Baja Wine Country News with Steve Dryden - Baja California Wine Popular at San Diego Show
Premium wine from Monte Xanic, Cavas Valmar and Vinisterra wineries of Baja California were very popular with international wine lovers as well as professionals in the global wine industry at a recent wine event in California. Mexican wines were presented during the Sixth Annual San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival and are getting rave reviews from serious wine consumers. In addition, Mexican wines are finally attracting the attention of the international wine media and writers by creating many award winning wines. So far, Mexican wines have been awarded over 300 international awards for excellence in the United States, Japan, France, Portugal, Spain, Brussels, Italy, and Germany. The varietals grown here that are getting the most attention are: Nebbiolo, Tempranillo, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. It’s quite possible that 2010 will be the year that the world discovers “Mexico’s silent revolution” in creating world class wine.
During the 6th Annual San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival, The Baja Times was fortunate to interview Peter Mondavi Jr. and attend a vertical tasting of seven Cabernet Sauvignon wines from Charles Krug: 1980, 1983, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2006. All of their “flagship” Cabernets are stunning, but we were particularly taken aback by the 1983 Vintage Selection, aged in 100% French oak for 23 months. This bold wine has a vibrant garnet color with aromas of vanilla and currents, flavors of black cherry and mocha, well balanced structure with an elegant finish. The 1995 Vintage grapes were sourced from Slinsen vineyard, aged in 45% French and 55% American oak barrels for 26 months. Beautiful color, fruit flavors of cherry, plum, with hints of mocha and dark cocoa. The finish is addictive, demanding another taste, glass or bottle. The youngest wine (2006) is aged in 100% new French oak for 23 months. Deep rich, ruby red in color, aromas of blackberry with a hint of red licorice, complex flavors enhanced with notes of mocha, cocoa and vanilla. A delightful wine, well balanced with a smooth finish.
Peter Mondavi Jr. is an upbeat person with a down-to-earth sensibility about him. His family has been successful in keeping the winery together as a family owned business. According to Peter Jr. “family is foremost and remains the first priority!” He spoke with me on several topics concerning the current status of the wines and the modernized winery operation. I asked Peter “as Napa Valley’s first winery, where do you stand today as far as producing quality wine.” He replied: “well, we continue to improve and advance the quality of our wines. We’ve made some very sweeping changes in the last decade to address every aspect of our winemaking process. We’ve replanted most of our vineyards because they were getting old, virused and diseased (with varieties we no longer produce) thus, we replanted them using much higher density from approximately 500 plants per acre to now up to about 1500 plants per acre. In addition, we are using some recently isolated clones from UC Davis and Bordeaux, France (some exceptional quality Cabernet clones) that we’ve planted throughout our vineyards, using newer trellising techniques as well. We’ve really dramatically changed the vineyards, and our winemaking as well. We’ve gone to much smaller fermentation tanks so we can keep individual blocks of grapes separate. And, over the last ten years we’ve gone to a much more aggressive French oak barreling program that has improved the quality of our wines immensely. We continue to evolve our wines based on what’s happening on the international scene, For example, our Sauvignon Blanc, some years ago we changed from a somewhat traditional California Sauvignon Blanc to a New Zealand style. Even though we had been around for so long and have been emerged in the industry for many years, we still continue to improve, change and advance our wines.”
I asked Peter about his family’s recent investment of over $21 million dollars in restructuring of 450 acres of vineyards to high quality red Bordeaux varietals, and why do the Bordeaux varietals appeal to their family? Is it a right fit for Napa or a personal preference? He replied, “It is really driven by the local environment. If you go to Europe, go to Burgundy, go to Bordeaux, visit parts of Italy, they have all learned which variety does best in their region. And, over the many decades it’s been clearly demonstrated how Napa Valley produces exceptional world-class Bordeaux red varietals. So really, I think that’s the driving factor. We’re not trying to put a round peg in a square hole, but trying to grow varieties that are better suited elsewhere in California’s other regions or the world for that matter. We’re focused on what does best in the local environment. It really started in the 1960’s and 70’s in Napa, about which varietals do better there.
I spoke with Peter about the fact that his family has made dramatic improvements in the winemaking process with a special winery just for handcrafted wines, installation of belt conveyors for better fruit selection and sorting, smaller fermentation tanks to isolate certain quality blocks of fruit, drastic improvements to the barrel room conditions and the implementation of night harvesting techniques to protect the integrity of the fruit flavors. So, I asked him, “how have these innovations affected the overall quality of your wines? Do you see a difference in the barrel samples and in the bottle? Peter responded, “Yes, very clearly. Recently with every subsequent vintage that we’re coming out with, we see a continued improvement based on all these details. Producing quality wine of this caliber in Napa Valley (or anywhere for that matter) you really have to be paying attention to the details. Our wine is not a mass-produced, commodity-type wine, these are handcrafted artisan wines. All the details matter, it’s the picking and sorting aspect of the process, how you treat the wine in the tank, keeping the grape lots separate ~ so you can assess each block for vineyard quality. You have to be sensitive to all the details and variations that occur. Through those processes and having the proper equipment, sorting the grapes (as an example) has really brought our wine to higher levels, and continues to make our wine better and better.”
Despite the fact that you don’t read much about Charles Krug wines from reviewers or the wine media, this family-owned artisan winery still produces some of the best wines in the world. Their dedication to the family and to their loyal followers by remaining a small operation with a keen focus on handcrafted wines of superior quality (in limited quantities) has allowed them to continue as a top global producer of fine wines. A wise choice made in staying a small family operation has led to longevity and emerging perfection.
Steve Dryden is a wine, food and travel writer living in Mexico’s premier wine country where he guides individual and small group wine tours. He can be reached: sbdryden@hotmail.com or www.winefoodguide.com. Watch his TV show: www.bajawineandcuisine.com