Wine & Spirits - Winter 2016 - 53

RXXXXXXXX
EGIONAL

Xxxxxxx
Marcus Notaro
Xxxxxx

Founded: 1970
XXXX
Owner/winemaker/viticulturist:
Winemaker:
Marcus Notaro
XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX
Viticulturist:
Kirk Grace
Acres owned:
Owners:
Ste. Michelle
XXX Wine Estates
Cases
and
Marchesi
produced:
Antinori
XXXXXX
Estateowned:
Acres
grown: 142
100%
Importer:
Annual
production:
Xxxxx Xxxxx,
N/AXxxxx, XX
Website:
Estate
grown:
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
N/A
Location: Napa, CA
Website: cask23.com

TOP 100 WINERIES 2016

Stag's Leap Wine Cellars

XXXXXXXX
ARTISAN

Terre Rouge
Founded: XXXX
1985
Owner/winemaker/viticulturist:
XXXXXXXXX
Bill Easton XXXXXXXXXXXX
Acres owned: XXX
25
Cases
Annualproduced:
production:
XXXXXX
25,000 cases
Estate grown: 100%
10%
Importer:
Location: Plymouth,
Xxxxx Xxxxx,
CAXxxxx, XX
Website: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
terrerougewine.com

Xxxxxxx
Bill Easton
Xxxxxx

Long famed for its two adjacent vineyards under the Stags Leap escarpment,
Fay and SLV, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars brought in Marcus Notaro to blend the
2012s and make the 2013s, immediately catching our attention with great
young cabernets.

When Bill Easton started Terre Rouge in 1985, Rhône varieties were barely on
California's radar, and the Sierra Foothills were the viticultural equivalent of
Mars. Yet he believed Rhône varieties would shine in those wild hills, and his
savory, powerful 2013s prove that his instincts were right.

Cellared at the Smithsonian: In 1969 Warren Winiarski tasted a wine
Nathan Fay had made from his vines on the alluvial soils of Chase
Creek, a benchland wash below the steeps of Stags Leap. The wine
drove Winiarski to buy the neighboring land and plant it to cabernet in 1970. Ironically, his new Stag's Leap Vineyard rose above the
silty soils of Fay, the vines rooted instead in a crush of volcanic rock
that had eroded off the hills above. It might have been a big mistake,
but for their young-vine fruit producing the 1973 cabernet that won
the Judgment of Paris tasting in 1976, a bottle that now lives at the
Smithsonian. Winiarski went on to purchase Fay's vines in 1986, and
started to bottle a vineyard-designated cabernet from them along
with his own SLV.

Heading to the Hills: Bill Easton caught the Rhône bug while running
Solano Cellars, a wine store in Albany, California, at a moment when
Kermit Lynch's import portfolio was inspiring new respect for Rhône
wines. Easton grew up in Sacramento, and whenever he drove into
the warm hills west of the Central Valley, he found himself asking:
"Why isn't somebody growing grenache up here?" In fact, somebody was: He discovered an old grenache vineyard near Loomis in
Placer County, along with a young syrah vineyard in Amador County,
and started making wine in the Foothills. For an introduction to his
approach, check out his Tête-à-Tête. For $20, this grenache-led GSM
blend from younger vines is striking-warm and spicy, with hightoned raspberry notes and rich, tobacco-scented depths.

A New Team: Winiarski hired Kirk Grace, who had been working at
Sinskey, to take over viticulture in 2006. A year later, he turned over
his project to Ste. Michelle Wine Estates and Marchesi Antinori, and
that's how Notaro got involved. He'd been the winemaker
at Antinori's Col Solare in Washington and now, together
with Grace, is producing classic cabernets at SLWC.

Primal Syrah: Increasingly, Easton's focus has turned to syrah. In
the Foothills, syrah tends to be bold, ripe and meaty-not Rhônelike, exactly, but compelling in its own right, caught somewhere
between Cornas and Barossa. In 2000, Easton planted syrah at the
DTR Ranch surrounding his house in the Fiddletown hills.
It's a relatively cool site, a nearby canyon funneling cold
air from the High Sierras directly into the vineyard. After
recovering from a yield-challenging spring frost, the vineyard's schist, shale and quartz-based soil grew a 2013 that
captures the full syrah symphony, from violets and juicy
blackberry fruit to muscular tannins that are as firm as
flakes of obsidian.

Alluvial vs. Volcanic: Grace describes the lower soils at Fay
as old, weathered and deep, with more fertile, waterretaining clay. The soils above at SLV are coarse stone
and might go down five feet before hitting hard rock;
they offer less fertility to the vines and dry out more
quickly. Notaro describes the fruit expression at Fay
as "more elegant and perfumed," while SLV tends
toward "darker fruit, more dusty cocoa powder." The
2012 Fay he blended is fragrant and earthy, relatively
light in body, with a firm depth of flavor. The SLV
has the layered, dark and savory tannins and "dusty
cocoa powder" richness that have made SLV cabernet
famous, here presented with elegance. It's one of our
100 Best Wines of the Year. -J.G.

TOP-SCORING WINES

The Rhône's Third Wheel: Grenache and syrah have longer track records in the Foothills, but mourvedre-a
notoriously late-ripening variety-seems to take particular advantage of the region's hot summers. The
2013 Terre Rouge Mourvedre, from bush vines planted
in 1992 at 2,200 feet of elevation, is bloody and umamidriven, yet bright and energetic, too, with a red-fruited
buzz that may leave you craving rare lamb. -L.S.

TOP-SCORING WINES

XX '12
95
'XX Napa
Xxxxxxxx
Valley
Xxxxxxx
S.L.V. Cabernet
Xxxxx $XXSauvignon
(XX/XX) $125 (12/15)

XX '13
93
'XX Fiddletown
Xxxxxxxx Xxxxxxx
DTR Ranch
XxxxxSyrah
$XX (XX/XX)
$38 (8/16)

XX '12
90
'XX Napa
Xxxxxxxx
Valley
Xxxxxxx
Fay Cabernet
Xxxxx $XX
Sauvignon
(XX/XX) $125 (12/15)

XX '13
91
'XX Sierra
Xxxxxxxx
Foothills
Xxxxxxx
Tête-à-Tête
Xxxxx $XX
Red
(XX/XX)
$20 (8/16)

XX '14
87
'XX Napa
Xxxxxxxx
Valley
Xxxxxxx
Karia Chardonnay
Xxxxx $XX (XX/XX)
$34 (8/16)

XX '13
91
'XX Sierra
Xxxxxxxx
Foothills
Xxxxxxx
Mourvedre
Xxxxx $XX
$30
(XX/XX)
(8/16)
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Winter 2016