The books that form the Classic Wine Library have long been staples for wine lovers and students. The originals were iconic, written by legendary names – the likes of John Livingstone-Learmonth, Anthony Hanson MW and Rosemary George MW. The series was revived in 2013, and since 2023 it has come under the umbrella of Académie du Vin Library. The latest addition to the line-up is The Wines of California (April 2025, £35), written by Elaine Chukan Brown.

Brown tackles the topic in both a straightforward and slightly unconventional manner. The book is broken into three major sections: ‘How we got here’, ‘Where we grow’ and ‘What we’re facing’. Essentially looking at the state’s past, present and future, the use of the first person is important, with Brown’s ties to the industry and issues running through what feels like a very personal work.

The history (‘How we got here’) is fascinating reading, taking the reader from the arrival of the first vines through to US President Trump’s most recent election and the less-discussed roles of indigenous peoples and immigrants. The future (‘What we’re facing’) looks at the challenges that face California’s wine today, a dive into the many social, climatic and economic issues at play. Again, it’s engrossing – intelligent and nuanced, finely crafted – but perhaps more targeted at industry professionals than wine drinkers. In places, both of these sections seem to lose their focus on either California specifically or wine more generally.

The core 200 pages of the 480-page work are a guide to the regions of California: the growing environment, the wine styles and the key producers. While the overall context is important, if you’re picking up a book about the wines of California, this is what you’re looking for – and arguably might want more of. Although there’s a box-out on the most planted grape varieties in California, for example, more detail would be helpful – as well as more information on those, such as Valdiguié, Petite Sirah or Zinfandel, that are referenced in the context of the industry’s development but then not more directly on their own.

Brown’s writing is beautiful – concisely prosaic – and their expertise shines through, but it feels almost like the book is battling between its purposes: one as a functional guide that matches the title, and a second as a broader, more far-reaching and ambitious appraisal of the state of the industry today. There’s a place for both, but I’m not convinced the Classic Wine Library is it – and the result here is something that sits slightly awkwardly between the two.

Lend them your ear…

Importer Doug Wregg (of Les Caves de Pyrene), writer Dr Jamie Goode and wine consultant Emily Harman have launched a new podcast, Just Another Wine Podcast. All three are natural-leaning in their vinous tastes, so expect conversations to be skewed accordingly. At the time of writing, only the first episode has been released, considering the fine line between faults and flaws, and how imperfection can enhance wine – a subject that’s more relevant than ever.

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Elaine Chukan Brown’s highly anticipated new book, The Wines of California, has been released this week via publisher Académie du Vin Library.

Born and raised in a Native Alaskan fishing village, a long way from the tasting rooms of Napa Valley, Elaine Chukan Brown somehow made California wine country their own.

A writer, speaker, critic and frequent catalyst for diversity and inclusion initiatives in wine, Chukan Brown’s perspective is anything but typical – precisely what makes it essential.

Chukan Brown has spent the last several years in California doing something deceptively radical: paying attention, not just to vineyards, bottles and vintages, but to the people who’ve kept the engine of this industry running – to workers whose stories have long remained just outside the frame.

In The Wines of California, Chukan Brown folds that attention into a book that maps not only the state’s wine geography but also the human terrain beneath it.

It’s less of a traditional reference book and more of a meditation on place – through its people, purpose, and possibility. With a healthy yet necessary and perhaps overdue dose of historical context, political awareness, nuance, and care, they offer a portrait of California wine that finally acknowledges all the hands that shaped it.

Ana Carolina Quintela: What made you want to write this book? What did you feel was missing from the conversation around California wines?

Elaine Chukan Brown: Interestingly, there hasn’t been a book meant to be comprehensive about California wine in quite a while. So I kept thinking, what about California would need to be written if we’re going to do one now?

So I decided that for it to be worth writing a book in the middle of the internet age, the book had to present the complete information, a comprehensive perspective, as this kind of book is meant to, that gives a depth of perspective, that you can’t simply search online.

So I decided that I had to focus on two audiences: people who have been part of wine all along and those who are coming into wine now, but don’t necessarily recognise themselves in the obvious wine-focused books and magazines.

I wanted to write a genuine perspective that shows that people from all over the world and a lot of different backgrounds have been here the whole time and are actually fundamental to the success of wine.

ACQ: The book talks a lot about the labour behind the wine industry. Can you explain how the labour force has evolved over time, and why workers are so often dismissed?

ECB: Since the beginning of the 1900s, the US has depended on inexpensive farm labour across all labour cultures. That’s simply factually true.

In the 1930s, Roosevelt passed a labour rights bill to allow workers to form unions in response to a series of significant strikes happening all over the country, in different industries. However, the agricultural industry in California lobbied to keep this activity excluded from that bill to maintain low-wage labour.

Then, in the 1960s, the farmworker movement in California began to take hold. Despite earlier strikes, it wasn’t until the 1970s, with Dolores Huerta after decades of work, that farmworkers gained real rights with the Agricultural Labor Relations Act.

Even with these changes, the reality is that farm labourers are still underappreciated. So I think there’s been this long-standing perception that we need inexpensive labour, primarily for agriculture.

The US has consistently created labour crises, every 15 to 20 years since the late 1800s, by excluding those who were once relied upon for agriculture – immigrants, mostly – and the wine industry hasn’t been immune to this. We tend to cycle through these anti-immigrant measures that ultimately lead to labour shortages, which then trigger an economic crisis. It’s a repeated cycle that we seem to fail to learn from.

Speaking more broadly, part of why I wrote the book in the way that I did was because there are so many things we’re afraid of right now in the wine industry, but it’s like, we have consistently problem-solved these different things and have moved forward.

One of the key lessons is as simple as acknowledging that we need each other to succeed. People in the industry rarely interact with farmworkers, so it’s easy to overlook their importance. Until there’s more collaboration and genuine recognition of the workers, things won’t change.

ACQ: What defines California’s wine identity, and how has it evolved over time?

ECB: I think California’s wine identity is still evolving and difficult to pin down. I think that even as traditional as the wine industry is, part of what California brings is this fresh verve, a willingness to do things that aren’t supposed to work.

Planting varieties in places where they don’t traditionally grow is a prime example of that – in places that don’t resemble where they originally grew at all. And yet you get a good wine from it. As simple as that sounds, much of the world doesn’t do that.

That kind of experimentation and innovation is what California engages in pretty regularly. There’s a kind of spirit of innovation that I think really defines California’s audacity.

ACQ: Speaking of which, you mention in the book how varieties like Zinfandel, Chardonnay and Cabernet have evolved into something like new genres of wine in California. Can you elaborate?

ECB: Yes! Now, Albariño, for instance, isn’t typically grown along the ocean shore here, and I don’t think it would even thrive in California’s coastal climate, but we have grown in such a different way.

We’re finding that there are varieties like Carignan working here. It’s fascinating because we also have varieties like Fiano, and you wonder, ‘Why on earth do we have these here?’

Yet, we keep discovering that they work. California has 130 varieties planted commercially, and it’s this kind of experimentation that makes the region unique.

ACQ: What key historical moments have helped establish California wine globally?

ECB: California’s been the largest producer basically since we first brought wine grapes in. You know, it’s just that during Prohibition, the volume was just grapes, and other people may have turned it into wine. But interestingly, the insurmountable challenge of Prohibition actually expanded grape acreage in California.

It did break our winemaking heritage, but it actually expanded vineyard acreage, which weirdly set us up to then grow and become the producer we are today.

In the 1980s, there was a considerable health movement and a significant downturn in the wine market as people started avoiding alcohol.

But then, the French Paradox aired on 60 Minutes, and suddenly wine was seen as something that could be good for your health. This shifted the narrative around wine and gave it a considerable boost.

The 2008 financial crisis had a significant impact. It made it harder for people to afford land, including vineyard land, and forced the industry to rethink its model.

Immediately after that, we had two of the hardest weather years in the state’s history, which affected yields and forced a shift in wine style to lighter and more restrained. That period opened the door to a new generation of smaller wineries and a fresh approach to wine that became very influential in the industry.

The COVID-19 crisis, along with the 2008 financial crisis, created a space where the industry had to adapt. These events have really shaped the direction of California wine, pushing it to be more innovative and responsive to the shifts in consumer habits.

Elaine Chukan Brown’s book, The Wines of California, is available at Academie du Vin Library.

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When Napa was established as one of the original 27 counties of California in 1849, the first vineyards weren’t far behind. Samuel Brannan, the self-titled vineyard plot was planted by the founder of Calistoga in 1862. Old Federal Block was planted initially by To Kalon founder H.W. Crabb in 1881. These were among the first 60ha of planted wine grapes in the region — and still exist today, among the current 18,200ha planted.

Though the original vines have been replanted, the legacy of these plots prevails as the pinnacle for harvesting fruit for world-class wine. Considered heritage vineyards, they are the backbone of many of Napa Valley’s cult wines, yet are often overlooked for the more prominent name on the label – a modern name that consumers recognise. Gagnon-Kennedy, a relatively new brand in the Valley, is taking a different approach: working to honour the heritage of these 19th-century vineyards.

‘If great wine isn’t being made from vineyards, they get ripped up or sold,’ says Michael Kennedy, proprietor of Gagnon-Kennedy. This is when the land loses its heritage – which is why Kennedy and his partner, winemaker Marc Gagnon, established their label to recognise Napa’s nuanced history and preserve some of the oldest plots’ legacies for future generations.

The importance of preserving Napa Valley’s heritage

‘To us, it’s a way of honouring the first sites that stood out to the earliest planters of the valley. The vineyards that have stood the test of time,’ explains Kennedy. ‘Look at the Grand Cru vineyards of Burgundy; those sites have been selected over hundreds of years, and this is our relative version of that.’

Currently on its fifth release, Gagnon-Kennedy sources from four vineyards in Napa that date back to the 1800s. Samuel Brannan (1862), Old Federal (1881), Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper (1877), and Beckstoffer Georges III (1895) are the names that take front and centre on the labels, placing the Gagnon-Kennedy brand name at the bottom in minimal lettering.

The first historic property that Gagnon-Kennedy contracted was Samuel Brannan in Calistoga. The northeasterly site at the base of the Vaca Mountains is one of the oldest vineyards in all of Napa Valley. It produces a vibrant, bright Cabernet Sauvignon that is surprisingly light and elegant for Calistoga.

‘The diversity in the one piece of land makes it unique,’ says Gagnon, describing the four different soil profiles, 5% slope and 30-year-old vines from the 30 rows the brand harvests. Gagnon-Kennedy also sources Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc from Samuel Brannan which contribute to the cuvée.

The Old Federal Block is ‘one of the most significant vineyards in the state, if not the world’, according to UC Davis, dating the research done here back to the 1880s. Hamilton Crabb originally planted over 400 grape varieties here in 1881 to see what grew best – ultimately Cabernet Sauvignon prevailed. Today, Gagnon-Kennedy sources these grapes from 15 rows for a balanced, intensely aromatic, elegant wine.

