Trailside Vineyard, Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2022
Credit: Supplied courtesy of Trailside Vineyard
(Image credit: Supplied courtesy of Trailside Vineyard)

Jeremy Seysses, winemaker and co-owner at Domaine Dujac, has stepped beyond Pinot Noir to help create a new expression of single-vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Trailside Vineyard in Rutherford represents a partnership project that begun in 2020, including Seysses and Carlton McCoy Jr MS, CEO of Lawrence Wine Estates, which is the owner of Heitz Cellar among other wineries. 

A first release, of the debut 2022 vintage, will take place on 26 February and wines will be allocated to Trailside Vineyard members, said the partners this week. Price details weren’t disclosed.

They described the wine as a ‘terroir-driven, age-worthy style that is an homage to Napa Valley’s glory days of the 1960s and 1970s’. 

Jeremy Seysses, Carlton McCoy Jr. MS.

Jeremy Seysses (left) and Carlton McCoy Jr. MS. Photo
(Image credit: Courtesy of Trailside Vineyard)

McCoy Jr said, ‘In the 1970s and into the 1980s, our vineyard was the core source for Spring Mountain Vineyard’s legendary Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

‘One of those 40-year-old bottles was an epiphany for me. Bright but rich, it still held on to a striking perfume, delivered on elegant and plush tannins.’

McCoy Jr said he had been friends with Seysses since early in his wine career. ‘When I first saw Rutherford’s Trailside Vineyard in 2019, and saw the map of its seven different soil types, I knew I had to work with a winemaker who had the patience and perfectionism to do justice to each of these individual blocks.’

Seysses said the wine, which involved fermenting each climat of the vineyard separately, reflected a ‘high-risk, high-reward approach’. 

Some techniques defy convention in Napa, said the partners, highlighting the incorporation of whole clusters and a submerged cap in the fermentation.

‘We’re willing to explore techniques that are rooted in tradition, but uncommonly seen in Napa Valley,’ said Seysses. 

Trailside Vineyard will join the Lawrence Wine Estates portfolio, which also includes historic Napa winery Heitz Cellar and Bordeaux second growth Château Lascombes.⁠

At Dujac, Seysses oversees operations with his brother, Alec, and his wife Diana Snowden Seysses, who is both oenologist at the Burgundy domaine and winemaker at her family’s Snowden Vineyards in California.

Chris Mercer
Chris Mercer

Chris Mercer is a Bristol-based freelance editor and journalist who spent nearly four years as digital editor of Decanter.com, having previously been Decanter’s news editor across online and print.

He has written about, and reported on, the wine and food sectors for more than 10 years for both consumer and trade media.

Chris first became interested in the wine world while living in Languedoc-Roussillon after completing a journalism Masters in the UK. These days, his love of wine commonly tests his budgeting skills.

Beyond wine, Chris also has an MSc in food policy and has a particular interest in sustainability issues. He has also been a food judge at the UK’s Great Taste Awards.