Anyone who’s had the misfortune of tasting a de-alcoholised version knows that alcohol is key to wine. Take it away and it leaves a gaping void in the glass – stripping the liquid of body and flavour. Those attempting to craft alcohol-free alternatives look to make up for its absence with sugar or flavourings, but the results don’t come close to the real thing. And of course the very fermentation process is key to complexity – there’s a reason we aren’t collecting single-site examples of even the finest raw grape juice. But alcohol’s a hot topic – and not just because of any health considerations. Trends and shifts in climate have seen the average ABV (alcohol by volume) inch upwards. Indeed, a report last year from Liv-ex suggested the average alcohol level has leapt almost an entire 1% for both California and Bordeaux since the 1990s. While once 14 or 14.5% might have been the purview only of the New World, it’s rapidly become the norm in Bordeaux. Rising temperatures are one element, as indeed is technology and know-how – harvesting cleaner, riper fruit and more efficient winemaking. Then, of course, there’s the fashion factor – the pendulum swing, arguably driven by Robert Parker, for bold, ripe, sweet and inevitably high-alcohol wines. “He loved that weight, that impression of sweetness,” Paul Hobbs tells me. “We jumped on the wagon – but we didn’t know what we were jumping on.” A cult name, Hobbs crafts some of Napa’s highest-scoring and most expensive Cabernets; indeed, Parker named him his Wine Personality of the Year twice. Born in New York State, the Davis-trained winemaker founded his namesake estate in 1991. He’d started his career at Robert Mondavi (arriving in 1977), working at Opus One and Simi before setting up on his own, with a flurry of personal projects and list of consultancies that has grown ever since. He openly admits that he got caught up in “Parkerisation”, crafting big, bold wines – no great surprise given the scores, and sales, that followed for those who did. But he’s been pulling back in recent years, and has never quite fit the cookie-cutout for the cult Cabernet crew. Ever since he first started making his own wines in the 1990s, he’s championed native yeasts (relatively radical at the time), and no fining or filtering. While he embraces oak, he’s always been aware that it’s the quality of fruit in the vineyard, preserved by operating a flawlessly clean winery, that is key to producing fine wine. Make no mistake that Hobbs makes rich, plush wines – and the alcohol levels certainly don’t sit at 12.5% – but for him there is much more to alcohol than one number. “I didn’t give much thought to it in the beginning,” Hobbs says. “And there wasn’t really much reason to.” When he was at Mondavi, the wines tended to sit at 13.5% – but then they started to go up. “There was a time when 16% was normal,” he confesses with some amazement. “Some of these wines were difficult. They didn’t age. They would get tired,” Hobbs says. “But all that took us time to learn – no one had ever been in that domain before.” He notes that there was “a backlash” in the British press against wines that didn’t please the palates of “the Hugh Johnsons, the Jancis Robinsons and Anthony Roses”; a response he clearly feels was a little unjust. “It’s far more complex than a simple number,” he says. “15 isn’t always 15.” And it’s true – alcohol doesn’t feel the same. How many times have you looked at the label of a wine and been surprised – either for better or worse? Alcohol is one element working in tandem with a wine’s body, concentration and flavour complexity – and there’s no easy figure to tell you how it integrates with these other components. But there’s another key reason why the same alcohol level can seem so different: the nature of the alcohol. The main alcohol in wine is ethanol (a molecule with two carbons), however fermentation produces other types of alcohols – specifically superior or higher alcohols. Often known as fusel oils – from a German term “Fusel” which is colloquial for low-quality booze – these alcohols have three to six carbons in their molecular form and are significantly more viscous (hence “oils”).  While ethanol is pure and relatively neutral, these heavier superior alcohols can – in low volumes – bring flavour, texture and interest. “It’s what makes something more than vodka,” Hobbs explains. Hexanols can add herbaceous aromas; 2-phenylethanol gives a rose-like scent. But they’re also associated with headaches and hangovers. In the world of spirits, these fusel oils are what runs out of the still last – forming the “tails” of distillation, which are used to varying degrees depending on the type of spirit being produced. “Alcohol is alcohol? Well, yes and no,” says Hobbs. It's high numbers of these superior alcohols, he believes, that can make one 15% wine feel clumsy and lumbering, while another – with lower fusel oil levels – can carry the same ABV with ease. The production of these superior alcohols depends on many things – yeast strain, temperature, oxygen availability and acidity. In general, red grapes produce more of the compounds (which is partly why spirits tend to use white grapes as their base). But Hobbs thinks it ultimately comes back to the vineyard: he’s started noticing that if berries are heat-damaged, they produce more superior alcohols. “Our goal is to keep these superior alcohols as low as possible – and that’s just about harvesting not sun-damaged fruit,” Hobbs explains. Under the warmth of the Californian sun, it’s common to get sun damage early in the season, but shrivelled berries tend to fall off nascent clusters of their own accord; more concerning is fruit that can be damaged internally and then won’t go through véraison, which needs to be sorted out. Late in the season, Hobbs and his team look to walk through the vines and cut off any “shoulders” (the side cluster at the very top of a bunch of grapes) that have been exposed. With global warming, this is an increasing threat – and an element of climate change that is only now being considered. If grapes are sunburnt or shrivelled, they tend to struggle with fermentation, and the stressed yeasts produce more of the superior alcohols. “The wine is going to be fat and heavy on the palate,” says Hobbs. “You can lower the alcohol by adding water – but it doesn’t change its personality.” If the fruit is in good shape – he says – you simply don’t have that issue, even at 15.5%. And those wines, provided they’ve got the requisite balance, age amazingly. Rajat Parr (star sommelier turned winemaker) and Jasmine Hirsch (of Hirsch Vineyards) founded In Pursuit of Balance (IPOB) in 2011 to champion lighter wines that they felt “weren’t chasing after ratings from wine critics”. These “new California” wines (Jon Bonné published his book The New California Wine in 2013) tended to have lower alcohols and less oak – following the swing of the pendulum back the other way; an anti-Parker effort in many ways. I attended the last London IPOB tasting in 2016, catching the crest of the wave as the movement called it quits – feeling they’d achieved their aim of building the reputation of an alternative California. Paul Hobbs arguably sits at the opposite end of the California wine spectrum (“Should all wines be 13.5%?” he says to me, “Why is that the magic number?”) – but philosophically, they’re surprisingly aligned. It’s not about the number, it’s about the balance – and Hobbs, like any posterchild of the new California movement, will tell you that the secret lies in the vineyard. The challenge is to farm and pick the perfect fruit – to find the sweet spot between flavour, sugar and phenolic ripeness. As Hobbs says to me, “That’s the dance between man and nature.” Forget the maths; this is farming. A note on the numbers Strictly speaking, the alcohol level on any label isn’t exactly what’s in the bottle. For wines sold in the EU and UK (both those made here and imported), producers are given 0.5% leeway – meaning that what’s on the bottle is generally reflective of its contents. In the US and Australia, however, wines sold domestically can differ by as much as 1.5% from the label – meaning a wine labelled as 14% could be anything from 12.5 to 15.5%. Browse all Paul Hobbs listings or discover more Editorial

With climate change and the influence of Robert Parker, it’s undeniable that we’ve seen a rising tide of alcohol levels. But there’s much more to the conversation than a simple number – as we discovered tasting and talking with Paul Hobbs, one of Napa’s leading names

The Napa winemaker Paul Hobbs on how we perceive alcohol in wine and why the alcohol level on any label isn’t exactly what’s in the bottle. 

