PIÑA NAPA VALLEY: Coverage
Wine of the Week: Pina Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain (CA) $78
Pina Napa Valley's Cabernet Sauvignon, sourced from a single vineyard - Buckeye Vineyard, is a big, powerful red wine, full of both strength and elegance. The aroma has both power and presence, as it frontloads ripe dark fruit supported by an earthy undertone. The flavor profile is intense, boasting a complex mixture of jammy fruit, blackberry and cherry wrapped in dark chocolate and sporting a significant finish. You could give this Cab a run for its money with intense meats - big game, full-flavored steaks and the like.
Monday June 2, 2008
Kenswineguide.com
2005 Piña Cabernet Sauvignon "D’Adamo Vineyard"
This wine comes from a new producer for us. It made a very nice impression on some of our friends at a recent wine tasting we attended. This very dark opaque purple wine opens with a nicely perfumed bouquet of wild berry aromas. On the palate, this wine is well balanced, soft, has a dry mouthfeel, and a distinguished palate presence. The wine has dusty black current flavors with notes of dark chocolate and a hint of cherry vanilla on the back palate. The finish is quite dry and has noticeable tannins that persist for a very very long time. This wine is NY strip steak ready right now. I might decant it for about an hour before the food arrives if you can.
Enjoy - Ken
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May 20, 2008
Kenswineguide.com
2005 Piña Cabernet Sauvignon
"Buckeye Vineyard"
Piña was a new winery to me this year. What a first impression they made. This very dark garnet wine is almost black. This wine opens with a big and fragrant blackberry bouquet with serious notes of spice and menthol. On the palate, this full bodied wine is really smooth, well rounded, with decadent dark chocolate cake flavors, with blackberry liqueur drizzle throughout with notes of black licorice. The finish is very dry and has big tannins that stay with you for a real long time. This wine is quite rich and would pair nicely with beef stew, very sharp cheese, or even chocolate.
Enjoy this gem, I did. Ken
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May 22, 2008
Wine Spectator:
Piña Cabernet Sauvignon (Howell Mountain) 2004 - 94 points
Tasting Highlights: California Cabernet 2004 Cabernets make a big splash
by James Laube Posted: Tuesday, February 20, 2007 Cabernet fans should be targeting the 2004 vintage, which in many markets is replacing 2003. 2004 is clearly the better of the two years. The wines are riper, fleshier, more complex, concentrated and better balanced. I don't expect price relief for Napa Valley Cabernets anytime soon, so finding outstanding wines in the $50 to $100 range is where you'll get the most for your money, odd as that may sound.
"A Cabernet tour de force. Dark, dense and concentrated, with rich layers of currant, blackberry, mocha and lead pencil. This is deep, plush, complex and engaging and, for all its size and density, elegant and stylish. Tannins are ripe and full, but well-integrated. Best from 2008 through 2013. 649 cases made."
SFGate: Mario and Anna Monticelli/Making big reds in Napa
Friday, August 24, 2007 (SF Chronicle)
Mario and Anna Monticelli/Making big reds in Napa
Jane Tunks, Chronicle Staff Writer
From the moment they met in a microbiology class, Mario and Anna Monticelli have been drinking great wine together. The couple, both 29, studied enology and viticulture at UC Davis. "I invited her for some filet and some wine after lab one night, and she
couldn't resist." Mario uncorked a bottle of Gallo of Sonoma Estate Cab (his father is veteran Gallo winemaker Marcello Monticelli), a courtship began, and the up-and-coming winemakers have been together ever since. During their studies, Anna worked a harvest at Cheval Blanc and Mario spent time at Antinori in Italy. After graduating, both Mario and Anna were assistants to superstar winemaker Philippe Melka. "We were both trained under the same winemaker, which is really cool, because our palates are very similar and we have a lot of the same mentality and the same philosophy with winemaking," says Anna. Under Melka's direction, they worked for several Napa Valley heavyweights. Anna worked at Bryant Family Vineyards and Seavey, and Mario's worked for Quintessa and Vineyard 29. And now, just before the ripe old age of 30, they are both in charge of various high-profile projects. Anna is making cult Cabernet at Piña Napa Valley, and Mario has just started a new job as winemaker for Trinchero Winery's Napa Reserve program. In their off hours, they've been bottling their own wines under the Esca label since the 2002 vintage. "Esca is meant to be a value wine," says Mario, of a lineup that includes Zinfandel and Pinot Grigio from Sonoma County, and Cab and Syrah from Napa Valley. "We make it with a screwcap, so it can be twisted off right away."
