New names to know on the Napa wine scene

Here are eight up-and-coming winemaking projects in Napa Valley that we believe deserve your attention, plus tasting notes on the wines, in this in-depth report by Elin McCoy.

Every time I’m in the Napa Valley, I play the ‘What’s new?’ game.

I pick up hot tips from winemakers, whether I’m hanging about in wine bars, at the annual Premiere Napa Valley barrel auction, at a dinner party to which someone brings a new discovery or by checking the by-the-glass list at Press Restaurant in St Helena, which has its finger on the valley’s pulse.

Starting a new label in a region where the prices of top grapes and vineyard land keep skyrocketing isn’t an easy proposition, unless you have millions to spare.

That’s why high-priced Cabernet, which can promise the best return on investment, has taken over.

Scroll down for Elin McCoy’s top picks from the best new Napa Valley wine producers

There are several new estates making excellent and very expensive Cabernets, such as Alejandro Bulgheroni, named for its billionaire founder.But many of the most interesting new names in Napa are the side-brands of restless young winemakers who craft wines for others as a day job and buy grapes for their own personal projects.Some of them source fruit from other, less expensive regions, like the Sierra Foothills and Lodi, as Eton-educated Jack Roberts and his wife Johanna Jensen of Keep Wines do.I’ve focused instead on new names that use Napa Valley grapes for most of their cuvees, highlighting only wineries that have already released at least one vintage.

That meant leaving out Pym-Rae winery on Mount Veeder, owned by the Tesseron family of Bordeaux’s Château Pontet-Canet, which will release its first Cabernet next year.

I could have picked many others, but those listed below offer a glimpse of where Napa seems to be going.

Some wineries champion grapes other than Cabernet, others embrace organic and biodynamic viticulture, and still others consciously look back to an earlier era in the valley for inspiration.

Accendo Cellars

Bart and Daphne Araujo (pictured) are hardly new names. They spent 25 years burnishing the reputation of Araujo Estate and its legendary Eisele Vineyard before selling it to François Pinault, owner of Château Latour, in 2013.

But they soon plunged into a very different project, whose wines debuted under their new Accendo Cellars label two years ago. (The Latin word accendo means ‘to inflame or arouse’.)

Rather than create a single-vineyard red, they’re blending purchased fruit from friends’ top vineyards with their own plots in St Helena and Oakville to make an elegant, lushly fruity Cabernet Sauvignon.

The idea is to echo the blended wines of an earlier era in Napa. Added to that is a crisp yet opulent and complex Sauvignon Blanc.

The vineyard and winemaking team is the same one they had at Araujo Estate, but their newly opened winery, Wheeler Farms, claims to be the first ultra-premium custom crush facility in Napa.

The Araujos share the space with several other top small wineries such as Tor and Arrow & Branch, and also with their son and daughter’s new project, Trois Noix.

Read about this project in more depth: What the Araujo family did next, by Jane Anson

Calder Wine Company

In the past few years, a handful of Napa winemakers have been rediscovering the grapes that shaped the valley’s history before Cabernet took over. One such winemaker is 34-year-old Rory Williams (pictured), who founded Calder Wine Company in 2011.

When you grow up in Napa as the eldest son of John Williams, the founder of Frog’s Leap, and Julie Johnson, founder of Tres Sabores, maybe it’s only a matter of time until you hanker for your own label.

Rory is his father’s assistant winemaker and vineyard manager, and also helps to run his mother’s property; both of which are farmed organically.

‘What caused me to want to make wine was an Inglenook Charbono from an old cellar that I tasted in 2007,’ Rory explains. ‘It had so much flavour and intensity without weight – a wow wine.’ There are now only 28ha of the grape variety left in California.

Rory’s juicy, minty, earthy Charbono comes from old vines in the Meyer Vineyard in Calistoga; his succulent Riesling from a block of gnarled head-trained vines in the Rachel Rossi Vineyard in Rutherford, where the grape flourished back in the 19th century.

Add to that a chalky, lemony Chenin Blanc – the grape was once the third most-planted variety in Napa – and a mineral-toned Petite Sirah. All cost $30 (£23) or less.