Paul Hobbs on alcohol in wine 

The nature of the numbers: Paul Hobbs on alcohol

To Kalon. For any Californian winemaker, those two words represent the Holy Grail. This vineyard in Oakville, Napa, is undeniably the region’s most famous. Perched at the foot of the Mayacamas, west of Highway 29, this site has been recognised for producing fine wine since the 19th century. Literally translating as the “highest beauty” or “highest good” from Greek, today To Kalon is home to some of Napa’s oldest vines and best Cabernet Sauvignon. “This is a Grand Cru – a premier property,” Paul Hobbs tells me, a winemaker who has a long history with the site. As a grad student at UC Davis, Hobbs would swipe the second crop from a vineyard on Walnut Drive – what happened to be BV4, Beaulieu Vineyard’s original block of To Kalon. At Mondavi – the largest holder of the hallowed site – he got to walk the rows more legitimately, and used those holdings to build Opus One – the company’s joint venture with Ch. Mouton Rothschild (although the association with the site has generally been played down). Under his own label, he’s been making wine from the Beckstoffer section of the vineyard since 1999 – and his wines, along with those from Schrader, were some of the early bottlings that put the vineyard firmly on the fine wine map, earning high scores – and lots of attention. Indeed, it was a Paul Hobbs wine that made Tor Kenward believe the vineyard was truly special. André Tchelistcheff had spoken to Kenward about BV4, but it was one of Hobbs’s bottlings that made him realise its potential. He started working with Beckstoffer plots from 2005. 
“It’s not visually impressive; it doesn’t have that ‘wow factor’,” Kenward tells me. But start digging below the surface, and you realise that you’re in the “tenderloin of Napa”, with old creek beds that run through the site. It’s an alluvial fan that runs down from the Mayacamas, sitting almost on a bench – with very little elevation. But the soils here are varied, with deep, well-drained gravels that make it perfect for Cabernet Sauvignon.  Andy Erickson – a winemaker whose resume includes Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Dalla Valle, Mayacamas and many more – first worked with the site in 2012, on a single-barrel charity lot for an auction at his children’s school. When Constellation (owners of Mondavi and co-owners of Opus One) called him to give him the chance to work with it again in 2016, he didn’t hesitate. That year, he made the first wine for the To Kalon Vineyard Company – a project that is a revival of the brand created by H.W. Crabb (known variously as Henry Walker, Hiram Walker or Hamilton Walker Crabb) in 1886, the vineyard’s godfather. “Most people know the recent history of the vineyard, and the acclaim of the wines from the past 15-20 years. But the vineyard was known for producing remarkable wines all the way back in the late 19th century. Clearly there is something there,” Erickson says.  But this vineyard is weighed down with controversy – its borders endlessly debated, with producers vying for use of the To Kalon name.  The history of the To Kalon Vineyard It’s impossible to look at To Kalon today without tracing its origins. H.W. Crabb came west from Ohio during the Gold Rush, spending six months digging in the Sierras before settling in Oakville in 1868, buying 240 acres of land at the corner of Highway 29 and Walnut Drive. He planted a wide range of crops, first making wine in 1872 under the name Hermosa Vineyards (“hermosa” meaning “beautiful” in Spanish). In 1881, he acquired another 119 acres from Eliza Yount (whose name lives on in Yountville). On land to the west of his plots, owned by John Davis, he planted additional vines – buying the fruit off Davis to feed his increasing production. In 1886, he gave his company a new name: “To Kalon Vineyard Company” – and the legend was born. Crabb reportedly said, “The name To-Kalon… means the highest beauty, or the highest good, but I try to make it mean the boss vineyard.”
 To Kalon Vineyard Company rapidly became one of the region’s largest – and most well-respected – wine producers. His wines started winning awards at competitions around the world, and he was the first to start selling wine along the East Coast. He had planted a huge range of grapes – around 400 different varieties, including Malvasia, Riesling, Chasselas, Muscat, Refosco and Cabernet Sauvignon, with the latter in particular thriving. In 1889, he bought 168 acres on the hillside to the south, close to where Harlan is now based, although it was never planted with vines during Crabb’s lifetime. In 1891, Crabb bought Davis’s 135 acres (from which he’d already been buying the fruit). In total, Crabb had more than 359 acres.  But his success wasn’t to last – phylloxera arrived in the late 19th century, and recession along with it. In 1898, Crabb sold the 135 acres he’d bought just eight years earlier – and died one year later in 1899. The vines were ripped out, replaced by cherry trees under David Perry Doak in 1911, who in turn purchased another 500 acres of vines from John Benson, south of the border of the original To Kalon (across Oakville Grade Road), which is now all owned by Constellation (used for Mondavi or Opus One). After Crabb’s death, what remained of the To Kalon Vineyard Company was sold to ES Churchill at auction, taken over by his widow Mary Churchill when he died in 1903. Wines continued to be sold under the label until the arrival of Prohibition in 1920. The winery reopened briefly to sell wine in bulk in the 1930s, but the winery building burnt down in 1939. Four years later, Martin Stelling bought most of the property – 337 acres – and replanted. He sold 90 acres to Beaulieu Vineyard (the block that became known as BV4 – and was the plot used by André Tschelistcheff made Georges de Latour Reserve). In 1944, Stelling bought an additional 1,700 acres – the McGill Ranch, which included the parcels owned by Doak (both Crabb’s 1891 parcel and the 500 acres area south of Oakville Grade Road). He named the entire property Tokalon Vineyards, and in 1945 planted Sauvignon Blanc in I Block – the legendary parcel that is today used for Mondavi’s prized, old-vine To Kalon Fumé Blanc.  Tragedy struck again, however, with Stelling killed in a car crash in 1950. The property was once more divided, sold off in pieces by his widow.   
Rosa Mondavi, along with her sons Robert and Peter, purchased 132 hectares in 1962 for the family winery, Charles Krug. After Robert struck out on his own, he bought 12 acres for himself in 1966 (that remained in the Stelling family) – in the northeast corner of the 1968 Crabb parcel, where the Mondavi winery and visitor centre remains today. He bought a further 230 acres in 1968, and then took the Charles Krug section from the rest of his family in 1978. The first time the To Kalon name appeared on a Mondavi label – and the first time since the demise of the To Kalon Vineyard Company – was on the 1986 Fumé Blanc Reserve. The I Block – the Sauvignon Blanc vines planted by Stelling in 1945 – were singled out for the first time in 1995, for the vines’ 50th anniversary. The first red – Mondavi’s To Kalon Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon – appeared with the 1997 vintage. The To Kalon Vineyard’s terroir As already mentioned, To Kalon is largely an alluvial fan that stretches down from the Mayacamas to Highway 29. It is, however, a large piece of land (the exact area depending on where you draw its borders – see below for more on the controversy around this) – and as such the terroir varies considerably. The soils are richer downslope, closer to the Highway; poorer and better-drained higher up (where many – including Hobbs and Kenward – prefer to be). The gravel composition varies with the subtle slope differences and underground water.  “It’s like any cut of meat – there are better parts than others,” Hobbs says. With over 300 original acres (at least), this is a substantial vineyard (for comparison, Clos Vougeot is 125 acres). “It’s great if you have the name To Kalon, but could be pretty average stuff.” The Beckstoffer section is numbered and lettered: A to F, from road to mountain, with A1 south of A2. For Hobbs, he likes the blocks closer to the mountains, and those that aren’t shaded by the huge walnut trees that line Walnut Drive (to the south). Hobbs noted how much warmer Oakville is than Yountville – something he used to notice when driving in the evening home from Oakville to Yountville. The mountains block the sea breezes, meaning that the cooling effect happens, but more slowly. This is partly what makes it such a special place. Tor Kenward similarly prefers some of the middle blocks in B and C, where there are some of the vineyard’s oldest vines, but with lower vigour, as well as the leaner soils closest to the mountains. As for the MacDonald or Horton block: “You could argue it’s every bit as good as Andy’s piece,” Kenward says. It, along with the Detert block, was planted in the 1940s – and in fact those two blocks are now home to some of the valley’s oldest vines. Even closer to the mountains, the gravel content is even higher, and the fruit is picked up to a month earlier than elsewhere in To Kalon. Although until now most of that fruit has been sold to Constellation, there will be opportunity for others to work with it as that contract comes to an end.   
The Beckstoffer plots of To Kalon Andy Beckstoffer bought Beaulieu Vineyard’s block, BV4, in 1993. He’d just lost a prized site – Liparita, on Howell Mountain – when the 89 acres of BV4 came up. He’d worked the site for years and leapt at the opportunity to buy it. “It’s a mystery to me why they sold it,” Paul Hobbs told me, although word on the grapevine was that they needed to liquidate funds – indeed, it was around the same time that Mondavi went public for similar reasons. Phylloxera was once more raging through the region thanks to the widely used, non-resistant AXR rootstock.  The BV4 block was in bad shape when Beckstoffer took it over and he had to replant the entire site. Paul Hobbs was one of the first to use fruit from Beckstoffer’s plots, starting to work with him from 1995/96. “Andy didn’t really realise he had a Grand Cru property,” Hobbs says. Hobbs was given free rein to pick his plots, opting for four or five plots on the western side, furthest from Highway 29. The vineyard produced its first fruit in 1997; 1998 was a difficult year; but in 1999 Hobbs was able to produce his first To Kalon bottling (although it couldn’t say so on the label). “I was loathe to tell people how young it was – but the quality was so good,” Hobbs says, still starry eyed thinking about it. “It was only four years old, but producing stunning wines.” Most fruit is sold on its weight, by the ton, but Andy Beckstoffer created a different model – one that is intricately tied to the vineyard’s name and reputation – and arguably has increased its reputation. Producers who use his fruit pay him 175 times the bottle price per ton, with a ceiling at $50,000/ton; tying the value of the fruit to the value of the final wine. “For producers like me in those days, when I didn’t have the land or ability to buy land, Andy was a saviour of sorts,” Hobbs tells me. “Because I had access to one of the top vineyards in all of Napa. I had to pay – but at least I had access.”
  The To Kalon controversy: how big is it? And is it a brand or a place? Mondavi trademarked the name “To Kalon” in 1988, and “To Kalon Vineyard” in 1994. This gave them the right to use the name on any wine from anywhere – even beyond California – and meant that no one else could use the name, even if they had plots in what was considered the original To Kalon vineyard. The first Beckstoffer bottlings only mentioned the name on the back label; but in 2000, Schrader decided to put it on the front label. The now famous lawsuit commenced. “They shouldn’t have been able to trademark it,” Hobbs tells me. “Anyone from the original To Kalon estate should have the right to the trademark as well.” In 2002, Mondavi sued Schrader for using the name on their Beckstoffer bottling. Countersuing ensued, from both Schrader and Beckstoffer (the latter arguing that Mondavi was misleading clients by using the name for wines made with fruit from beyond the vineyard’s original borders). A settlement – the details of which remain a mystery – was made in 2003, but wines made from the Beckstoffer section can now bear the name “Beckstoffer To Kalon”.  Constellation bought Mondavi in 2004, and then Schrader in 2017. Reportedly attempts were made to trademark “To Kalon Wine Company”, “To Kalon Vineyard Company” and “Rooted in To Kalon” – something, unsurprisingly, that Beckstoffer objected to. The legal battle continues today, with a fight over the naming of To Kalon Creek, and The Vineyard House – owned by Jeremy Nickel, which sits on the 1889 hillside section – arguing for the use of the name as well.  The borders of the vineyard are a constant source of debate – and given the history above, you can see why.  Andy Beckstoffer considers the original To Kalon to be only the parcels bought by Crabb in 1868 and 1881. The 1889 parcel was never planted by Crabb, so most aren’t inclined to include it as “original To Kalon”. The Detert and MacDonald plots, however, aren’t acknowledged by Beckstoffer, but were planted – and, albeit more briefly than other plots, owned by Crabb. Then there’s the “Stelling extension”, the southern section added after Crabb’s death under Martin Stelling, that Mondavi considers part of the original vineyard, but some others do not. Given the sums fruit – and wine – bearing the To Kalon name command, it’s unsurprising that its usage is so disputed.  
To Kalon: what does the wine taste like?  So what makes the wine so special? Why do winemakers fight for the fruit, and consumers for the bottles they produce? Despite the sheer variety of the site, Tor Kenward is adamant that there’s a continuity, with a profile that that site gives Cabernet. He describes it as “wall-to-wall carpeting”, a plushness to the mid-palate, a softness, that means the Cabernet isn’t hard-edged. “There’s something about the ground there,” Andy Erickson agrees. For him, To Kalon has a distinct tannin texture – not as rugged as hillside sites, but richer, with a generosity in the wines. “They are dark, aromatic, but very broad and polished,” he says. “I think the vineyard brings forward many of the complexities of Cabernet Sauvignon, but delivers it in a very approachable and elegant package.” “It’s very identifiable,” Paul Hobbs says. “It’s a structural and textural thing mostly. It’s a freshness to this sort of tannin. It has grip, but it has this uplifting character.” He explains it like a skipping stone – you think you’ve got it, then another wave comes, the wine shifting on the palate. For him, one of the most distinctive things is that Cabernet sings alone here – much better than blended with other varietals. “It didn’t need the help of its brothers,” he says. “It’s a wine that’s at peace with itself… It doesn’t shock you, except in its beauty.”
 Who owns what today in To Kalon? Robert Mondavi: From the original 12 acres, Mondavi now owns 328 acres of To Kalon, including the Stelling extension. Has the rights to use the To Kalon name.  Opus One: The 35-acre Q Block was sold to the joint venture by Mondavi in 1981, with K block acquired in 2008. Although under Constellation’s ownership they could likely use the To Kalon name, Opus One doesn’t trade on this. (To Kalon Vineyard Company uses fruit from Constellation’s holdings, both Opus One and Mondavi plots.) UC Davis: a research block that was key in developing phylloxera-resistant rootstock
Beckstoffer: 89 acres, with fruit sold to a range of producers (currently 23), including Paul Hobbs, Tor Kenward and Schrader. Producers can use the name “Beckstoffer To Kalon” on their labels. MacDonald (sometimes referenced as Horton): Graeme and Alex MacDonald are the current generation, owning 21 acres of the 1891 parcel. When their great-grandparents bought the site in 1954 (along with the Detert plot – see below – from Caroline Stelling, Martin Stelling’s widow) it was planted with cherry trees. Advised by Robert Mondavi, the MacDonalds planted vines. From 1966, they sold grapes to Mondavi – holding some back for personal use from 2004, with the first MacDonald commercial release in 2010 (just 92 cases). Although historically 75% of production here has been sold to Mondavi, I’m led to believe that the contract is coming to a close and won’t be renewed. The MacDonalds can’t use the To Kalon name on their wines currently. Detert: Today owned by Tom Garrett, a cousin of the MacDonalds. This 25-acre plot was bought in 1954, along with the MacDonald parcel – divided between the buyers’ children giving the two plots today. There’s more Cabernet Franc in this section. Most of the fruit is sold to Mondavi (with the contract, as for MacDonald, coming to an end soon), and Detert can’t use the To Kalon name on their wines. The Vineyard House: Many dispute whether or not this is original To Kalon; it’s on the hillside area purchased (but not planted) by Crabb in 1891. This plot is owned by Jeremy Justin Nickel, who is the son of the late Far Niente proprietor Gil Nickel. It’s thought to have first been planted with vines in 1980. They can’t use the To Kalon name on their wines, but have taken court action over the issue.  Wineries with To Kalon bottlings  NB Not all of these will bear the To Kalon name on the label Mondavi Winery, Opus One, To Kalon Vineyard Company, MacDonald, Detert, Alpha Omega, Amici, Alejandro Bulgheroni Estate, AXR, Bacio Divino, B Cellars, Boich Family, Bounty Hunter, Cain Concept, Carter cellars, Ch Boswell, Jacquelynn, Kitchak, Cliff Lede, Morlet, Realm Cellars, Tor Kenward, Paul Hobbs, Schrader Cellars Read more Editorial 

