Napa Wines

Enjoy this program as Dr. James D’Amico, Medford Leas Medical Director, and favorite Medford Leas Sommelier discusses the wines of Napa Valley.

In the Napa Valley of California, they say “Cab is King.”  And yes, Cabernet Sauvignon is the most widely planted grape with over 50% of the vineyards planted to this grape.  However, it is only one of 27 grape varieties that are planted throughout the valley.  Cabernet Sauvignon is followed by Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel, in that order.

You are invited to grab a bottle of your favorite Napa Valley wine-or not –and enjoy this wine class with Dr. D’Amico.

CALIFORNIA WINES

Thank you for joining us for this program. This brief history of California wine helps to set the stage for the program. Grab a bottle of anything “Napa”, and see you soon!
California produces 90% of the wine produced in the United States (Napa however only produces 4% of California wine).
Although the first recorded planting of a vineyard was back in the late 1600s, in 1779 Franciscan missionaries under the direction of father Junipero Serra planted California’s first vineyard in San Diego. Father Serra founded eight other California missions and has been dubbed the “Father of California Wine”. The variety planted which originated in Spain, became known as the mission grape (criolla) and dominated the California wine production well into the late 1800s.
California’s first documented European vines were planted in Los Angeles in 1833 by Jean-Louis Vignes, which became part of the first winery in California.
The California gold rush brought an influx of people to Northern California– many of them arrived in San Francisco. This resulted in a significant increase in demand for wine and increased wine production in that area. In the 1850s, Augustin Haraszthy, a Hungarian merchant, made several trips to import cuttings from over 100 of the greatest European vineyards and brought them to California. He is known as the founder of the California wine industry as almost single-handedly these so-called “suitcase clones” really signaled the rebirth of the California wine industry. He founded Buena Vista winery in Sonoma, which is still around today.
In Napa, John Patchett planted the first vineyard in 1854 and established a winery in 1858. In 1861 Patchett and Charles Krug, who previously worked for Haraszthy, founded his namesake winery in St. Helena. Krug became an important leader for winemaking in the Napa Valley. He also served as a mentor for Karl Wente and Jacob Beringer, both of whom became important winemakers themselves. In 1879 captain, Gustave Niebaum established Inglenook winery in Rutherford California, which was the first Bordeaux style winery in the USA. His wines won gold medals at the world’s fair in Paris in 1889.
In 1863 species of Native American grapes were taken to a botanical garden in England. These cuttings carried a species of root louse called phylloxera, which attacks and feeds on the vine roots and leaves. Phylloxera is indigenous to North America and our native vines had developed resistance. European vines however did not. By 1865, phylloxera had spread to vines in Provence. Over the next 20 years, it decimated nearly every vineyard in Europe. Total French wine production dropped about 75% between 1875 -1889. The French offered a 300,000 francs reward and evaluated over 1000 remedies including burying a live toad underneath vines, sulfides, flooding, even urinating on the vines. Finally, Thomas Munson, a horticulturist (from Texas of all places), suggested grafting the European Vitis vinifera vines on to American Vitis riparia rootstocks. Then began the long laborious process of grafting every single vine in Europe onto the roots of American vines. This saved the European wine industry from extinction. Interestingly, there are areas around the world that do not have phylloxera. Phylloxera cannot live in sandy soil. There are areas of Chile and actually in Washington State, Columbia Valley in particular which will still sell wines that say vinifera rootstock on the bottle. Meaning the European Vitis vinifera vines also have Vitis vinifera roots. Turns out that does not really mean too much. The French were afraid that American roots would effect the taste of their wine but that never turned out to be the case either.
The destruction of the American wine industry would not come from phylloxera but from prohibition. Other than individual homeowners being allowed to make 200 gallons of wine per year, the only other wine allowed to be produced was sacramental wine. Beaulieu vineyard (BV), got this contract which helped keep them alive. They are still around to this day. Actually, in Rutherford, the district is just south of St. Helena.
Therefore, people all over the country were trying to make wine in their basement and therefore grape growers in California switched to varieties that would ship well to the rest of the country. Everyone replanted their fine wine varieties with low-quality grapes. This actually persisted until the 1970s. By the time prohibition was repealed in 1933 California wine production dropped 94% from 1919 levels. While there were more than 2500 commercial wineries in the United States prior to 1920 less than 100 survived by the end of Prohibition. By 1960, that number only rose to 271. California had 713 wineries before prohibition; it took until 1986 before that many were operating again. University of California at Davis and Fresno State University assisted a new breed of wine growers who arrived in California in the 1960s and were committed to producing higher quality wines.
Andre Tchelistcheff is credited with ushering in the modern era of winemaking in California. BV founder and owner Georges de Latour hired him in 1938. He introduced new techniques such as aging wine in French oak barrels, cold fermentation, frost prevention and malolactic fermentation. One of his students was Miljenko “Mike” Grgich, a winemaker from Croatia who immigrated to north America in the 1950s.Meanwhile in Napa, some person named Robert Mondavi who was working at Charles Krug estate opened his own winery in Oakville in 1965. Although some quality wines were produced, word was not getting out until a journalist, Frank Schoonmaker, suggested to introduce the German idea of labeling wines based on the varietal rather than their region as was done in the rest of Europe. Mondavi was one of the first to label the majority of his wines by varietal (grape name).
On May 24, 1976, a blind tasting was held in Paris with a panel made up exclusively of French wine experts. After comparing six California Chardonnays with four French White burgundies, three of the top four were from California including the winner from Château Montelena (whose wine maker was Mike Grgich). When the Cabernets were evaluated Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars was ranked number one. This competition, now known as the judgment of Paris, put Napa on the map and also became the subject of a book and subsequent movie called “Bottle Shock”. Now some 45 years later here we are discussing Napa wines at Medford Leas….

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