Like many in his generation, Rory wants Calder to be an ‘exploration of cultural terroir, of wines that can transport you to a place, of wines that taste like home.’

Di Costanzo

The exciting Cabernet from rising star Massimo di Costanzo illustrates how much Napa’s new generation is shifting to a more savoury, complex and terroir-driven style.

His wine shows why Coombsville, tucked in Napa’s southeast corner and cooled by breezes from San Pablo Bay, is now one of the valley’s most fascinating appellations.

Di Costanzo fell in love specifically with the volcanic soils of the 10.5ha Farella Vineyard.

Though his first commercial Cabernet release was 2010, he says 2013 was the first vintage that truly reflects the kind of refined, layered wines he wants to make.

His route to his own label started with a viticulture and oenology degree at the UC Davis, then time in Italy at Tignanello and later in South Africa with rebel Adi Badenhorst.

Back in Napa, he worked at Ovid and aged 26 became assistant winemaker at cult winery Screaming Eagle. ‘But the idea of making my own wines kept nagging at me,’ he says. ‘I had a hard time putting my soul into someone else’s wines.’

Quiet and intense, Di Constanzo managed to score enough grapes from the Farella Vineyard in 2010 for four barrels of a 100% Cabernet with the kind of minerality he prizes.

By 2015 he was focusing on Di Costanzo full time, and in 2016 lined up the Rafael Vineyard at the base of Mt Veeder for a second Napa label, adding one in Sonoma for 2017. His goal is to achieve wine as an ‘art form’, and I’d say he’s on his way.

Ashes & Diamonds

This exciting winery debuted just before last fall’s wildfires were threatening Napa Valley.

It’s a mix of old-style Cabernet and a new-style, salon-like tasting room with a punk rock music sensibility.

The distinctive, bright white building with its zigzag canopy and jazzy interiors is in the Oak Knoll district. It feels very open and mid-century California – quite different from the faux-Tuscan and architectural statements that dot the valley.

The mastermind behind the winery is creative executive Kashy Khaledi, whose father owns Darioush winery. He calls it a ‘habitat for the wines’.

Inspired by Napa Cabernets of the 1960s and 1970s, he had a romantic image of shaking things up by collaborating with progressive winemakers to revive the restrained style of that era.

He lined up Steve Matthiasson and Diana Snowden Seysses (and, for one vintage, Dan Petroski of Larkmead Vineyards and Band of Vintners) and acquired the Oak Knoll property, which was planted with Cabernet Franc and Merlot. Then they all hunted out other vineyards from which to buy grapes.

So far there’s a fresh, zingy Cabernet Franc rosé, a bright Sauvignon Blanc-Semillon blend, a lush Cabernet Franc, and a few serious single-vineyard Cabernets, including one fascinating cuvee for which Matthiasson painstakingly copied 1960s examples.

Fun fact: The winery name comes from a 1950s Polish film.

Enfield Wine Co

Bearded John Lockwood (pictured), who looks like a mountain man minus the hiking staff, initially made his name in white wine, specifically Chardonnay from a secluded vineyard in the little-known, unheralded Napa appellation of Wild Horse Valley named Heron Lake.

It sits at 427m elevation and its climate echoes the Sonoma Coast more than Napa.

His label, which uses his middle name, began as a tiny side project, but his distinctive, reasonably priced whites, and then a Syrah from Coombsville, quickly drew attention for their fresh, mineral character, purity and moderate alcohol.

In 2013, Enfield Wine Co turned into a full-time occupation and since then, the wines have really hit their stride.

A science nerd in college, he ended up in San Francisco building guitars, but fell hard for the vineyard scene after meeting the owner of Heron Lake Vineyard, where he worked for 18 months part-time.

Famed vintner Ted Lemon of Sonoma’s Littorai became a mentor during an internship there, and for five years Lockwood farmed vineyards for Ehren Jordan of Failla Wines.

He’s now branched out to other vineyards and taken on new grapes – Pinot Noir, Merlot, Cabernet, even Tempranillo.

But it’s his Chardonnay, Syrah and a brand-new Pinot Noir from Heron Lake Vineyard that have most impressed me.

MacDonald

A new wine from a historic vineyard comes with built-in pedigree, and that alone makes it worth paying attention to.

