Day 8
The
Wine Writer
Has
Landed
After a day of rest it is back into battle, and by mid-morning I’m heading up the Napa Valley, to just south of Calistoga, and the winery of Beneserra and a chat with winemaker Matt Reid.
We have been friends online for a while but not met until now. I feel that he is a studious man who one needs to get to know, but as we chat and he answers my questions I see that he is also a man of conviction, and his wine knowledge grabs my attention, as does his conversation about his hobby of mushrooms and fungi.
During our time together he has to keep disappearing to do his job, and I wonder if he's not bored with the questions I've been asking him. I need not worry because he has to supervise things on a mobile bottling plant that has turned up ready to go to work.
Matt is calmness personified, and I envy him because I wonder how I would cope when more things are added to a very busy schedule. Not as well as he is doing I feel.
Benessere Winery is located on the valley floor and it's not too difficult to miss. Just turn down the road the minute you see a wonderfully candy apple coloured Chevrolet truck, and follow a small road until Benessere appears before you.
There are visible signs of fire damage, and warnings that it's not always easy to live with nature when it can be as destructive as this. The nearby hills are scarred, and destroyed trees that have been broken and discarded by the flames are not hidden away. It's almost as though Napa wants you to know that in this is not an adult Disneyland, and the land can often bite back.
In this land of Cab and Chardonnay, the wines here are Italian, easily food friendly and a welcome change. My favourite of theirs is the Sangiovese, which is as welcome as the pasta momma used to make.
There are plenty of places to find shade from the debilitating Napa sun, and though this location is within an easy walk of the two highways that border the valley, the quiet makes this feel a world away as you happily sip while studying yet another big red 1950s 'Chevy' and toy with the idea of borrowing it for a few years at least, but that would ruin the scene of modernity amongst the placid, picturesque working lands. How very Italian.
After my chat, I leave and head back along the Silverado Trail, deciding to chance my arm and just drop in on a winery and damn the, ‘by appointment’ or ‘reservation needed’ signs. I want to get back to the Napa I fell in love with, the almost ramshackle, belly-up to the bar, share good times with good friends place where you sat and thought that it might be possible for you to find your place here. I've been told that's the Napa of old-timers who constantly spend their days yakking too much about the good old days. We'll see.
I know where I want to chance my arm, and it's a winery that could be said to have started my links to the Napa Valley; Clos du Val.
The Napa Monument to the Twin Towers
Clos du Val's Finest
It was on some documentary I'd stumbled across when channel hoping. I don't know what made me stop at the images of a French man walking the fields and studying land in a directorially arranged manner, but there was something about Bernard Porlet looking for the suitable location for a new winery in the Napa Valley that I found quite engaging.
That show stuck in the back of my memory, lying almost dormant and forgotten until I was lucky enough to visit the Napa Valley for the first time, and then I saw the name and it all came flooding back.
The strange thing is that though I've been back so many times I can navigate my way without a map, I've never visited the winery, although I kept promising I would. There was always an interview to be conducted, a wine to be tried, or a visit to Gotts (then Taylor's Refresher) to be slotted in. Today was the day I would achieve it, unless reservations and by appointments were being strictly observed.
I wondered if just turning up would throw them, and I'd be escorted off the premises by a burly pourer. This didn't bother me because I could deal with any rough type, no matter how hard she is!
I was wary as I opened a luxurious door that looked ready for numerous winery photoshoots, and I tensed as a man with a smiling face welcomed me. Was this part of a new Napa policy of tasting with sadistic cruelty? I was expecting him to show me what I couldn't possibly have because I'd not used a telephone to book before.
He questioned if I'd made a reservation, and when I told him I hadn't I expected immediate eviction, but that just wasn't the case, and after a quick consultation (could they be checking my bank balance) the smiling man, whose name was Aaron took me to a quiet table where I could enjoy the wines of Clos du Val in peace, and instead of an interrogation and a sniffy attitude, I was welcomed, felt appreciated, and engaged in friendly chatter, all amongst the glassware, the water and the designer interior.
Stark Palms 1
The wine seemed more youthful than Aaron, but was a real beauty that behaved itself, showed well and continued the air of sophistication I was staring to wallow in. When this wine achieves a bit of age it's going to be a real blockbuster and break some hearts.
Aaron brings me a glass of Yettalil, of which the winery is very proud, and he hovers near like a proud parent as he waits for my humble opinion. Tasting it I can understand why.
I chat to my host, and find that he is also a sommelier and a huge fan of Jancis Robinson, and as he chats he has that excellent American habit of being able to talk, about anything, at the drop of a hat, and we natter on like old friends.
Like Matt, he is very good company, and like Matt, he has to take care of other things in between conversing with me.
On trips like this a timetable is not something to be ignored, because those distances on the map that look minutes away, can take an age if you get stuck behind a delivery truck of some sort, and the clock becomes your overlord or you will sink and miss appointments.
The time to leave comes, and I head back to the Riverpointe area where I'm staying. I love its location in Napa, enjoy staying in these upmarket statics and always feel welcomed when I check-in. I also have an appointment with a sun lounger, and though this might be May, the sun is hot and ready to take care of me.