The Napa Valley has many incredible vineyards, but To Kalon undoubtedly sits at the top of the tree. As the To Kalon Vineyard Company releases their latest vintage, Sophie Thorpe delves into the story of this iconic site – from its 19th century origins to the fight to use its hallowed name

Explore the history of To Kalon vineyard – and what makes it such an iconic site today. We spoke to Andy Erickson, Paul Hobbs and Tor Kenward to find out more

The tale of Napa’s iconic To Kalon vineyard

The tale of To Kalon

Driving through Napa and Sonoma, the land still bears the scars of 2020. The wildfires that raged through the region have left a long-lasting mark, whether it’s lengthy reconstruction efforts or the stark, charred tree trunks that cover the mountains. But it’s more than that. To an outsider, the fires feel intangible, terrifying yet somehow conceptual. Talking to those that lived through them, however, makes you instantly realise quite how petrifying that season was. The trauma of those flames is still smouldering away.  In 2017, fires hit Northern California on 8th October, however most producers had already harvested. Indeed, the fire even crossed the Kistler property, but their vines helped act as a firebreak. Two years later the Kincade fire swept through Sonoma County at the end of October. But in 2020, the first fires arrived earlier. The LNU Lightning Complex started with what is known as the Hennessey fire on 17th August. Sparked by lightning after thunderstorms, the complex was a weave of 250 different fires that collectively raged through almost 150,000 hectares of the region. The damage was enormous: 1,491 buildings were destroyed and six people lost their lives. While the fire did diminish in size, it wasn’t entirely extinguished until 2nd October, almost a month and a half after it started.  Before the Lightning Complex had fully subsided, the Glass Fire attacked. The blaze started on 27th September, east of St Helena near the Silverado Trail, spreading north to Calistoga and then south and west, towards Santa Rosa. It burned until 20th October, encompassing over 27,000 hectares and taking over 1,500 buildings with it, including numerous wineries. It cut through Eisele Vineyard, across 90 acres of hillside and forcing them to rip up 1,000 vines. Fortunately they’d already picked all their fruit (finishing their harvest three days before the fire broke out, on 24th September). And this was all in the midst of Covid-19.  Wildfires aren’t new in Northern California, but they’re certainly more prevalent than ever before. Indeed, as Cory Empting – Director of Winegrowing at Promontory, Harlan and Bond – tells me, the region’s indigenous people, the Wappo, used to describe autumn as “smoky mountains”.  Paul Hobbs – who has been making wine in “the Valley” (as the locals would say) since the late 1970s – remembers a fire in the 1980s that burned its way along the Silverado Trail. “All it took was a gust of wind,” he says – and one flame turned into something uncontrollable in the blink of an eye. He remembers climbing up on a roof to see the sobering effects of the fire.  Perhaps partly due to this early exposure, fires have always been at the forefront of his mind when picking a site – avoiding rugged, dry areas like Diamond Mountain or Calistoga. And he is exacting with forest management of the sites he works – even on our wander around his Goldrock Estate vineyard, he notices some saplings that are troubling him, and calls over his vineyard manager to take a look, conscious to reduce the risk as much as possible. And he’s deservedly cautious. The 2017 vintage was his first working with Cleary Estate out in Freestone-Occidental, and he paid almost $2 million for fruit that he couldn’t use. The fire itself is one challenge, however vines are natural firebreaks so don’t tend to suffer much direct damage (although the heat from a blaze can sometimes scorch vines). The real threat, however, is in the air – smoke. But the science of smoke taint is complex, and poorly understood. Producers can send samples to laboratories to be tested for the compounds responsible for the taint (guaiacol and 4-methylguaiacol) but the exact level of perception isn’t known. These compounds also naturally occur in some varieties, eg Syrah, and come from oak barrels (in particular the toasting process).  Of course the impact of smoke is dependent on proximity to the fire, the intensity of the smoke, elevation and the wind. Hobbs explained how in 2020 much of the smoke from the Glass Fire stayed north for several days, but then the wind shifted and sent it south to the Bay Area. As smoke travels, and ages, the volatile compounds also degrade, so there is also a significant difference between the impact of “fresh” smoke, versus what Hobbs describes as “atmospheric” smoke. The latter may look bad, but it’s unlikely to hold significant taint, whereas if you’ve got fresh smoke, it’s “game over”.   Lots of producers do micro-ferments to look for smoke taint, testing to see if it’s worth the expense of picking the fruit and making the wine – however that’s also not a sure-fire way to know if you have smoke taint. The nature of these compounds means that they can lurk, undetectable in a wine, and emerge in bottle as hydrolysis occurs. “That’s why it’s so insidious,” Hobbs says.  If you’ve got smoke-tainted fruit, the options are limited. The compounds are concentrated in the skins, so the aim is generally to minimise skin contact. Indeed, some producers made rosé in 2020, having picked earlier, with higher acidity than normal. Otherwise you can use reverse osmosis or spinning cone (both expensive processes that are used for de-alcoholisation), or carbon fining – or a combination of all of the above – to try and strip out the smoky flavour. The result, as Mark De Vere MW at Robert Mondavi said of trials they’d done, it generally didn’t work, but if it did, “It took so much else out.” (Robert Mondavi ended up making almost no 2020 wine.)  *  Read anything about 2020 and there is a cacophony of opinion. “Everyone handled the vintage differently,” Cate Kistler of Occidental told me. They picked on 18th August, not in response to the fire, but because that was when the first fruit was ripe. They didn’t do any micro-ferments or send samples to labs (“We’re not data-crunching people,” Kistler says). The cost of picking was, for them, “a drop in the bucket” in comparison to farming the vineyards the rest of the year, so they tried to do what they could.  “It was going to be either Occidental, or nothing,” she said with a shrug. They took their time, committing to making every decision as if it was a normal year, finishing on 6th September just as the Labor Day heatwave hit. They didn’t use everything they picked, but they made all five of their single-vineyard wines – and the 2020s we tasted are glorious.   Some, like Colgin, didn’t make any wine at all, while many producers made around 40% less (such as Williams Selyem and Peter Michael). Many of the 2020s that will be released were picked before the fires struck. Cathy Corison had all her fruit safely in the winery more than two weeks before the Glass Fire hit, but the challenge was to keep the smoke out of the winery. She bought industrial grade air filters to shield her ferments. “They’re beautiful,” she says with a quietly proud smile.  At Dalla Valle, Maya Dalla Valle doesn’t pretend that it was an easy year, but she’s pleased with the wines they made (all with fruit picked before the Glass Fire). As ever, these are wines that speak of their year – which wasn’t just the fires, but a hot, dry year that (along with a block that was being re-grafted) cut their crop to a mere 2,700 cases in total. At Dominus, they did micro-ferments after the Lightning complex, and had picked their last row of fruit on the morning the Glass Fire broke out.  Steve Matthiasson – the leading viticulturalist who also has his eponymous label with his wife Jill – told me how it was set to be “an epic season” before the fires hit. He highlighted how the smoke meant there was less UV light reaching the grapes, and that meant the fruit wasn’t as phenolically ripe. They pick early, so had started harvest 10 days before the Glass Fire broke out. The Cabernet Sauvignon in their Phoenix vineyard was still out, but they managed to pick it the morning after the fire broke out, before the smoke was able to take effect.  Most who picked early are in agreement that the hot, dry conditions were in their favour. Promontory saw only eight inches of rain, versus the 30 of a normal year. But that hydric stress helped them – it meant the crop was small and the vines shifted to ripening the fruit earlier, so even though they picked on 22nd August they had no pyrazines. As Will Harlan says, in some ways, “The stars aligned”.  The 2017 vintage might have prompted people to start thinking about climate change, but 2020 was a real wake-up call for the region. It prompted Martin Reyes MW to try and create a community around climate action. Eventually, working alongside Anna Brittain, he founded Napa RISE (standing for Resilience Innovation Sustainability Empowerment), a climate and wine symposium that first took place in 2022 (with the 2023 symposium currently underway). It’s early days, but they’re “trying to build into the DNA [of Napa RISE] this notion of action”. He’s keen to avoid a conference focused on discussing concepts, but an industry convention that drives change.  One part of that conversation is inevitably fire – and a session last week focused on forestry management. “The relationship with fire we have is complicated – but it can be a healthy relationship,” Reyes tells me.   Controlled burning has long been a part of life for indigenous peoples – both in North America and Australia, where wildfires have now become a threat. In the US, controlled burning was officially banned in 1911 when the Weeks Act was introduced, but California is gradually realising the need for its reintroduction.  “Agroforestry was happening before conservation took it off the table,” Empting (of Domain W. Harlan) tells me. He talks about how when the previously evicted Miwok people were allowed to return to Yosemite, they were horrified by what they saw – where “conservation” had destroyed the ecosystems. For native peoples, seasonal work like controlled burns was a way of life – seen as their responsibility to the land. But it was a responsibility that colonialism robbed from them, and didn’t take on.  At the Pepperwood Preserve, native peoples do controlled burns. Empting visited to explore the practice and see if it’s something they could take up as part of their stewardship of the land. The challenge today is the paperwork – and politics. Permits are difficult to obtain, the fire department is reluctant and has to be involved, and then there are the neighbours to contend with.  Hobbs highlights that it’s not just that there aren’t enough controlled burns, but that manmade structures have taken over swathes of land – and they burn hotter, leading fires to rage in less predictable ways.  Of course, as with 2017, the 2020s are already being marred by rumour and reputation of a smoke-tainted year. The reality is so much more complex – and, although I haven’t tasted enough to make pronouncements on the vintage, there are some brilliant wines. Of course you’ll need to choose carefully, but for top producers there is nothing to be gained by releasing wine that is anything less than flawless.  While the fires have left scars, the land’s capacity for renewal is remarkable – with vibrant vegetation flourishing in amongst the scorched trees. The 2020 vintage wasn’t the first to see such challenges and it won’t be the last. The soils can recover, and so can the people, but a sustainable way to manage these threats is essential to long-term survival. Read more about California or browse all California listings