Q: What did you drink last night?
Mario: Last night we went to Quince (a restaurant in San Francisco). It was really delicious; they have great pastas there. We started off with a Spanish wine, the 2002 Ribera del Duero Hacienda Monasterio. The second bottle we had was a Monticelli Brothers. That's the label that my brother and I have together. We had a bottle of our '04 Cabernet. At a restaurant, we usually buy one bottle and bring one in, to mix it up.
Q: What wine did you serve at your wedding?
Anna: We got married in San Francisco, at St. Patrick's (Cathedral), and our reception was at the Canterbury Hotel. We had this deal with the hotel that we would supply all the wine, and they would do an open bar, beer and the food. So Mario shows up a couple days before with his pickup truck with a pallet of wine in the back.
Mario: There was like 22 cases of wine consumed at our wedding. There was a lot of Monticelli Brothers, there was some Gallo. Anna's boss at the time, Bill Seavey, donated some wine. Philippe (Melka) gave us some wine.
Anna: Chandon Etoile was our sparkling wine. And John Caldwell from Napa gave us half a barrel of Merlot.
Mario: So we bottled up little 375s of this Merlot and gave them out as
gifts.
Q: Do you have a favorite varietal or region?
Mario: Last year we went to Argentina and we really, really fell in love with the Malbecs, so we've been drinking a lot of Mendoza Malbecs and Argentine wines in general. They're full-bodied, big, expressive wines.
Anna: And they go so well with steak.
Q: Any other favorite regions from around the globe?
Mario: I really like Spanish wines.
Anna: Italian wines, French Rhones. And Champagne.
Mario: Sparkling wine is always a favorite.
Q: What are your favorite Champagnes?
Anna: Well, we don't drink it very often, but Krug. A more affordable Champagne that we drink is the Nicolas Feuillatte, or the Henriot.
Q: Do you have any favorite wine-food pairings?
Mario: We're not the kind of people that if we're having fish, we have to drink a white wine. We're red wine drinkers at heart, unless it's bubbly wines. So generally red wine goes with pretty much everything for us.
Anna: One of my favorite, favorite things is a steak and a Napa Cab or an Argentinean Malbec. Or Champagne and sushi.
Q: Since you're red wine people for the most part, what are your favorite white wines?
Anna: We definitely love Champagne and sparkling wine. When we get home from work, Mario will have a beer, but I want a glass of bubbles. So one year for Christmas he gave me two 24-packs of little sparkling wines (187 ml bottles) from Mumm and Chandon, and also a bunch of 375s of Schramsberg.
Mario: My old boss introduced us to Alsatian wines, the Rieslings and the Gewurz from Zind-Humbrecht. It had a really good crispness, really good acidity. When I drink a white wine that's what I want - I want some crispness and I want some acidity. I don't want to taste any vegetal characteristics.
Q: What about cocktails and spirits?
Anna: I like a margarita on the rocks with salt.
Mario: I like sambuca. After a nice big long dinner or long lunch, a little shot of espresso with a little side of sambuca is a nice little digestif.
Anna: I fell in love with Ricard when I was at Cheval Blanc. We had three options for our aperitif at the end of the day - either warm Heineken, Jack Daniel's or Ricard. So I learned to like Ricard really quick.
Mario: We'll also drink Campari and soda as an aperitif. And Angele (a Napa restaurant) has a great cocktail list and one of their drinks is called the Clear Conscience, and they take cucumber and oranges and muddle them and put ice on top, vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup and shake it. And then strain it over ice and add ginger ale. It smells like a cucumber salad. It's so good.
Anna: We drink cocktails sometimes but mostly we have wine.
The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/24/WIB7RLV50.DTL
Napa Valley Grower of the Year:
Davie Piña Explains the Art of the Vineyard
‘You grow good grapes, and you work with others in the industry, fairly’
by Alan Goldfarb
May 22, 2007
What exactly does it mean to be named “Grower of the Year” and why should we care? I care – and I hope you will, too – because I believe it’s the grape grower, and not necessarily the winemaker, as much or even more so, who lends his or her hand to what winds up in the bottle.
While the winemaker is the star, it is the growers, the guys in the field, and vineyard managers, who often get short shrift in this country. The idea of a winemaker being the face of a winery in Europe is anathema to the winemaking philosophy. But it’s the grower or the vigneron, to use the French term, whose stamp puts the place of origin into the bottle. Which proves the adage: You can’t make good wine from bad grapes, but you can make great wine from great grapes.
