Reflections of the masters - wine industry conference - includes related article on Sutter Home Winery products

When the Napa Valley Vintners Association initiated its "Fireside Chats," as a low-key, pleasant autumn event, the members had no idea how popular these afternoons of reminiscence by some of its elder wine statesmen would become. Thanks to the enthusiastic response, a new element, called "Reflections of the Masters," was added to the tasting and conversation held in April at San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel, at the conclusion of the Spring Tour of the Association members.

Vintage Memories

With Narsai David, nationally-known food and wine critic, and a regularly-featured broadcaster on KCBS, San Francisco, as moderator, five outstanding Napa Valley vintners and growers provided the press and the public with their personal memories of past vintages in the Napa Valley, and a peek into their crystal ball prognostications for the future of the wine industry, into the 21 st century.

David started the memory flow with the comment, "Before there was 'California cuisine,' there was California wine. There are still wines in some cellars which date back to the pre-prohibition era, but as technology improved, the Napa Valley was producing wines that could compete with the finest in the world market. Indisputable proof of this quality was trumpeted worldwide when, at an internationally publicized blind-tasting by French experts in Paris in 1976, the 1973 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena and a 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon outscored four of their French-produced counterparts."

Remembering Paris: 1976

With the preface, Mike Grgich, president and winemaker, Grgich Hills Cellar, looked back at his past. "I was the winemaker at Chateau Montelena when that Chardonnay was made," he remarked, "but I had had the good fortune to work with the legendary Andre Tchelistcheff when I first came to the Napa Valley, and I always believed that Napa Valley was the place with the special environment and the special people to create great wines. In the 1970s, everyone shared knowledge, and every year we got a little bit better." He touched on economical changes, remarking that an overnight stay at a Napa hotel, at that time, cost $2, which he felt was a bargain, since he had been paying $2.50 at Davis.

"Many of the people I worked with in those days," says Mike, "retired ten or 20 years ago. When people ask me when I plan to retire, I tell them I'll retire when I have made the perfect wine. Thirty-five years ago, I was told that computers would make the perfect wine. Since then we have learned that those machines can help in many ways, but we still need human beings to make wine."

Dan Duckhorn, president of Duckhorn Vineyards, spoke about his early love of and faith in Merlot. "Louis Martini made the first varietally-labeled Merlot," he said. "My start was with the grape vines. I started with a nursery and we propagated a lot of Merlot. Even in those early times, we sold a million and a half vines. There have, of course, been a lot of changes since then. Many of the grape varieties that were grown in the '40s and '50s are no longer grown." Duckhorn read from newspaper clippings to illustrate his point. In an article from the San Francisco Call-Bulletin, in 1943, the only grape variety mentioned which is still being grown, was Zinfandel. And, as recently as 1972, the Stanford Research Institute was quoted as equating alcohol in beverages with marijuana.

Boots Brounstein, co-owner of Diamond Creek Vineyards, painted a vivid word portrait of the way she and her husband, Al, became a part of the wine industry, and how their vineyards were developed. "We used to fly up from Los Angeles to Calistoga nearly every weekend, and had to fight for landing rights at the small airport, with sky divers and gliders. Finally, we made the move and planted 30 acres of grapes on our 80 acres of land on Diamond Mountain, all on St. George rootstock.

"Al would get on the tractor and go around the property to look at the soils. Near the creek, he would see red soil. In another area, the soil would be heavily volcanic. As he discovered these little pockets which would yield to cultivation, we gave them names, and when we started releasing our wines we used those names. Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill, Diamond Creek Gravelley Meadow, Diamond Creek Red Rock Terrace and Diamond Creek Lake. People told us we were crazy, but now vineyard designated wines are increasingly common."

Diamond Creek Vineyards makes only one wine, Cabernet Sauvignon; however the Brounsteins also grow a little Merlot and Cabernet franc. The first public vintage was 1972, although Boots and Al had picked 30 gallons of grapes into a bucket and had some wine made by Tom Cottrell, then at Cuvaison. When it came time to top the barrels of the 1972, the cellar crew asked Al what they were supposed to use for topping, and there went the entire 1971 harvest.

With the costs of starting up a new winery, and limited production as the vines matured, the Brounsteins were soon getting calls from their banker, who said, "You're never going to make it." When they were unable to meet his demands, he pulled the loan. Fortunately, they found another banker who said, "I know you can do it."

"That was 25 years ago, and he was right. We did make it," remarked Boots.

Indicative of how sensationally they had "made it," was a call Al received one day from Jean-Claude Rousseau, managing director of Roederer Champagne. "I am inviting the 30 most prestigious wineries in the world to join me for dinner," he said, "and I would like you to be part of this celebration."

"We were in the company of such outstanding wineries as Ridge, and Stag's Leap and Heitz," Boots recalled, "and it was probably the most exciting event we have ever been part of."

60 Years of Memories

Memories that went back 60 years were shared by Louis P. Martini, board chairman of Louis M. Martini Winery. "We came to the Napa Valley from the San Joaquin in 1933," he said. "Prior to that, throughout prohibition, we had kept the winery going by making sacramental wines and grape concentrate for home winemakers. My salary, decided by my father, was my age in pennies, per hour."

As the Martini family gained experience with premium grape varieties, it became apparent to them that different grapes called for different conditions. A grower could not grow quality Cabernet Sauvignon side by side with quality Chardonnay, and one of the most important changes Louis has seen has been the emphasis on improving vineyard practices, from selecting the right sites, to choosing clones and rootstocks, to methods of trellising and spacing.