Wildfires have become a yearly occurrence for Napa and Sonoma – but what is their impact, and how can producers handle the effects? Sophie Thorpe spoke to some of Northern California’s leading producers to investigate the issue

Talking to Napa and Sonoma’s top producers about wildfires and the 2020 vintage – Paul Hobbs, Harlan, Kistler, Occidental, Promontory, Mondavi and more

Wildfires and the 2020 vintage in California

The way the wind blows

“It’s difficult when you don’t have vines, a winery, any equipment or money,” Stéphane Dief – co-owner and winemaker at Clos Manou – tells me. “You say you want to be a winemaker, but it is complicated. Our advantage, however, was being able to do exactly what we wanted.” Over the last 25 years, he and his wife Françoise have slowly grown their tiny estate in the northern reaches of the Médoc, beyond Saint-Estèphe, where they make wine that offers some of the best value in the region.  Saint-Christoly-Médoc – the miniscule village that is home to their domaine – is where Stéphane grew up, while Françoise is from less than 15km away. Although Françoise’s family had vines, neither she nor Stéphane were working in the production side of the business, but they fell in love with wine. Via his brothers-in-law – who worked at Ch. Mouton Rothschild and Ch. Rauzan-Sègla – Stéphane started tasting some special wines, buying older vintages at auction – and was soon determined to give it a go himself.  Together, the couple bought a mere 12 ares and produced their first vintage in 1998, 600 bottles that they labelled as Clos Manou – “Clos” because they felt it wasn’t grand enough to use “Château”, and “Manou”, Stéphane’s nickname. It was such a success that their hobby rapidly became a full-time gig and the duo left their day jobs in 2000.  In some ways it doesn’t sound like they were doing anything remarkable. They wanted to make attractive wines that reflected their site, and to do so with precision and care. Their ambitions were modest. And yet, for Bordeaux, their small-scale, hand-crafted approach was – and is – atypical.  They sought out specific parcels of old vines, those planted before clonal material became commonplace, favouring the natural complexity of massal selection. They chose to work only with high-density vineyards – around 10,000 vines per hectare, a point at which Stéphane feels the vines self-regulate, meaning there’s no need to green harvest and often less de-leafing required.  In principle, they are close to organic – however, in a bid to avoid dependency on copper, they use bio-controls that aren’t permitted under organics, specifically phosphonic acid. They don’t use any herbicides, insecticides or chemicals – but believe that copper, as a heavy metal that kills soil’s microbiome, is best used minimally, and they prefer to use something that doesn’t leave trace levels in the final wine.   Almost everything is done by hand, with 12 full-time employees working on the estate. There are no protocols or routines. “We do things by watching, observing our vines and drawing conclusions and echoing those conclusions the following year,” Stéphane says.  The 2003 vintage was a turning point. Robert Parker gave the wine 93 points – an incredible score for such a modest Médoc, writing that it was “better than many of the vintage’s ‘big’ names”, “drop-dead-gorgeous” and a “prodigious effort”. Given the critic was at his peak, his influence was significant – and suddenly Clos Manou was in enormous demand.  “C’est notre métier, mais notre passion aussi," Stéphane says – “It’s our profession, but it’s our passion too." That explains perhaps why, for 11 years, he didn’t take a day off. “My wife wasn’t very happy with me,” Stéphane tells me, laughing cheekily.   Today they have 18.5 hectares of vines, scattered between Saint-Christoly-Médoc and Couquèques, all within a three-kilometre radius. They sit across three different soil types – gravel over clay, limestone-clay and sand, with some sitting very close to the estuary itself. Stéphane thinks of them as three children – one of which, the gravel over clay, is naturally gifted. But just because the other two need a bit more work, doesn’t mean they are any lesser. There is, he says, no such thing as “un petit terroir”. One special parcel dates back to 1850. Planted before phylloxera swept through the region, it’s managed to survive thanks to its sandy soils. In certain vintages they make a special “Cuvée 1850” from the block.  Despite the vines averaging 45 years in age, the yields are generally good – sitting at around 50hl/ha. Stéphane emphasises that low yields don’t equate to better quality, necessarily – the balance of your vines is what matters most.  It’s undeniable that climate change has been a benefit here, beyond Saint-Estèphe, where once it was a struggle to ripen fruit. In 2018, Clos Manou had 15% alcohol – but, thanks to their clay soils, the pH was a vibrant 3.52, bringing great freshness to balance the wine. He’s still thinking about the long-term impact of the rising mercury, however, and experimenting with small portions of whole-bunch, inspired by the likes of Guillaume Pouthier at Les Carmes Haut-Brion. Stéphane feels that it can add tension and make the wines feel more dynamic, even on just 5% of the blend. “On est des vrais vignerons – comme il y a en Bourgogne," Stéphane tells me ("We are true vignerons – as there are in Burgundy"). Unlike larger properties where there are various directors who influence decisions – it’s just them deciding what to do. Despite looking further afield for their inspiration, he and Françoise don’t want to go against the grain of the region. “We want to be a bit unorthodox, but we are nevertheless Bordelais,” he says.  Clos Manou is, in essence, a family business. There’s nothing remarkable about their modest ways, but their freedom to start with a blank page has allowed them to create something that is no longer the norm. Inspired by the Bordeaux of yesteryear, everything is low-tech yet done with great precision. The wines are fresh and pure, yet distinctly savoury and earthy – with a natural intensity that points to their old vines. You can see the addition of larger oak and amphorae in more recent vintages, bringing more vibrancy. They are somehow rustic yet fine. Little has changed here since 1998; let’s hope that that remains the case, and the Dief family continue to craft humble expressions of Bordeaux that are very much extraordinary.  Browse all listings of Clos Manou or read more about Bordeaux 

At first glance, Clos Manou might seem run-of-the-mill. But this small estate in the Médoc is far from it. We sat down with Stéphane Dief to talk about how a hobby became his life, the freedom of a fresh start, and why his family’s wines are worth seeking out

We talk to Stephane Dief about his family estate in the Medoc, Clos Manou – one of Bordeaux’s best-value wines and best-kept secrets

