Wine Tales of the Decade

Legends departed, castles appeared, and 'quality' became the watchword
 
The decade just past was “bookended by two economic downturns,” observed veteran Napa Valley vintner John Shafer.

Between these two bookends are all kinds of Napa Valley’s wine stories — comic and tragic, featuring corporate giants and nimble heroes, gain and loss, dangers, threats and not a few triumphs.

Central to any consideration of this decade in wine in the Napa Valley is the life and legacy of Robert Mondavi, who died in May 2008. Frail and ailing, Mondavi might have been said to have completed his work early in the decade. But the opening — and closing — of his dream of Copia, the American Center for Food, Wine and the Arts in Napa, the sale of his winery to the behemoth Constellation Brands and the dauntless visionary’s determination to “start” again all poignantly capture the spirit of the Napa Valley. Mondavi’s last venture, Continuum, launched with his daughter Marcia, son Tim and wife Margrit, released its first wine in 2008.

“What I hear is people saying ‘When’s the next Bob Mondavi going to show up?’ said Harvey Posert, a wine industry public relations pro and former Mondavi employee. “We’ve been waiting 10 years now.”

‘A great maturing’

The decade began with an earthquake and doomsayers predicting the glass-winged sharpshooter would destroy Napa Valley vineyards. It saw a tremendous gains in technological knowledge of how to deal with unpredictable Mother Nature — rain in June or in September, droughts and bugs, increasing concerns about climate change and a tremendous “greening” effort by grapegrowers and wineries.

“We saw a great maturing of the business,” said grower Andy Beckstoffer, who farms 1,000 acres in the Napa Valley as well as land in Mendocino and Lake County. “The ’90s was a time of replanting and establishing quality,” he said. The trend continued in the new decade, with debates about hang-time and other grower concerns surfacing with the production of bigger, high-alcohol content wines.

Another trend: “We went from reserve wines to vineyard-designated wines,” Beckstoffer said. “There are no more vintners in the valley; they are all wine growers.”

Stories of wineries going solar became almost commonplace, while farming efforts increasingly tended toward sustainable, organic and biodynamic.

“It’s a growing trend,” Shafer said of the move toward more sustainable practices. “It’s the right thing to do.”

The coming decade will intensify environmental concerns, he said. “Water is going to be a huge issue.”

In addition to Mondavi, the valley lost other pioneers of the rebirth of the industry, among them Jamie Davies of Schramsberg Vineyards and Al Brounstein, founder of Diamond Creek Vineyards, creator of some of the valley’s most prized cabernets.

There was “a loss of the age of innocence” during this decade, Beckstoffer said.

In 2006, Copia marked the 30th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris, the 1976 tasting in which Napa wines bested French ones. But in 2007, Warren Winiarski, who’d made the top-rated cab, sold his Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars to a partnership of Italian winemaking icon Marchese Piero Antinori and Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, the largest wine company in Washington state.

Along with Mondavi, other fabled family-run wineries — Martini and Beringer among them — now are owned by corporations.

But Linda Reiff, executive director of the Napa Valley Vintners, which represents nearly 400 local wineries, noted, “The strength of the family business is evident in Napa Valley — 95 percent of our appellation’s wineries are family owned. And, yes, 70 percent produce less than 10,000 cases annually and 60 percent less than 5,000 cases annually.”

“People ask me what’s going to happen when corporate America takes over,” said Jack Cakebread, founder and owner of Cakebread Cellars. “We’re not going anywhere.”

Also among the still-family owned wineries is Peter Mondavi’s Charles Krug, which the Mondavi family purchased in the 1930s. In the past decade, Peter and his family completed extensive renovations to the historic winery, the valley’s oldest.

Corporate investment in the valley is not all bad, Reiff observed. “Our corporate-owned brands are outstanding stewards of not only our quality-driven philosophy, but our protection of land and natural resources. The larger wineries have, for example, been leading the expansion of the Napa Green program, and they are the ones who always step up to help take care of our community with cash and wine donations to countless local fundraisers.”

Grand and grander

The human tendency to build castles continued in the decade of the “naughties,” as veteran Register writer L. Pierce Carson calls them. This decade saw the opening of a Persian temple at Darioush Winery, as well as a 14th century Italian castle, Castello di Amorosa, painstakingly created by Dario Sattui on a Calistoga hilltop. Craig and Kathryn Hall commissioned noted architect Frank Gehry to build their new St. Helena winery, while Carl Doumani — after selling his Stags Leap Winery in 1997 — created his irreverent, but phantasmagoric Quixote Winery with a structure created by the late Friedensreich Hundertwasser that features a gold-leaf onion dome.

Palmaz Winery in Napa is a mind-boggling underground world, but perhaps the oddest new addition to the valley this decade is the Flora Springs tasting room in St. Helena. Designed to imitate a wine cave, it appears to this writer, at least, to resemble a soft-serve ice cream cone, melting.

The decade saw a huge jump in Napa Valley wines selling for impressive prices and an overall growth in America’s wine-drinking habit. The recession that struck with blunt force at the end of 2008 has caused a retrenching, but long-time industry officials see sunny days ahead.

“Throughout the first decade of the 21st century wine sales have risen year after year, and America is just now becoming the largest wine-consuming economy in the world,” noted Reiff. “Although Napa produces just 4 percent of California’s wines, our industry accounts for a mighty 34 percent of the economic impact of all of the state’s wine industry on the U.S. economy.”