"I don't have my crystal ball with me," he commented, "but I think, regardless of what happens to the wine industry as a whole, the Napa Valley will always do extremely well. My concern is that the price of planting in the Napa Valley has become so high, that it is forcing wine prices up, and sooner or later, prices may reach a point beyond what the consumer will be willing to pay. However, I think people are paying more attention to favorable research findings about wine than unfavorable reports, and even though per capita consumption is not making great gains, I still think the future is bright."

Viticulturist and partner in Freemark Abbey Winery, Frank "Laurie" Wood, confessed that he felt it had been ordained, while he was yet a child, that he would find his career working the land. "When I was 12, during the Great Depression, everyone had to work on the family ranch, so I have been exposed to the wine industry for 60 years. It's the love of the soil that provides the challenge, and I have been involved in that challenge, planting vineyards all over the Napa Valley. Of them all, my greatest love is Martha's Vineyard, which I planted in 1961.

"In the early '60s, a group of us founded Freemark Abbey Winery, and I think we've been making great wine for 20 or 25 years. Now the industry is on a new threshold, thanks to the devastation of so many vineyards by phylloxera. We have learned that you can't just plant any grape in any kind of soil. We are more realistic. We analyze the soil, we take note of row direction, wind influence, spacing, rootstock, clones, trellising and irrigation. We have so many new tools to work with, that we really are learning how to fine-tune grape growing."

A question and answer period followed the individual presentations, and Narsai David started off by asking for comments about the tendency by growers to concentrate only on certain grape varieties, which causes other varieties to disappear. Louis Martini responded by stating firmly, "I think it's a mistake. Those disappearing varieties do make good wine, but I suppose the thinking was that, in order to get people to drink wine, you had to simplify things. Now Chardonnay is the white wine, but people are planting it where it shouldn't be grown, simply because Chardonnay is in demand. When Merlot began to be a popular wine, everyone planted Merlot, but the danger is that public taste changes faster than we can change vineyards, and I don't see how we can change that."

Laurie Wood continued the comment about changing the vineyards, remarking that in the Napa Valley bare land was selling for $30,000-$50,000 an acre. Preparing the land, installing frost protection, buying the vines and erecting trellis systems adds another $15,000-$20,000 an acre. "And then," he concluded, "it takes four years before the vines will be bearing at one to two tons per acre."

Retail pricing was the concern of Mike Grgich. "Right now the United States economy is good," he said, "and people have money to buy wine, so wine is selling well. If the economy stays at this level, and prices hold steady, there should be no problem. But there are a lot of things we don't know, as we experiment with closer spacing and new clones. It's too early to tell what we are doing right, and what may be wrong. It will take another six to eight years for the new vines to reach full-bearing, and another four years as the wine moves down the production line before we really have the answers."

Crystal Balling

When Narsai David asked his panelists to look into their crystal balls, the general picture seemed to be optimistic. Said Louis Martini: "The last few years there has been a tremendous amount of good medical research, showing that moderate use of wine is good for a person's health. If we can get this message across to the U.S. public, then I think the future is going to be bright for us."

For Laurie Wood, the future holds a big question mark about the health of Napa Valley's vineyards. "Pierce's Disease is almost as bad as phylloxera," he noted. "It's been affecting vineyards for more than 100 years, and we still don't have any answers about how to deal with it."

In wrapping up the 90-minute seminar, each participant added an optimistic finale. Wood stated that he felt the opportunities in the future were going to be tremendous. "I don't think we have to be too worried about imports, although they are coming in from everywhere."

Louis Martini looked into the future to the year 2120 and observed that the next big advancement would be in the genetic engineering of vines. "I think one day we will have grapes that look and taste like Cabernet, but that will be totally resistant to disease."

"As a winemaker, I'm concerned that in the future we will still need to make it easier for winemakers to make great wine," commented Mike Grgich. "Sometimes I think we forget to look at the human side of winemaking. It takes the personal touch, the love, devotion, and inspiration of a human being to bring about the miracle of transforming grape juice into wine. Every year new laws are made which make things more difficult. I think in the future it should be imperative that, every time a new law is made, two old ones must be scrapped."

A remarkable growth in new wineries is the vision of Dan Duckhorn. "I think there will be more small wineries being formed. Consumers will have a wide variety of choices; appellations and sub-appellations will have more meaning, and I think we will see more blending of varieties for more exciting wine."

Closing the session, Boots Brounstein concurred in Duckhorn's prediction of more small wineries, with definitive labeling as to the precise source of the grapes. "We are hearing more about the importance of terroir," she said, "and I think there will be a trend towards limited production of wines from tightly-defined areas, even down to exact blocks within specific vineyards."

New Sutter Home Wine Honors Modern-day Founder

Sutter Home Winery released two wines - 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon and 1996 Chardonnay - to honor Mario Trinchero, father of current owners Bob, Roger and Vera. The brand is: M. Trinchero. 1998 marks the 50th anniversary of the St. Helena winery's first crush.

Mario Trinchero was born in 1899 in Italy's Piedmont and came to the United States (permanent) after World War I. He moved to Napa Valley in 1948 to join his brother, who had purchased a then-abandoned winery: Sutter Home. Mario Trinchero died in 1981, well before his mom-'n-pop winery became one of the state's mast successful wineries, now ranking, per Wines & Vines, 10th largest in the U.S.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Hiaring Company
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group