Enter Storybook Mountain Vineyards, located just off Highway 128. It's a smallish-sized vineyard, with around 100 acres of production and nine employees. Started in the late 19th century by two German brothers, Jacob and Adam Grimm, this parcel of land was known as Grimm Vineyards and Wine Vaults. Production ebbed and flowed, and although the winery survived the nasty Prohibition business, the brothers moved on and the land sat unused for many years. It was purchased about 1976 by UC Dominguez Hills professor Jerry Seps and his wife Sigrid; they had a vision to turn it into one of the best vineyards in Napa.
As part of the Calistoga AVA, they began producing excellent wines almost immediately, and since the release of their award-winning Zinfandel in 1983, they've received dozens of awards and have been named to the Top 100 Wineries fourteen times. Production now includes varietals including Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot, among others.
All is not well in paradise, however - over the years California's wine country has been racked with devastating fires, including a major one in October of 2017 called the Tubbs Fire. Tubbs was the largest and most destructive wildfire in California's history - 52,700 acres burned. Some vineyards, like Storybook Mountain, suffered partial damage, and other - like Helena View Johnston Vineyards, only a half-mile down the road - were completely destroyed. News photos show buildings, burned to a crisp, littered with the shattered remnants of thousands of bottles of fine California wine, boiled by the relentless flames.
This isn't the first time this area was hit by fire - the Hanly Ranch fire in 1964 wiped out the entire vineyard, which at that point had been abandoned. The Tubbs Fire of 2017 followed almost the same path as Hanly, and while the pre-Storybook parcel was completely destroyed in Hanly, only 4% was lost in Tubbs. Unfortunately, that 4% included Storybook's entire wine library - vintages from the 80s through 2012 - which all went up in smoke.
Being a small winery, family-owned and -run, and affected by fire, Storybook seemed like a perfect place to explore. The winery is by appointment only, and when I reached out a few months ago, they were happy to accommodate our group. Pam, our guide for the day, set up the tour for us and took us around the property.
Pretty much all of the winery's bottling and business activities takes place in this cool-looking building; you can see the fermenting tanks to the right and just a peek of one of the cave entrances between the tanks and the building. You'll also notice, on the lefthand side of the cool spiral staircase, a door set into the wall. During the Tubbs fire, the redwood grove (pictured below) beside this building caught fire and spread to the building, catching that door on fire - and it was only through Jerry's quick thinking that the fire did not spread and consume the whole building.
We took a hike up the path a ways, to reveal stunning views of St. Helena Mountain and the Mayacamas Range.
The soil here is is red volcanic clay (and loam), which is a great soil for growing grapes. In 2005, the winery "went estate", which means all the wine they make is from grapes grown on property. Some wineries will purchase grapes from other vineyards to use, or will even use their facilities to make wine (more on that in a few weeks) but any winery labelled as "estate" means they use their own stuff and nothing else.
These vine rows, with each vine trellised in a Y shape, are internationally set far apart for fire breaks, and most vineyards have a perimeter road which also doubles as a fire break. Bonus - the tiny figure you see below, between the vine rows, is winemaker and owner Jerry Sepps, on his daily walkabout throughout the property.
The vineyard also has three connected caves, which were originally dug by the Grimm Brothers and Chinese laborers. We headed back down the hill and inside the caves, which are connected to the winery building although they do open to the outside as well.
This is the original brick in the central cave room, as laid by the Grimm Brothers. The black coloring in the wall is a thick carpet of soft, fuzzy, black mold. It's harmless, and yes, I touched it. It eats methanol, so great for insulating wine caves.
They had probably 100 or so casks in there, of varying sizes, but Storybook's largest cask features a design by Sigrid Seps; each coat of arms, figure, and design forms the narrative of the founding and thriving of the winery. During the fires, a fox found its way in the caves to seek shelter and hid behind this cask.
The tour concluded in the leftmost cave, which housed the tasting area. Compared to other wineries, we had relatively few wines to taste - but this is by no means whatsoever a complaint. I'll take quality over quantity any day. By the way - each of the following wines I ended up purchasing a bottle of, so you may see them reviewed here come winter (Storybook, like many wineries, delays shipment until cooler weather when wine is less likely to be damaged in transit.)
First up is the 2014 "Mayacamas Range" Zinfandel, one of Storybook's most prized grapes. Zinfandel makes up 40% of their total production. It throws a fresh and fruity aroma in the glass, and is actually quite juicy and lively. Nice fruit flavors up front, some grape skins, a bit of char from the barrels, and generally clean and soft. Very nice and would go perfectly with some lamb or a steak.
The second was actually my favorite, I think. It's called "Antaeus", and is a 2014 blend of mostly Zinfandel (52%) with some Cabernet Sauvignon (27%), Merlot (10%), and Petit Verdot (11%) making up the remainder. It's a garnet color in the glass, and smells like...port. Very sugary on the nose, which is cool.
The taste profile is a good example of "terroir" - flavors of the land. I'm detecting some soil, some salt, some tannins, and a long, dry, lingering finish. It's a bit hot, or over-alcoholed, which will hopefully drop off as it ages. Otherwise, a fantastic and savory wine, and one I'm happy to let sit in my shelf for a few years and revisit as special occasions warrant.
Finally (well, not finally, we had a few more glasses, mostly of rose and white, which were good but I won't review) we come to the "Four Reds", another blend, this time a split of 60% Cabernet Sauuvignon, 15% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Franc (my favorite), and 17% Petit Verdot. I found it very well-rounded, with some good notes of spice and a bit of leather; there's a nice juicy finish and a tad of sweetness on the aftertaste. Quite good, as well.
Big thanks to Pam and the rest of the crew at Storybook for arranging the tour and being so knowledgeable and welcoming! I encourage anyone in the area to make an appointment for a tour and stop by; it's a lovely spot and worth the trip out there. Storybook does not have the same mass-market, corporate feel that that Mondavi or Coppola (or even Cakebread) has, and while there's a time and place for that, I prefer these smaller wineries - the wine equivalent of a microbrewery. Note - they also ship wine, so if the above-reviewed wines sound good, I encourage you to give them a call and buy a few bottles!
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