Ehlers Estate
Mueller
By Julie Fadda
6301 Starr Rd. • Windsor, CA 95492
(707) 837-7399 • www.muellerwine.com
Case production: 3,500-4,000
Planted acres: All grapes purchased through long-term contracts
Wines produced: Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Zinfandel, Aprés (dessert Zinfandel)
Employees: 2 full-time; 1 part-time
When long-time wine industry veterans Bob and Lori Mueller found their 20-acre property in 1997, it was just what they were looking for: a place they could live, build a small production winery and eventually plant their own grapes. You can check off the first two items, the third is still to come.
“This is one of the last large, unplanted parcels in the area,” says Lori of their west Windsor home, which is mostly raw, rolling land dappled with old oak trees. But since the couple has fostered close relationships with vineyard owners Saralee Kunde and Jim Ledbetter, with whom they share long-term contracts, they see no reason to plant any grapes of their own—at least not yet.
A look back
Originally from Los Gatos, Bob moved to Wine Country in 1981 after getting his degree at UC Davis. He started as winemaker at Chateau Souverain. Around the same time, Lori, who grew up in Santa Rosa, started out doing accounting at Chateau St. Jean.
When Chateau Souverain was sold, three of the officers bought a warehouse across the street and enlisted Bob to help design a custom crush facility called Vinwood Cellars—where he met Lori, who would become Vinwood’s controller. When it was sold to Kendall-Jackson after three years, Lori moved on to Arrowood while Bob did consulting work and built a winery in Healdsburg—now owned by Silver Oak. He originally built it to do custom bottling, but eventually he and Lori decided they wanted to produce their own brand, so they phased out the custom work and branched out on their own.
Their first bottling was a 1991 Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir was added in 1994. And while those remain their two main products, they’ve since added Zinfandel, Syrah and Pinot Gris to their repertoire. The wines are rich and lush with incredible character and finesse. They’ve found their niche and, for now, they’re sticking to it.
Have a taste
Today their tasting room is located inside their well-decorated and neatly organized barrel room. Visitors are welcome without an appointment 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays through Sundays. The room, which opened in January, is an ideal stop for those looking for something completely off the beaten path. “Our biggest challenge is to drive traffic out here [to us],” says Lori, noting that since Sonoma-Cutrer recently opened a tasting room nearby, and Russian Hill isn’t far away, more people are coming around. “They say, ‘I didn’t know this was out here!’ We don’t get a lot of drive-by traffic because of the location. We get a lot of people who live here; lots of bicyclists. We’re also on the Vine Man route, so a lot of runners find us that way and return later.”
In the vineyards
Most grapes come from the Eastside Road, River Road and Slusser Road areas, which are all near the property. “Both Saralee and Jim have a lot of vineyard block choices,” says Bob, noting they source from each by the acre, and he gets to make decisions regarding farming, crop load and such, so there’s plenty of control regarding the wines’ outcome. “Jim even takes our wines out to sell his grapes,” says Bob.
As far as what was going on when I visited the winery in July, Bob mentioned this year was about two weeks behind because of the weather. “But that can change in a week—we can catch up quickly. The crop looks normal. Looks like a high-quality year.”
“It seems like no matter the weather, we always end up harvesting around the same time [laughs]. It all evens out,” adds Lori.
In the bottle
The Muellers source their Chardonnay grapes from Ledbetter’s ranch, between Eastside Road and the Russian River. “It gets a lot of fog,” says Bob, “and gets the cooling and warming effect that makes good grapes.” The Chardonnay grapes are harvested in the early morning, pressed into a tank, then fermented in barrels for nine to 12 months before being bottled. The entire time, they’re on the lees, which are stirred regularly. “It adds body and a toasty aroma,” says Bob, “and makes for wine that ages well.” All the barrels are French oak, with 30 to 40 percent new.
The Mueller’s 2007 Chardonnay is toasty and lush with a long, clean finish and a hint of vanilla. The 2008 was released in September. The label says “LB,” which stands for late bottled, because the wine is aged longer for more character.
Pinot Noir makes up most of the winery’s production, with four different offerings available: Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley, Cuvée X and Emily’s Cuvée. Emily’s is the result of the winery’s top Pinot Noir barrels, and is named as such because in 1994, when the grapes were being brought in, Lori was giving birth to the couple’s now 16-year-old daughter, Emily, who currently attends Montgomery High School and competes with her Oldenburg horse, Sol, in dressage competitions. In 2003, Emily’s Cuvée was chosen in the Wine Spectator’s Top 100.
The 2007 is predominantly Russian River Valley, with a bit of Sonoma Coast grapes. It has black cherry, oak, anise and raspberry characteristics. The grapes are crushed into outdoor tanks and then brought in for fermentation. They’re punched down by hand three times a day to extract flavor and color. “The place smells great during harvest,” says Bob. Fermentation lasts 10 to 14 days in open-top tanks, then the wine is put into barrels, also with 30 to 40 percent new French oak, where it stays 13 to 14 months.
