Carneros Wine Alliance Annual Spring Barrel Tasting

The Carneros Wine Alliance held their annual Spring Barrel Tasting on Tuesday, March 22, 2016. Below are my tasting highlights from the event, and just before that is a brief history of the region, written by Catherine Bugue, Director of Education at the Napa Valley Wine Academy.

I’m tellin’ ya, folks. I’m a big Carneros Chardonnay and Pinot fan and this year didn’t disappoint. The 2013s and the 2014s showed very well–the 2013s were especially juicy and delicious, while the 2014s were a bit more austere, and gave a stellar performance. The 2015 barrel samples were fun. They were barrel samples, ya know? And for those interested, we do dive deep into Carneros in our American Wine Studies course (did you know that the Carneros AVA lies within both Napa and Sonoma AVAs?) Okay. On with it! – Jonathan Cristaldi

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CARNEROS: A BRIEF HISTORY

In 1840, Jacob Lease and Nicholas Higuera were granted Napa Carneros land by General Vallejo. Seeing dollar signs, they sold off divisions of the property. Lease, however, planted the first vineyards on his remaining 18,000 acres at Rancho Huichica.In

In 1848 Higuera sold land to Nathan Coombs who went on to establish the town of Napa.

In the 1850s, Lease sold William Winter much of his land, and by the 1870s, the Winter Winery was established. This would become the Talcoa Vineyards in 1881, owned by James Simonton, who was the first vintner to experiment with phylloxera-resistant rootstock.

Just before Repeal, John Garetto bought what is now Bouchaine Vineyards, and in the 1930s Andre Tchelistcheff and Louis Martini took an interest in the area. Garetto would later sell to the Beringer Brothers who used the winery for 30 years.

Louis Martini proved to be ahead of his times, and in 1942, bought 200 acres and experimented with cool-weather varietals–but Bouchaine Vineyards is the oldest continually operating winery in Carneros. Vines were first planted here in the mid-1800s by Boone (also known as Boon) Fly. Sound like a good name for a restaurant, doesn’t it? – Catherine Bugue

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TASTING NOTES BY JONATHAN CRISTALDI, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, NAPAVALLEYWINEACADEMY.COM