Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 36
Breakthrough Wines
Silken Cabernet
from the Alexander Valley Hills
by Joshua Greene
In 1991, Alexander's Crown was already a famous vineyard. It was the source
of the first single-vineyard cabernet sauvignon in Sonoma County, growing on
a small rise where volcanic rock had pushed up out of the center of Alexander
Valley, well above the Russian River and its wide floodplain.
In the hills to the northeast, the Gauer Ranch was
also a well-known vineyard, with its reputation built
on chardonnay. White wine was still the stock in
trade of northern California vineyards, and Gauer
was already a legend for its Upper Barn parcel, a ridge
high above the fogline in the Mayacamas Mountains.
On the eastern side of those hills, in the Napa Valley, the cool, late 1991 vintage produced cabernet
sauvignons that would live for decades, and, along
with the 60 Minutes report that same year about red
wine and health, would further ignite the region's
cabernet explosion.
In the autumn of that same year, as I drove
through Alexander Valley on Highway 128, most of
the cabernet vines on the flats below were laden with
fruit. It was November, the grapes were still unripe,
and it made no financial sense for the growers to harvest them.
Today, 1991 remains one of my favorite vintages
for Napa Valley cabernet. But the image that stayed
with me from that same vintage in Alexander Valley
tells a different story. For decades, even ambitious
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wines from the region were grown on the silty floodplain of the Russian River, on vigorous vines that
often produced green, resinous flavors in the grapes.
And wines from the hills were often made to mirror Napa Valley, though this side of the Mayacamas
Mountains produce completely different character
in cabernet. It wasn't until recently that my perception of Alexander Valley cabernet began to change.
Rob Davis had already made 15 vintages of Jordan cabernet by 1991. He's now on his 42nd season. Tom Jordan
hired him, Davis recalls, "to make a Bordeaux to challenge the first growths." Davis had learned the tools
and techniques to make cabernet at UC Davis, but his
professors, as he tells me now, "never talked about
the importance of soil." He learned that, instead,
from André Tchelistcheff, the longtime winemaker
at Beaulieu in Napa Valley who became a consultant
for Jordan and a mentor for Davis.
Jordan built a chateau on a hill above the Alexander Valley, and bought vineyard land on the valley
floor. Davis, who was charged with making a wine
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018
Contents
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover1
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover2
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 1
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 2
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 3
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Contents
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 5
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 6
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 7
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 8
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 9
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 10
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 11
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 12
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 13
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 14
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 15
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 16
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Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 19
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Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 21
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Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 36
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 37
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Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover3
Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - Cover4
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