Why Clos Manou is anything but ordinary

Anything but ordinary: Clos Manou

If you haven’t already heard about Baettig, we urge you to read some of our previous coverage of this rising-star producer. Conceived by Francisco Baettig (the winemaker behind Errázuriz, Seña and Chadwick) and Carlos de Carlos (previously Commercial Director at Errázuriz, he now works for Paul Hobbs) over dinner in London in 2010, Baettig is one of Chile’s most exciting projects – crafting site-driven wines from Malleco and the Maule.  The duo spent years seeking out the right site – realising that to find vineyards that met their standards, they’d have to plant them themselves. In 2013 they put their first vines in the ground, planting Burgundy clones of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in Traiguén, in the Malleco province. Both Francisco and Carlos had family ties to the region – making it seem like fate.  The site, however, wasn’t chosen purely for their emotional connection to the area, but with an eye on sustainability and quality. This is one of Chile’s southernmost wine regions, with red clay, clay loam and volcanic soils, cool conditions, 25% less sunshine than the Central Valley and – most importantly – plentiful rainfall, allowing them to dry-farm the vines and produce restrained, Burgundy-inspired Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with moderate alcohol levels, bright acidity and vibrant fruit. Francisco is clear that the quality of their vine material has been key to their success – as it is only relatively recently that Chile had access to high-quality, clean Burgundy clones.  While Baettig started with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, the producer has since added Cabernet Sauvignon from old vines in the Maule to the range, unsurprising given Francisco made his name making Chile’s icon wines.  Fourteen years after they first imagined their joint project, we welcomed Francisco to London to look back at the Baettig journey so far – tasting through a vertical and exploring how the project has developed and evolved.  About the Baettig range  There are currently two tiers to the Baettig range, with the idea that a top tier, single-vineyard offering that will be their “Grand Cru” of sorts, is likely to be added in the future. The current range comprises:  Vino de Viñedo: these wines are a vineyard selection designed for earlier drinking, effectively a “village” equivalent. The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir at this level go by the name of Los Parientes (“the relatives”, a reference to the closeness of the different parcels), while the Cabernet Sauvignon is called Los Compadres (“close friends” – a tribute to the growers with whom they’re working). Los Compadres is sourced from various dry-farmed, cool plots in the more coastal areas of the Maule, with the vines all over 30 years in age and some up to 150 years old, creating lively, juicy and intense expressions of Cabernet Sauvignon. The first vintage of the Los Parientes Pinot Noir and Chardonnay was 2019, while the first vintage of the Los Compadres was 2021. These may be the entry point to the Baettig range, and they are made to drink on release, but they also – like good village Burgundy – have capacity to evolve and will only benefit from an extra year or two in bottle.  Selección de Parcelas: their “Premier Cru” equivalent range, made in smaller volumes from specific parcels and built for longer ageing. These wines see a higher proportion of new oak and longer ageing prior to release. The Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are labelled under the Los Primos name (“the cousins”), while the Cabernet Sauvignon is named Los Padrinos (“the godparents”). The Pinot Noir comes from their El Primo, Chuir, and La Cuñada parcels, chosen for their elegance, structure and ageing potential; while the Chardonnay comes from the Triángulo and Llaima parcels, creating mineral, vertical wines that are all about tension. The first Los Primos Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were made in 2016, with the first wide release from 2017, and Los Padrinos was first made in 2022. Volumes of these wines are tiny, with just 300 to 350 cases made of each of the Selección de Parcelas.  About the winemaking The emphasis with Baettig is firmly on expressing site – and as such the winemaking is very “light touch”, allowing the sense of place to shine through in the wines. The style has evolved, with the use of oak reduced a little from the earliest vintages, generally shifting toward less time in barrel, larger casks and smaller portions of new wood. The fruit is all hand-picked and fermented with indigenous yeasts. The cooler sites, combined with the way Baettig farms and when they harvest, produces fruit with naturally low pH, allowing them to use minimal amounts of sulphur (although with sufficient doses to allow the wines to age and be shipped around the world).  For the Chardonnay, it is all whole-cluster pressed and cold-settled, prior to native ferment in old French barriques. Malolactic fermentation on the Chardonnay is left to happen or not, according to the vintage conditions (with often around a third going through). The élevage for all the wines varies according to the vintage, but the Los Parientes Chardonnay normally spends eight to 10 months in cask, with up to 15% new oak, while the Los Primos spends between 10-15 months in barrel with up to 35% new oak. The new oak for the Chardonnay is all larger 300- and 400-litre casks. A portion of the Pinot Noir is whole-bunch fermented (typically 10-20%), with the rest de-stemmed – with fermentation all in used oak. The Los Parientes stays in barrel for around eight to 10 months, with up to 15% new oak; for the Los Primos, it is 15-16 months, with up to 40% new wood – with the new oak all 300-litre barrels.  For the Cabernet Sauvignon, the fruit is all de-stemmed. Fermentation temperatures are low at around 24-28˚C, with maceration for a maximum 20 days, given the natural concentration and structure of the fruit. The Los Compadres is aged for 10 months in French oak (20% new), while the Los Padrinos spends 15 months in 65% new oak (including around a third in larger 300-litre barrels).  Tasting through the range, there is a clear stamp of style – a flinty restraint, with the emphasis on crunchy fruit and minerality, vibrant acidity, moderate alcohols. While some of the earlier vintages might have offered more overt oak in their youth, this has integrated with time in bottle – and the wines offer at most a subtle spicy complexity. They are beautifully judged, pure expressions of Traiguén.   About the vintages 2022: Generally speaking, 2022 was an outstanding vintage. In Malleco, the year was cooler than average. Winter was relatively dry, with little rain in spring and cool conditions including frost in September and October, leading to particularly low yields. Weather warmed up in February before cooling again in March and April, which also saw quite a lot of rain. This resulted in a late harvest of a small crop of fruit, with great intensity, concentration and excellent tension – with high acidity levels retained thanks to the cooler conditions. In the Maule, the season was moderately warm, producing a more generous yield than further south but similarly high quality. The weather here was warmer in December and temperatures close to average from January through to March. Moderate rainfall in March and April refreshed the season and eased the final stage of ripening, with the fruit offering good acidity, colour and aromatic intensity. The 2022s offer an up-front richness of fruit, with good backbone of acidity – in some ways a combination of 2020 and 2021.  2021: The 2021 vintage was a cooler year – producing wines where the emphasis was on elegance, finesse and tension, perfect for the Baettig style. The winter in Malleco was rainy, with 650mm of water over June and July, laying the groundwork for a good budbreak. Spring was dry and reasonably warm, although a late frost in September reduced yields. Summer was cool, with some rain over December and January (90 mm in total across the two months), allowing the fruit to ripen slowly ahead of a late harvest, developing great aromatic complexity and preserving the acidity levels. These should age particularly well.  2020: This was a warmer year versus 2021, producing richer-styled wines. There was plenty of rain in June and July, however this dried up in August, with little rain for the rest of the growing season. Temperatures rose and the hot, dry conditions allowed the grapes to ripen easily, although an early harvest was key to preserve freshness and tension to complement their natural intensity and generosity. Offering a little more flesh, particularly at this more youthful stage, versus the 2021s, the 2020s are juicy and open, yet with everything in balance. The one we’d pick for drinking now, although there is certainly no rush here.  2016: A rainy winter led on to a cool and rainy spring, with later-than-normal flowering and fruit set and a small crop. Summer was dry and largely warm, and the fruit was harvested early, producing wines that combine refreshing acidity and good density of fruit. The 2016 Los Primos Pinot Noir and Chardonnay were never released, the tiny volumes of Baettig’s first crop, so it was a real treat to taste these special bottles, offering a glimpse of the wines’ ageing potential – with both drinking beautifully.  The vertical: tasting Baettig Chardonnay 2022 Vino de Viñedo Los Parientes Chardonnay: This was really showing well, even though it has only just been released. It’s tight, full of energy, with a punch of minerality, bright taut citrus and crisp green apple. It’s lean and sleek, but with a fleshy, juiciness that makes it hard to resist now. A wine that’s singing. Aged for eight months in 15% new oak. Production: 7,254 bottles  2021 Vino de Viñedo Los Parientes Chardonnay: There’s a lick of lime curd on the nose here, with tightly wound greengage emerging with air. It’s pure and linear, driven with its intense, stony purity, but there’s a pleasing fatness to the fruit behind, with a mouth-wateringly juicy finish and long, saline tang to the finish. Aged for 10 months in only used oak. Production: 16,909 bottles  2020 Vino de Viñedo Los Parientes Chardonnay: The warmth of the 2020 vintage, combined with the cool climate of Traiguén and Baettig’s trademark flinty, lean style, has created a gorgeous Los Parientes in 2020. Now with a few years in bottle, it’s drinking beautifully. The wine remains taut – dominated by vibrant citrus that drives through its core, and the bright acidity brings incredible tension. Yet, there’s also a softness to the wine, with a suppleness to the palate and its ample riper stone fruit that flawlessly complements the mouthwatering zest of the long finish. Punches well above its weight. Aged for 10 months in 10% new oak. Production: 15,240 bottles  2021 Selección de Parcelas Los Primos Chardonnay: The 2021 Los Primos is incredibly impressive – and the step up from Los Parientes clear. There’s a creamy, lactic note on the nose, working alongside lemon curd, honeysuckle and bright citrus and green fruit. There’s a lushness to the fruit, with gorgeous length and energy, outstanding tension and an everlasting finish, with stony, saline minerality that lingers long after the wine is gone. You can drink this now, but it will be even better if you can give it a couple of years in bottle. Aged for 15 months in 35% new oak. Production: 3,480 bottles  2020 Selección de Parcelas Los Primos Chardonnay: Much more open now than the 2021, the 2020 Los Primos is rich and concentrated, with riper white peach fruit and honeyed complexity. There’s a softness to the wine, reminiscent of the suppleness of the 2020 Los Parientes, but additional depth here. It’s round and enticing, still with a backbone of taut acidity, and a long finish with just a touch of oak spice. Hard to resist now, drink this over the next five years. Aged for 15 months in 38% new oak. Production: 4,069 bottles  2016 Selección de Parcelas Los Primos Chardonnay: The first vintage of Selección de Parcelas, with the very first fruit from the Baettig vines, and never released. The 2016 is showing some beautiful development, with honey, sweeter plump peach and nutty complexity. Cooked apple and dried mango sit alongside a zing of limey citrus, with a line of bright acidity that runs through the palate and brings lovely energy. Gorgeous. Aged for 16 months in only used oak. Production: 2,160 bottles  Pinot Noir  2022 Vino de Viñedo Los Parientes Pinot Noir: There is 10% whole-bunch in this vintage, and combined with the youth of the wine, it is shining on the nose – with overt pepper spice, floral perfume and stemmy complexity that makes it aromatically enticing. The palate is pure and bright, with juicy but concentrated mulberry and black cherry, with a saline edge and fresh, chalky purity. Incredibly moreish. Aged for eight months in 14% new oak. Production: 13,205 bottles 2021 Vino de Viñedo Los Parientes Pinot Noir: For this cooler vintage, Francisco opted to reduce the portion of whole-bunch fermentation a little. The wine is bright, crunchy and pure, with a lovely restraint from the extended growing season. Floral tones (rose, violet) sit alongside crunchy red fruit, leading to a palate of effortless purity and length. Vibrant, mouth-wateringly fresh with an earthy, saline finish and very fine tannins. Aged for 10 months in 10% new oak. Production: 13,400 bottles  2020 Vino de Viñedo Los Parientes Pinot Noir: This is in a lovely spot right now – sharing the supple texture of its Chardonnay sibling. It is beautifully elegant, with tealeaf aromatics, gentle spice and crunchy berry fruit. Structurally, it is fine-boned – the fine, chalky tannins adding a graceful outline to the mouth-watering fruit. Gloriously fresh, the finish is saline with the slightest hint of smoke. Dangerously drinkable and incredible value. Aged for 10 months in 10% new oak. Production: 15,180 bottles  2021 Selección de Parcelas Los Primos Pinot Noir: This is such a baby at the moment – and clearly needs time to reveal its full potential. It’s much more savoury than the 2020. There’s some gunflint reduction, but beneath that smoky intensity and an earthiness, alongside the subtle florals, bright redcurrant and raspberry. There’s more grip to the tannin, a tightness to the fruit, but the structure and length offer great promise. A wine of tension. Made with 20% whole-bunch fermentation, aged for 16 months in 34% new oak. Production: 3,409 bottles 2020 Selección de Parcelas Los Primos Pinot Noir: It’s immediately evident that this is Baettig’s Premier Cru – with notably more concentration and complexity. The warmer 2020 vintage produced a vibrant and intense wine, with vivid, juicy red cherry and raspberry fruit, complemented by more delicate floral notes. Alongside the impressive weight of fruit, there’s a pomegranate freshness and mineral line, with the slightest hint of smoke and spice, and a framework of superfine, supple tannins. Made with 20% whole-bunch fermentation, aged for 15 months in 38% new oak. Production: 4,102 bottles 2016 Selección de Parcelas Los Primos Pinot Noir: This was, for me, the star of the tasting. The nose was effortlessly complex, shifting between soft florals, spice, violets and crunchy red fruit, with a dried-earth note too. There was a glorious suppleness here, silken and flowing across the palate, with a fine, chalky texture to the tannin, juicy cherry and a subtle, savoury finish. Beautiful. Everything was destemmed in this vintage and the wine aged exclusively in used oak. Production: 1,440 bottles  Cabernet Sauvignon  2022 Vino de Viñedo Los Compadres Cabernet Sauvignon: This is a glorious expression of bright, modern Cabernet – pure and pristine with crunchy red and black fruit, vivid pencil shavings and an herbaceous green-pepper edge. There’s such intensity to the palate, with its tart red berry fruit, mouth-wateringly fresh and juicy. The abundant fruit is framed by graphite tannins, leading on to a spicy finish. Aged in 20% new French oak for 10 months. Production: 17,000 bottles  2022 Selección de Parcelas Los Padrinos Cabernet Sauvignon: The first vintage of Los Padrinos is only offering more since we first tasted it in February. It’s strikingly different to Los Compadres – a much darker, spicier and smokier expression. The two wines share their tension, with firm acidity that forms the backbone of this wine and drives the long finish, as well as gloriously crunchy and fresh fruit. The nose is savoury and brooding at first, but sweeter plum and cassis fruit lurks behind, while there’s a tart, bright bite to the palate. It still feels compact at this youthful stage, the power and gum-drying tannins needing time to unfurl. Aged for 15 months in 65% new French oak. Production: 1,800 bottles  Explore all current listings of Baettig or read more Editorial

