Two Estate Vineyards Mean Lots of Options for Wine Lovers

Imagine a fifteen-hundred-acre vineyard that occupies its own valley inside of the surrounding Napa Valley. And then imagine it’s just one of the vineyards owned by the largest, estate-producing family winery in Napa.  Add in being the largest Napa Green Certified Land Holder, and you’ve got the fundamentals of St. Supéry winery: estate vineyards which do not involve fruit, production, or any other influences from offsite.  What you get, in other words, is a snapshot of the land’s carefully nurtured, uncontaminated bounty in each annual bottling from one of Napa’s best winemaking teams.

St. Supéry’s two vineyards are the Rutherford Estate and the Dollarhide Ranch on the east side of Howell Mountain. The latter vineyard, the Dollarhide Ranch, really is quite unique amongst the various small valleys which make up the surrounding “Napa” Valley in that its self-contained 1500 acres are planted to fewer than five hundred acres, which allows for selecting the best areas for cultivation while maintaining the rawness and sustainability of the ranch – attributes for which it has been known historically.  Founder Andrew Jackson Dollarhide ran a successful horse and cattle ranch during the Gold Rush era, and he is well remembered around the Valley for doing things his own way. It’s probably not a surprise that the Skallis kept the name when they purchased the ranch in 1982 given their methods – indeed, between Dollarhide Ranch and the Rutherford Estate Vineyard, the winery has just 521 acres planted to vines with more than one thousand lying fallow. That’s one way to definitely do things your own way in wine country!

Dollarhide Ranch, really then, is a world unto its own, with seven lakes onsite, providing homes to an array of wildlife, insects and bees. There are so many native birds that the Audubon Society makes a special visit as part of its annual New Year census. Actively working the vineyards means better canopy management and not having to use fungicides. Composting of the pomace – post-fermentation skins, seeds and stems – means the vineyards are annually renewed via organic material originally from the vineyard itself, and all of the irrigation is via reclaimed rainwater, guaranteeing the water table isn’t drained by the vineyard. Because of the sixteen different soil types, each parcel is planted to match rootstock, clones, soil and cultivation and is farmed individually, making sure nothing is homogenized along the way. Since the Dollarhide Ranch is a bit more extreme than the main Valley, the slightly warmer days and cooler nights provide luscious but crisp wines, making them stand out from other Napa releases.  Drop the words “Dollarhide Ranch” into a conversation with the wine savvy or locals to see what I mean.

This careful monitoring and sustainable management of the land is the key to Skalli family wine success worldwide. The Skallis have been an international wine family for nine decades, with grandfather Robert-Elie establishing vineyards in Algeria in the 1920s and father Francis adding production in the South of France at Fortant de France, in Châteauneuf du Pape at Skalli Grand Vin du Rhone, and on the island of Corsica at the Terra Vecchia estate in the 1960s. It was the similiarity of the Dollarhide Ranch to the south of France’s Languedoc region which attracted grandson and current owner Robert to the Napa Valley in the late-1970s.  And the long pedigree in the wine business doesn’t just include the owners. Winemaker Michael Scholz is himself the sixth generation of his family to make wine, and he is actually on his second stint as St. Supéry’s head of wine production, having been winemaker from 1996 to 2001 before returning to the winery in 2009. Well known for mastery of wine wines, especially Sauvignon Blanc, he has also produced any number of gold-medal, 90+ reds, too.

The resulting wines from this combination of many hundreds of years of wine expertise include single-vineyard releases like the Dollarhide Sauvignon Blanc, the Rutherford Estate Cabernet and small bottlings of Estate Petit Verdot and Malbec.  Equally, there is the Élu red blend and the Virtú white blend, combining the best of each year’s production, as well as the winery-only Moscato. The winery itself has been designed to allow views of the full production process, but the second floor Art Gallery provides some of the best vantage points on the crushpad, fermentation area, barrel cellars and bottling – in addition to lots of fantastic art. The various tasting spaces have been thoughtfully designed to be welcoming and to encourage lingering, and with so much to enjoy, that’s not hard to do.

Available daily are two different library tastings, and there’s a reason it’s hard to find these offerings around the Valley: most wineries cannot or do not want to provide access to their older wines.  Given what’s gone into them, St. Supéry, as with so many other things, doesn’t mind doing what others won’t, and the “Dollarhide Library Tasting” and “Élu Library Tasting” don’t disappoint.  The former lets you taste multiple past vintages of the wineries renowned “single-vineyard” estate Cabernet, and the latter grants access to older bottlings of the Élu red blend, going back a decade.  Remember, space is extremely limited for each of these special experiences, so making reservations, even for the same day, is an absolute must.

If you ask around, just about everyone in the Valley will tell you St. Supéry is a gem that shouldn’t be missed.  Come taste for yourself and find out why.  I promise you: you’ll be glad you did.  Enjoy!