Beckstoffer’s influence

‘Beckstoffer’s Heritage Vineyards have all been producing outstanding wines for more than 150 years,’ says Andy Beckstoffer. ‘Great vineyards make great wines. To determine if a vineyard is truly great, one must have many different winemakers making different wine styles for multiple wineries over a long time period with consistently exceptional results.’

In Oakville, Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper was initially part of a large piece of land owned by George C. Yount. It was purchased by Charles Hopper and gifted to his daughter, Missouri, in 1877. This was when the first wine grapes were planted. Andy Beckstoffer purchased the vineyard in 1996. He added his name and legacy to the property as he worked to place the land under a conservation easement to permanently prohibit any non-agricultural development (which was achieved in 2002). ‘[Andy Beckstoffer] is probably as closely aligned to us in his love for historic sites,’ says Kennedy, who sources from 10 rows here.

Gagnon-Kennedy also sources Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from 12 rows at Beckstoffer Georges III. This Rutherford lot dates back to 1895 plantings by Mrs Thomas Rutherford. Beaulieu founder Georges de Latour popularised it in 1928 with renowned wines produced by André Tchelistcheff throughout the 1960s and 70s.

‘Beckstoffer Missouri Hopper and Georges III are, as the crow flies, not even 3km apart. Yet those wines express themselves so differently,’ explains Kennedy. He says Georges III is all red fruit with rose and floral aromas, a silky texture that depicts a quintessentially soft Rutherford Cabernet. Missouri Hopper, he says, is ‘as classical Napa Valley Cabernet as you could possibly have’, referencing characteristics of olive tapenade and chocolate with a thick, velvet texture.

Going beyond Napa Valley

Beyond Napa, Gagnon-Kennedy works with Monte Rosso Vineyards in Sonoma, sourcing Zinfandel grapes from nine rows of original 1886 plantings. ‘When you talk about California wine history, Mission and Zinfandel are the two most important grapes,’ says Kennedy. ‘To have original vine Zinfandel from Monte Rosso is like the holy grail of Zinfandel,’ he adds.

Aside from its age, Gagnon says Monte Rosso is unique because of its deep, volcanic red loam soil, which is unusual for mountain locales unless you’re on the Vaca range. Its volcanic influences and the southern-facing slope at 396m elevation result in high-acid wines and a rich iron component.

The common thread of all the historical vineyards is their site-specificity. Kennedy says it’s consistently distinguishable, despite each wine’s unique expression of a vintage. He attributes this to Gagnon’s poised restraint in winemaking. ‘Sometimes the hardest part is not taking action and letting things be the way they are,’ says Gagnon.

Since finding success and reward in California, Gagnon-Kennedy has expanded its work with historic vineyards in Tuscany. La Caccia di San Giovanni is its SuperTuscan produced with grapes from Casole d’Elsa, near Siena. Here, the vineyard land dates back over a thousand years. Gagnon-Kennedy is in the midst of developing Borgo Bonelli, an estate from the 1700s. ‘We simply love the old sites and strive to produce wines from them that means something and respect our winemaking past,’ concludes Kennedy.

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To Kalon, a vineyard regarded as California’s crown jewel thanks to its enduring renown for producing world-class, top-scoring Cabernet Sauvignon, has secured its legendary status with organic certification.

Blue-chip producers such as Robert Mondavi, Schrader Cellars, To Kalon Vineyard Company and Cliff Lede have all cemented their reputations on To Kalon fruit. But as iconic as they and this vineyard are, there is always room for improvement.

The past three years have seen rigorous overhauls within To Kalon in pursuit of the ambitious California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) organic certification.

‘While the To Kalon vineyard has been farmed sustainably for many years, the challenge was in the commitment to a certified organic programme,’ says Blake Wood, director of vineyard operations, To Kalon Vineyard, Constellation Brands. ‘There is a mindset shift there. The margin for error is very narrow. It’s been fun to watch our team respond to this challenge.’

The To Kalon legacy

To Kalon vineyard, in Napa’s Oakville appellation and planted with just over 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, is primarily owned by Constellation Brands. Today 177ha are managed by the Robert Mondavi Winery with an additional 94ha held by University of California Davis and Beckstoffer Vineyards, among others.

To date, 134ha of To Kalon’s vines have received the CCOF certification. Younger vines await certification while several established blocks act as buffer zones where the vineyard abuts conventionally farmed properties. Organic certification on this scale marks a major milestone for both To Kalon and Napa Valley.

‘This is an important moment for the industry,’ says Thomas Rivers Brown, winemaker at Schrader Cellars. ‘When such an iconic, high-profile vineyard like To Kalon makes the commitment to organic farming, it demonstrates a belief that it truly does impact quality for the better. Through organic practices, we’re making better wine by helping to balance yields, increase concentration and manage canopies with minimal intervention.’

The challenges of converting to organic viticulture

Transitioning a vineyard of To Kalon’s size, scope and reputation from conventional to organic farming and achieve certification is an immense undertaking. It requires detailed adherence to stringent standards on vineyard applications, renewable resources, soil and water conservation. Everything needs documenting and milestones checked – all part of Constellation’s future-focused sustainability plan.

‘The main challenge with farming organically is that there is no margin for error,’ says Sally Johnson Blum, director of winemaking at Robert Mondavi Winery. ‘In a difficult vintage, our options to adjust are extremely limited. Our vineyard team has to be several steps ahead of Mother Nature at all times. It’s a big challenge, for sure. Was it worth it? Absolutely, 100%.’

Blum adds: ‘Weed control is a major challenge in organic viticulture. Mechanical weed control is one of the best options, but the additional tractor passes can present a carbon emissions challenge. To address this, we have purchased the first six fully electric, driver-optional smart tractors in the wine industry, made by Monarch Tractor, a company co-founded by Carlo Mondavi.’

The first organic To Kalon vintage

The first certified organic grapes from the To Kalon vineyard will be harvested in this year’s 2023 vintage. But will the wines echo the changes in the vineyard? Andy Erickson, winemaker at To Kalon Vineyard Company, thinks so.

‘Organic farming in To Kalon Vineyard has always been very important to me,’ Erikson says. ‘We live and work among the vines, so it’s good to know that we’re farming the right way. I’m so happy that we’ve reached this milestone. The vineyard already feels so alive and I know that will be reflected in the wines.’

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It’s no exaggeration to say that in 2022, the majority of wines I sampled – and many that I drank and enjoyed – were Napa Cabernets.

Looking back over my notes during the months compiling the 2019 Napa Cabernet vintage report, I spent valuable time tasting with several of Napa’s top winemaking talents.

I spent time with Jean Hoefliger, Nigel Kinsman, Thomas Rivers Brown, Atelier Melka’s Maayan Koschitzky, consultant winemaker Julien Fayard, Harlan’s Cory Empting and Bob Levy, just to name a few.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for Jonathan’s top fine wines of 2022

My top wines from that report are out in the world.

In February, I sampled Kosta Browne’s groundbreaking Burgundy project and wrote an exclusive for Decanter.

In March, I wound up at Beaulieu Vineyard thanks to Gary Rieschel, whose Auction Napa Valley winning bid unlocked the doors to a weekend of drinking—not sampling—Georges de Latour Cabernet bottles dating back to 1967.

In May, vintner Tor Kenward of TOR treated a small gathering at Wheeler Farms in Saint Helena to wines from his cellar: a 1945 Beringer Red that, topped up in 1993, tasted of dark fruit, tobacco, walnuts, raisins and was salty and briny and quite alive! A 1974 Heitz Napa Valley was remarkable, and Tor claimed it was a Martha’s Vineyard bottling, but ‘they ran out of labels,’ he said. It was all cured meat, tobacco, black olive, and liquorice.

Beyond Napa

So many of these tastings and bottles should qualify as my year’s top wines. But I’ve focused on my favourite producers, most consumed at home in Novato in the San Francisco Bay Area, mere miles from the Sonoma County border.

I love Sonoma wines. I can’t get enough of Benovia, Three Sticks, Merry Edwards, and Convene (Dan Kosta’s new project). My adoration for California wine extends south into Santa Barbara, the Santa Ynez Valley, and Sta. Rita Hills.

I drained many bottles of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah from Dragonette Cellars and Liquid Farm—pleading at times for bottles of Liquid Farm’s Champagne—a collaboration with Pertois-Moriset in Le Mesnil-sur-Ogier.

But my standout wine of the year was a 2012 Matthiasson Napa Valley Red enjoyed at a home in St. Helena. While the winery’s Claret-like, elegant, age-worthy reds show restraint in their youth, winemaker Steve Matthiasson’s focus on early picks and higher natural acidities means the wines age beautifully. At ten years of age, this 2012 is finally moving from restraint to a veritable fireworks show.

Finding focus

Above all, 2022 was a year to recalibrate and find focus in wine writing. I would be remiss not to express my gratitude to the talented editorial team at Decanter for all their support and honouring me with the responsibility of becoming Decanter’s Napa correspondent.

From what I’ve seen and tasted living in the San Francisco Bay Area these past seven years, Napa’s light – and the light from around California’s wine regions – is burning brighter by the hour. The early power brokers who have shaped it are now fine-tuning it. Its aura is a seductive siren calling for a battery of new onlookers, chroniclers, vintners, and hospitality mavens, all looking for a piece of the action – some for better, some for worse.

Whatever the near future holds, that California light is shining bright. I carried it with me on a recent visit to the east coast to see Chris Bischoff, an old New York City friend who has planted vines on a steep hillside in New York State’s Upper Hudson Valley.

From his cabin in Cambridge, New York, peering out a bay window, we could see the vines he’d planted five years earlier and vast swaths of rolling hills beyond them. I brought a bottle of Jesse Katz’s 2018 Devil Proof Malbec from the Alexander Valley – talk about rays of light.

We talked for hours about this doppelgänger of a wine and its effusive neon beams of structure. It seemed to morph minute by minute in the glass as Bischoff, and I tracked the setting sun over shapely hills, themselves changing colours, their shapes shifting as nightfall draped each snow-covered hilly crest in new angles and forms.

As Katz is fond of saying, ‘Live well, drink well, and the devil can’t get ya.’

Jonathan’s top wines of 2022

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Given a choice between monitoring fermentations in his cellar or the progress of his vines outside, Matt Dees opts for the vines– any day of the week. That’s not to say that the winemaker gives his wines short shrift- ever.

Scroll down to see Sara Schneider’s tasting notes and scores for 11 Matt Dees wines

Dees is the winemaker, for sister Santa Barbara estates Jonata and The Hilt, in Ballard Canyon and the far western reaches of the Sta. Rita Hills, respectively. As the wines are the telling result of the interaction between vine and soil, the real action, in his book, is where that happens. ‘Walking the vineyards and spending time with the vines – that’s the best part of my day,’ Matt says.

