Mayacamas Vineyards
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Mayacamas Vineyards is a located east of Napa, California on Mount Veeder in the Mayacamas Mountains between the Napa and Sonoma Valleys in California. The winery is small in scope compared to many other operations in the Napa Valley but it makes up in quality for what it lacks in size. The winery only produces approximately 5,000 cases of wine per year. The majority of which are Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, with smaller quantities of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir also produced.
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[edit] The Early Years
The winery was built in 1889 by John Henry Fisher a German immigrant who went bankrupt in the early 1900s. It then fell into disuse for several years although bootleggers are said to have made wine in the old stone cellar during the early years of Prohibition in the United States. During the late 1920s and 1930’s the Henry Brandlin family, some of whom still live in the area, owned the property. British chemist Jack Taylor and his wife Mary, bought the property in 1941 and improved the land.
[edit] Present Day Operation
In 1968 the winery was bought by its present owners, Robert and Elinor Travers. Under their direction, aging facilities have been enlarged, neighboring land has been purchased, and vineyard clearing, planting and replanting are an ongoing process. In addition to Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, small blocks of Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Cabernet Franc are grown.
[edit] Award Winning Wines
The winery received international recognition after its Cabernet Sauvignon was selected for competition in the historic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976. Interestingly, Robert Travers agreed to sell three bottles of the still unreleased 1971 vintage for the event, although he did not consider it ready to drink.
In the Wine Spectator Wine Tasting of 1986, blind tasters evaluated how the Cabernet Sauvignons had aged ten years after the Paris event. The 1970 Heitz Wine Cellars Martha's Vineyard was ranked number one. It was followed by the 1971 Mayacamas Vineyards, the 1971 Ridge Vineyards Monte Bello, the 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, and the 1971 Clos Du Val Winery. Ranked at number six was the 1971 Château Montrose, followed by the 1970 Château Mouton-Rothschild, the 1971 Château Leoville Las Cases, the 1969 Freemark Abbey Winery, and the 1970 Château Haut-Brion.
The Wine Rematch of the Century was conducted on the 30th anniversary of the Paris event. Two panels of expert wine tasters tasted all the original red entries to see how they had aged. Mayacamas Vineyards tied for third place (with Heitz Wine Cellars) in the field of ten.
The results for Mayacamas Vineyards and the other California wines are impressive, especially given the fact that most of the wineries from which they came had been making wine for only a few decades. Their competitors all came from chateaux that had acquired prestige high enough by 1855 to have been classified in the Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855 as being among the very best in Bordeaux.
In addition, three of the four Bordeaux wines in the competition were from the 1970 vintage, identified by the Conseil Interprofessionel du Vin de Bordeaux as among the four best vintages in the past 45 years or more. The fourth Bordeaux was a 1971, described by the Conseil as "very good" [1].
It has been argued that Bordeaux wines don’t achieve their full potential for years. However, as these results indicate, the California wines increased their rankings over time whereas their French competitors declined.
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- Taber, George M. Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine. NY: Scribner, 2005.
- Mayacamas Vineyards
