Hi Berserkers!
Some of you know me and my wines already (I’ve been here for a few years), but since I’m going to offer on Berserker Day coming up I wanted to update.
Compact version of my long story: in September, 1969 I took off from Chicago to Europe to do informal “study,” ended up living for some time in La Suisse Romande, where most of the wine in that country is made, and my daily beverage was changed for life. Time in France and Spain then added to that focus, though I returned to the U.S. West Coast to study. That too got out of hand, finally ending me up with a PhD and teaching at UCLA and then UC Davis. Along the academic pathway, winemaking had become a core channel of my creativity, and living in Napa Valley while teaching writing to UCD V&E students proved the perfect context to launch my wines commercially.
So in 1984 I launched our eponymous Havens Wine Cellars (couldn’t come up with a catchy proprietary name at the time), which we ran for 22 years. I have focused from the start on wines with clarity and distinctly varietal character, which means staying in the cooler parts of our valley, which means south, where the marine influence persists. I was one of the first here to focus on Right Bank blends of Merlot and Cabernet Franc, the first to make a Carneros Syrah (1991), and the first in the New World to produce and bottle both the Iberian whites Albarino (1999) and Godello (2012). For partnership reasons we sold in 2006, and the buyers unfortunately turned out to be incompetent, so I spent a few years consulting as my main winemaking. In 2008 I worked with Ricardo Perez in Bierzo (Descendientes de J. Palacios) and there started an ongoing fascination with Godello, which I tasted in the mixed vineyards I was sampling and then with Ricardo’s uncle, Rafael Palacios in Valdeorras. In 2009 I joined with my young friend, Morgan Twain-Peterson, to again make Albarino (same vineyard) under the Abrente label, which we expanded with Godello in 2012.
When Morgan got pretty busy making lots of SKUs at Bedrock, I took a new initiative to create Cave Dog wines in 2014, starting with the Cabernet Franc and Merlot from Beau Terroir Vineyard, vines that I had put into my proprietary blend, called Bourriquot. And when the same Albarino and Godello vines became available, I jumped at the chance to continue with those varieties. I am now ably assisted by Barrett Marsalek, who has many years of experience in winemaking (e.g. Ravenswood, Round Pond).
So that’s the long and winding road that brought me to Cave Dog and now brings Cave Dog to you! (The name, btw, refers to the lupine habits of my family of Golden Retrievers.) I’m excited to offer these wines in this forum, as I think they are authentic cool-climate expressions of the four varieties I’ve spent so many years focusing on, both the library 2014 Red and the current lots. www.cavedogwine.com
Salud!
Michael Havens