A Vineyard In Napa by Doug Shafer

A Vineyard In Napa chronicles the founding and history of Shafer Vineyards in Napa Valley 

I spent my Memorial Day immersed in the book A Vineyard In Napa by Doug Shafer. I had purchased it a while back but saved it for when I could devote a block of time to sit back, relax and enjoy, as I tend to do when I immerse myself in a book - I read it in the one sitting. It was that good, worthy of the invested time.

This is about the life of John Shafer, a Chicago businessman, and his pursuit of a dream when he decided to pursue a second career by buying a plot of land that included a vineyard in Napa Valley back in the early seventies. He moved his family from their comfortable suburban lifestyle in an adjacent suburb from here, to a remote mountainside farmstead in rural northern California, and set upon developing vineyards, and ultimately, building a winery, a business and a brand.

With no prior experience or knowledge of farming, viticulture or winemaking, over the next forty years, he rode the roller coaster of the evolving Napa Valley wine business, and built an incredibly successful brand and business, one that distinguished wine critic Robert M. Parker, Jr. called “one of the world’s greatest wineries.” 

The book, narrated by Shafer’s son Doug, follows their dual careers as they lived the history of Napa Valley and the American California wine business. Through it they learned the challenges, travails, science, technology and handicraft of planting and growing grapes, crafting wines, and building a brand and wine business- the three legs of the stool, as they called it.

It follows the history of Napa Valley and the Shafers and the myriad of friendships and collaboration of the many farmers, growers, producers, winemakers, critics, distributors, restaurateurs and others in the trade they encountered along the way and that made the journey with them. 

Its a history book, a human interest story as well as a business book, and a journal of winemaking and marketing, balancing and folding all together in an enjoyable intriguing well paced story.

The only thing missing is a companion parallel wine tasting of the many Shafer wines in the portfolio that are chronicled in the book, ones that we hold in our cellar. The insights and background will add immeasurably to the enjoyment of these wines when and as we explore them. 

John Shafer, now Chairman, has since stepped aside to pursue other interests, and handed over operations of Shafer Vineyards to son Doug, who is President. Together, they were awarded the 2010 James Beard Foundation Award for “Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional.” The book is authored by Andy Demsky, a Napa Valley–based writer and PR consultant.

 

Watch for references and background as I post tastings of the many Shafer labels in our cellar including a Shafer Hillside Vineyard Reserve Cabernet 1982 (left), the year before they created the legendary Hillside Select brand, a 1989 Hillside Select, and modern era releases of Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay and Relentless Syrah.

Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Chardonnay 2018

Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Santa Barbara County Chardonnay 2018

Last weekend I read the book A Man and His Mountain, the story of self-made billionaire Jess Jackson and his pursuit of his dream to build a brand of premium varietal based wine for the mass market. His accomplishments over the ensuring two and a half decades exceeded all expectations achieving the art of the possible building a multi-billion dollar wine empire. 

Starting with a single 80 acre farm to retire as a gentleman farmer, he became a grape grower after a successful law career. He saw an opportunity to create a new category of wines and graduated to acquiring the properties to source his growing demand for grapes, growing to owning two dozen top tier wineries and brands with thousands of acres of vineyards across the state. 

The brand that he envisioned grew to an iconic empire, Kendall-Jackson and the Chardonnay label created the whole category of varietal based mass market premium wine shipping millions of cases of wine annually.  

The book was so captivating I read it in one sitting plus a short follow up session at breakfast. It chronicled not only the business and the brand, but also the growth and maturation of the wine industry. It also followed his life, from childhood, through school, to his career from part time cop, to successful lawyer, to wine producer to wine industry mogul. It also featured his exploits into and his success in some of his hobby side ventures, that also achieved the highest level of success, and changed other industries. 

Lastly, its a human interest story about a man and his families, his initial nuclear family, it's demise, and his second family through to his death. Notably, the name Kendall-Jackson is the combination of his first wife's family name and married name. Alas, their lack of agreement on the degree of risk in starting a new business, and lack of shared vision and commitment lead to the disintegration of their marriage.

Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Santa Barbara County Chardonnay 2018

With the book and its vivid history and evolution of this wine as a backdrop, I went out and bought a bottle of this 'premium' mass market varietal based wine - Kendall-Jackson Grand Reserve Santa Barbara County Chardonnay.

Linda prepared salmon with brown rice pilaf for the occasion.  