That’s why I was intrigued by the Napa Valley Grapegrowers Association naming Davie Piña as the most outstanding grower of the year.
According to the NVGA, the award “recognizes exceptional individuals in the field who exhibit unparalleled leadership in the following three areas: agricultural best practices and innovation, industry advocacy, and community involvement."
As vineyard managers, Piña and his family farm 875 acres in the Napa Valley. They boast 54 clients such as Pahlmeyer, Gemstone, Sawyer, and O’Shaughnessy, across eight of the 14 Napa Valley American Viticultural Area (AVAs) that include Howell Mountain, Rutherford, Oakville, Yountville, Atlas Peak, Oak Knoll, Spring Mountain, and St. Helena.
They also make 2,200 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon under the Piña Napa Valley label, which are simultaneously AVA- and single-vineyard designated. Winemaker Anna Montecelli, who used to be an assistant at Bryant Vineyards, makes five Cabernets from Piña’s Buckeye Vineyard on Howell Mountain, its Firehouse Vineyard in Rutherford , the Ames Vineyard (which is leased), in Oakville, the Wolff Vineyard (also leased), in Yountville, and a Napa Valley Cab from several sources. The wines are priced at $72, but expect the Howell and Rutherford designates to increase in price.
I’ve spoken to Piña on several occasions throughout the years and have always found him to be insightful, interesting, and bright. While an award such as this one could be taken lightly, I wanted to know what significance, if any, does it hold?
Alan Goldfarb(AG): What does it mean to be cited as a good grape grower or an outstanding vineyardist?
Davie Piña (DP): What it means is all the people that I work with – my competitors and associates in my industry – say that I’m a pretty good person. I didn’t expect this at all. It came out of the blue.
AG: I’m sure it means more than you being a “good person.” What does it mean to be a good grower?
DP: I hope it means more than that. You grow good grapes, and you work with others in the industry, fairly. It’s also that we got the county to approve us and I had to organize them (his colleagues).
AG: What did the county approve?
DP: A farm manager’s ordinance that was passed last year.
AG: What is a farm manager’s ordinance?
DP: As long as the work is of an agricultural nature. Before that, vineyard management companies were not legal. You couldn’t have a vineyard management company in the county.
AG: With all the vineyard management companies in Napa County, you mean to tell me that they weren’t legal?
DP: That’s right. The county got involved when one vineyard management company was doing things other than farm management; and they were doing other things and annoying the neighbors. They were contracting for others so that they were considered not to be farmers anymore.
AG: Why is a farm manager’s ordinance important?
DP: At the time, there were 58 different vineyard managers in the county. Even wineries, if they farm away from where their use permit is, that’s not legal. Now I’m legal, I can get building permits, I can have signs up.
AG: What are your agricultural “best practices” and/or “innovation,” which are some of the criteria of the award?
DP: We’re trying to be on the cutting edge of technology. We have weather stations, and a NDVI (Normalized Visual Digital Indexing) system which uses infrared and separates out growth patterns in the vineyards that compares (activity) year-to-year at the beginning and the end of the growing cycle, so you can change your practices. We also have hand-held devices that will localize every single block in all our vineyards exactly as to soil, canopy, rootstock, roots, clone, and irrigation, in order to deal with any problem. All variables are in a computer so that we’re able to see what goes into the bottle; and our clients will have access to all the data.
We were one of the first to use a winged shank that lifts the ground, drops it and fractures the ground so the roots get through. (Other methods) pulverize the ground, and then when the rains come, the ground is like concrete, and doesn’t allow the roots to penetrate.
We use a hybrid cane (trellising system), which is halfway between a cordon system (in which arms of the vine are spread on a horizontal wire) and a cane system (where the shoots grow above and below the wire). It takes best features of both. The cordon spreads the growing points along the wire. But with a hybrid, now you have a wire that’s filled with growing points and makes for a perfect growing zone. With the cane system, you have growing points that are varied.
AG: You were also cited as being instrumental in enhancing and restoring the Napa River along the 4 ½ miles in Rutherford. Why is it important to maintain the river?
DP: From the environmental aspect, I’d love to throw a fly rod into the river and catch trout. But on the vineyard side, we’re battling Pierce’s disease all the time, so we need to plant native vegetation. [Note:The disease, a bacterium from sharpshooter insects, first attacks non-native plants along river banks and then spreads and eventually kills grape leaves.]
