Wine & Spirits - Fall 2018 - 41

"That resiny, rosemary, fresh-herb aroma of
Alexander Valley cabernet can be nice in small
amounts, but it can dominate the wine."
-Ames Morison
to $15,000 an acre in Napa. Here, we're just now surpassing $10,000 an acre."
It wasn't only the floodplain vineyards that muddied the
image of Alexander Valley cabernet over the years; it
may also be the cabernet shadow cast by Napa Valley. Ames Morison, who settled in the hills at the
cool, southeastern corner of the Alexander Valley in
2000, started out using Napa Valley as a model for
his cabernet. "We used techniques and approaches
that people do with Napa Valley fruit," he told me
at his vineyard, a remote series of parcels adjacent
to the 3,100-acre Pepperwood Preserve to the east.
"The way we approached our maceration and tannin
management was geared toward Napa Valley-floor
fruit. But those grapes don't have as much tannins
relative to what cabernet can give here." For Morison,
the Napa Valley fruit requires more aggressive extraction and a particular style of barrels to build on the
cabernet's structure.
Morison has farmed the Medlock Ames vineyards
organically since the beginning, working with thin,
eroded hillside soils. And until he did a customer survey in 2010, he worked his thick-skinned grapes with
long fermentations and a lot of extraction. The feedback he received led him to experiment with different
ways of managing tannin development in his wines,
from invigorating the soil to increasing the shade on

the fruit on the vines, to shortening the
length of fermentations as well as the
length of time the juice spent in contact
with the skins.
"That resiny, rosemary, fresh-herb
aroma of Alexander Valley cabernet
can be nice in small amounts, but it can
dominate the wine," he found. Over
time, he's learned to grow fruit with
lower levels of methoxypyrazines-
the compounds that lend greenness
to cabernet sauvignon grapes. Now
he makes three cabernets and each of
them emphasizes cool forest-berry fruit
along with silken, gentle tannins. The
50 Tons, named for the rock the team moved when
they were terracing the vineyard, is the richest of
the wines, dark and firmly structured. There isn't a
trace of green herb in the scent, a character that has
often marked the region's wines. Instead, its clarity
of fruit lets the wine define Alexander Valley cabernet
through textural nuance.
There are still plenty of green-herb cabernets
grown in the flood soils of Alexander Valley. And
there are still hyperextracted Napa Valley wannabes
grown in the hills. But now it's fresh black-currant
flavor and textural finesse that dominate the identity
of the wines at the top. ■

Medlock Ames 2015 Alexander Valley
50 Tons Cabernet Sauvignon

Rodney Strong 2014
Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Stonestreet 2009 Alexander Valley
Monument Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon

This is a selection from steep hillsides on the Bell
Mountain estate, where Chris James and Ames Morison built the terraces after moving 50 tons of rock
with some family help. They left most of their property wooded, and farm their vineyards under organics. This cabernet tastes like mountain-grown wine,
with the cool freshness of high-altitude fruit. It's fresh
and fragrant, with notes of cherries and licorice, then
staunch tannins close off the finish, seemingly as
rocky as the site. This has the structure to age for a
decade or more. (92 points, $85; 368 cases)

From three estate vineyards on the hillsides and
benchlands of Alexander Valley, this is an elegant cabernet with a lean frame. The floral scents turn toward
ripe plum and dark berries, while the spicy tannins
have a dark walnut-skin bitterness. Rather than being
weighty with extract, this has tension and motion, a
counterpoint to seared duck breast or grilled portobello mushrooms. (91 points, $28)

Graham Weerts blends this wine from a range of
blocks along the main ridgeline of the Alexander
Mountain Estate, rising from 1,200 to 1,800 feet. In
2009, the fruit ripened to black cherry and chocolate
depths, producing a dense, juicy and silken cabernet that needs little more than a thick-cut sirloin. (92
points, $45)

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