Winemaker notes: Lush tropical fruit, lemon, lime and floral notes intertwines with nice minerality from the calciferous soils in the Santa Maria and Los Alamos Valleys. There is a touch of floral notes from the small amounts of Dijon and Rued clones, and a hint of vanilla and spice to round out the rich, long finish.

This is 100% Chardonnay sourced from estate (producer owned) vineyards from Santa Barbara County. The Santa Barbara wine region is renowned as being one of California’s coolest grape growing regions due to its unique east-west running valleys running along the coast. Santa Barbara’s cool, maritime climate results in a long growing season, with extended hang-time on the vines giving the grapes more balanced ripeness and intense flavors.

This was rated 92 points by Antonio Galloni, Vinous, Mar 2020, 91 points by Wine Advocate, 90 points by Jeb Dunnuck, and 88 points by Wine Enthusiast.

I found it acceptable for a $20 bottle, widely available for fifteen dollars, straw colored, sprites of lime citrus with notes of tropical fruit, minerality and hint of vanilla, detracted by a rather unpleasant funky barnyard aroma. I hope this was anomalous to the bottle we obtained.

RM 86 points.  

The following evening, with half the Grand Reserve left, I opened this Cambria Chardonnay half bottle for a mini comparison tasting. If I read it right in the book, this was a coveted vineyard of Jackson, sourcing grapes for his California Chardonnay. Jackson maneuvered a purchase of the property when the owners were seeking to sell, by splitting up the red wine Pinot Noir parcels from the white wine Chardonnay parcels. He was highly leveraged at the time and could not afford the entire property, and was only interested in that portion that grew Chardonnay grapes. The book details the maneuvering and negotiating that eventually lead to Jackson acquiring the Cambria Vineyard in Santa Barbara County. 

I believe the grapes in this wine would be the same grapes sourced for both these labels, the single vineyard designated select, and the blended broader appellation bottling, the Santa Maria Valley being a sub-appellation of Santa Barbara County.

There was a similarity in the profiles of the two wines with similar taste sprites in the citrus notes. Interesting and fun comparing and speculating the common genealogy of the grapes. Are the same source grapes in both bottles?

Cambria Benchbreak Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay 2014

This Benchbreak Chardonnay was golden butter colored, medium bodied with lively bright fruit flavors of citrus, peach, green apple and hints of sweet pineapple with a layer resembling butterscotch on a fresh, clean finish.

RM 88 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2263240 

 

The Kendall-Jackon Jess Jackson Story 

In 1974, Jess Jackson purchased an 80-acre pear and walnut orchard up in Lake County, California, just north of Napa Valley, and replanted it with Chardonnay grapevines. In 1982, Jess and his family set out to make a premium, yet affordable, California wine. 

In 1982, he set out for New York City to establish distribution for his new concept wine and unknown brand. He sold his first case of his Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay to the Oyster Bar at Grand Central Station. That same year, that inaugural vintage of Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay won the first-ever Platinum Award for an American Chardonnay at The American Wine Competition. 

Soon thereafter, President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy, native Californians, wanted to serve a California wine in the White House. Nancy discovered and fell in love with the taste of Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay and selected Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay as their 'house wine'. San Francisco Chronicle's Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and city icon, Herb Caen, caught wind of the story and wrote a column about the wine referring to the Chardonnay as "Nancy’s wine." The brand was established, demand exploded, and the company grew exponentially. 

By 1991, Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay had become the #1 selling Chardonnay in America, and remains so to this day. 

In 2007, Jess Jackson was honored with the Wine Enthusiast Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award, awarded each year to the individuals and companies that have made outstanding achievements in the wine and beverage world. Jess Jackson was one of the first and largest winemakers to introduce America to varietal-specific wine, not only increasing the public’s understanding and appreciation of wine, but also making it affordable. 

Jess Jackson passed away in April of 2011.  

In 2013, Wine Enthusiast named Barbara Banke, Jackson's second wife and long-time partner who helped him build the business, and succeeded him as its leader, as its 2013 Wine Person of the Year. The first woman to win the award, Barbara shares it with Jess, the magazine’s inaugural recipient in 2000.

In 2017 Kendall-Jackson was awarded Winery of the Year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

https://www.kj.com//wine/grand-reserve/chardonnay

Grgich Hills Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1996

Grgich Hills Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 1996

I opened this half bottle from the cellar to enjoy with a grilled steak, baked potato and steamed snow peas for which it was a perfect complement. It was consistent with my earlier tasting notes but this time I gave it a slightly better rating. This is interesting given this was from a half bottle which would tend to age less gracefully than a standard size. My recent blogpost about bottle sizes and their effect on aging. As noted, the half bottle (375 ml) was ideal for occasions such as tonight when I was the only person drinking wine with dinner. Also, note that Grgich features large format bottles in magnum, three (double magnum), five and six liters, in Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon on their website from recent vintages dating back to 2005. This is worth checking out if you have one a key fun celebration event or a commemorative year you'll want to celebrate down the road. 