Before I go out for the evening I head to a Margarita reception that is being thrown in a large room near the front desk.
The location is a cavernous venue that could hold three weddings at once, and the few of us who wander in might need megaphones to speak if we sit on opposite sides of the room. The Margaritas are freshly made, but the general feeling, as I take a sip, is of a place where people come before going somewhere more important, and as I finish my drink a cast of stereotypes on holiday wander in, grab a drink, mutter a few words and then vanish. They're not very sociable, or perhaps I smell after a day cooking under the sunshine, and then before I know it, I check my watch and realise that I too have to go somewhere more important, besides, the man making the drinks has packed his kit and is now back manning the front desk.
The evening takes place over at James and Claire Silver’s place, a man who I've known for quite a few years. On one of my previous trips he gave me several recommendations of places to visit, and people to see, and since that time we have stayed in touch, as he's kept me up-to-date with what has been happening in Napa. He also took part in the Black and White edition of Winefullness Magazine back in May and I've wanted to see him for an age and thank him for all his help.
He's just published a book about the post-pandemic wine market (to be reviewed next month) and is currently involved in wine consultancy, and if anybody knows the Napa wine scene it's this man. If you add that Claire, his wife, has been a past owner and president of a small wine label, as well as serving as the U.S Brand Manager for Lanson Champagne, amongst others, then you have a formidable couple who should be the first port of call for anybody eager to know how the land lies around here.
Thankfully, tonight is more social than anything else and though the conversation often touches on the wine industry and its current standing, there is still time for humour, observation and sharing time with friends.
As our Uber pulls up James is there with Peter, chief executive at Hudson Vineyards, a producer of some of the finest grapes it is possible to get in these parts, and that often end up in the award-winning wines of such luminaries as Dumol and Kistler.
He is also good company, and I feel like I've known him for an age. Could it be the American quick wit and charm that is flowing smoother than the bottle of Hudson Chardonnay that Peter has brought for us to try. He's as proud as a new father because this wine has just been awarded 100 points, which is very unusual for a wine in this price point. That doesn't mean it's cheap, it's affordable, and as we taste, it is such an honour to sip a wine with this amount of breeding.
Before the chat can go much further Peter has to leave because he has to help/watch a football event. That's soccer for my U.S. friends, and football for the rest of us.
Just before he leaves, Claire arrives and, like Peter and James, I feel as though I've known her for a long time, such is the ease with which we all converse.
I really love the pair of them. They are originally from the East Coast, but have adapted to life here very well, and I can totally see why. There's a laid-back determination about them that is welcoming without being oppressive, and business talk retreats into the background as once again American charm and inquisitiveness is on display, and these two are the best company one could wish to spend an evening with as conversation flows through a range of subjects from American life and television shows, but the backdrop of wine is never far away, and the talk is of a Napa that seems to be trying to recapture an identity that it no longer has, nor is likely to ever return at this present moment.
They tell me that too much has been invested in Napa by people with deep reservoirs of cash, drawing in more people with even bigger reservoirs of cash for it to return to the farming community it once was.
The welcome from James and Claire will be a highlight of my time in America, and the welcome has made me feel, for this evening, part of their lives, with regrets that I'm only seeing them tonight.
Before the time to leave, we head to a lovely Italian restaurant where the staff are friendly and the wine (and food) are paired well with the evening, as the conversation continues. We're a happy group who find so much to talk about that there’s never a break in conversation.
After dinner I head back to James and Claire’s for a last drop of wine with my two hosts who display an erudition of taste that makes me curse that I've filled up my diary and can only spend this single evening in their company. Still, it just means that there has got to be a next time, and I'm already looking forward to it.
Soon it is time to leave and put a truly memorable evening to bed, and as I give them my thanks I can only hope that they realise how pitiful the words, 'thank you so much for a wonderful evening' can seem.
The Beautiful Bonita
Bar at the Depot
Only One Recommendation
Hudson Ranch - 2022 Seashell Chardonnay
​
Napa might be losing its soul under the weight of pretence and price, but with wines of this calibre, and price point there are some out there determined to show the old Napa, sonoma, or in this case, Carneros standards.
If you're looking for one of those woody Chardonnay's where you don't know if you should drink it or build a log cabin then this is not the wine for you because this is one of those amazingly restrained and subtle Californian Chardonnay's I've tasted in an age.
There is a smidgeon of oak and buttery flavour about this wine, but the bounteous fruit firmly doffs its hat in the direction of burgundy.
That fruit is so balanced it's like watching Blondel walking across the Niagra Falls.
I'm getting tropical notes of pineapple, there was juicy peach in the mix, and a chantilly cream on an apple pie base about this that just satisfied so much.
It's juicier than a good bar room story and the whole is so satisfying you might need to sit down and gather your thoughts.
Another person in our party, who wasn't a lover of Californian Chardonnays found this the exception that proved why this is quite an exceptional wine.
The 2022 Seashell displays a perfect balance between fruit and minerality. Mouthwatering pears with a rounded body and smooth texture, sustaining a long, luxurious finish.
If you're only going to try one chardonnay this year (who am I kidding) then this should be a wine that you seek out.
