Blind Muscat spent this past week in the Napa Valley, mostly at the Symposium for Professional Wine Writers (about which more later), plus a few side trips and tastings. It was all-Napa, all-the-time, quite a change of scenery for a hard-core Berkeley boy. The Symposium is co-sponsored by the Napa Valley Vintners Association and Meadowood, Napa’s semi-official luxury crash pad and watering hole, where the meetings were held; the only wines consumed over four days (and their number was many) were from Napa; and the only panel at the Symposium that focused on a wine issue—as opposed to a writing or career issue—was about the threat pending Federal regulations pose to the bankability of certain Napa place names.
So I was in full Napa mode when the Symposium let out and I headed off with another writer and his wife for a pair of appointments, one an elaborate lunch, the other a winery visit and tasting. Between the two stops, we saw the complete Napa picture, old and new, traditional and post-modern, rising star and struggling elder, half a mile and a world apart.
The lunch, sponsored by Blackbird Vineyards, was held at an interior design studio in St. Helena, and high style was on full display. The Blackbird venture, focused on ultra-high-end Merlot and Merlot-based blends, is one of Napa’s hot young properties, with just three vintages in the bottle and two in the cellar. The wines are extremely well made and very Napa, full of fruit and color, definitely legitimate contenders in the $100-a-bottle league they play in. Blackbird seems to be on every trendspotter’s “wineries to watch” list.
Between the crab boil and the fork-tender beef, our hosts talked of winemaking and talked of branding. Blackbird is clearly a well-funded operation, and the people behind it have their categories down. “Data points” were discussed. Plans were shown for a tasting room “which will be branded separately,” since other labels with different profiles are on the drawing board. “Everything in there will be for sale,” we were assured. Blackbird & Co. is the first wine enterprise I have encountered with a “Chief Style Officer”—but then, I don’t spend much time in Napa.
Well stuffed and well briefed, we drove just up the road for a tour of the venerable Charles Krug winery, home to as much Napa history as any property in the Valley. Founded in 1861, Krug lays claim to being Napa’s oldest winery, and its century and a half of production has been tied to two prominent families: the founding Krug clan and the Mondavis—Cesare, Peter and, till he struck out on his own in a legendary family split, Robert. The Krug portfolio includes the million-case CK Mondavi line of mass-market wines; the higher-end Charles Krug is a separate operation in every respect. The Peter Mondavi branch of the family may not have attained the fame of brother Robert’s accomplishments—but unlike Robert and his progeny, Peter and his sons do still own their winery.
We walked through two of the original buildings dating from the 1860s, now being renovated, earthquake-proofed, and spiffed up to house a new tasting room, barrel room, and special events space. The buildings are magnificent, and after a few million dollars worth of makeover, will re-emerge as genuine Napa Valley historic landmarks.
In the current VIP tasting room (writers love to be VIPs for an hour at a time), there are near-life-size cardboard cutouts of Cesare, his wife Rosa, and son Peter. If Krug had a Chief Style Officer, they’d be gone in a minute; for now, they’re a reminder. We were poured a succession of small-batch, limited release wines designed to help reshape the Krug image and propel it back into the front ranks of Napa producers. I was bummed to hear they had ripped out all of their Chenin Blanc, one of my favorite bottles from the “old” Krug, but I can understand why they did it.
As to the new wines, let me repeat what I said a few lines back about Blackbird’s offerings: “The wines are extremely well made and very Napa, full of fruit and color, definitely legitimate contenders in the $100-a-bottle league they play in.” Anyone tasting both lines of wines would surely like some better than others; but in the overall world wine scheme of things, they’re almost interchangeable, just like any two $12 bottles of Minervois are. The difference is that the Krug wines are a much tougher sell, because they carry the baggage from the years in which the winery was treading water. Blackbird, having no history, has no baggage. I kept thinking of the Krug wines as a flotilla of tiny tugboats trying to turn a freighter of reputation around.
Just another Napa afternoon.
Interior design can actually be quite difficult because it all depends on personal preferences. The trends in commercial and residential interior design change on a regular basis, however what goes out of fashion will normally come back into fashion in around 50 years. Lots of people like nostalgia, which is why things typically come back into fashion. Interior Decorators Designer http://interior-decorating-trends.blogspot.com
Posted by: Interior Decorators Designer | July 15, 2008 at 08:19 AM