But the dark, powerful MacDonald Cabernet from the famous To Kalon vineyard also reflects the new sensibility of both power and restraint and the push toward organic and biodynamic viticulture in the valley.

It’s definitely worth its $100-plus (£76) price-tag.

Energetic brothers Alex (32) and Graeme (34) MacDonald (pictured) admit they got lucky when their great-grandparents purchased a house in 1954 that came with a slice of the To Kalon vineyard, whose Greek name means ‘the beautiful’.

In a family tangle, the brothers’ grandfather and great uncle divided up the property. Their side of the family ended up with 6ha planted to Cabernet and they grew up thinking of the vineyard as their playground.

For decades, the MacDonalds sold the grapes to the Mondavi family, but after Constellation Brands acquired the Robert Mondavi winery, Graeme wanted some of the grapes for himself.

He studied winemaking at UC Davis, then worked at Colgin Cellars, Opus One and Abe Schoener’s avant-garde Scholium Project, as well as experimenting with some of the family’s grapes, which he and Alex had to pay high prices for.

By 2010, they were ready to release minuscule quantities of Cabernet under their own label and two years later they took over managing the vineyard.

They’re currently the youngest people in the valley making wine from To Kalon.

Band of Vintners

A delicious, reasonably priced Cabernet is a rarity in Napa Valley, and a welcome addition in a place where new labels usually start at $200 (£152) and soar upwards.

Band of Vintners is the opposite of those ego projects, its Consortium Cabernet blend priced at a mere $38 (£29).

The brand grew out of a tasting group. After a regular members’ potluck dinner one night, winemaker Dan Petroski floated the idea of collaborating on an affordable Napa Cabernet.

Since the tasting collective includes four winemakers, two wine marketing executives, and a Master Sommelier now in sales strategy and brand management, they figured they had insider knowledge of ‘where the good grapes and juice reside’ and the experience to make and sell a new label.

So was born Band of Vintners, whose first vintage of a fresh, cassis-scented, luscious Consortium was 2014.

The Band snaps up wines in barrel that famous wineries are selling off because they don’t fit in their final blends. There’s plenty of winemaking expertise.

Burgundy native Stéphane Vivier, who works for Hyde de Villaine and Long Meadow Ranch, is their lead winemaker, aided by Mark Porembski (who’s at Anomaly Vineyards), Petroski (Larkmead Vineyards) and Barrett Anderson (Jackson Family’s Cabernet estates). Most of them have their own individual labels, too.

Naturally, they won’t reveal their sources, but the 2016 is from three vineyards in St Helena, Howell Mountain and Calistoga, whose wines sell for much, much more.

The project is also succeeding – the wines are sold in Europe, too – because the group has the business side covered. Brennan Anderson, vice president of marketing at Folio Fine Wine Partners, is their finance guy, while Master Sommelier Jason Heller, who has held sales and marketing positions at several cult wineries, runs sales.

Vintner Cameron Hobel has experience in fine wine sales to collectors. How can the Band lose?

Ulysses

When Christian Moueix (pictured) Pomerol superstar and owner of Napa’s Dominus Estate in Yountville, launches a new project, you know it will make a splash.

Ulysses began with a 14ha vineyard in Oakville, a mile north of Dominus, which Moueix had noticed when he bicycled the valley’s back roads.

In the 1800s, it was part of the Charles Hopper Ranch, and isn’t far from two iconic vineyards: To Kalon and Martha’s Vineyard.

Though Moueix purchased it in 2008, the first vintage was 2012, released two years ago. Chalk that up to work in the vineyard.

Moueix and winemaker Tod Mostero immediately turned off the irrigation taps, because both are convinced that dry farming is essential for vines to make wines of the highest quality, a view that more wineries are now embracing.

In the past 10 years, they’ve also replanted just about the entire vineyard, first pulling out Syrah, Sangiovese and Merlot, using all the lessons learned from Dominus.

Ulysses may have similar soil to Dominus, namely dark loam over gravel, but the wine is surprisingly different in style. Bright, expressive, more floral and less dense, it’s already a new classic for the valley. It is currently made in the Dominus winery.

See Elin McCoy’s top picks from the best new Napa Valley wine producers

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