Last month, we welcomed Francisco Baettig to London, guiding us through a vertical of his stunning Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and new Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile’s south. Here, we unpack the Baettig story, style and how each vintage of this exciting project is drinking right now

Tasting through a vertical of Baettig’s Chilean wines: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Traiguen, Malleco, and Cabernet Sauvignon from the Maule

Baettig vertical, tasting these top Chilean wines

The story so far: Baettig vertical

The 2020 vintage in California is not one that the state’s natives are likely to forget. Wildfires ravaged the region, and the wines – now being released – are being tainted just by the idea of the smoke that those fires produced. But there is much more to be said about the year – which was also harvested and made in the midst of the covid pandemic, only adding to the immense stress of the season.  The winter was relatively warm and dry, with cool weather at flowering, a mild spring and then a hot, dry summer, although there continued to be a significant diurnal shift – perfect for ripening grapes, retaining freshness and developing aromatics. The heat struck just as producers like Cathy Corison were picking, and – unlike in 2018 or 2019 when the harvest was long – winemakers mostly looked to get the fruit in as quickly as possible. Almost everyone agrees that 2020 was set to be a fantastic vintage before the fires – with small, thick-skinned berries that had great promise. As Steve Matthiasson told us, “It was going to be an epic season.”  It’s important to be aware of the key dates for the fires. The LNU Lightning Complex started on 17th August, however it was the Glass Fire that posed the most significant threat to Napa, with that second blaze sparked on 27th September near the Silverado Trail, east of St Helena.  There are producers that chose to make no wine in 2020 (including Colgin, Joseph Phelps and Shafer), producers who made all their wines, and producers who made a reduced range. Insurance was a challenge. Those who had crop insurance weren’t able to claim if they picked any fruit – so many didn’t take the risk of harvesting what could have been flawless fruit, but also could have been tainted, leaving growers in the lurch, while those that farm their own vineyards were much more likely to give it a go. Some producers were able to share the financial burden with growers, but that wasn’t a viable choice for everyone.  Many producers frantically tested for the phenolic compounds responsible for smoke taint, but the local laboratories couldn’t handle the influx, with tests taking weeks. Some resorted to sending samples to as far away as Australia, while others were fortunate enough to be able to test in house. Mike and Leah Smith of Myriad Cellars, for example, tested all their fruit twice, sending it to Canada, to guarantee there were no free or bound phenols that could taint the wine. Togni reportedly tested their wines, but – having received the official all-clear and bottled the wines – decided not to release them as they weren’t quite convinced.  Micro-ferments were another option to help producers decide whether or not to pick, in theory testing to see if the smoke taint emerged once the fruit was fermented. The nature, however, of the compounds responsible for the taint means that they can emerge in bottle rather than immediately, meaning this offered no guarantees. There were so many complex factors at play, reputational and financial, as well as practical, that made the year a quagmire for producers to navigate. But it doesn’t mean the year should be written off entirely by wine lovers – we’ve tasted some beautiful wines from the vintage that are more than worthy of your attention.  Producers are generally divided by those who picked before and after the Glass Fire – and those who picked before that fateful date in Napa had no issues with smoke taint. There are many factors when it comes to smoke taint (covered more extensively here), including the distance from the fire and the direction of the wind, making it an inexact science. As Steve Matthiasson flagged, however, there was a challenge with ripening in 2020 – with the haze from fires reducing the light level and meaning some grapes weren’t necessarily as phenolically ripe as normal. This, combined with the fact that smoke taint compounds are held in the skins, means that cautious producers tended towards lighter extraction, and in a handful of instances producers even made rosé instead of red wine.  The hot, dry growing season meant that harvest dates were naturally set to be early, but producers who already tend to pick on the earlier side were particularly favoured. Corison had all her fruit in two and a half weeks before the Glass Fire. Her challenge was to ensure smoke didn’t get into the winery, tainting the ferments rather than fruit on the vine. She installed two industrial-grade air filters to keep the smoke out and the resulting wines are “beautiful”. The key for her was to pick as fast as she could, but the ripening season was “almost perfect”, although yields are down around 25% because of the hot conditions.  Maya Dalla Valle is another producer who made a full vintage – one she’s proud of despite it being the most stressful she’s ever produced. Their team picked in the first week of September. They washed the grapes – something that some producers do as standard (eg Dominus) – just in case there was any ash that had drifted from the first fire, using two vibrating sorting tables to shake off the excess water before it went into tank. They also chose to use a little less new oak at first, but after the first racking upped the proportions.  At Dominus, the team picked between 2nd and 27th September, with yields 40% lower than normal due to the heat and drought. They found extra selection was required with shrivelled berries from the dramatic heat spikes seen during the season. Robert Mondavi, however, only managed to make the early-picked whites and Pinot Noir from their more coastal sites, with no Cabernet from 2020.   The conditions forced the team at Promontory to pick early, and while they were already pulling back on harvest dates, they feel the 2020 season was a nudge they needed – a risk that has more than paid off with the stunning wine they produced. For Will Harlan and Cory Empting, the dry start to the season meant the vines and cropload were small, allowing the fruit to ripen sufficiently in the compact season. For them, the year is closest to 2011 or 1998, a year that will likely be consistently underrated and overperform. As vines act as a natural firebreak, few vineyards suffered any long-term damage – however Eisele is an exception, with 90 acres of hillside lost, and 1,000 vines that will need replanting. Fortunately, all their fruit was picked before the fire raged through the property.   With so much unknown about smoke taint, it’s unsurprising that critics seem to be cautious about the year. Reviews and scores are mixed. Vinous’s Antonio Galloni is quick to applaud the efforts producers made in the remarkable year, but feels that some of the wines aren’t very good. He notes, as Steve Matthiasson did, that with nature forcing some producers’ hands with harvest dates, some wines have coarse tannins, however he finds less pronounced smoke taint than in the 2017s.  Jeb Dunnuck advises that it is a year to approach “with extreme caution”, given the unpredictability of smoke taint, however states that “there are some terrific wines” – highlighting those from Bond, Carter, Crocker & Starr, Dalla Valle, Harlan, Paul Hobbs and Spottswoode, to name a few.   Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW (The Wine Independent) compares the growing season to that of 2017, but feels the resulting wines – at their best – are riper and weightier, with more purity. Although there are some wines marked by smoke taint, others are “wonderfully impressive” (indeed, she’s already given Harlan and Promontory 100 points).   The 2020 vintage is far from simple, but it shouldn’t be dismissed totally. There are some beautiful wines, totally unmarred by the year’s conditions. We won’t pretend there aren’t wines that are lesser, although we have to admit this is on hearsay alone based on our tastings so far, but – at the top of the quality spectrum, where finances allow the attention to detail required to achieve excellence – there is nothing for producers to gain by releasing flawed wines. Take these wines one by one, assessing their worth and value, and you’re guaranteed to be rewarded.  The vintage in brief  -  A vintage set to be remembered for both wildfires and the covid pandemic  -  Not every producer in the region made wine, with smoke taint an issue for some  -  A challenging year that favoured producers who pick early  -  A hot, dry season that made for low yields (reduced by 20-50%) and concentrated wines  -  Rich, ripe and concentrated  -  Despite the challenges, there are some stunning wines to be found  Browse all 2020 Napa listings or read more about California, including our dive into the issues surrounding wildfires and smoke taint  

No one is likely to forget the 2020 vintage – least of all Californians who saw their state swept by wildfires. We caught up with some of Napa’s leading producers to talk about the rest of the growing season, the implications of the fires and the style of the wines that were produced

Everything you need to know about 2020 in Napa – a challenging year with wildfires, yet some stunning wines. We talk to top producers about the vintage.

