2008-06-13
WILLIAM HILL
ESTATE
Focus, Focus, Focus
by Richard Paul Hinkle
You don’t have to go back all that far in California’s short wine history to recall when wineries tried to be all things to all people. One winery I worked for had a whole line of white wines, dry to sweet, a couple of rosés, a huge passel of reds (generics and varietals – three of which were bottled from the same tank!), a couple of sparkling wines (made for their label by another winery), and several dessert wines (dry and sweet). There were even a couple of vermouths in the mix! It was gaudy and it was confusing.
The late Andre Tchelistcheff – the sterling winemaker at Beaulieu for nearly four decades who wished he could focus on Rutherford’s best, Cabernet Sauvignon – used to complain to owner Georges de Latour, “Why am I making starlets when I could be making stars?”
Which is a rather long way of trying to say how much I admire wineries like William Hill Estate for focusing on the one or two varietals that do best in their particular neck of the woods. In this case, one white and one red: Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. (To be fair, they do make a little Merlot, but I am focusing too.)
Take the Chardonnay 2005 Napa Valley ($20) as example. Here is a wine that is all about the Chardonnay, from first sip to final aftertaste. You get that crisp, dry pineapple up front, with hints of dried peach, and not one but two notes of spiciness, with anise and hazelnut. This is a most intriguing wine, and one that is clearly and cleanly built to accompany food, in exactly the manner in which good wine invites a meal. Chicken, veal, pork, turkey, seafood? What do you like? This wine will do the trick, and very nicely, thank you very much.
Then there is the 2005 Reserve Chardonnay ($30), where the anise and the licorice are more focused (there’s that word again), more up front, with graham hints of more time in oak, and a bit more fleshy peach fruit presence. This wine carries a bit more weight than the regular Chardonnay (14.2 alcohol, as opposed to 13.8), but the balance is there.
“We had a wet winter leading up to the 2005 vintage, it was dry in the early spring, then it rained off and on from April through June,” says winemaker Ralf Holdenreid, who grew up in a German wine family. “Late budding and extended hang time allowed the grapes to develop complex aromas and flavors. Our Reserve Chardonnay was selected lot by lot for richness and denseness. But the wine is not heavy. I see this as a balanced wine, with a mineral essence that extends through the long, lingering finish.”
The food mavens at Hill suggest a mushroom risotto with this wine, and it is substantial enough to handle that. I’d cook up a little rosemary-basted chicken myself.
Cabernet Sauvignon is the leading man in Napa Valley, and Hill has always handled this variety with élan. The 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet ($26) shows clear blackberry fruit up front, spiced with cigar box and cassis, and the cedar/graham oak component that just sharpens that fruit definition. If you like to fire up your grill, this wine can handle whatever you’re cooking.
The Reserve Cabernet 2004 ($60) amps that up a notch or two, with pomegranate and blackberry fruit that are juicy and particularly well-defined, dense yet fluid. The oak is there, to be sure, but it is the fruit that speaks the loudest. “This was a particularly early year, 2004, and we had warm, summer-like weather from March onward,” observes Holdenreid. “We had the earliest harvest in a decade, picking two or three weeks earlier than usual. We hand pick our fruit, and we got a lot of concentration from this vintage. This is a powerful wine, but it also shows the balance and refinement that is characteristic of Cabernet grapes grown up here on the Silverado Bench. This blend – it includes twelve percent Cabernet Franc and two percent Petit Verdot – has the fruit intensity and structure to improve through years
of aging, although its ripeness and approachability make it rewarding to enjoy now.”
Working in his father’s vineyard, Holdenreid later studied enology and viticulture at the University of Geisenheim and here at UC Davis. He worked at Franciscan and Gallo-Sonoma before returning to Davis for his Master’s. He did small-lot wines at Louis Martini before signing on as William Hill winemaker last year. “Everything I’ve done up to this point has prepared me for this winemaking role,” he says with pride. “If we’re a bit off the beaten tour path, it’s because this place was chosen for its soils, which give me top quality grapes to work with. Our 140 acres of estate vines are literally just outside my front door. You’ve got to have your priorities straight!”
William Hill Winery is located at 1761 Atlas Peak Road (west of the Silverado Trail, almost across from the famed Silverado Country Club), Napa CA 94558. The winery’s tasting room is now open daily 10a.m. to 5 p.m., the terrace offers a sweeping view of the lower Napa Valley and small lots of Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot are offered exclusively there. Phone the tasting room directly at (707) 265-3024 for further information. On the web the winery is at www.WilliamHillEstate.com.
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