When Bob found Zinfandel vines that were planted in 1915 in Russian River Valley, he said, “I had to make wine out of that!
“The vines [owned by Ledbetter] are very old, so production is low,” says Bob. “Nobody knows who planted the vineyard, because the property has gone through a few different hands. It was originally surrounded by prunes,” says Bob. The vineyard is on the eastern edge of the Russian River Valley appellation, near Chalk Hill. It’s the last thing to come in every year. “The vines struggle to get the clusters ripe, but they always make it!” says Bob. The result is a wine with dark fruit flavors and a peppery nose—it’s chewy with a great tannic structure.
The Muellers also make a dessert Zinfandel, Aprés, from the same vineyard. At a certain point, Bob drains some of the juice out of the barrel and fortifies it with grape alcohol. “It captures the fruit at the right point of fermentation,” he says. Just released this summer, it could be dessert by itself. Not overly sweet, it’s velvety on the palate, very smooth and rich with a hint of caramel.
Where to find it
You can find Mueller wines in several locations aside from the winery, where the $10 tasting fee is waived with purchase. Check out Bottle Barn, Oakville Grocery, Pacific Market and local restaurants. You can also order through the website.
Looking forward
While the timing isn’t quite right to plant their own vineyard, the Muellers are content to continue making their excellent wines with sourced grapes. In the meantime, they have 11 miniature sheep that help keep the grasses trimmed on the property, and seven chickens—but no rooster. “They’re too loud!” laughs Lori.
Remick Ridge Vineyards/Smothers Winery
P.O. Box 219
Kenwood, CA 95452-0219
(707) 833-1010
www.foodwineandmarcy.com; www.smothersbrothers.com/remick.html
Case production: 300
Planted acres: 40
Grapes used: Cabernet Sauvignon
Put aside, if you can, memories of the Smothers Brothers, the comedic duo that, from 1967 to 1969, blended folk music, silly skits and sibling rivalry with anti-war and pro-civil rights sentiments for a primetime television audience. (I say “put aside” not “forget”: The show was a classic—it’s now available on DVD—and its abrupt cancellation among accusations of government interference and censorship remains a touchstone for many free speech advocates to this day.) The brothers, Tommy (now Tom) and Dick, officially retired from performing earlier this year, but for Tom, at least, another vocation is taking precedence. Not surprisingly, his brother also had a hand in.
“In about 1972, Dick started Smothers Brothers Winery in Santa Cruz,” says Marcy Smothers, Tom’s wife and co-owner of Remick Ridge Vineyards. “Even though he never had vineyards, the first wine competition he entered was the Los Angeles competition—and he won a gold medal for Gewürztraminer. He thought the wine business was going to be easy, and he encouraged Tom to start planting grapes.”
Tom, who’d always wanted to live in Sonoma County, came with his grandfather, Ed Remick, to look at properties. Among others, they looked at what’s now Chateau St. Jean (it was then the Goff Estate), but when they saw the 110-acre parcel above Kenwood, what winegrower Peter Haywood, who was showing the pair around, called “the most gorgeous piece of Sonoma Valley,” Ed gave it his seal of approval, and Tom bought it and dubbed it Remick Ridge.
“Ed lived with Tom, on the property, until he died,” remembers Marcy. “After he died, Tom likes to say he took Grandpa Remick’s ashes and put them in the drip system…[smiles] so there’s a little Grandpa in every grape.”
Getting started
Planting started in 1976—Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay—but, says Marcy, “Pretty soon, it became apparent we weren’t in the best area for Sauvignon Blanc, so that was budded over to Chardonnay.”
By the mid-1980s, the then-Smothers Brothers Winery produced as much as 4,000 cases annually, under winemaker Dick Arnold. About the same time, Tom also bought a property in Kenwood that had housed various small enterprises; it first became the Smothers tasting room, but by the 1990s it was shared with other small, local producers and called The Best Damn Tasting Room (the current tenant is Figone Olive Oil Co.).
By 1988, Dick wanted to sell his share of the winery. Tom and Marcy bought the winery from Dick, then Tom went to longtime friend Richard Arrowood and asked him to make the wine. “They’re polar opposites, in some ways,” says Marcy of the friendship, “but they’re both highly principled men and they work well together.”
All Smothers wines are 100 percent estate grown and 100 percent varietal, unfined and unfiltered. “That was Tom’s choice,” says Marcy. “Richard Arrowood is a master blender. When we told him we wanted 100 percent Cabernet and 100 percent Merlot [no longer being produced], it was something he hadn’t done for a client before. But he did it beautifully.” The 2003 Remick Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon has an earthy nose, balanced tannins and ripe plum and blueberry flavors—though it’s not overly “fruity”. I tried it with a hearty lentil soup, which brought more sweetness to the front.