Grgich and its heritage is a Napa classic that gets overlooked in all the hype and some of the sensationalism of some of the newer labels. Mike Grgich is a legend in Napa Valley. He helped put Napa Valley wines on the map as the when the  1976 Chardonnay he crafted for Chateau Montelena beat the very best wines in France in a now famous blind tasting in Paris. This event was memorialized in the wonderful book "Judgement of Paris" and the entertaining movie "Bottle Shock". This tasting is a simple testament to the longevity of this label. Grich Hills winery reflects Napa as it was in the eighties (or even seventies) as opposed to the glitz of the millenium.

There was no sign of diminution from age in this seventeen year old Napa cab.

Slightly opaque garnet color, medium bodied, this exhibited moderate nose with flavors of dark berry fruit, a slight cherry tartness detracts from the fruit somewhat, there are hints of cedar and herb on the moderate tannin finish.

RM 87 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=3198

http://www.grgich.com/ 





  

Calera Mt Harlan Selleck Vineyard Pinot Noir 1993

Calera Mt Harlan Selleck Vineyard Pinot Noir 1993

As featured previously in this blog, Josh Jensen and his legendary Calera Vineyards were featured in Marq Devillier's wonderful 1994 book - "The Heartbreak Grape: A California Winemaker's Search for the Perfect Pinot Noir". The story tells the tale of Josh's quest to grow the very finnicky Pinot Noir grape in California in the early days before Pinot was cultivated here. In pursuit of his dream to create authentic Burgundian style wines, he sought to find the place in California suitable to achieve that goal. It tells of his research to find the right terrior - all the attributes of the right location, soil, climate, drainage, and other nuances of 'place' that make up the character and personality of a wine from grapes of a particular site. Josh chose Mt. Harlan, an area not then know for grapes or winemaking. The rest, as they say, is history. While it is a human interest tale, it also provides a rich insight into the challenges and travails of setting up a winery, and a business, and achieving one's dream to make noteworthy wines. 

Calera’s Mt. Harlan Vineyards are located in Hollister, California, in the Gavilan Mountains, 25 miles east of the Monterey Bay. The site was chosen for its limestone soils and ideal climate. At an average elevation of 2,200 feet it is among the highest and coolest vineyard sites in California.

Calera Pinot Noirs are single vineyard designated meaning they are each named for and produced from fruit sourced from one vineyard each. Their five vineyards planted in Pinot Noir are named for Josh's father (Jenson), Mills, a neighbor who mentored Josh in his early years, Reed, for one of Josh's dear friends and early investors, and in this case Selleck, for a family friend whom Josh attributes to introducing him to wine. In 2002, the Ryan label appeared, named for Calera's vineyard manager since 1979. We've had fun with this wine collecting it for our #1 Ryan, serving it in celebration of his wedding a few years ago, and holding it in our cellar for special Ryan oriented occasions! The vineyards are enumerated and featured on the rear bottle label as shown left.

As in the great region of Burgundy which inspired Josh to pursue his dream of making great wines in the old world authentic style, he planted the varietals of Burgundy, Pinot Nor and Chardonnay. Calera states that wines produced from their Mt. Harlan Selleck Vineyard are concentrated and complex with aromatic perfume and minerality in the Burgundian style to meeting Josh's objective of creating wines in the style of the old world classics.

 Found this 1993 Selleck in the back of the wine cooler, where it would have been staged, removed from the cellar for immediate drinking at some point. Thankfully, this is our last bottle of this vintage/label. Our tasting notes for this wine go back every other year to 2003, indicating we started drinking this wine in its tenth year. It is definitely beyond its drinking window, perhaps exacerbated by the fact it's a half (375ml) bottle (which likely aged less gracefully than regular or large format bottles. See my blogs about bottle sizes and aging.)

This '93 was light bodied, opaque slight rust colored, concentrated, slightly harsh, rather hard, raisiny black fruit that overtakes the black pepper, spice, hints of coffee and layer of leather. Still drinkable but not for the feint of heart. Drink it soon. Full size bottles may be less diminished from their aging.

RM 80 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=252733
 
Enjoy Calera wine, and the book!