This wine-is-made-in-the-vineyard mantra is more than a nod to the current doctrine for Dees. Growing up in Kansas City, Kansas, the self-described soil geek admits to letting more than a few balls fly over his head in the outfield, distracted by, ‘you know, digging up dandelions to see the root system.’

It wasn’t a matter of a romantic childhood connection to agriculture in Midwest wheat fields, he recalls. ‘Basically, I grew up in downtown Kansas City. The general kind of charmingly beautiful, slower pace of the Midwest aided my ability to focus on some of the most important minutiae of plant physiology, soil, and chemistry.’

And so, plant and soil science were a natural choice when he enrolled at the University of Vermont. As it turned out, Vermont—hardly a mainstream wine-growing region—would also shape his view of winemaking and the diverse wines of the world in unlikely ways.

Right off the bat, in the fall of his first year, Dees signed on at Shelburne Vineyard, helping partner Ken Albert plant the site. ‘I got bit by the bug in a peculiar state for making wine at the time,’ he says, though he admits he considered the hybrid grapes they were working with inferior. ‘They would grow those because they have to grow them,’ were his thoughts at the time.

Fast forward to a recent visit to Ken Albert, and the world looks different to Dees: ‘They’re crushing it!’ he says of winemaking in Vermont. And his new view of those hybrids? ‘Now I realise that some parts of the world get to use those grapes.’

California calls

It’s the kind of digression in Dees’ discourse that reveals his perpetual evolution and openness to the unlikely and dynamic innovations fueling an influential career now in California because it was California—or, more precisely, a bottle of Staglin Family Cabernet—that genuinely captured him. ‘It just knocked my socks off,’ he says of that 1995 (bought at Sherry-Lehmann in New York), ‘pointed my arrow to California. And get this, they put their phone number on the back of the bottle!’ Shari Staglin herself answered his call but had no job to offer.

Dees, though, already had a ticket in hand and showed up at the gate. As luck would have it, acclaimed winemaker Andy Erickson (he of Screaming Eagle, Harlan, and Dalla Valle fame) was on his way in, too, on his first day with Staglin. ‘I was behind his little black Volvo,’ laughs Dees, ‘and he’s like, ‘Are you that weird dude from Kansas who’s made wine in Vermont?’’ And that first job Erickson gave Dees, in the vineyard with legendary viticulturist David Abreu, served as boot camp. ‘I loved it, and it changed my life,’ Dees says simply.

It was Erickson, too, who later recruited Dees to Santa Barbara County in an unexpected call during one of his regular stints in New Zealand. His stateside mentor and friend had found a place – a plum job, actually – to make wine. ‘I was such an idiot, sitting on a crush pad in New Zealand,’ says Dees, ‘I had the gall to say, I don’t really know Santa Barbara. Is it nice?’

When he started in 2004 at Jonata (and also began making wines under The Hilt label), Dees found what his palate was looking for. Those were warm years in Napa Valley, with Cabernets outdoing themselves for ripeness and richness. At the same time, he had been exposed to ‘electricity,’ as he puts it, in New Zealand. ‘I think my heart looked for freshness.’ And Santa Barbara, it turns out, could deliver on that front. The first thing he did with his team was to buy ‘every bottle of wine ever made in Santa Barbara’ (his words, if a smidge exaggerated) and taste for weeks.

‘It was like the Three Little Bears,’ laughs Dees about the other regions in his experience. ‘That bed was a little too small, and that porch was a little too cold. Good lord, I love New Zealand and parts of Napa too. But it was obvious, tasting those [Santa Barbara] wines, that I was in the right spot. Here is where I needed to stay.’

Diversity in Ballard Canyon

The two brands Dees began managing diverge widely regarding climate, soils, and grape varieties they support. When he came to Ballard Canyon—an AVA nested in Santa Barbara’s larger Santa Ynez Valley—the neighbours quickly advised that he should only grow Syrah at Jonata. And indeed, Syrah was thriving in the area.

‘I’m convinced you could plant Syrah on the roads, and it would grow well,’ laughs Dees, ‘and you could make wines of honesty and sincerity and purity and pleasure.’ But Dees expanded the 10 varieties he started with to 15 or 16 across 34ha planted on the 240ha Jonata Estate: Bordeaux, Rhônes, Italian, and Greek.

It was a let’s-see-what-works mindset with a focused approach (as opposed to a ‘willy-nilly, ooh, this sounds fun’ romp, as he describes it). The site’s mild winters, drastic diurnal temperature shifts during the growing season, wind, and complex aspects among the hills support the astonishing diversity. But the driving force for Jonata, according to Dees, is its unique soil—pure Careaga sand. And that sand supports an ever-widening range of grapes (‘We’ll get our first Assyrtiko this year, our first Xinomavro …’) and the ability to dry-farm vines on their own roots.

‘We’re starting to tear out some old plantings,’ he says, ‘and just put sticks in the ground. We’ve gone to 660 vines and no water for five or six years. We’ve dry-farmed Syrah for five years and are about to get our first dry-farmed Cabs—head trained!’

As the original plantings at Jonata have matured, now 14 and 15 years old, Dees has taken advantage of their range. Shaped by a myriad of aspects throughout the vineyard to build complexity and depth in a lineup of bottlings dominated mainly by a single grape, with splashes of complementary varieties.

One notable exception to the dominant-grape pattern is a blend he calls ‘Todos,’ or ‘All,’ which he describes as ‘50% Syrah, 30% Cabernet, and 20% chaos.’ While the percentages vary from vintage to vintage, Todos starts with the two primary varieties and then includes all others planted on the estate (including white wine grapes). It is, in essence, a field blend.

This wine is far from the kitchen-sink effect of California’s ubiquitously popular ‘red blends.’ Which are invariably sweet-leaning and generic; Jonata’s Todos is counterintuitively focused and precise. It carries Syrah’s distinctive wild and voluptuous spiced blueberry character hanging on the structure of Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Outer Limits in Sta. Rita Hills

For The Hilt, Dees captures an entirely different expression of terroir in the extreme. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Sta. Rita Hills was the brand’s focus from the beginning, but with no estate vineyards at the time, Dees worked with fruit across the region for an entire decade. ’10 years of research,’ he calls it, because ‘making soulful wines off our vines’ was always the goal. The region, running west to east from very close to the Pacific Ocean to Buellton near Highway 101, is a prominent place, and where a vineyard sits in it matters more than a little. Dees—fully supported in the search by owner Stan Kroenke—very quickly honed in on the southwest corner of the AVA, on the 1,400ha Rancho Salsipuedes, which they purchased in 2014.

With screaming winds off the Pacific, cooling maritime fog, and diatomaceous earth soils that look like so much lunar dust, the estate’s two north-facing vineyards, Radian and Bentrock, require extreme farming (‘to the hilt’). But the extremes feed right into Dees’ preferences for the two varieties. For Pinot Noir, it’s some elbows, some edges—what he calls ‘the hint of corruption.’

He’s looking for more than an innocuous red that everyone enjoys but no one remembers once it’s gone. ‘What I admire,’ he says, ‘is that incredibly seductive power like smelling a violet, where you smell it, and then you can’t smell it anymore, and all you want to do is keep smelling that violet. Pinot Noir should draw you into that bottle the same way a violet draws you in, to get pollinated.’

And Chardonnay from those cool, windy, ocean-adjacent vineyards? ‘You’re harvesting liquid sunshine, that refrigerated sunshine that everybody talks about.’ Sipping The Hilt Chardonnay with incredible acidity is like eating citrus, according to Dees. Or ‘like eating an oyster, then realising you forgot to drink the nectar, then you drink the nectar.’ That’s Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay at its best, in his book. Including the saltiness that implies: ‘The wines are 100 per cent electric,’ he says. ‘I’m buying Sta. Rita Hills Chard stock all day because I think it’s the finest in the US.’

Listening to the land

Serendipity played a matchmaker between the character derived from this land and Dees’ taste. You can’t talk about Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, he argues, without talking about Burgundy (the same isn’t true of Cabernet and Bordeaux, in his view), which he and his team drank a lot of ‘back in the affordable days.’

He says that what he came to crave in Chardonnay is ‘that combination of just enough pleasure from the fruit to carry you just over the wave of freshness.’ And for Pinot Noir, ‘I always wanted to find the mushroom side. I wanted sous bois (‘undergrowth’)—the things that were not fruit. I wanted complexity and, again, that hint of corruption. That’s a hook, and you can’t stop smelling; you can’t separate yourself from the glass.’ As luck would have it, they bought a property capable of giving them all this in spades.

But Dees didn’t descend on The Hilt Estate or Jonata to impose a style. ‘We’ve never been a winemaking team that came into a place and said, ‘Ooh, we should make a wine like this out of these grapes,’’ says Dees. ‘And we don’t over-romanticise or simplify it. But for both Jonata and The Hilt, we’ve said, ‘This is what these wines taste like, cool. That’s great.’

At times following the lead of the land has pushed Dees and his team beyond conventional comfort. ‘In some cases, we’ve sat around thinking about bottling Radian Vineyard Chardonnay and have had to pause and be like, Oh boy, is the world ready for a wine that’s so fresh and so electric that it might shatter the bottle it’s going into?’ he laughs. But the answer is yes. That’s the kind of wine this place makes. ‘We’ve just become very good listeners when it comes to flavours inherent in the vineyards.’

Matt Dees: tasting notes and scores for 11 top wines

Wines are listed in estate order, via style and score

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The California wine map is a complex place; and it's not all about Napa. Do you know your Mendocino from your Santa Barbara? Let's find out with the Decanter California Wine Regions quiz.

This quiz has been created as part of California wine month on Decanter.com, which is being run in partnership with the Wine Institute of California.

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Southern California wildfires: How to help

This week, following the devastating fires in northern California, around 200,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in the southern part of the state due to fresh wildfires following a record hot summer. For more information on how to help, see this Los Angeles Times article on donating.

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Understand the classic profile of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon with our graphic…

Created in partnership with the California Wine Institute.

What does Napa Cabernet Sauvignon taste like?

Flavours

Napa Cabernet Sauvignon has a full fruit profile, with flavours of dark black fruits, such as blackcurrent, blackberry and black cherry.

Secondary flavours include vanilla, clove and cedar, often produced by American oak ageing – although the flavours vary depending on the kind of oak used, and how long it’s aged, plus whether or now it is new. Each winemakers must make their own decisions on this, with some opting for a more restrained ‘European’ style.

These wines have great ageing potential, often developing further tertiary flavours, such a coffee and tobacco.

Profile

Although warm temperatures are needed to ripen the fruit, Napa Cabernet Sauvignon still retains high acidity – which is what helps give these wines the potential for ageing. The levels of tannin are also commonly high, another factor which give these wines structure.

