Definitely worth a visit and a future visit again. Gavin Sharrocks was kind enough to host and show us the uniqueness of the blocks. We spent an hour or so in the vineyard understanding the unique terroir of the site, the uniqueness of the blocks and how the clones are matched with the terroir. Fascinating insights. Still new blocks being planted. Comparisons to Ketan’s Diamond Mountain vineyard are very apropos.
We tasted a few blending components for the 2024 vintage — Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon —some of which were just outstanding on their own and have all the markers of great Veeder wines with an homage to the OG days! Interesting seeing the mix of clones and oak treatment (e.g., Austrian / Baltic). IMHO, the components could be released on their own and still knock your socks off! These are not Napa biguns. These are refined, elegant and downright delicious!
Gotta be hard to start a new project given the escalating bottle costs and with many of us having full cellars.
Price point will be a challenge. Wallet fatigue is real. Another $200 Napa cab that has to win over buyers needs to be tasted before buying. My two cents but sounds like there are some interesting new projects that differ from what’s been happening in Napa.
@MICHAEL_C_R_O_M_W_E_L_L convinced us to take a trip up to Nacra and I’m so glad we did! Gavin is doing some really cool stuff up in Mt. Veeder and is an incredibly down-to-earth guy and very knowledgable and passionate about this work.
A lot of thought has gone into this project between site selection, soil analysis, varietal and clonal selection, head training, cover crop selection, and about a million other things that we didn’t get to discuss (or we did and I couldn’t fully comprehend lol).
An equal amount of effort has gone into the farming itself - there is a lot to maintain and manage at this property. Pruning was underway for their head-trained vines, which requires a lot of care and thought when trying to create the desired shape (it takes about 2 minutes per vine to make the proper pruning decisions).
If you have a genuine interest in learning about the farming-side of the equation, Gavin is your guy. Talking with him gave me deep respect for the challenges viticulturists face, the complexity of their work, and the sheer effort it takes in the vineyard to make great wine.
We tasted through some '24 samples of different blocks with different oak treatments, the '24 blend that’s “90% of the way there” according to Gavin, and a barrel sample of one of the '25 blocks that just finished malo.
My high-level observations from tasting:
The ‘24 single blocks we tasted all spiked in unique ways, but shared a single theme of perfumed and lifted aromatics, tremendous purity of fruit, yet were restrained and not overt.
The '24 blend was very compelling. It was a clear step up in concentration and power from the individual components we tasted, yet still retained the elegance and purity of fruit that the single blocks showed. This is case where the final product is greater than the total sum of its parts. There’s tons of structure in this wine, but the tannins were surprisingly soft for a mountain cab and not as rustic as I would have expected. I really enjoyed this.
The '25 we tasted showed even more purity of fruit than the '24s. Not sure if this is a function of youth, vintage, site, or some combination thereof, but I’d definitely want to follow up on its progression next year.
If you’re a fan of restrained, classically-styled cabernet and want to support someone who’s passionate about farming and cares deeply about what’s happening in the vineyard, I highly recommend keeping close tabs on what Gavin is doing at Nacra Estate.
I’m sold solely on the farming. Did you discuss about potential pricing? I’m curious about this project but I don’t wanna get burn from the high bottle cost. I read about Aerika’s estate bottling potential cost from their farming perspective and immediately nope out. Was Nacra’s farming at the same scale as Aerika?
I actually didn’t ask that. Gavin mentioned they got a ton of rain up there, but my guess is that they probably have to minimally irrigate to get through the hot spells up there. Worth asking him though if you’re curious
I can only echo what charlie said. Definitely one of the best tastings/experiences i had when i visited in the fall. Im definitely a buyer if the price is right. The wines are definitely special.