Nonetheless, the local industry was challenged by a tremendous surge in low-price imports from Australia, Argentina, Europe, and Chile as well as home-grown offerings like Two-Buck Chuck, Fred Franzia’s marketing phenomenon.

The current economic downturn has rattled the industry, leaving grapes and stocks of wine unsold and ultimately raising questions about future of the

$50-$100 bottles of wines Napa produces so well.

Still, Reiff noted, “Here in the Napa Valley, the ‘high-rolling’ ’90s were at least, if not more, challenging than the ’00s. That decade began with a recession, nearly the entire appellation had to be replanted because of an infestation of phylloxera, and the dot.com bubble burst at the end. The current decade has been more volatile in the world economy, but overall in Napa Valley, we have enjoyed the healthiest vineyards ever, and some of the best vintages ever.”

“In between 2001 and 2008, we’ve had great times,” Shafer said. “The ’90s were unprecedented from the viewpoint of outstanding vintages while Europe was suffering through poor ones.”

The current slowdown, he said, is largely related to restaurants. “Direct sales and tasting room sales are good,” but fewer people are ordering expensive wines when they dine out.

The 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed direct sales to states, he said, has proved to be a benefit for most wineries, although this decade has also seen “consolidation by distributors gobbling up little distributors. With fewer distributors it’s tougher for new wineries to get in the game … I wouldn’t want to be a new winery now.”

The highest of the high-end wines of the valley — cult wines like Harlan — have only to tap into waiting lists of buyers to continue to sell out. It’s the producers of the $50-$100 wines who have been left with larger stocks of unsold wines.

However, those who cut the price of their wines, Cakebread observed, “may find it hard to return to higher prices.” He predicts Napa will continue to hold its place in the world of wine. “We’ve seen gigantic growth,” he said. “After almost 25 years, I’m optimistic.”

“People who are being hit the hardest are the ones who haven’t earned the right to charge what they are charging,” observed Beckstoffer. “I see a gradual return. We’re going to come back to a more stable way of doing things. “

“The long-term prospects are bright,” Beckstoffer said. “The millennial generation is a great juggernaut headed our way.”

Protecting the asset

“The Millennials,” Reiff said, “are learning about and enjoying wine more than any other demographic in history. This is the first generation of wine drinkers who have the wherewithal and resources to seek out information on wines, not only from here in the U.S., but from around the world. This new generation grew up with the Internet, unlike any other generation, so the world truly is their oyster. Making sure they are well aware of Napa Valley and its wines is at the top of our list at all times.”

During this past decade, Reiff said, membership in the Napa Valley Vintners has more than doubled to 375, “which speaks to the great camaraderie Napa’s vintner community is know for.”

The trade association, she said, has continued its work “to keep Napa’s name at the forefront of the American wine market … Nationally, we have honed our marketing strategy and savvy in bringing Napa Valley wines to targeted consumers, wine trade and media.”

Closer to home, she added, “We are thrilled to have hit the $90 million mark in giving to our community through our signature event, Auction Napa Valley. Most of the largesse from the auction came in during the past decade — with all money staying right here in the county for heath care, youth development and affordable housing programs. In this (past) decade we were able to give the largest industry gift ever to a Children’s Health Initiative, right here in Napa County of $1 million, That provided access to health insurance to every child who lives here.”

The vintners, she added, also championed consumer rights in truth in wine labeling “all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and we just completed a multi-year effort in consumer protection working with Rep. Mike Thompson, D - St. Helena, and the U.S. Department of Treasury to finalize the recognition of the Calistoga American Viticultural Area.

“We fought for and earned what no other wine region outside of Europe had: geographic indication status which will help to ensure truth-in-labeling abroad.”

Shafer said it is part of a long arc of change.

“What’s happened in the 30-plus years in the valley has been a shift from quantity to quality,” Shafer said. “Now, quality is the name of the game.”

What will define the Napa Valley in the coming decade will be the quality of the wines, he said, which makes it imperative to “recognize what a great asset we have in our valley — the land.”

Some of the issues that continue to face the industry seem nearly as old as the dirt.

The ongoing debate about a possible expansion of marketing activities allowed by the Winery Definition Ordinance and challenges to the county’s 40-year-old Agricultural Preserve designation remain top of mind for industry leaders.

“2009 saw a major assault on the Ag Preserve,” said Beckstoffer, who opposes any change in the winery marketing law. “We need to protect Napa County, and not just Napa Valley.”

“Twenty years ago, I helped write the Winery Definition Ordinance,” Cakebread said, “and lo and behold, it’s up again for approval.”

Cakebread said the question comes down again to quality, not only of the wines but of visitors’ experience. “I don’t want weddings at my winery. We’ve had three — because I have three sons — and that’s enough. We’re open by appointment because I want to visitors to have that quality experience.”

“Wine is agriculture,” said Reiff, “and there are always challenges to be met. But vintners and growers are in it for the long haul, and will come out stronger when the economy is back on track.

“I am hopeful that the worst is behind us and that we are coming out stronger for all the perseverance and hard work not only in making the best wines in the world, but in marketing them, as well.”

As for the next decade, Reiff offered three simple wishes.

“World peace, the end of global warming and a glass of Napa Valley wine at every dinner table across the country. Now more than ever, it would be nice to have the community support the industry that supports it — so not only shop and eat local — but drink local — a glass of Napa Valley wine on every dinner table in Napa Valley is a nice resolution for us all to aspire to in the New Year.”