Different parts of Napa Valley have different peak temperatures in summer, with the valley floor, specifically around St Helena and Calistoga, known as the hottest areas. Accordingly, these are where some of the biggest and richest Napa Cabernet wines are produced.

Cabernet is a relatively late ripening grape variety, which means it is often last to be picked in Napa Valley.

Food pairing

‘Bold wines need bold food,’ said sommelier Rajat Parr, in our sommelier guide to pairing with California wines.

‘Grilled foods work well with Californian reds, for example.’

‘Keep your wine and food weights on par,’ said Evan Goldstein MS.

‘Don’t let the food squash the wine by being too rich, or vice versa.’

More California articles: 

• Insider’s guide to eating and drinking in California 

• Napa fine wines to try

• California wines under £40 – and how to find value 

Created in partnership with the California Wine Institute.

Chad Walsh—sommelier of Agern in New York City—on his approach to matching the state’s offbeat bottles with food...

California wine pairings: Unconventional matches

It may seem unusual for a restaurant with a Nordic bent to stock its cellar with strictly American wines, but that’s exactly what Icelandic chef Gunnar Gíslason did in his Michelin starred Agern, located in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal.

In building a California-heavy wine list to match Gíslason’s food, sommelier Chad Walsh has found that the old rules of white with fish and red with meat don’t apply and that today’s bottles pair with bright and nuanced flavors better than ever.

Textured whites

“Nordic food in general tends to have a lot of acidity,” says Walsh, “whether that’s from whey, vinegars or other pickling liquids. That works well with styles of New world wine that are riper. They balance each other out. That has been kind of a fun coincidence.” He turns to towards white wines with texture—of which there are plenty in California—for cured dishes.

“Littorai’s Sonoma Coast Chardonnay is a great example,” he says. “We do a black bass that’s lightly cured, with cucumber, sunflower seeds and hoisin, which brings an umami quality. That wine is light enough that it doesn’t overpower the flavors but rich enough that it can match it in weight.”

Scale back the oak for earthy flavors

Although the smoky, baking spice quality of a heavily oaked wine might seem like a natural fit for earthy ingredients like sunchokes or mushrooms, Walsh finds it mollifies the flavor.

“When a wine lays off the oak and lets the fruit come through, it picks up the earthiness and complements the dish,” he says. For bitter elements, such as endive in a salad, he looks to Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. “Tatomer’s Vandenberg Riesling is just stunning,” he says.

A new solution for steak

“Our steak is 60 days dry aged, so it has a funky, blue cheese-like intensity, and it actually appreciates a lighter red more than a big one,” says Walsh. His go-to? A Beaujolais-esque wine like Broc Cellars’ Valdiguié.

“Because it’s partially carbonic, it expresses more wild berries and fresh fruit, and being lighter in body, it gives the steak a chance to express its own minerality and personality that might be obscured by a richer wine,” he says.

Cabernet and Syrah with vegetables

Some of the dishes Walsh has had the most success with pairing with full bodied wines are on Agern’s vegetable menu. “We’re doing a squash right now with a pesto made from various seeds,” he says. “It can handle a big wine, and I like it with the Stolpman Syrah from Ballard Canyon or even some of the richer Cabs.”

Slow cooking the vegetable in question gives it the unctuousness it needs to make the pairing work, he adds.

In partnership with the California Wine Institute.

William Kelley picks the California vineyards that you need to know...

In partnership with the California Wine Institute.

Five Californian vineyards to know

To Kalon Vineyard, Oakville, Napa Valley

Established in the nineteenth century by pioneering vintner Hamilton Crabb, the To Kalon vineyard’s combination of great terroir and historical pedigree lend it a strong claim to the title of Napa Valley’s first grand cru.

In Crabb’s era it was ‘Black Burgundy’, better known as Refoscco, which excelled here, but today To Kalon’s gently sloping 678 acres are ground zero for Cabernet Sauvignon, producing some of the valley’s most valuable grapes.

The site isn’t celebrated without reason: Crabb’s historic vineyard corresponds almost exactly with a broad swathe of alluvial material deposited by ancient streams that flowed down from the Mayacamas mountains – what geologists call an alluvial fan. These deep, gravelly soils are exceptionally well-drained, forcing the vines to delve deep underground in search of water and creating the stress necessary for optimal ripening.

Cabernet Sauvignon from To Kalon tends to be broad and supple, with a dark fruit profile and considerable structural amplitude. The best of these wines have a track record of developing in the cellar for three decades, and they’re frequently among Napa Valley’s finest.

A hundred years ago, that potential was already evident to Crabb. ‘To Kalon is Greek,’ he once explained, ‘and means the highest beauty, or the highest good, but I try to make it mean “the boss vineyard”’.

Notable producers: MacDonald, Schrader, Robert Mondavi Winery, Paul Hobbs, Detert Family Vineyards

Monte Bello, Santa Cruz Mountains

In 1962, from an isolated vineyard perched high above the Pacific Ocean in the Santa Cruz Mountains, four Stanford Research Institute engineers made history, producing North America’s first post-Prohibition vineyard designate Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine in question was the inaugural vintage of Ridge Vineyards’ famed Monte Bello, justly celebrated for its classical balance and aging potential.

One of the few north American vineyards to boast limestone bedrock, the Monte Bello ridge represents the remains of a Pacific atoll, where dying sea creatures accumulated on the ocean floor. Today, green stone and clay soils are layered over their remains to form Monte Bello’s unique terroir.

Climate is critical too. Situated some 15 miles—and several ridgelines—east of the coast, at between 1300′ to 2700′ above sea level, the cooling evening fog that distinguishes so many of California’s coastal vineyards is infrequent at Monte Bello. That means the gap between daytime temperature highs and nighttime lows is smaller than, say, in Napa Valley, producing ripe grapes with lower sugar levels and high acidity.

That bright acidity, combined with Monte Bello’s characteristically fine but abundant tannins means these wines aren’t always showy in their youth, taking some time to reveal the full extent of their depth and dimension: patience is advised. After twenty years in the bottle, however, there are few Cabernets to rival Ridge’s Monte Bello.

Summa Vineyard, Sonoma Coast

Six miles inland from the Pacific shoreline and straddling a sandy ridge, Summa Vineyard produces some of North America’s most distinctive Pinot Noir. This is an extreme site, often touched by the rolling maritime fog which defines Sonoma Coast viticulture. Vines here seldom set large crops and their grapes rarely accumulate much sugar. Their quality, however, admits no argument.

Summa was first planted in 1979, but it only came to the world’s attention a decade later, when Williams-Selyem produced a wine from the vineyard and sold it for the historic sum of $100—a record-breaking price for a North American Pinot Noir at the time. ‘I figured if we didn’t sell it we’d just drink it ourselves’, remembers Burt Williams. The bold statement drew attention to the Sonoma Coast, hitherto widely considered too cold to ripen Pinot Noir.

William-Selyem only produced a vineyard designate Summa bottling four times: in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995. Sometimes the crop was too small; sometimes it wasn’t sufficiently ripe. But the site’s captivating signature aromas of blood orange and exotic spice, fully realized in the good years, kept Burt coming back for more.

When Williams-Selyem sold in 1998, the winery’s relationship with Summa lapsed. The fruit went to others, including Ted Lemon’s Littorai and Thomas Brown’s Rivers-Marie. In 2010, Brown jumped at the chance to buy the vineyard, interplanting to increase vine density and improving farming. Today his two Summa bottlings are consistently among the Sonoma Coast’s most complete and characterful wines.

Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, Santa Barbara

Today, Santa Barbara’s Sta. Rita Hills rank high on any list of California’s most exciting areas for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but that all began with the Sanford & Benedict Vineyard. Botanist Michael Benedict and his friend Richard Sanford sought a site which could produce grapes with similar qualities to those they found in the great wines of Burgundy, and after years of research and analysis they began planting here in 1971.

Sanford and Benedict noted that, whereas most of coastal California’s mountain ranges run parallel with the coastline, the Santa Ynez Valley opens directly onto the Pacific Ocean, providing unimpeded access to its cooling influence. Indeed, conventional wisdom held that the region was too cold to ripen grapes. What’s more, the weather and geology of the Sta. Rita Hills seemed a perfect fit for Burgundian varieties.

The duo’s wines immediately created a stir, and soon others were clamoring with Sanford & Benedict grapes. Little by little, most of this sloping, silica-rich and well-drained hillside was planted to grapevines, and though today the site is owned by the Terlato family and home to the Sanford Winery, other producers continue to produce wines from this coveted vineyard. The wines are deep, textured and finely balanced.

Notable producers: Sandhi, Au Bon Climat, Sanford

Eisele Vineyard, Calistoga, Napa Valley

Like the historic To Kalon vineyard, the Eisele Vineyard consists of gravelly alluvium, deposited over millennia by ancient rivers. Both also happen to number among Napa Valley’s most celebrated sites for Cabernet Sauvignon. But that’s where the similarities end.

While To Kalon faces east, catching the morning sun, the Eisele Vineyard looks to west, basking in the afternoon heat. To Kalon’s soils are derived from the ancient ocean crust that dominates the Mayacamas Mountains’ watershed; whereas the streams that formed the Eisele Vineyard flowed down from the volcanic Vaca Mountains. At a mere 38 acres, the Eisele Vineyard is also considerably smaller than To Kalon.

Unsurprisingly, the two sites produce notably different wines: To Kalon Cabernet is broader and more powerful, often more rich and plush, its fruit profile dark and brooding; in Eisele Cabernet, red fruits mingle with black in wines which are drier, tauter and more savoury, with less mush amplitude but more definition.

It was in the 1970s, with compelling Cabernet Sauvignons from Ridge Vineyards, Conn Creek and Joseph Phelps, that the site’s reputation was made. With the 1991 vintage, the vineyard passed to Bart and Daphne Araujo, who thereafter reserved its grapes exclusively for their Araujo Estate. The Araujo’s wines won critical acclaim and concomitant cult status, further elevating the vineyard’s reputation—and converting it to biodynamic agriculture. François Pinault’s Artemis Group, owners of Château Latour, acquired the site in 2013.

California winelands are made for road trips, hit the scenic Central Coast from Monterey to Santa Barbara for an unforgettable wine adventure...

This article first appeared in Decanter magazine’s California supplement 2017. It is currently featured on Decanter.com as part of a sponsored campaign with the California Wine Institute.

Central Coast road trip – Top 10 wineries

It’s only a four or five hour journey between Monterey (1.5 hours’ drive south of San Francisco) and Santa Barbara (two hours’ drive north of Los Angeles), commonly referred to as the Central Coast.

A road trip between them could last a day or a week, depending on how much you want to see and do. The area spans many distinct wine appellations, including Monterey, the Santa Lucia Highlands, Paso Robles, Santa Maria Valley, Santa Barbara County and the Santa Rita Hills, to name the most famous.

