Tasting Gallica: Elegant Napa Cabernet
Tina Gellie takes a look at Gallica, a personal project of former Spottswoode winemaker Rosemary Cakebread.
Rosemary Cakebread has built up a reputation for producing wines characterised by great restraint and elegance, even in opulent years like 2013.
It’s a theme that runs through every aspect of her work – the Gallica project is named after the French rose, and the labels are inspired by Japanese ink prints.
The winery was founded in 2007, following her nine-year tenure as winemaker at Spottswoode between 1997 and 2006.
The original intent of Cakebread’s Gallica project was to focus on Syrah and Grenache, but her portfolio has since diversified thanks to her experience at Spottswoode with Cabernet as well as the quality of the estate vineyard in St Helena and of the bought-in grapes from long-term contract growers.
Her wines now encompass Bordeaux and Rhône varietals, Petite Sirah and, most recently, Albariño.
But Cakebread is best known for her Cabernet Sauvignon. The first commercial vintage was in 2009, from estate and contract fruit in Oakville, Coombesville and St Helena, becoming a single vineyard wine in 2011 when the Oakville Ranch Vineyard was certified organic.
The first four vintages were heavily Cabernet Sauvignon-dominant (96% in 2011), yet Cakebread felt that the splash of Petit Verdot ‘didn’t bring much to the party’ and dropped it in 2012.
The portion of Cabernet Franc then increased to 25%, thanks to her self-confessed love affair with the grape – so much so that she has even bottled some as a varietal wine.
Continue reading below:
Gallica Cabernet Sauvignon to try:
Cakebread’s modus operandi
‘I like to pick early,’ says Cakebread. ‘2010 was the coolest vintage we’ve had, and 2011 the wettest. I’m grateful we were on the Oakville plateau in those years, because the grapes wouldn’t have ripened on the valley floor.
‘But you taste these wines now and they are so elegant, graceful and balanced thanks to long, cool growing seasons. If I could guarantee a style of wine like that every year, I’d put up with those weather conditions and disease pressures!’
‘I’m not a lover of 100% new oak; we stay between 65% and 70%. I’m not a fan of heavy toasting either, preferring medium, maybe medium-plus. We’ve always used Ana Sélection, Atelier, Taransaud and Darnajou for our French oak barrels’.
Related Content:
Spottswoode vintages rated from 1997 to 2014
Top Harlan Estate wines for the cellar and to drink
Dominus Estate Vertical
Gallica, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California, USA, 2009
Lots of rain in spring delayed the growing season, so it was hard to get beautifully mature tannins, says Cakebread. The cooler than average season...
2009
GallicaNapa Valley
Gallica, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, California, USA, 2010
The coolest vintage in Napa, even though most people assume 2011 was because of the deluge of rain. But the long, slow growing season and...
2010
GallicaNapa Valley
Gallica, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Oakville, California, USA, 2011
96
The first wine wholly from the certified organic Oakville Ranch Vineyard. A cool, wet and foggy vintage that needed a lot of green harvesting, plus luck in being on higher elevations and deciding to pick before the rain - 'but I love the result', says Cakebread. Exotic spice, floral and herbal tea aromas are accompanied by shy blue fruit. The sappy, grippy palate is more expressive, showing bright yet dense blackberry, savoury spice and mouthwatering acidity. Elegant, detailed and complex. 19 months in 70% new French oak, bottled unfined and unfiltered in May 2013. 251 cases made.
2011
GallicaNapa Valley
Gallica, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Oakville, California, USA, 2012
2012
GallicaNapa Valley
Gallica, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Oakville, California, USA, 2013
If 2012 hinted at a change in climate to warmer, more drought-prone years, 2013 was the turning-point. Just 15cm of rain fell in the whole...
2013
GallicaNapa Valley
Gallica, Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley, Oakville, California, USA, 2014
A plush, voluptuous rendition of Oakville Cabernet, with notes of creamy blackberry, blueberry, spice and vanilla. The palate is polished, refined and texturally broad; nicely...
2014
GallicaNapa Valley