Napa 2020 vintage report

Napa 2020: digging into the difficult year 

The state of Indiana is probably best known as the home of the 200-lap motor race, the Indy 500, but it is little known that it is home to America’s first commercial winemakers: a group of French-speaking Swiss settlers, who made their way from the Vaud to the not-yet-a-state of
Indiana in the late 18th century.  Unfortunately, the past two centuries has been unkind to the wine ambitions of the early settlers despite being home to vast swathes of vine-loving limestone; instead, the Hoosier state is more interested in corn and soybeans than grapes and it was in this rural farming environment that a young Jeb Dunnuck grew up, far from the burgeoning winelands of the western seaboard.  Raised in a non-wine drinking family, his late start in wine was clearly no handicap: in 2013, the world’s most important wine critic hired him. “I knew I’d found a younger version of myself,” wrote Robert Parker at the time. Parker had been a lawyer that turned his hand to writing wine reviews in the late 1970s. Dunnuck was a baby when The Wine Advocate was first published but in a similar vein to Parker, he had another career before wine paid the mortgage.  An aerospace engineer by training, he caught the wine bug while working for the listed security and aerospace firm Lockheed Martin in upstate New York. He was – and remains – an outdoorsy type and at weekends he would drive three hours to go rock climbing; en-route he stumbled across a wine store, which led to the start of another hobby and a new career. “I would always stop at this tiny, eclectic wine shop that had a great selection of Bordeaux. I think that was where I probably bought my first bottle of wine, “he says. “My wife Traci was a teacher, and we didn’t make much money at the time, but I still remember hiding $20 to $30 a week so I could buy a different bottle every Friday. Some of the first wines I purchased in any quantity were 1990 and 1996 Bordeaux.” Now firmly ensconced in Boulder, which is to mountain bikers what Bordeaux is to wine lovers, Dunnuck recounts how he went from being an aerospace engineer saving up to buy a single bottle of wine at the weekend to respected wine critic. “In 2008, I created the TheRhoneReport website and started writing professionally about wine. I was lucky that I knew web programming, so I designed an online database and built the original site over a weekend. I still use the same database today,” he says. “I would work during the day at Ball Aerospace, then write for The Rhone Report from about 8pm to 2am every night. I did that for five years.” His work ethic and output clearly impressed: in 2013 an email appeared in his inbox from Robert Parker, asking Dunnuck to work for him and you don’t say no to Parker.  
The Parker Years The remit at The Wine Advocate included California, Washington and southern France, including the Rhône, and his lively tasting notes made a refreshing change. “It’s funny you say that, as I truly can’t stand flowery prose,” says Dunnuck.  “I approach the job with an engineering viewpoint as opposed to that of a writer; I’m here to solve problems and the purpose of JebDunnuck.com is to help subscribers find wines they like. You do that by tasting as broadly as possible, writing straightforward vintage reports, and doing your best to
describe and give candid opinions on the quality of the wines. That is the goal”.  But in 2017, just four years later, Dunnuck handed in his notice and went solo. “I loved working at The Wine Advocate, particularly in the early years, when Parker was heavily involved. However, I disagreed with the direction of the company and management, and thought it wasn’t a good fit for me as time went on,” he explains. Within months of
handing in his resignation, JebDunnuck.com was launched.  He retains the principles of an Advocate reviewer, basing his business on a subscription model and paying his way rather
than relying on wine associations or producer groups to fund his trips. 
Dunnuck Drinks 
While he might be known for his love of all things Rhône-related, he has now included Bordeaux into his roster of regions and publishes major reports, which include reviews of up to 1000 wines at a time, as well as smaller articles on other regions and individual producers.  But what we all want to know is what’s in his personal cellar? “I’m a Francophile so my cellar is mostly Rhône and Bordeaux,” he says, revealing he’s just bought a case each of the 2017 Janasse Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Vieilles Vignes, 2016 Château Sansonnet from Saint-Émilion, and the 2017 Domaine du Pegau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée Réservée, “but I drink plenty of wines from California’s Central Coast, Sonoma, Napa Valley, Washington, Italy and Spain.” What Rhône vintages should FINE+RARE’s clients be opening? In the Syrah-dominant 
northern Rhône, the wines of the noughties are all ready to be opened. “For lovers of young wines or those with little patience, 2014 is an early drinking, moderately concentrated vintage that has lots of upfront charm. I think one of the greatest vintages ever for the Northern Rhône, the 2015s are massive and structured wines that will reward bottle age. However, Crozes-Hermitage, some Saint-Joseph, and some Cornas are approachable today. Meanwhile, the 2016s are classic, elegant wines that will have early appeal as well yet also age
gracefully.” Vintage-wise, it’s not such a different story in the southern Rhône, home to the appellations of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Gigondas and more. If the label states 2009 or earlier, the drinking window has opened up and you should start enjoying; yes, you can open your 2010s but
there’s no rush. “Looking at younger vintages, the 2015s and 2016s should probably be held for a few more years, although there are plenty of 2016s drinking nicely, albeit in a youthful sense. 2016 is a great, great vintage for the southern Rhône, and the top wines are going to reward bottle age.” Dunnuck’s vintage is 1975. He’s clearly entered his working window in the past 10 years but will continue to hold and potentially improve for another 20 to 30 years. Based on the history of his home state’s wine scene, it’s clear he is already one of Indiana’s finest wine
exports.  Non-trade subscribers, can sign up to JebDunnuck.com for US$99 annually, which includes all reports, articles and reviews and Wine-Searcher listings. Cellar Tracker users can link their
cellared wines to Dunnuck’s reviews. In 2019, he reviewed 10,000 wines. 
Bordeaux 2019 En Primeur As the 2019s from Bordeaux begin to release, Dunnuck gives his picks for lesser known producers in the region. Looking in Bordeaux on the Right Bank and stepping outside the well-known names, some gems would be Château Badette, Château Sansonnet, Tour Saint-Christophe, Quinault l’Enclos, Château Barde-Haut, Château Ripeau, La Dominique, Clos Saint Julien, and Clos de Sarpe, among others. I absolutely love Jeremy Chasseuil’s Pomerol from Château Feytit-Clinet, and Château Laroque, under David Suire, has taken off as well.  On the Left Bank, some estates on the uptick would be Chateau Pédesclaux, Château Gloria, and Château Saint-Pierre in Saint Julien. I think Château Rauzan-Ségla is making their best wines ever while Château Labégorce and Marquis d’Alesme Becker, both under the helm of
Marjolaine de Coninck, are making brilliant wines today. Some other hidden gems would by Château Charmail, Clos Manou, Château Le Coteau in the Arsac region of Margaux, and Château Marojallia, just to name a few. While the US consumer doesn’t like second wines, given the incredible selection being made by the top estates, I’d wager the second wines today rival the grands vins of the past. The ship might have sailed already, but people should jump on the wines of Les Carmes Haut-Brion. Guillaume Pouthier is doing an incredible job there and is making world-class wines. I also think the dry whites from Olivier Bernard’s Clos des Lunes, which are based on Sémillon from old vines in Sauternes, don’t get the recognition they deserve.  Discover all Bordeaux listings or read more Editorial

Aerospace engineer turned wine critic Jeb Dunnuck talks to FINE+RARE about his trajectory from discovering wine to becoming one of the world’s leading voices on the Rhône, California and Bordeaux. 

Wine critic Jeb Dunnuck on his trajectory to becoming one of the world’s leading voices on the Rhône, California and Bordeaux. 

Jeb Dunnuck on finding his space

Jeb Dunnuck: Finding his space

I was hesitant about meeting Ivan Massonnat. The man who created Domaine Belargus seemed to fill easy stereotypes. A background in private equity. Lived in Paris. A passion for wine – and a dream to make it himself. Big scores and some pretty punchy prices for a brand-new estate from the Loire. Reading between the lines, I feared there was a lot of cash and possibly too much polish. Thankfully, I was wrong.  Created in 2018 and based in Anjou, Domaine Belargus has rapidly become one of fine wine’s hottest new names. The first wines were released in 2021, in the midst of the global pandemic, but had already earned serious acclaim. Yohan Castaing wrote in Decanter, “Remember this name, as its production should meet with resounding critical success in the coming years.” The wines received glowing reviews in Wine Spectator and the Wine Advocate – where Stephan Reinhardt declared it “one of the most spectacular new entries in the history of [the publication]”, granting a coveted 100-point score for its 2018 Quarts de Chaume Ultra. But that was just the beginning. Ivan Massonnat is a man with big plans – both for his own wines, and the region as a whole.  Wine was a part of life for Massonnat from a young age – with his grandfather farming a small vineyard in their village in the Savoie. But, despite helping at harvest time each year, he didn’t end up drinking wine until he was 20, when he was “instantly hooked”, he says. He fell in love with Burgundy and the concept of “vin de lieu” – wine of place.  Massonnat made his money in private equity, based in Paris but travelling the world, where fine dining – and fine wine lists – only fed his terroir obsession. Two decades ago he was looking for a country house for his family, and – not having a car – settled on the Loire. “The more I was spending time there, the more I realised that the region was totally misunderstood,” he says. Prior to the upheaval of the French Revolution and the subsequent arrival of mildew and phylloxera, the Loire was one of France’s most prestigious wine regions – home to the nation’s kings, the fruit of its vines were the royal court’s natural choice. Post-phylloxera, however, quality was scrapped in favour of quantity. “Its image started to blur,” says Massonnat.  Combine the region’s history with its two great, native varieties – Chenin Blanc and Cabernet Franc – and Massonnat saw “an incredible diamond in the rough”. Wine had become an increasingly large part of his life – tasting widely and visiting producers as much as possible, especially in Burgundy where vignerons such as Philippe Pacalet and Thibault Liger-Belair friends and mentors. But it wasn’t just a hobby – Massonnat was starting to think this could be more, the adventure that lay beyond the world of finance.  As the adage goes, the world of wine is a brilliant way to make a small fortune – provided you start out with a large one. Massonnat, however, didn’t underestimate the challenges and set about getting to grips with the mechanics of the business. “It started really to become a project 10 years ago,” he says – talking to importers, consultants, journalists and merchants. And, perhaps unsurprisingly given his successful career, Massonnat wasn’t looking to make any wine – he was determined to create something exceptional.  After a failed attempt to buy a Chinon estate in 2015, he turned his attention to great Chenin Blanc sites in Anjou Noir, between the Layon and Loire rivers – low-yielding hillsides where producers were struggling to make money and consequently there was land to buy. More than just availability, it was here that Massonnat saw great potential. The area’s dark, schist soils (cause for the “noir” in the region’s name) were littered with tiny appellations, echoing those of Burgundy, with a much hillier landscape, and the only Premier and Grand Cru vineyards in the region.  Between 2016 and 2018, Massonnat started visiting every vineyard he could find – looking for the exceptional. Then the local winemaker Patrick Baudouin introduced him to Jo Pithon – a legend of the Loire. Pithon had been making wine since 1978, a pioneer of organic farming, crafting fine dry and sweet wines – but the talented vigneron was by no means a businessman. By the early 2000s, his lack of commercial knowhow lost him the rights to his name, along with the majority of his vineyards – all but one plot, the Coteau des Treilles.  Massonnat met Pithon at the Angers wine fair in 2018; they got on well enough and he arranged to see Pithon’s vineyards the following day. The next morning, it was snowing and he regretted his decision . But then, at 8.32am on 6th February 2018, “It’s as if I was struck by lightning,” Massonnat says. Pithon had brought him to Coteau des Treilles. Long farmed organically, it has slopes at a gradient of 70%, embedded in a natural reserve, with a Mediterranean microclimate – and Massonnat knew instantly it was what he had been looking for. He bought the Pithon-Paillé operation that Jo Pithon had created a decade earlier.  Luck continued to be on Massonnat’s side – and he bought two other vineyards over the next six months, adding to his collection of prime sites. He managed to buy a quarter of the Quarts de Chaume appellation – the only Grand Cru vineyards in the region – which amazingly had been on the market for 10 years. “Nobody wanted to buy it… They were looking at it as a sweet wine terroir. But actually, a great terroir is a great terroir… you will do dry wines that are quite exceptional,” Massonnat explains. Then he snapped up a parcel in Savennières – the only plot to have been sold in the last seven years.  He hired a young team and Pithon stayed on to consult – and the real work began. “Belargus is a 100-year project. Everything we do, we have that horizon,” Massonnat says. The vines are all organically certified, but they’re now working towards biodynamic accreditation. Yields are low, and they’re trying gradually to increase them to around 35hl/ha in a good vintage (currently the highest they’ve managed is 29hl/ha). “Our obsession is to have the right maturity,” Massonnat explains. To battle Chenin Blanc’s natural heterogeneity, they pick in multiple passes, minimum two or three but up to six, depending on the year – and that is just for the dry wines. The general approach is minimalist – with stainless steel and mainly larger, old oak, indigenous yeast, letting malolactic fermentation happen (or not), keeping wines on the lees and using only essential levels of sulphur. A new winery is being planned to take things to the next level, with, for example, a Coquard press (allowing especially gentle pressing, commonly used in Champagne).  The project is about expressing the different terroirs of this corner of Anjou Noir. The first release (which sold almost instantly given the hype from the critics, with 80% exported) consisted of 14 cuvées – nine dry wines and five sweet, focusing on nine specific plots across the estate’s vineyards. The dry wines are powerful, tightly wound and intense – as Massonnat says, “It’s not wine for every day,” comparing them to white Hermitage or Corton-Charlemagne, wines that need food and time. Although 90% of production is dry, Massonnat confesses, “We are obsessed with sweet wines.” These, he feels, are what will really set Anjou Noir on the world stage – if, perhaps, what he calls “the sugar pandemic” ever stops.   With Massonnat’s finance background comes a flexibility that few others have. He hopes to hold all the wines back four years eventually, but for now it is between three and four – and he was able to release the 2020s before the exceptional 2019s. It also allowed him to set prices unusually high compared to his neighbours. “I had the luxury to make that choice for the region,” he explains. “I wanted to break the glass ceiling.” And although he thought it would take time – his first release proved that there were plenty of people ready to snap up the value that these wines offered, including many of those now priced out of Burgundy.  And this is his real dream – for the Loire to be recognised as Burgundy is, as “a tier-one region which any collector needs to have in its cellar, that needs to be understood”. It’s easy to imagine other producers might have bristled at an outsider’s arrival, pitching their very first wines at unheard-of prices; but Massonnat is intent on leading the crusade for the entire region, not just Domaine Belargus. He volunteered to run the Paulée d’Anjou – a celebration of the region’s wines – in 2019, and made it bigger and better. In 2021, he became co-president of the Quarts de Chaume appellation, alongside Marie Guégniard from Domaine de la Bergerie. Together they are fighting for the appellation to permit both dry and sweet wines, as Savennières technically can, and Quarts de Chaume could until 1996. “Anjou was a dirty word. And look at the revolution now,” he says.  Like the precious blue butterfly that gives its name to the Belargus estate, Massonnat isn’t happy sitting still – and he’s already got another project – having had the chance to buy the Chinon estate he’d originally had his eye on in 2015. The best wine he ever tasted was a Chinon, a 1989 from Charles Joguet. “There was a whole civilisation in this wine,” he told me, trying to explain how moving the experience had been. There’s no doubt that Massonnat is a canny businessman, but his vision is extraordinary – and one that he seems set to realise.  Explore all current listings of Domaine Belargus or read more Editorial 