Wine styles are as diverse as the territory, ranging from delicious sparklings to world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to inky Syrahs and robust Cabernets. Remarkable restaurants and bars plus compelling attractions are as plentiful and diverse as the wine.

Au Bon Climat

Jim Clendenen has been revered for his elegant Pinot Noir and Chardonnay since founding his winery in 1982. A stop here will offer a chance to taste library wines (which show how beautifully his wines can age), along with tastes of his current projects. These are, without doubt, some of the best wines in Santa Barbara. In 2007, Clendenen was inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America.

aubonclimat.com

Carmel Road

Carmel Road, a Jackson Family Wines winery, specialises in sustainably farmed, cool-climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling. The wines are excellent expressions of what the Monterey terroir can deliver, and one of the finest in the portfolio is the South Crest Pinot Noir, a vibrant wine with dense dark cherry and earth notes.

carmelroad.com

Galante

This intimate tasting room has an unapologetic cowboy vibe – all the better to tell the pioneering story of Galante (Jack Galante’s great grandfather, JF Devendorf, was the founder of the town of Carmel). Robust, rich reds dominate the offerings with a focus on superior quality, estate-grown Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as Malbec and Merlot. Try the Cowboy Cuvée or the Centennial Cabernet Sauvignon.

galantevineyards.com

Qupé

Long-time winemaker for Qupé, Bob Lindquist is one of California’s original ‘Rhône Rangers’—a group dedicated to the pursuit of American-made Syrah and other Rhône varieties. Lindquist, who farms biodynamically, is legendary for his Syrahs but you would be remiss if you didn’t sample one of his ethereal and rich Viogniers.

qupe.com

Insider guide to eating and drinking in California

Tablas Creek

Founded in 1989, Tablas Creek is a winery partnership between the Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel in the Rhône and US wine importer Robert Haas. The wines cultivated from their organic vineyards steeped in limestone soils are some of the Paso Robles’ most ageworthy and awarded. The tasting room offers library tastings of rare vintages in addition to selections from the estate portfolio. Try the Esprit Tablas Blanc (Roussanne, Grenache Blanc and Picpoul Blanc) or the wild and intense Patelin de Tablas (a blend of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre and Counoise). Be sure to browse the small winery boutique selling books, linens and wine accessories.

tablascreek.com

Stolpman

Stolpman wines are among the finest expressions of Syrah from the Ballard Canyon AVA. The Los Olivos tasting room boasts a nice view, but the true highlight are the wines. Made organically and dry-farmed, they show immense ageworthy structure and polished complexity. If possible, plan ahead and reserve a spot on one of the guided hikes of their beautiful Ballard Canyon estate.

stolpmanvineyards.com

Wrath

Wrath specialises in small-lot production of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc from the Central Coast’s Santa Lucia Highlands appellation. Concentrated and serious, the wines show a deeply fruity and complex spiciness. After the tasting, buy a bottle and carry your purchase to the nearby Carmel Beach for a seaside happy hour.

wrathwines.com

Valley Project

This downtown Santa Barbara location is a great place to kick off your Central Coast wine education. Here you’ll get to sample small-batch wines from each of the different Santa Barbara AVAs while pondering the visually impressive wall-sized chalk mural map of the AVAs, drawn by local street artist Elkpen.

thevalleyprojectwines.com

Kunin

Located in downtown Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone, a block from the beach, expect to taste a range of varieties that showcase the amazing breadth of the Central Coast terroir. This small family run operation, started by winemaker Seth Kunin in 1998, turns out delightful Syrah, Chardonnay, Viognier and Chenin Blanc. The Pape Star Red (Grenache, Mourvedre, Syrah and Cinsault) is lovely, as is the racy and bright Chenin Blanc.

kuninwines.com

Margerum

Sommelier and owner Doug Margerum spent 35 years in the restaurant industry before launching Margerum in 2011. He concentrates on crafting Rhône varieties with polish and sophistication. Try the dark and lively Uber Syrah. And don’t miss the Amaro, a beguiling blend of herbs and botanicals from a proprietary recipe.

margerumwines.com

Introduction written by Jordan Mackay, with winery recommendations from Katie Kelly Bell

More California articles

Since the 1960s California producers have been seeking to plant the right grape in the right site. William Kelley profiles four winemakers who have mastered the art...

This article first appeared in Decanter magazine’s California supplement 2017. It is currently featured on Decanter.com as part of a sponsored campaign with the California Wine Institute.

California grape varieties: Why site matters

With its extraordinary geological and climatic diversity, California is a naturally welcoming home to swathe of grape varieties, and deciding what to plant where has long been the subject of research and debate.

In 1963, A J Winkler published General Viticulture. Winkler and his colleagues at UC Davis classified California’s grape-growing climates by counting the number of hours during which temperatures exceeded 10°C over the course of the growing season – an effective metric of a region’s capacity to ripen grapes. Suitable varieties were duly recommended for planting in each distinct region – Cabernet in Oakville, for example, and Pinot Noir in the Carneros.

Today vine and vineyard are paired with ever greater precision, and winemakers speak ever more passionately about the expression of site through a varietal lens. Here are four masters.

Cabernet Sauvignon

Ric Forman, Forman Vineyard, Napa Valley

As Forman celebrates his 50th vintage, he can reflect on a career that most California winemakers can only envy. Graduating from UC Davis in 1969 after internships at Stony Hill and the just-established Robert Mondavi Winery, his first job was superintending the inaugural vintage of Sterling Vineyards – as well as designing its new winery and cellar.

‘I must have had a lot of confidence,’ he chuckles. That year, and just as decisively, he travelled to Europe where he encountered traditional winemaking for the first time. ‘I went from this strict chemistry, technological background, to seeing what tradition really was,’ he remembers. ‘I knew instantly, aged 24, that was the way I wanted to make wine.’

Traditional French practice, minutely observed on this and subsequent trips abroad, would inform Forman’s winemaking for the next half-century: first at Sterling, then when he founded Newton Vineyard in 1977 and finally at his own winery, from its first vintage in 1983 to the present. In the vineyards, that meant tightly spaced vines, carefully trellised – a pruning system that Forman pioneered.

In the cellar, the tradition included gentle racking, an attentive approach to new oak and a reaction against the processing mentality that dominated Californian oenology in the era of filtration and centrifuges.

From the beginning, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (soon blended with other Bordeaux varieties) was front-and-centre in Forman’s oeuvre, and he rapidly made the genre his own, producing wines of power, grace and longevity. Indeed, many of his Sterling Reserves from the 1970s are still drinking brilliantly today. But his approach has nonetheless subtly evolved since his engagement with the variety began.

‘Over time,’ he recalls, ‘I realised that while grapes in Napa accumulated sugar quickly, the ripeness of the flavours and tannins often lagged behind. So I began to pick later, which was quite a departure from what was done at the time,’ he adds.

‘But bigger is not better,’ Forman is very quick to insist, and though he has adapted his Cabernet winemaking to Napa’s balmy climate, his is still an elegant aesthetic, producing complex, savoury wines, which burst with nuances of cigar box and spice.

Faith in the decisive influence of site, as well as the desire to establish an estate of his own, led to the creation of Forman Vineyard, its cellar and winery blasted and carved out of the rocky slopes above St Helena. There, from his hillside vantage point, Forman can survey the valley he has done so much to shape.

Chardonnay

David Ramey, Ramey Wine Cellars, Sonoma County

Ramey is a Chardonnay master, but his winemaking career had an unlikely beginning. Born in Seattle, he studied literature at UC Santa Cruz, working as a waiter for a year after graduating. He’d begun to take a keen amateur interest in wine, but the realisation that he actually wanted to make it came out of the blue during a long drive between Mexicali and Hermosillo, Mexico – what he likes to call his coup de foudre.

‘It was one of those lightning bolt moments,’ he recalls. ‘I realised that not only does wine make people happy, it’s an aesthetic statement, and it’s not bad for the environment either.’

He promptly enrolled for a masters degree in oenology at UC Davis, working the 1979 harvest at Ets Jean-Pierre Mouiex in Pomerol and the 1980 vintage in Australia, gaining insights into both artisanal and industrial winemaking. Returning to California, Zelma Long hired Ramey as an assistant winemaker at Simi Winery, where he worked for four years before striking out on his own in Sonoma County; first at Matanzas Creek, then at Chalk Hill. Then, in 1996, he renewed his bond with the Mouiex family to become Dominus Estate’s winemaker in Napa Valley.

Ramey was lucky enough to experience vinifying Chardonnay from the earliest days of his career. At Simi, he and Long were among the first to experiment with barrel fermentation and sur lie maturation, introducing Burgundian techniques such as juice browning, malolactic fermentation and battonage. He continued to explore these methods at Matanzas Creek and Chalk Hill. But Dominus produced no white wine.

‘I asked,’ Ramey recounts, ‘and Christian Mouiex said if I wanted to make a little Chardonnay on the side, that was fine with him.’

Thus was born Ramey Wine Cellars, debuting with 260 cases of Chardonnay from Larry Hyde’s famed Carneros vineyard. Soon other vineyards and appellations followed. Inspired by the quality of the grapes he could source, Ramey’s production soon expanded.

‘I grew stupidly, from 1,500 cases to 7,000 to 22,000. Now we’re at 40,000,’ he says. Fortunately the market responded with enthusiasm, and to this day the winery is entirely family owned.

These Chardonnays are ripe, but balanced. Power comes naturally in California, Ramey believes, and he doesn’t shy away from it, pointing to the considerable heft of grand cru Burgundy in great years. ‘But we also need to bring out finesse and minerality,’ he adds.

As he sees it, there have been two key trends in the genre of California Chardonnay over the past 35 years. One has been ‘the gradual adoption of the true Burgundian method’ – and Ramey identifies himself as a classicist, with no aspiration to reinvent the wheel. The other development has been what he calls ‘the march to the coast’. He explains: ‘Areas that were thought to be too cold for Chardonnay 30 years ago are now producing our best wines.’

It would be hard to argue with this. Yet a tasting of Ramey’s different cuvées, beginning at Carneros and heading out to the Sonoma Coast via the Russian River, offers persuasive testimony to both the excellence and the distinctiveness that Californian Chardonnay can attain in a different range of mesoclimates and soils.

Pinot Noir

Thomas Rivers Brown, Rivers-Marie, Sonoma Coast

Born in Sumter, South Carolina, Rivers Brown is one of the country’s top winemaking talents and best known as a celebrated Napa Valley consulting winemaker, the recipient of numerous critical accolades – including multiple three-digit scores – for cult Cabernet Sauvignon labels such as Maybach and Schrader. Yet one suspects that the variety that is closest to his heart has to be Pinot Noir.

Back in 2002, long before his consulting star was truly in the ascendant, Brown began purchasing Pinot Noir grapes from the 2.5-hectare Summa Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast for Rivers-Marie, his own label. In the years that followed, more cuvées emerged from other sites in the neighbourhood, soon complemented by bottlings of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. By 2010, he and his partner, Genevieve Marie Walsh (both are tremendous Pinot Noir fans), were able to acquire the Summa property; and today Rivers-Marie is the source of the most exciting Pinot Noir that is produced on the Sonoma Coast.