“Tom jokes that he’s such a great businessman, he took a 4,000-case winery and made it a 300-case winery,” she laughs. “But we wanted to be growers more than we wanted to be producers. We started making less and less wine. Now we just make about 300 cases a year; we sell it to a few restaurants, we have a small distributor and we just focus primarily on the growing.”
Change for the better
When phylloxera was discovered on the property in 1997 and 1998, “It was good news/bad news for us,” says Marcy, “because we had to replant 40 acres, but we were able to replace the old, 8-by-12-foot spacing with 5-by-8-foot. We also made the decision then to become organic. [The vineyard was certified in 2003.]
“We replanted five to 10 acres per year, and we got the better spacing—more crop—we went organic, and we decided to become 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. Over the 25 years that Tom had been farming, he’d found that, with our soil and hillside terracing, it was best suited to our property. So now we have 40 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon.”
The bulk of what’s grown, aside from what’s kept for what’s now called Smothers Winery, is contracted to Arrowood Winery for its Reserve Speciale Cabernet Sauvignon (in most years, Remick Ridge is the largest of seven local contributors to the line). Remick Ridge Vineyards takes precedence on their own labels, in an attempt to move beyond the “novelty” or “hobby” wine perception—and to emphasize that “we’re growers first,” says Marcy.
Heidi von der Mehden, winemaker at Arrowood, praises Remick Ridge fruit for a number of reasons. “First would be the location,” she says. “Remick is a hillside vineyard in Sonoma Valley, which produces very flavorful, small berries. This makes wine with good structure and balanced tannins. The tannins are really great for aging, and they’re not too harsh. I’d call them ‘refined.’
“Also, they’re farming organically, which is a key for us. Organic fruit simply makes a better wine, because the vines are in balance. Plus, they’ve been replanted over the past several years now, and switching over to some really great French clones. The vineyard has developed into an excellent source of Sonoma Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.”
In the vineyard
Tom and Marcy work closely with Richard Arrowood (who now focuses on his Amapola Creek label) and Vineyard Manager Phil Coturri to nurture and improve the vines. “We’re both pretty involved,” says Marcy. “For Tom, this is his baby. He’s worked very hard to hold on to this vineyard through some pretty rough times.
“Ultimately, Richard is the keeper of the vineyard,” she continues. “He’s designated to Phil exactly the flavor profiles he wants from this vineyard. Richard will call us for the big discussions about what to do, but we take almost every recommendation he gives us—why wouldn’t we?”
The property is 110 acres, but only 40 are planted to vineyard (with 10 left to replant after this harvest). The blocks encompass many different terrains, which makes for drastic differences in the fruit as multiple microclimates each have a hand. The vineyard rows run east/west with full sun exposure for the majority of the day during the growing season, and the soils are relatively well-drained and friable.
One benefit of being 1,200 feet above the valley floor, says Marcy, is that “we get the prevailing winds. Plus, we don’t get frost because we’re higher up, so we’ve been very lucky. …We had frost issues once with Bougainvillea [laughs] but not with grapes.”
So far, the wetness of 2010 hasn’t been a factor, either: “So far so good.”
The wish list
Looking forward, there are a few things Marcy is still hoping for. First, since she and Tom live on the property, she says, “I’ve always wanted an outdoor table and entertaining area within the vineyard. I first saw this at Robert Mondavi’s vineyard in 1990. There’s an area I’ve selected—it’s still to be replanted, so we’re making plans—and around this area, I want all the Bordeaux varietals. It wouldn’t be enough to make much wine, just under an acre or so, but I can just imaging sitting in the vineyard and enjoying a glass of wine that grew there.”
Her second wish is less personal: “The other thing I’d like to have someday is a Remick Ridge Vineyards designation on a bottle of Arrowood.” Seems to me that, if they keep doing what they’ve been doing, anything’s possible.
Viader
By Alexandra Russell
1120 Deer Park Rd., Deer Park, CA 94576
(707) 963-3816 • www.viader.com
Case production: 5,000
Planted acres: 27.5
Grapes planted: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Syrah, Malbec
Additional sourced fruit: Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon
Wines produced: Viader, Viader “V”, Viader Syrah, DARE by Viader Cabernet Sauvignon, DARE by Viader Cabernet Franc, DARE by Viader Tempranillo, DARE by Viader Dry Rosé
Employees: 14
A single mother with a pair of advanced degrees and no winemaking experience, Argentine native Delia Viader (“vee-ah-DARE”) is a most unlikely Napa Valley success.
“She came to California in the early 1980s to finish her doctorate in philosophy at UC Berkeley, then she stayed on and completed an MBA,” says Janet Viader, Delia’s daughter and head of sales and marketing for the family winery.
