On The Road in Napa
Valley 2004
>August 10th: Beringer
>August 9th: Hartford Court,
Terra Valentine
and Barnett Vineyards.
>August
8th: Korbel
>August
7th: Stags' Leap Winery
>August 6th: Hendry and Darioush.
>August
5th: Robert Mondavi and Schug.
>August 4th:
Silverado and Jarvis.
August 4: Silverado Vineyards and Jarvis
A foggy cool morning gave way to beautiful warm sunshine. Our morning tour was the amazing Jarvis winery, on Monticello road. William and Letitia Jarvis built a 45,000 square foot cavern on their 1400 acre estate located 1000 feet above the valley floor. There William and winemaker Dimitri Tchelistcheff have been cave-fermenting wines since the early 1990's. The interior of the cavern is something to see, with its galleries, underground river and Crystal Chamber.
Equally impressive are the wines we tasted, a 2000 Chardonnay, 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon, 2000 Cabernet Franc, and a 2000 vintage of a blend called Lake William. The Chardonnay is an oaky, buttery rich offering, which has seen all new oak barrels and significant malolactic fermentation. The 1999 Cabernet was a dark, big and rich wine. The Cab Franc was a bit lighter and quite successful for the vintage. The 2000 Lake William was a nice blend of cab, cab franc, merlot and petit verdot, in the Bordeaux tradition.
Our afternoon tour was Silverado Vineyards, in the Stags Leap District. Here the approach is quite different, and quite successful.
The winery and tasting room are located in a beautiful newer building at the top of the hill, while most of the grapes are grown on the valley floor. The wines were excellent examples of their types, without being too forward.
We tasted several wines which are currently available, as well as barrel samples from the 2003 vintage.
The 2002 Chardonnay was crisp, with some oak, and good fruit. This Chardonnay was a real contrast to that of Jarvis' oaky buttery Chardonnay. Silverado does not use all new barrels, and puts only a modest portion of the wine through malolactic fermentation.
The 2002 Sauvignon Blanc tasted was perfectly balanced, crisp and delightful. A small portion of Semillon is put through malolactic fermentation, aged for a short time in oak, and added to the wine to round it out.
Silverado is producing some excellent Sangiovese, and the 2000 vintage was no exception. We also tasted a rose version of Sangiovese which was quite nice and refreshing.
The big reds were great. We tasted a 2000 Cabernet Stags Leap single vineyard, which was a great wine for the vintage. The 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon was tight but well focused and opened up nicely. The 2001 Merlot was a big tannic example of this variety, and was quite impressive. Finally, the 2003 wines which we barrel sampled were coming along very well. All in all, one must conclude that Silverado is producing some of the best wines in Napa, especially when you consider the very reasonable prices. -Jerry Hall
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