What drew him to this variety and this region? A literature major and a Burgundy drinker, Brown has long nurtured a passion for Pinot, simultaneously the most intellectual and sensual of grapes. Over the course of many hours whiled away in the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast, he happened to fall in love with this quirky part of California, too; life is slower-paced here than in Napa, social interactions more laid-back.

‘Sonoma Coast Pinot falls between two stools,’ he readily admits. ‘It’s too light for the folks who drink domestic Cabernet; and on the other hand, it’s seldom a dead ringer for Burgundy. It stands or falls by its own unique sense of place.’

Texturally more supple than the taut young reds of the Côte d’Or, the Sonoma Coast’s palette of aromas and flavours is different, too, its fruit tones typically more candied, nuances of herbs and soil relegated to a supporting role. This young region’s wines sometimes taste like an idea only partially expressed; but in Brown’s hands, they attain rare completeness and can express their origins with articulacy.

His knowledge of the area’s reference-point producers, the likes of Joseph Swan and Dehlinger, is encyclopaedic, but the wines that seem to excite him the most are those produced by the great Burt Williams during the heyday of the Williams Selyem Winery. Not coincidentally, Summa Vineyard was the source of Williams’ first pioneering Sonoma Coast cuvée of Pinot Noir.

The Rivers-Marie Summa bottlings burst with the same notes of blood orange, spice and coniferous forest floor that distinguish those old Williams Selyem wines. Brown, who stands out among his celebrity-winemaker peers as unusually unassuming and softly spoken, would never presume to say so himself; but he is arguably among the leading upholders of Williams’ legacy today.

Zinfandel

Tegan Passalacqua, Turley Wine Cellars, California

‘Zinfandel should taste like Zinfandel,’ insists Tegan Passalacqua, director of winemaking for Turley Wine Cellars. ‘Zin that’s under 14% alcohol starts to taste like Bordeaux as it ages,’ he continues – a complaint once voiced by the late Louis M Martini, who denounced mature Zinfandel’s similarity to those ‘damned French clarets’.

The issue is topical for a simple reason: Zinfandel’s large bunches take a long time to ripen. By the time there are no green berries left, others have often attained lofty sugar levels. But though alcohol tends to be the elephant in the room whenever this variety is discussed, such is the grace and harmony of the Hayne Vineyard Zinfandel in our glasses – a whopping 15.4%, honestly labelled – that for once it doesn’t seem terribly important.

Passalacqua’s light touch with extraction and new oak mean the wine isn’t cumbersome in its expression of the California sunshine and of what these vines, planted around 1903, have to say about where they were grown. In fact, the distinctive personality displayed by each of Turley’s 20-odd different Zinfandel bottlings, from single vineyards across the region, sometimes begs the question: is this grape the ultimate lens for California terroir?

Passalacqua is a Napa Valley native, but he took a degree in public health and had originally intended to embark upon a career as a social worker. A job in the Napa Wine Company laboratory, combined with evening classes in viticulture and oenology, changed all that. After working harvests in New Zealand (Craggy Range), France (Alain Graillot) and South Africa (Eben Sadie), he started at Turley in 2003, assuming the reins in the cellar a decade later.

Passalacqua’s affinity for the old-vine vineyards he and his team farm is tangible, so it’s no surprise that he was one of the founders of California’s Historic Vineyard Society, a non-profit group dedicated to the preservation of California’s old-vine heritage.

For Passalacqua, the history of these vineyards is a clue to their potential. ‘I’m passionate about the grapes that have done well in California’s past,’ he says, with Zinfandel being foremost among them. ‘They didn’t get planted by accident.’

William Kelley is Decanter’s US correspondent who lives and works in Napa Valley

More California articles:

• Napa Valley quiz

• Napa fine wines to try this Autumn 

Created in partnership with the California Wine Institute.

We get the advice from the sommeliers...

Created in partnership with the California Wine Institute.

Californian wine and food

What’s the rule to pairing Californian wine with food? There’s no one rule! With the immense range of wines being produced in California today, there are many different styles and varieties on the table.

‘The great thing about California wine right now is its diversity,’ says GuildSomm President, Geoff Kruth MS. ‘Ten years ago wine in California was much more monolithic; that has totally changed. Now, there are great examples of almost any conceivable style. It doesn’t make for an easy answer to pairing, but it’s absolutely true.’

Acidity and fruit

In order to plan a pairing, take into account the acidity and fruit, suggests sommelier and ‘Secrets of the Sommeliers’ author, Rajat Parr.

‘There are so many styles of California wine: from “fruit bombs” to mineral-driven wines with high acidity. But generally speaking, the flavours of Californian wines are bold, hence the dishes that work are bold.’

‘Grilled foods work well with Californian reds, for example. For Californian wines with moderate to lower acidity, fresher dishes are better: olive oil works better than butter, and lots of herbs and vegetables.’

Pairing by weight

Perfect Pairings and Daring Pairings author, Evan Goldstein MS, recommends pairing by weight.

‘For more generous styles – like Sonoma Zinfandels, Napa Cabs, Central Coast Rhone Blends (red and white), and older-school Chardonnays – keep your wine and food weights on par. Don’t let the food squash the wine by being too rich, or vice versa.’

‘For those wines espousing California 2.0 (with lower alcohols, fresher acidity, cooler provenance, less oak), it’s easy to treat them like their old world counterparts. A Petaluma Gap Chardonnay or Anderson Valley Pinot Noir are, food wise, not that different than similar-styled Burgundy.’

Sparkling wines

Goldstein is also a big fan of Californian fizz: ‘Don’t overlook the high-quality of our premium sparkling wines that work well with just about anything savoury.’

Don’t be scared to experiment

LA sommelier and founder of Pour This, Ashley Ragovin, also believes in thinking outside the box:

‘For spicier dishes, look for wines with a little residual sugar, more fruit, less tannin and lower alcohol – so instead of a big Cabernet, try a Valdiguie, Gamay, or a Sankt Laurent; for whites, get out of the comfort zone of Chardonnay and experiment with fresher, versatile, food-friendly varietals like Vermentino, Sylvaner, and Chenin Blanc. It’s an exciting time right now for Californian wine.’

With over 80 wine varieties, over 100 classified wine regions and more than 4,600 wineries, there’s no limit to the diversity of Californian wine and its ability to pair with most meals. The question is, what’s for dinner?

Amanda Barnes is a wine and travel writer currently travelling Around the World in 80 Harvests.

How well do you know California's most renowned wine region, the Napa Valley? Are you a collector of the highly crafted Cabernets, or have you sampled other delights from the Valley floor? Take Decanter's Napa Valley quiz and find out.

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Updated November 2017

Finding the value wines from California...

This article first appeared in Decanter magazine’s California supplement 2017. It is currently featured on Decanter.com as part of a sponsored campaign with the California Wine Institute.

Great value California white wines

‘The value is definitely there in California, if you know where to look,’ says Oz Clarke.

He and Ronan Sayburn MS have picked out top value Californian white wines, all available under £40.

These wines prove that things are changing with Californian wines, and that no longer are only options those with high price tags.

• Top California wines under £20

• Top California red wines under £40

• Where to buy California wines in the UK

Calling all California wine lovers in the UK — find out the where to buy your favourite west coast wines, as Jane Parkinson rounds up the top wine shops supermarkets and online retailers...

This article first appeared in Decanter magazine’s California supplement 2017. It is currently featured on Decanter.com as part of a sponsored campaign with the California Wine Institute.

UK buyer’s guide to California wine

Wine has been notorious in the UK for its absence of middle ground pricing – roughly speaking, the £10-£15 mark. After years of being promised that California really does make wines in this range – and not just wines at rock-bottom or sky-high prices – we’re finally starting to see them break through onto the British buying scene.

Here are the best wine shops, supermarkets and online retailers to get your Californian wine fix…

Best wine shops

Butlers Wine Cellar

With an impressive haul of 150 Californian wines under its roof in Brighton, Butlers’ range is a case of seeing is believing. Notwithstanding the sexily priced heavyweights, such as various Peter Michael wines, it also sells fabulous ‘New Age’, low-intervention wines from the likes of Wind Gap, such as its Orra Grenache Blend at £24 (and the Nebbiolo at £40). There are plenty of reliable favourites, too, including the juicy De Loach Pinot Noir for less than £15. Overall, a great breadth and depth of styles and price can be found here.

butlers-winecellar.co.uk

Drinkmonger

This impressive, Scottish-based merchant has shops in both Edinburgh and Pitlochry and stocks a modest but well-chosen selection of 30-plus Californians, sourced from excellent importers. The offerings in the £10-£20 and £20-£30 price brackets are the strongest – and although classics, such as Ridge and Clos Du Val, occupy the pricier slots on its list, there are also excellent choices to be had for less than £15, especially Gnarly Head Petite Sirah and Moobuzz Pinot Noir.

drinkmonger.com

Lea & Sandeman

It’s undeniable that this award winning London-based merchant is renowned for clever finds from the Old World – France and Italy in particular – and for offering value for money, too. But it has more than 20 Californian listings that are worth a peek. While there isn’t much under £20 and the top end is populated by Bacio Divino, the less expensive wines include winemaking legend Jim Clendenen’s labels Au Bon Climat and Qupé.

leaandsandeman.co.uk

Prohibition Wines

Run by a wine-loving husband-and-wife team in north London, Prohibition Wines can be commended for its representative ranges from individual Californian producers. For example, there’s a healthy collection of wines from the experimental Birichino, including its Jurassic Park Chenin, as well as an impressive collection of Ridge from Geyserville 2013 at £34.70 to Monte Bello 2012 at £119.30. It also lists the delightful portfolio of Sandhi wines from Santa Barbara and the Santa Rita Hills, priced between £30 and £50.

prohibitionwines.com

The Sampler

With two London stores, The Sampler was one of the first of the bevy of modern independent wine merchants that now grace the capital’s streets. It represents an eclectic range of Californian wines, including Mendocino’s Handley Cellars, Hoopes from Napa and Scholium, which is in seriously limited supply. Does The Sampler sell some of the cheapest Californian wines around? No, but it does sell some of the tastiest.

thesampler.co.uk

Best supermarket

Waitrose

If you skip over the big-brand, entry-level sweet pinks, this awarded supermarket’s Californian range of about 25 wines is very appealing – albeit with some safe choices. Beneath the £15 mark there’s Bonterra’s organic Merlot, a Lodi old-vine Zinfandel and even a Monterey Pinot Noir; while Carpe Diem Pinot Noir tops the range at £32.

waitrosecellar.com

Best online retailers

Roberson Wine

Drowning in trade awards for its range of Californian wines, Roberson is now exclusively online. The secret to its Californian success is that it cleverly mixes old-school gems, such as Viano Vineyards, with new kids on the block, such as Broc Cellars. Within its 180-plus range, Roberson is about breadth of choice as much as it is about value for money. The supremely delicate wines of Arnot-Roberts from Sonoma are not to be missed – they remain value for money despite a high price-tag.

robersonwine.com

Stannary St Wine Co

This online merchant has two regional specialities: Burgundy and the US. This might seem like an unlikely combination, but there are some significant cross-overs, particularly Napa Valley’s Snowden Vineyards (Stannary’s first US listing). Diana Snowden Seysses is the winemaker for both Snowden and the Seysses family’s Domaine Dujac in Burgundy; she’s married to Jeremy Seysses. Another notable producer is Failla, and there are also quirkier listings like Skylark’s Pinot Blanc from Mendocino. Generally pricey, but the wines are befitting of Stannary’s high standards.

stannarywine.com

The Vineyard Cellars

Like a museum where you can actually buy the artefacts, this retailer is the Mecca of top-end and rare Californian reds. Its penchant for the very best is evident on its website, where its most populated price bracket is £100+ a bottle. There are currently 36 listings within this lofty price range, including Peter Michael, Tor and Moone Tsai (a collaboration between former Beringer boss, Mike Moon, and the Tasi family) – as well as back vintages aplenty. To find that very special something from California, this is the place to shop.

vineyardcellars.com

Jane Parkinson is an award-winning writer and broadcaster, and a DWWA judge in 2017.

