Of the various Napa “Grand Cru” vineyards across the valley that sell fruit to to different wineries, which producers do you feel represent the best expression of each named vineyard and why? If you had to pick the single best producer, bottling, and vintage to represent it, what would it be?
At a macro level, this topic is so fascinating to me. Many producers from the valley source fruit from the same vineyard and it’s always interesting to compare the result that ends up in the bottle. Whether it’s winemaker, style, block designation, etc., they all have an impact. The fascination comes from the sheer fact the fruit is all sourced from the same vineyard, but the end-result can be dramatically different. Not for better or worse, just different.
Not sure if there’s even a general consensus on what an encapsulated “grand cru” list would be, but thinking specifically around the following vineyards (or add your own):
To Kalon
Las Piedras
Dr. Crane
Vine Hill Ranch
Also, I am fully aware that my question is analogous to a wide array of chefs being given the same raw ingredient only to come up with a dramatically different dishes. It doesn’t make the answers any less interesting.
I don’t think Pritchard Hill is a vineyard, but rather just an informal designation of an area part of the St Helena AVA. Please do correct me if I’m wrong though Perhaps IX Estate or Houyi?
To answer the original question - I think Vice Versa/Melka does a really good representation of Dr Crane.
so this is obviously an inherently flawed question to a degree because you are limited to vineyards which are big enough and willing to sell fruit to multiple winemakers. beyond beckstoffer there isn’t many who qualify.
i would say an alternative to a ‘vineyard’ would be take the vineyards on eastern oakville east of the trail-(backus, tiera roja, au paradis, dalle valle, weitz, saunders, oakville ranch) and compare those. they’re close enough geography wise where it makes sense.
I actually think there is an important nuance to the chef + same ingredients analogy. The fruit/location from these places comes from many different parts of the vineyard- for example, pretty sure Cakebread’s fruit on Vine Hill Ranch is not the same fruit/location that Bond gets. And I think this ultimately makes a big difference in the actual wines themselves.
Is the question asking for both a pinnacle vineyard, and then which is the best wine produced from that source?
For example: Dr. Crane vineyard, best examples, for me, are Myriad and Alpha Omega. I am “lucky” in not being overly entranced by Paul Hobbs and Realm is out of my budget, so I have no opinion on that Dr. Crane wine.
That’s totally fair and exactly why I tried to call out the block designation initially. I think if we are to take the SV designation down to a block level, it certainly changes the analogy and makes this conversation more insular.
The only reason to make the distinction of vineyards that sell fruit to multiple winemakers is that the alternative is to basically talk about estate vineyards at the AVA level and simply compare producers, which is a different question entirely. It’s more about who is taking the same fruit and turning it into the best representation of that particular vineyard. I get why it could be perceived as inherently flawed, but it’s key to the discourse on this, as I’m not really looking to compare estate producers at the AVA level.
I’m with you. I don’t think this should be limited to a vineyard that can push out fruit to so many. Part of the issue with a Beckstoffer vineyard is that you are given the fruit and you have very little say on how’s it grown and when it’s picked. Abreu picks fruit from different sides of the vines because they ripen at different rates, and as do parcels within the vineyard, so someone like Abreu has a much greater starting point than someone that is being handed fruit at someone else’s discretion.
Even the greatest vineyards in Burgundy can have one owner.
Perhaps IX Estate or Houyi?