Napa Wine Company - Where history, heritage, wine, and business meet

I visited a number of wineries and tasting rooms during my California trip, and each had their own attraction and appeal. From the larger, corporate wineries like Taittinger Domaine Chandon to the tiny, mom-and-pop places like Storybook Mountain, there's over 500 wineries in Napa Valley, and each with their own style and approach. Some wineries are super focused on one style or grape; others make a little of everything, and some focus more on production than they do the customer experience. Some vineyards may not even sell directly to consumers, opting instead to sell their grapes to other vineyards. The world of commercial winemaking is quite complex to say the least.

When I was in California, I wanted to review a larger winery that combined heritage, production, and quality. Napa Wine Company fits the bill perfectly. It's a large multi-brand winery, located in Yountville, CA, about 14 miles down the road from where we were staying in Calistoga. Situated on St. Helena Highway - the "Strip" of Napa Valley, as I like to call it - this land has a deep and rich history. Once farmland for vegetables, grapes have been grown on this property for over a century. Joseph Pelissa, the son of Italian farmers, moved to Napa Valley in 1902, and for ten dollars in gold, purchased 35 acres of farmland.

Even through that nasty Prohibition business, the farms and vineyards prospered. They expanded their businesses to other sectors, but kept their grape plots, and today, the property stretches across hundreds of acres. I was fortunate enough to take a guided tour of this historic property with Kendall Hoxsey-Onysko, business manager of Napa Wine Company and a fellow Dickinson alum. Kendall is a fifth-generation winemaker and the great-great-grandaughter of Joseph Pelissa.

We started with a guided tour of the properties, which required a bit of driving. Napa Wine Company is comprised of six sprawling plots, each of varying acreage and production. They are:

• Rock Cairn vineyard  - high-end Cabernet; 40 acres.
• Morgaen Lee -  this is mostly sauvignon blanc. Ghost Block made here
• Block House - 292 acres, their largest parcel. Mostly Syrah and Malbec, there's also some Flora tossed in (a hybrid Semillon / Gewurztraminer grape, invented in 1938 in California.) 
• Pelissa  - 11 acres of Zinfandel, and a smattering of Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc
• Lincoln Creek - 60 acres of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay
• Mill Race - 36 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Franc

So lots of space and lots of grapes! Luckily they have not been affected by fire recently - the fires of the last year or so haven't come down to the valley floor. Part of this has to do with geography and fire dynamics, but it also helps that there's a herd of cattle at the vineyard, which make natural firebreaks by grazing, so even if a fire were to come down, there would be some mitigation.

But fire isn't the only issue facing vineyards - cold can hurt them too! If you find yourself in a vineyard and see big windmill-type things, you're looking at a wind machine which is used for frost protection.

A super old, gnarly vine

A few notes about harvesting, which is taking place as we speak. Each vineyard harvests their grapes in a different way. Some have huge machines that knock grapes out of the vines and onto a conveyor belt; this is faster but less care is taken in the handling of grapes. Another approach is hand-picking, where crews go through each vine and evaluate grapes proper ripeness before picking. This also means they are more discerning with which grapes are picked; they can also be gentler. This also not to mention some places, like steep hillsides, where mechanical harvesters wouldn't be able to go.

A grape harvest somewhere in France. File photo: Reuters

Like I said, each place does it differently. Storybook hand-harvests with the same crew who have worked the land there each season (including a few who have been with the Seps since Storybook opened). We had also visited Rutherford Cellars, which also hand-picks, but they harvest at night, as they feel it's easier to keep their crew warm at night than it is to cool them on a hot day.

Back to NWC. Unlike Storybook, they have no caves (yet.) They do, however, have a 10,000-barrel storehouse, filled to the brim with Hungarian, American, and French oak barrels filled with wine from all their client companies and all their vineyards.

NW produces wines under numerous labels, many of which are resting on oak right this moment. I'll do a tasting a bit later. But notice above that I used the phrase "client companies." That's because NWC also offers "custom crush" services, and this is a very important concept to understand.

Starting a winery is extremely difficult, and requires massive startup capital....not to mention finding a suitable site for vines, purchasing equipment, fees, and buying the vines or having them custom grafted. Time is important, too - according to Kendall, it takes about three years from planting grapes to cash flow. Additionally, a new winemaker may not have access to the expertise required to make wine! This is a complicated venture.

So let's say you've managed to find a good place for grapes, and you have the money to start planting. You tend your vines, assiduously, and come out with an annual yield of three tons of grapes. Great. What next? You don't have the capacity or production facilities large enough for a full-scale winemaking effort! In this case, you'd want to invest in a custom crush - meaning bringing your grapes, or the pressed juice, to a place like NWC, where they can make your wine for you in their facility.

According to Vinepair.com's Adam Teeter, a Type-02 vintner's license is still required to make wine this way; however a custom crush facility allows would-be winemakers to "completely avoid the cost of maintaining [one's] own facility", enabling a farmer to focus on growing and not raising money for facilities. In fact, some vineyards don't have production facilities at all, and they solely rely on custom crush services to produce their wines.

Some cool square fermenters in NWC's facility. 

NWC also has an on-site wine lab, which I toured. Here clients can perform a variety of tests and quality control measures on wine, including testing for residual sugars, dissolved oxygens, and sulfur. Doing these tests here can ensure that the chemistry aspect of winemaking is taken care of, and that any QC tests that need to be run can be done without having to send sample off for analysis. Winemaking is a complicated process, but as you can see, NWC has all the tools available for winemakers to make, bottle, and test their wines.

The extensive tour of the facilities concluded, and now, on to the tasting.

As you can see, I had quite a bit. Luis, my tasting guide today, was knowledgeable and patient as I tried a ton of wine.  I'll choose a couple of the glasses to review, and then will review some of the bottles I bought at a later date, once they're shipped.

First up is a 2014 Red Mare chardonnay, from the Dutton Ranch vineyard in the Russian River Valley. It's one of NWC's client companies.

Pours a clearish gold, perhaps a tiny bit of green in there. It's aged for ten months on French oak. Nice balance of flavors - there's a noticeable oak tang, accompanied by some honey, but nothing super grassy or buttery. Can't really detect much fruit, or anything beyond that. Clear finish. I think this would go great with some chicken alfredo. 

Next up is a 2015 Cabernet Sauvignon; it's part of NWC's Ghost Block line of wines.

Grown in the Rock Cairn parcel, this estate wine is a bit salty, but velvety soft though. Solid notes of dark grape skins, with a hint of some port sugar on the long lingering finish. Nice big bold wine; I ended up getting a bottle of this shipped to me. They should be arriving soon!

Last up is "Ottimino", a 2014 estate Zinfandel from the Russian River Valley.

I love Zinfandel, and this is really up my alley. Very grapey with nice bold flavors of dried fruit and spice. It has that puckery "lip-smacking" finish that I love in red wine. There's just enough saltiness to keep my attention without overdoing it. I ended up getting a bottle of this, as well.

Although I tried about ten other wines, I wanted to just highlight a few. I've rambled enough - so thank you for reading! Big thanks to my brother Dan for waking up early on vacation to drive me from Calistoga to Oakville; huge thanks as well to Luis for spending part of his morning with me tasting wine and giving advice.

But biggest thanks to Kendall for taking time out of her busy day to meet with me and to show me around; driving all around the Valley and patiently answer my dozens of questions about the facilities, operations, vineyards, grapes, etc. 

If you're ever in Oakville, do visit Napa Wine Company at 7830 - 40 St. Helena Highway, Oakville CA.