Read more on Californian wine here

California wines under £40 – and how to find value

The Napa Valley’s transformation from rural backwater to viticultural Shangri-La in a mere half century is an all-American success story, writes William Kelley, who picks out a selection of his favourite fine wines to try.

This article first appeared in Decanter magazine’s California supplement 2017. It is currently on Decanter.com as part of a sponsored campaign with the California Wine Institute. 

• Scroll down to see the wines

In the 1960s, Napa Valley could count only a handful of wineries, but today it’s home to 475. Many enjoy international markets and reputations, being sought-after the world over.

Prosperity has followed: every year, Napa Valley wine contributes $50 billion to the United States’ economy – a figure that’s greater than the GDP of Croatia. By any metric, then, Napa is thriving.

Even success stories, however, require periodic reinvention.

The wine market’s demographics are changing, with millennials now consuming more wine than any other generation, while the baby boomers that fuelled the Valley’s 20th-century efflorescence are spending less as they age.

New wine drinkers increasingly prioritise originality and authenticity in what they drink, meaning that Napa will have to compete for their attention with rivals from elsewhere.

There really would be no sense in altering what is proving to still be a winning formula. We’re unlikely to witness a wholesale reimagining of Napa Cabernet of the kind recently wrought in California Pinot Noir and epitomised by the In Pursuit of Balance movement.

But the valley is undeniably evolving.

That’s reflected in new emphases: elegance and balance are back in fashion, even if the wines themselves are slower to change.

To generalise: high ripeness is still the order of the day, but new oak is now far more carefully controlled. The terroir philosophy has been adopted writ large, as an ever multiplying roster of single-vineyard bottlings testify.

But perhaps most importantly, Napa Valley’s collective conversation, once dominated by cult Cabernet, has moved on.

‘Napa is no longer a monoculture,’ concludes veteran winemaker Cathy Corison, ‘and that’s a good thing.’

More California wines here

William Kelley’s Napa fine wines to try

Hunting down the value in California, with red wines under £40....

This article first appeared in Decanter magazine’s California supplement 2017. It is currently featured on Decanter.com as part of a sponsored campaign with the California Wine Institute.

Great value California red wines

You can find ‘top flavours from the Golden State without paying top dollar’ says Oz Clarke.

It’s about looking in the right places, from the right producers and for the right wines.

Clarke and Ronan Sayburn MS have chosen their top choices of great value California red wines, under £40, so find one to try today…

• Top California wines under £20

• Top California white wines under £40

• Where to buy California wines in the UK

Environmental issues are a concern for Californian wineries, so Cathy Huyghe takes a look at the measures being taken to produce wines sustainably...

This article first appeared in Decanter magazine’s California supplement 2017. It is currently featured on Decanter.com as part of a sponsored campaign with the California Wine Institute.

Three steps to sustainable wine

According to research published by the National Academy of Sciences, 73% of today’s viable wine-growing land will be lost to climate change by 2050. While that statistic is alarming, it also doubles as a rallying cry for Californian wineries and growers, who are already responding to climate change.

Efforts are two-fold: while reducing their own impact on the environment, producers must also find ways to combat the daily effects of climate change in their vineyards.

The question on everyone’s lips is: how green is my vineyard?

Water use

Although the agricultural industry (and the water table itself) have seen some relief from drought conditions in the past year, it’s important to recognise that water is in high demand throughout the lifecycle of a bottle of wine. Viticultural practices may be the most obvious use of water, but water is also needed to clean and sanitise equipment inside the winery – including barrels, tanks, presses and crushers.

High water usage from cleaning, as well as the costs and regulations around that water, are now motivating more wineries to reduce in-facility demand. Some are capturing rinse water for reuse, for example; while others have shifted from a heavy reliance on barrels to using stainless steel tanks, which are less demanding in terms of water usage.

Using less water, however, is just one way producers can reduce their environmental impact. Others include assessing where vines are planted and deciding which varieties to plant.

Increasingly, vineyards are being established in what used to be known as marginal areas, using grapes that are better-suited to dry-farming methods. Think more Carignan and Valdiguié, less Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

Site selection

Winemaker Chris Brockway from Broc Cellars, a Berkeley-based urban winery, uses organic or biodynamic grapes grown mainly in areas that are considered marginal. These include the Solano County Green Valley AVA (American Viticultural Area) located southeast of Napa Valley close to San Pablo Bay, which has a maritime climate, and the inland areas of Mendocino County.

According to Brockway, when people think of Mendocino, they think of places like the Anderson Valley, which is located closer to the coast with a cooler climate. But ‘marginal’ doesn’t always mean ‘cooler’. He points out that Mendocino County is very large and the majority of it is inland – where it’s very hot.

‘One of the grapes we make the most of there is Counoise,’ he explains. This Rhône grape is one of the newer varieties that Brockway is working with.

‘It loves heat. You can have temperatures of 32°C and the sugar slowly rises as it retains acid. Counoise is one of the last varieties we’ll pick at harvest, maybe at 22° Brix [around 13% potential alcohol]. It produces a very balanced wine that ages beautifully,’ he adds.

Similarly, Brockway sources lesser-known, late-ripening Picpoul grapes from the small, windswept Luna Matta Vineyard in the western hills of Paso Robles.

It’s a grape variety that he believes ‘makes sense in California’. He explains: ‘Picpoul is a self-regulating grape in a sense, that doesn’t spike sugar-wise.’

Greener grapes

Brockway also has his eye on ‘more offshoot areas’ where dry-farming is still viable, and where he can offer support to growers, encouraging them to retain older vines. He confesses that old-vine vineyards, planted with grapes such as Carignan, Valdiguié and Zinfandel were what originally drew him to California. The fact that those vineyards are also non-irrigated has been a plus.

‘A lot of the old-vine stuff is dry-farmed,’ he says. ‘The roots go so deep, they’re not even on the surface, so they performed better at the start of the recent drought.’ Many of these vineyards have been dry-farmed since the day they were planted – that’s 50 years ago for Valdiguié and around 140 years for Carignan.

Nonetheless it can certainly be a challenge to find a home for these more historical and lesser-known grape varieties. Brockway’s goal is to pay the growers a fair price for their grapes to ‘convince them not to replant with Cab’ (or indeed other Bordeaux and Burgundy varieties that need to be irrigated), while also keeping the end price of the wine low enough for most people to afford.

It’s easier to convince growers to keep a lesser-known grape in the ground in smaller areas like Green Valley, which many people bypass. Working with something like Valdiguié in, say, Calistoga, is a tougher battle, Brockway admits – but he is persevering.

Seeing old vines thriving or noticing sheep grazing between rows in the vineyards and falcons flying overhead to keep pests to a minimum, are obvious and visible signs of a healthy ecosystem in a vineyard. There are also less obvious signs; micro-organisms in the soil that can’t be seen by the naked eye, permanent cover crops or stream setbacks planted with buffer crops.

Such indicators are yet another measure of how green a vineyard is. Within California, as the wine industry matures in response to climate change, that list is bound to grow longer and longer.

Cathy Huyghe is author of Hungry for Wine and writes for various US titles including Forbes.com

Created in partnership with the California Wine Institute.

Amanda Barnes asks some of the state’s top sommeliers and winemakers guide us through their ‘go-to’ places to eat and drink in California.

Created in partnership with the California Wine Institute.

Insider’s guide: Where to eat in California

It’s hard to eat poorly in California. The state is a hotbed of fusion cuisine and has a pantry filled to the brim with delicious local produce – from the garden, farm and sea.

Californian cuisine today is known for its blend of Italian, French, Mexican, Chinese and Japanese cooking styles using the plethora of local ingredients including many heirloom fruits and vegetables.

Evan Goldstein MS, author of Daring Pairings

High Treason Wine Bar: Where to wine in San Francisco

Just over a year old, High Treason Wine Bar is a smallish but super cool wine bar in San Francisco’s Inner Richmond.

Insider Tip: There are over 45 wines by the glass (changing on a regular basis) and if you need to soak up the alcohol, High Treason serves excellent small bites such as roast quail; fried chicken sliders; and short rib pappardelle.

Food truck tip offs

Spark Social is a newer food truck ‘park’ in San Francisco to try. There are a few others too, one of the originals is SOMA Street Food Park. The neighbourhood is a little grittier, if you know what I mean. Finally there’s Off The Grid, which has multiple rotating applications across San Francisco, it’s a big part of the social scene…

Insider Tip: The food truck parks rotate different vendors, sometimes on a daily basis. Most are open for lunch hours (12-3), dinner (5pm onwards) and all day at the weekends.

Bar Covell: Wine-centric in LA

My friend Matt Kaner has a few super cool and wine centric spots in LA and Palm Springs—Bar Covell is the original (with 150 wines by the glass) and he also has Augustine (offering a range of older vintages dating back to 1860).

Randall Grahm, Winemaker at Bonny Doon Vineyard

Oliveto: Farm to table in Oakland

The owner of Oliveto restaurant, Bob Klein, has another venture, which he calls Community Grains, and features some of his exotic, heirloom grains at the restaurant. Notable amongst them is the red corn polenta, which is utterly unique and extraordinary. There’s a nice selection of older Barbarescos from Produttori di Barbaresco, which are very fairly priced.

Must-try dish: All of the pastas are amazing, but the spaghetti nero, made with squid ink is a real winner, as is anything there bolognese. Grilled pigeon also a must-have dish.

