergy between the two wineries, of course, given that Opus One was a joint venture between Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild. The ‘Estate’ tour will give you the history of this epochal partnership, as well as an overview of the winery. If you are interested in enjoying an in-depth discussion of the wines, the Double Vintage Tour might be more your cup of tea given that it’s conducted by a senior member of the winery team, who should be able to give you the full technical lowdown. Visits are strictly by appointment only.

WORDS NATASHA HUGHES PHOTOGRAPHY OPUS ONE

This article was published in the February/March 2012 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.