“Being in the Bay Area, she fell in love with Napa Valley—but our roots are in Buenos Aires, so my mother was a city girl. Then someone told her about this property, which had the potential to become a vineyard, though it was really just a pile of rocks back then.”
Delia approached her father, who was considering buying a second home in the area. His response? “What do you know about farming?”
“He told her to use her MBA and create a business plan: ‘Convince me, and then maybe you can convince a bank to give you a small business loan,’” says Janet. “He became a partner early on, but with the first few vintages, she was able to buy back his part of the winery so it was hers alone.”
Rockin’ it
In those early years, the family was living in San Ramon, and Delia commuted a few days per week to check on the property. The first task was clearing the land, and a quick look around makes that “pile of rocks” comment seem a vast understatement. Foot paths, retaining walls and all structures (including the tasting room, winery facility, administrative offices and two personal residences) are made of, or covered with, rock excavated from the property. “It’s chalky, volcanic rock and soil called Forward Aiken Series,” says Janet, “which is very dense.”
The Viader property is located 1,200 feet up the side of Howell Mountain, just 200 feet shy of the Howell Mountain appellation designation. Vine rows follow the steep downward slopes to the Bell Canyon Reservoir, giving the view from the tasting room balcony a roller coaster-like dizziness. “It’s an east/west orientation,” says Janet of the plantings, “which means more sun exposure over the tops of the vines. The idea being that you don’t have morning sun on one side and afternoon sun on the other; it’s consistent sun exposure.
“We also have really good drainage, because it all runs downhill,” she continues. “Our winter cover crops are necessary here to bring nitrogen back into the soil, but it’s also for erosion control. We have to put hay down a month earlier than in the valley, because we’re a steep hillside property.
On the positive side, she points out, “We have less problems with freeze because of the constant breeze coming up the hills. We have no fans or sprinklers.”
Blending it
Determined to succeed, Delia took courses at UC Davis to understand winemaking, but also turned to experts for advice. She hired vineyard manager David Abreu to manage and design the initial 12 acres of plantings, and heeded Ric Forman’s suggestion to plant Petit Verdot.
“Her initial idea was to plant Cabernet Sauvignon and a lot of Cabernet Franc, because that was her personal preference. In the 1980s, Howell Mountain, in general, was known for very tannic Cabernets,” says Janet. “There was a reputation that you had to cellar these wines for 10 years before they’d be drinkable. [My mother] wanted to change that perception; she wanted to make wine with elegance and approachability. Cabernet Franc plays a big part in softening Cabernet Sauvignon, bringing in floral notes and changing up the finish.”
Simply called Viader, the first vintage was released in 1989—and received immediate attention. My first sip of that now-signature blend (it makes up nearly 50 percent of all production) is eye-opening. Approximately 70 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, it’s robust and complex, as expected, but there’s an underlying finesse I didn’t expect. “Cabernet Franc can be herbaceous,” says Janet, “but ours is riper because of our elevation. That makes it sweeter, which is why it’s good for blends; it makes this wine drinkable earlier.”
Growing it
For the first 10 years, Viader custom crushed its wine, but in the late 1990s, the family began construction of its own production and storage facilities, including 15,000 feet of caves that house the barrels, library wines and aging vintages.
Today, 27.5 acres are planted to vineyard, and the estate-grown wine offerings have expanded as well. Viader now offers “V”, a Petit Verdot-dominated blend (rich, with juicy blackberry flavor and dark, dense color; “this was a trial blend that didn’t need tampering,” says Janet), and Viader Syrah (spicy and smoky, it combines Barossa Shiraz with a Hermitage Rhone-style Syrah).
The family also sources from three additional Napa Valley sites. Janet’s brother, Alan (director of operations), keeps a watchful eye on it all. “His schooling is in viticulture, and he’s managed the vineyards since 2002,” says Janet. In 2006, he also assumed the role of winemaker, with Delia mentoring him.
“They select barrels together, then conduct blending trials,” says Janet. “We also have [consultant] Michel Rolland come about four times per year to do a blending session.”
A second label designation, DARE by Viader, was introduced in 2003 to focus on sourced fruit and less typical varietals. These include a Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from the valley floor (blended with just a bit of estate fruit for added body, it’s Janet’s favorite for the summer) as well as Cabernet Franc (very smooth) and Tempranillo (hearty and bold with minerality in the finish, it’s the first to sell out in the tasting room) in stand-alone presentations and a dry Rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon (fruity, but not too sweet; a perfect summer wine).
The newest release (as of Fall 2010) is a limited edition Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah blend from the 2008 vintage, produced entirely from estate grapes (including a trace of Malbec and Cabernet Franc for blending). If previous blends are any indication, it should be worth tracking down—dare I say, worth climbing a mountain?