Since it was created in 2018, Domaine Belargus has become a name to watch. Sophie Thorpe sat down with Ivan Massonnat, the man behind the project, to find out more about the Anjou estate and his vision for the region

With top reviews for its first releases, Anjou estate Domaine Belargus has become a name to watch. We sat down with founder Ivan Massonnat to find out more

Talking to Domaine Belargus’s Ivan Massonnat

The archangel of Anjou: Ivan Massonnat

Hobbs

Accounts

Your access is restricted because of your age.

Access forbidden

You must be over the legal age to view this page. Please verify your age to enter.

Are you over the legal age to purchase alcohol?

As a result of the quantity requested for delivery, we recommend using Third Party Shipping. If you proceed with our Shipping, there may be a delay to the selected ship date.

As a result of the quantity requested for delivery, we recommend using Third Party Shipping. If you proceed with our Shipping, you will not be able to define a ship date, and we will get in touch with you to arrange delivery.

Your order request will be cancelled. Are you sure you want to proceed?

Due to the quantity requested for collection, there may be a delay in meeting your requested collection date.

Due to the quantity requested for collection, it is not possible to define a collection date at this stage. Our team will liaise with the warehouse and contact you directly to confirm a suitable pick-up date.

For orders with a high value, we recommend shipping with a third party carrier. Items shipped with third parties will remain in banded OWCs.

Due to the quantity requested, you won’t be able to select a collection date. Please submit your request, and we will liaise with our warehouse and confirm the collection date with you directly.

Due to the quantity requested, you won’t be able to continue the purchase. Please select third party, or change the quantity (maximum 48 is allowed).

Due to the quantity requested, you won’t be able to select a shipping date at checkout. Please submit your request, and we will liaise with our warehouse and confirm the delivery date with you directly.

For up to 499 bottles in storage, the rate is 39¢/bottle per month or a $50 minimum monthly charge (this covers up to 142 bottles). For over 500 bottles, the storage rate is 35¢/bottle per month.

Standard storage rate

By selecting third-party shipping, you will take full responsibility for all aspects of legal compliance and authorize Vinfolio to transfer the items to the party specified in your instructions. Items shipped via third parties will remain in their original packaging.

Collection times are between 8:30am - 12pm & 1:30pm - 4:30pm, Monday to Friday. Wines at Will Call, that are not picked up within 10 business days, will be transferred to storage and subject to a $1.50 per bottle stocking fee.

Items to be sourced and shipped to our state-of-the-art fine wine storage facility for the best possible safe-keeping where you can arrange collection from our warehouse address in Napa.

Will Call (Napa)

You entered the incorrect password too many times. Your account has been temporarily locked. Please wait five minutes before trying again.

Forgot Password

We're in the final stages of upgrading to our brand-new trading platform. As part of this transition, we're currently migrating all customer-owned inventory to ensure a smooth and seamless experience.

Our new and improved platform will be ready for you on Friday, April 4.

Thank you for your patience - we can't wait to show you what's next.

Oops, something went wrong

We couldn't find any results to show here.

Please note: delivery, duty and VAT charges may apply

Our website is currently down for maintenance.

Maintenance Mode

Pre-authorizing a Payment Method enables your Account Manager to make payments on your behalf, without payment verification.

Pre-authorize

This transaction has been blocked by authentication failure.

Authentication failure

Your payment card has expired. Please check your details and try again.

Expired card

Insufficient funds to pay your balance. Please check your details and try again.

Insufficient funds

This transaction has been blocked by the payment provider due to possible fraudulent behaviour.

Transaction blocked

Please choose a different payment method and try again.

Unknown error

About description for demonstration purposes

shows all the items you currently store with us. These items can be sold, delivered or transferred.

At {shortName}

Your allocation will be cancelled. Are you sure you want to continue?

Your pre-order item will be deleted. Are you sure you want to continue?

Your delivery request will be cancelled. Are you sure you want to proceed?

represents all the wines that are in your possession and have been consumed.

This is the price you paid for this item.

Cost price

After adding your new address, you'll be redirected back to this page.

Create a new address

Your notification will be deleted. Are you sure you want to continue?

The lowest price you're willing to sell at. If the net price goes below this value your listing will be removed.

shows all the items that you have pre-ordered, including en primeur wines, and all the items on your watchlist.

Futures

You can set a floor price on items you're selling based on a % of current unit net value.

shows all the actions that you have taken on items in your Portfolio.

History

shows all the items that are currently in transit to or from {shortName}.

In transit

Local delivery is free for orders over HK$1,800 (to a single location). For orders below this value, delivery is HK$150 for up to four cases and HK$50 per case thereafter.

Shipping starts from €25 within Italy and €45 to Switzerland and the rest of Europe for up to 48 bottles (75cl). Costs vary by destination. Larger shipments can be quoted on request.

You can arrange collection from our Retail store on 22nd Floor, 8 Wyndham Street, Central Hong Kong.
Collection times are between 9:30am-13:00 and 14:00-18:00pm, Monday to Friday. We are closed on public holidays.

You can arranged collection from our warehouse STI INTERNAZIONALE SPA, on Viale del Lavoro, 57, 37051 Bovolone, Verona.
Pick-up hours are between 8:30 AM to 12:30 PM and 1:30 PM to 5:30 PM, Monday to Friday. We are closed on public holidays.

represents all the wines you currently have in your Portfolio that aren't stored with us. Press the

My cellar

Name

Net price

You do not have any invoices at this time.

shows all the items from your Portfolio that are currently on the market.

On sale

shows all the items you currently have in your Portfolio. You can perform individual actions on them from this page.

Overview

shows any items that are currently awaiting user action.

Pending

This is the dynamic market price of the item with trading margin removed.

Pre-authorised payments enable automatic transactions on your behalf, ensuring seamless and hassle-free payments. This allows recurring charges, subscriptions, or scheduled payments to be processed without manual approval each time.

The number of cases you wish to place on sale

Your catalogue item will be archived. Are you sure you want to continue?

Before you request delivery, you can adjust the quantity for each item in your selection below.

*Market price is dynamic and may change. At time of sale a 10% trading fee will be deducted from the final sale price.

Total market price*

Split into {caseSize} individual {bottleSize}cl bottles.

Title

Profile

This item is at FINE+RARE, available for storage, transfer or delivery.
 Most UK deliveries can be made within 3-5 working days, with next day delivery for London;
 an exact date will be available when arranging delivery.
 International deliveries have longer lead-times, please contact us for details.

This item is at FINE+RARE HOME Hong Kong, available for delivery or local pickup. Most Hong Kong deliveries can be made within 3 working days, an exact date will be available when arranging delivery. International deliveries have longer lead-times, please contact us for details.

Wines sold en primeur will be released from the producer after bottling, typically 18 months after the so-called campaign ends. Your wine will then be stored by FINE+RARE in a bonded warehouse until you decide to take delivery.

We will source this item from our network of suppliers and arrange shipment to FINE+RARE.
 The lead-time depends on many variables, but 6-12 weeks is an average estimate.
 Once your order is confirmed, we'll keep you updated on its ETA.
 Every item is checked on arrival by our expert team, with photographs available on request (please note that charges may apply).

Hobbs

Filter

Please wait

Related articles