The Press Room: Unique pressings in San Francisco 

On the other side of the bay is The Press Room, which is arguably the most exciting wine bar in San Francisco – the wine list is absolutely stellar. I was lucky enough to find an older vintage of Ciallia Bianco from Ronchi di Cialla that was very reasonably priced. (One very seldom sees the wine.) The space is cavernous but beautiful, and the wine list vastly comprehensive.

Insider Tip: There’s a happy hour every day until 6pm with $3 off wines and beer by the glass. Bites and plates include sliders, Pizzettas and mac and cheese.

A16: Piedmont and pizza

If one loves both “natural” and esoteric Italian wines, the place to go is A16. Shelly Lindgren, the proprietress, is passionate about both; Occhipinti and Foradori are well represented indeed. This is where you can find all of the Timorasso, Freisa and Rossese your palate might craves. For me, their pizza salsiccia with a bottle of Freisa would be the way to go.

Insider Tip: A16 has another location in Oakland where they have an aperitivo hour every night at 5pm.

Geoff Kruth MS, President of Guild Somm

El Molino : Mexican in California wine country

In the town of Sonoma, El Molino Central has fantastic Mexican food. While I’m not normally one for gentrified cultural cuisine, a vegetarian enchilada with a glass of rosé is pretty undeniably delicious.

Must try dish: Swiss chard enchiladas with salsa habanero.

La Ciccia: Flirting with Italian in the city

La Ciccia is my hands-down favourite date night restaurant in San Francisco. Traditional Sardinian cooking with a seafood focus from a super hospitable husband-and-wife team. You do need to book ahead though.

Diavola: Devilishly good food in Geyserville

When I’m in Healdsburg I love taking the short drive to the next town north of Geyserville and going to Diavola. It’s amazing how good the food is for such a tiny town; half of the tables are usually taken up by local wine business friends.

Insider Tip: Start your meal off with a platter of Diavola’s home cured salumi and sausages.

Ashley Ragovin, Sommelier at Pour This

Bell Street Farm: Farm charm in Santa Barbara

One of the warmest California stops is Bell Street Farm in Los Alamos. It just over delivers on every level! The food is comforting and so well done, and Jamie is always waiting to pour you a great local wine. He’s a hospitality genius.

Must try dish: Do not miss the porchetta!

Marvin wine bar: LA by the glass

A very excellent wine bar in LA is Marvin wine bar. It’s truly one of the best places to drink great wine by the glass, and it has an epic list. There aren’t enough places in LA serving only the hits, with great food to boot.

Mh Zh: Hot and hebrew in the city

For dinner, Mh Zh in Silverlake, Los Angeles (pronounced Mah-zeh, a Hebrew phrase for ‘what is it?’) is truly the best table in the city right now. They are highlighting California’s gorgeous bounty of produce beautifully. Food is thoughtful but not overdone; it’s elegant and simple, California at its best.

Insider Tip: Start looking through your cellar because Mh Zh is BYO. 3536 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026, USA

Rajat Parr, sommelier and winemaker Domaine de la Côte

Progress: Seasonal in San Francisco

It’s a very seasonal menu at Progress. My favourite dish when I ate there last week was Liberty Farms BBQ half duck spicy peanuts, Thai basil & smoked chilli vinegar.

Insider Tip: There are over 350 wine labels in the cellar, and eight Madeiras by the glass.

Aster: Super seasonal

Another seasonal tasting menu to try is at Aster. One of the great dishes at the moment is Green faro, Peas, Ramps, Sheep’s Ricotta, nasturtium.

République: Upscale bistro in LA

Chef Walter Manske creates great upscale Bistro cuisine at République in Los Angeles. He makes an incredible Dover Sole a La Meuniere with fingerling potatoes, grapes, brown butter and lemon.

Insider Tip: Looking for a bite of breakfast? Drop into République from 8am till 3pm and you can start your day on Pork Confit Pupusa, Kimchi friend rice or Shakshouka.

Amanda Barnes is a wine and travel writer currently travelling Around the World in 80 Harvests.

More articles like this:

• Sommelier guide to pairing California wines

• Central Coast wineries to visit

• Buyer’s guide to Californian wines

It's time to try some new ones...

This article first appeared in Decanter magazine’s California supplement 2017. It is currently featured on Decanter.com as part of a sponsored campaign with the California Wine Institute.

California wines under £20

It used to be the case that California wines meant a hefty price tag – but we had our experts hunt down the great value options that can be found in the UK.

‘In the UK, a belief in the quality and affordability of Californian wines is at last taking hold,’ says Oz Clarke, who found discovering these value wines ‘genuinely exciting’.

Oz Clarke and Ronan Sayburn MS pick their top California wines, available in the UK for under £20.

They’ve found the reasonably charged wines ‘that were outclassed by their rivals from Australia, Chile, New Zealand and much of Europe.’

• Top California red wines under £40

• Top California white wines under £40

• Where to buy California wines in the UK

More California articles

In partnership with the California Wine Institute

Los Carneros AVA in California produces top quality sparkling wines – but why…?

In partnership with the California Wine Institute

Los Carneros sparkling wines

Los Carneros AVA crosses over Napa and Sonoma Counties, at the southern end of the areas. It produces high quality Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Champagne house Taittinger produce a sparkling wine in Carneros, at ‘Domaine Carneros by Taittinger,’ – as well as some still wines.

Anderson Valley AVA also produces high quality sparkling wines – which is where Champagne house Roederer also produce a Californian sparkling.

Cooling influences

One of the main reasons Los Carneros sparkling wines are of such high quality is due to a number of cooling influences in the climate.

The San Pablo Bay produces cooling morning fogs and afternoon breezes to the Los Carneos area, bringing down the average temperature.

Cooler temperatures mean the grapes ripen slower and retain the high acidity levels needed in sparkling wines.

It’s also best for producing Pinot Noir grapes, and cool-climate Chardonnay, to make sparkling wines in the Champagne style.

‘During the growing season, Carneros is slightly warmer than the Champagne region and slightly cooler than Burgundy,’ said Eileen Crane, winemaker at Taittinger’s Domaine Carneros.

‘In terms of Napa and Sonoma, Carneros is the coolest part of both Valleys, and is used for sourcing their best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.’

‘The Carneros climate benefits from the marine cool breezes coming from the San Pablo bay and the Petaluma gap.’

Soils

‘The soils of Carneros contribute to the quality as well,’ said Crane.

‘The heavy soils mean that the vine roots in Carneros do not go deep and hence can not source water from underground reserves. As a result the vines in Carneros remain small limiting crop size.’

Our judges picked top California wines under £40 - and share their top tips for finding great value...

Top 40 California wines under £40

1. You can discover really cool producer without paying through the nose.

The truly hipster wines are not those big beasts from the heart of Napa; they’re either from Napa and Sonoma fringes, or not from these super-famous areas at all. And a lot of the coolest producers are not in it just to make money, so they don’t gouge.

We’ve got two wines from Berkeley’s urban winery Broc and two wines from Anderson Valley star Carpe Diem, as well as beauties from Melville, Lioco and M2. Believe me, these are cool dudes.

2. Don’t forget the old-timers

They may not be as fashionable as once they were, but they’ve owned their vines for a long time and can afford to offer wines at a fair price. We found delightful wines from Edna Valley, Firestone, Louis M Martini, Marimar Estate, Mount Eden, Nalle, Schug, Smith-Madrone, Trefethen and Wente. These have all been stars in their time – and they still can be.

• Top California wines under £20

• Great value California red wines

• Great value California white wines

3. Don’t just stick to the regular grapes

California has been rather slow to realise the quality of its old varieties, and slow to plant interesting new varieties to deal with warming conditions. However, it’s happening now, and we found delicious wines from Albarino, Carignan, Marsanne, Muscat, Riesling (it’s not mainstream in California!) and Petite Sirah, plus that old war horse, Zinfandel.

4. The less-faddish, less-pressured vineyard areas a chance.

In Napa Valley American Canyon, Oak Knoll and Yountville are much cheaper than the more commonly seen Oakville, Rutherford and Stags Leap. Seek out regions like Lodi – probably California’s best-value address for reds – Livermore, Monterey and the Santa Cruz Mountains. We found appetising wines from all of them.

The value is definitely there in California, if you know where to look. And we’ve got 40 prime examples to prove it.

Top California wines under £20

We hunt down the value in California...

Great value California white wines

Hunting down the value white wines...

Great value California red wines

California under £40...

Napa vintners are gearing up for one of the coolest harvests on record – and many are saying wines will be more balanced, elegant and lower in alcohol as a result.

While grapes have been slow to ripen in the long cool growing season, vineyards have also been prey to a number of different hazards – like a heat spike in August – which have reduced yield significantly.

But winemakers are sanguine: indeed, some, like Elias Fernandez at Shafer, and Ivo Jeramaz at Grgich Hills Estate, see the difficult season as a boon.

‘After 3 years of draught, we now face one of the coolest seasons on record,’ said Jeramaz, vice president of vineyards and production at Grgich, a champion of lower-alcohol wine.

Jeramaz said the persistent cool temperatures will force many to produce wines lower in alcohol because the grapes won’t achieve the higher sugars levels that many Napa growers typically seek.

Veteran Shafer winemaker Elias Fernandez said he would be able to pick at lower sugar levels this year.

Shafer’s Hillside Syrah and Stags Leap Merlot will start coming in today (Tuesday), followed by Chardonnay later in the week. The Cabernet Sauvignon in the first week of October.

‘I’m seeing color and seed development way ahead of sugar, so I’ll be able to pick most vineyards at lower Brix.’

He said to speed up ripening they had done a severe green harvest, dropping 50% of the crop in some parcels, leaving one cluster per shoot.

‘This was done in hope that we could at least make Shafer-quality wine with 50% of the grapes. We also left one cluster per shoot in some of our late ripening Chardonnay clones in Carneros.’

An anomaly was the late August heatwave, which caused vineyards to lose between 10-30% of the crop from sunburn and stem necrosis (a type of berry shrivel).

Fernandez said he considered this a blessing in disguise, or ‘Mother Nature’s way of telling us we were carrying too much crop in a year that was already behind, forcing us to drop crop which I believe will help many bring in their fruit before the rains come.‘

At Alpha Omega in Rutherford, winemaker Jean Hoefliger was cautiously optimistic about the cool season, saying ‘the consequences of these lower temperatures are higher acidity and lower alcohol. It’s already a great vintage for the white varietals reaching full ripening. And, if the weather stays dry, we might have the vintage of the century.’

Dennis Cakebread, at Cakebread Cellars said the same: ‘Overall, we are enthused about how this year is going. The weather forecast has a nice Indian Summer starting now and running for the foreseeable future. Ocean temperatures have dropped, which typically means a dry Fall, so we see many positives to work with. We are looking forward to another great vintage.’

Written by Cheryl Lincoln in San Francisco