Tor Kenward: growing with the Napa Valley

Tor Kenward is a Napa Valley insider. After serving in Vietnam as a medic, he eventually landed a job at Beringer in the 1970s. There he became what he called ‘executive for fun’. He organised marketing events and did much to raise the profile of the then somewhat soporific valley, home to just 50 wineries.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores of five Tor wines

Over the next decades he played an important role in supporting gastronomic activities, working closely with the likes of Julia Child on culinary programmes. And there were wine events too, such as charity auctions and the creation, by Robert Mondavi and others, of Copia, the over-ambitious wine and culinary arts centre in downtown Napa that eventually slid into bankruptcy.

Tor: a single focus

After Fosters of Australia bought Beringer in 2000, Kenward left the company to set up his own label, Tor. In Napa and Sonoma most wines are blends, and estate wineries (such as Trefethen that grows its own grapes from hundreds of hectares) are the exception rather than the rule.

His lengthy spell in Napa meant he had a deep knowledge of the best vineyards and those who farmed them. His small lots of single-vineyard wines, primarily Cabernet Sauvignon and a little Chardonnay, were widely admired, and Kenward’s second career was well and truly launched.

And after two decades he and his long-term winemaker, Jeff Ames, are still at it.

Kenward champions the Napa notion of cult wines – indeed, he produces some of them. His breezy and sometimes rambling book, Reflections of a Vintner (Cameron Books, £18.99), describes both of his careers.

There are profiles of the celebrated people he worked closely with – André Tchelistcheff, Robert Mondavi, Julia Child – and he conveys well the sheer fun of being linked to an industry he helped to lead.

Kenward is proud of what he has achieved, but gladly acknowledges he was far from alone. The countless references to ‘100-point wines’ (some his) confirms that in this highly competitive market, opinions and scores matter. Perhaps too much.

Outstanding recent vintages

I’ve followed the Tor wines from 2002 onwards, and they are clearly of a high standard. The reds tend to be better than the whites, and often the stars of the range are the wines from the Beckstoffer-To Kalon and Tierra Roja vineyards.

Kenward and Ames immerse themselves in creating the final blends, but they also play a limited role in viticulture too. They specify their preferences for yields, canopy management and, crucially, picking dates.

On the other hand, they know that expert farmers such as Andy Beckstoffer and Lee Hudson don’t take too kindly to being told how to do their jobs. But years of working together to produce grapes and then wines of the highest quality has established natural boundaries between their roles.

If the wines were sometimes uneven in the early 2000s, it is clear that recent vintages have been outstanding.

Kenward’s breadth of experience makes his an engaging and very personal memoir. Although decidedly conversational in style (it’s as though someone left the tape recorder running after a long and well-fuelled Napa dinner), it does capture Kenward’s enthusiasm and zest for life.

Stephen Brook tastes and rates five wines from Tor

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