We’re convincing wineries to take out (portions of their) vineyards and rebuild with setbacks (from the river) to give the river volume so it doesn’t overflow the banks. We’re also rebuilding berms that are failing in big storms. When they get washed out, they take vineyards with them.
AG: Is the river as integral to growing grapes in the Napa Valley as is the Rhône River to southern France or the Gironde to Bordeaux?
DP: That’s almost over my head. (But) it’s changed some of the soils around the river. Some say dry farming is the only Piña Napa Valley Cabernet way to go with deep, loamy soils. It has had an influence. The rivers in France are always flowing, but ours gets down to a mere trickle (in the summer). (So) I don’t think there’s an environmental influence with vineyards next to the river.
AG: Did you read Howard McGee and Daniel Patterson’s recent article, “Talk Dirt to Me,” in The New York Times supplement (“T-Style,” Spring 2007) in which they deduce that the flavors possibly imparted by the soil and rocks do not translate to the wine?
DP: I haven’t seen it, but I heard about it. I don’t agree with that at all. A lot of my business is developing vineyards and going up in the hills. Just by looking at the soils you can tell what (varieties) will go best in those places. Some sites you say, “This is going to be killer.” Soil is a huge influence.
AG: Yes, but the authors contend that the site doesn’t impart flavors.
DP: If I had to say it, I think you can taste it in the glass. If you taste wine from the same types of soils, they have the same kinds of characteristics. You know you’ll have that extra mountain mineral-ness in that glass. I do think it has a big influence. You can taste it.
AG: What about the comment from Mark Matthews, a plant physiologist at UC Davis who was quoted in the same piece, “Plants don’t really interact with rocks. They interact with the soil … they don’t absorb whatever there is in the soil and send it to the fruit. If they did, fruits would taste like dirt”?
DP: All I know is when you do analysis of plants, plants pick up different elements. I don’t know if they translate to your taste buds, but they translate to the quality of the grapes.
AG: Do wines pick up flavors from rocks?
DP: They don’t but they probably pick up the soil. What we’ve seen in rocky soils though is that they trap moisture longer. I could probably argue against that (that they don’t pick up flavors).
Tasting notes from Ronn Wiegand (M.S., M.W.)
2001 Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain (Buckeye Vineyard)- 4 stars
Rich nose: cherry, tobacco, alcohol, oak; full bodied, rich, good depth, lightly tannic finish, with some oakiness. Excellent in the style (overripe); will improve for 2-5 more years, and hold several years beyond.
2002 Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain (Buckeye Vineyard) - 3 stars
Aromatic and minty in the nose; full bodied, round on the palate, medium rich (cocoa, tobacco, cherry, black currant, mint, oak), medium long, lightly tannic finish. Will improve for 2-4 more years, and hold for several thereafter.
2003 Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain (Buckeye Vineyard) - 4 stars
Excellent nose: ripe fruit (black currant, plum, cherry), with some complexity. Full bodied, supple, moderately rich, crisp and long on the finish. Stylish. Will improve over the next 2-4 years, and hold for several thereafter.
2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain (Buckeye Vineyard) - 3 ½ stars
Fragrant, ripe fruit nose (black cherry, rose petal), with toasty, clove-like overtones. Full bodied, supple, balanced, and medium long, slightly hot finish. Will improve for 3-5 more years, and hold for several thereafter.
2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley (D’Adamo Vineyard) - 4 stars
A rich, supple, moderately complex wine, with excellent balance and length. It tastes of plum, black currant, toast, and vanilla. Will improve for 3-6 more years, and hold for several thereafter.
2004 Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford (Firehouse Vineyard) - 3 ½ stars
Firmly structured and full bodied; a supple, concentrated wine, with complex character (tobacco, pepper, fig, oak), and a long, mildly tannic, slightly hot finish. Will improve for 2-3 years, and hold several more thereafter.
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley (D’Adamo Vineyard) - 4 ½ stars
Wow! Intense, rich fruit; depth, excellent length. Should be excellent. (tasted from barrel summer 2006)
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Rutherford (Firehouse Vineyard) - 5 stars
Fine nose: very complex and fine fruitiness; luscious and long on palate. (tasted from barrel summer 2006)
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley (Wolff Vineyard) - 4 stars
Excellent (if slightly herbal in character); supple, full bodied, well balanced, and very long on the finish. Moderately tannic. (tasted from barrel summer 2006)
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon, Howell Mountain (Buckeye Vineyard) - 5 stars
Fragrant and rich in style; full bodied, lightly oaked, extremely well balanced, very long finish. Wonderful potential. (tasted from barrel summer 2006)