Score! top
90 97 99 10
2005 Reserve
Cabernet Sauvignon
2007 Chardonnay 2005 #1 TOP 100 WINES 2005 HāLo
90 POINTS Cabernet Sauvignon OF THE YEAR and TOP 10 WINES
Robert Parker 97 POINTS 99 POINTS of 2009
The Wine Advocate Wine Enthusiast Wine Enthusiast Connoisseurs’ Guide
Wow, what a year we are having!!!!
In addition to the high points listed above, our wines have earned 10 GOLD MEDALS including a DOUBLE GOLD at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine
Competition for the 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon and GOLD-Best of Class for the 2006 Merlot from the Pacific Rim Competition. This is the second year in a
row our Merlot has come out Best of Class. We are very proud.
OFF THE VINE
1
THE NEWSLETTER OF TREFETHEN FAMILY VINEYARDS, NAPA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA FALL/WINTER 2010
Extraordinary
Moments by Janet Trefethen
This year has been extraordinary in so many ways: The “kids” Loren and Hailey are
#
fully involved in the business. They are good at it, and enjoy it (so they say!). How
lucky we all are!! Their enthusiasm has greatly contributed to a successful sales year
WINE OF THE YEAR!
in a challenging economy. We are ramping it up and are thrilled to have the press
take notice. The wines are better than ever-thanks to the entire team.
Wine Enthusiast, 2010
As you read through this issue of Off the Vine you will note how lucky we are to have
great people on our team. I truly do not know what we would do without Richard,
“Our Hero”, over the years. He has rescued us more than once. In the “Three
Amigos” you’ll learn about our terrific winegrowing team that is taking our wines
to the top of the charts. And don’t miss our “Thanksgiving Tribute” to our fantastic
employees that have been with us for 10 years and more. Extraordinary people!!!
We all have had silly grins on our faces since learning the Wine Enthusiast is not
only including our Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon in their top 100 wines for 2010
but it is NUMBER ONE!!!!! We want to shout about this from the mountaintops
and have it echo throughout the valleys. Be sure to get the December issue of the
magazine and show all your friends!
It is extraordinary to be celebrating our 35th vintage of both Riesling and
Chardonnay. How many wineries can crow about that and also say each one of the
wines was 100% estate grown, produced and bottled? Thanks to friends like you,
we can.
It was an honor to be invited by the
Luxury Marketing Council to be an
“Iconic Women of Wine” panelist along
with Margrit Mondavi and Margaret
Duckhorn, legends in their own right.
We had a fun time talking about the
wine industry: where is has come from
and is going to. Extraordinary to be a
part of it.
At the Oak Knoll District of Napa
Valley’s annual picnic the board pre-
Stan Boyd, President of the Oak Knoll District sented me with an OKD bike jersey
AVA, Janet Trefethen (with the new belt buckle) which qualifies me to ride with the boys
and OKD Board member Walt Brooks show off on Fridays. I love these guys-they are
their bike jerseys.
in their 50s or so and are a little hefty
and therefore call themselves the Clydesdales!!! But looks can be deceiving; some
of these growers have ridden halfway across the U.S. on their bikes. They also pre-
sented me with a fabulous belt buckle that has big OKD letters in gold on it and an
engraved message of gratitude and appreciation on the back. This was an extra-
ordinary moment that touched my heart and will remain with me forever.
I am back on a good cutting
horse, Ellie Mae Merada, with a
great trainer, Phil Hanson. We
have made the finals at major
shows in Oklahoma and Texas-
and the year isn’t over!!!
But, with all the joy, there has
to be some sadness. Bella, my
dear golden retriever, the wine
dog, “Miss October” in the dog
calendar, the great squirrel
hunter, the best greeter of Janet Trefethen and Ellie Mae in the finals at the Breeder’s
Invitational.
visitors to the winery and the
sweetest four-legged friend a human could hope for passed away on May 11th.
Little Miss Remy is doing her best to fill the void and
is excitedly greeting winery visitors and helping David
in the garden. I was so lucky to have Bella; we shared
many extraordinary moments.
May you have many joyful remembrances this
Thanksgiving, the best of all American holidays. The Wine Enthusiast magazine has selected Trefethen
Family Vineyard’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon for its top
100 wines of 2010 . . . . as #1!!!!! Yes, as the top wine for
Bella and Remy Trefethen with bone. 2010!!!!! Read more in its December issue.
Fall 2010 ~ New Releases
2009 DRY RIESLING
Our 35th vintage of Riesling is mesmerizingly fresh and fragrant
with gorgeous jasmine, litchi, green apple, honeyed white peach,
citrus and slate aromas. Its dry, racy, apple, kiwi, lime and guava
flavors are powered by bright acidity and refreshing minerality.
Food pairings: Shellfish, sushi, crab cakes, seared Ahi tuna, lemon
chicken and a broad assortment of Asian, Southwestern and
Caribbean dishes. - $22
2008 CHARDONNAY 2007 MERLOT
Our 35th anniversary vintage of Napa Valley Chardonnay is classic A potpourri of ripe black cherry, plum compote, smoked meat,
Trefethen: a perfectly poised balance of fresh golden apple, spiced dried tomato, black olive, black tea and sweet vanilla aromas in-
pear and citrus fruit with toasty, clove-y, creamy tones from partial troduces a lush palate of rich dark cherry, plum, cassis and pie
barrel fermentation and sur lie and French oak aging. spice flavors that culminate in an awesomely lengthy, well-bal-
Food Pairings: Grilled seafood, herb-roasted chicken, creamy anced finish.
scallops and risotto, white-sauced pastas and simply prepared pork Food Pairings: Duck, barbecued chicken, pork tenderloin, beef
dishes. - $30 and lamb dishes, tomato-based pastas and black olive and mush-
room pizza. - $35
2009 VIOGNIER
A heady perfume of earthy, floral spice, creamy white peach and 2007 CABERNET SAUVIGNON
citrus zest aromas preface richly textured peach, nectarine and An exuberant nose of ripe blackcurrants, black cherry, sweet herbs,
apricot flavors that gain lovely guava, pomelo and mineral tones pepper spice, cigar box and oak vanillin introduces a powerful
in the crisp, refreshing finish. palate of muscular cassis and blackberry flavors that gain a kick of
Food Pairings: Citrus, peach and tropical fruit-glazed seafood, savory spice and toasty oak in the long, structured finish.
chicken and pork dishes, as well as spicy Asian and Caribbean Food Pairings: Beef, lamb and game dishes, especially those
cuisines. - $30 incorporating oregano, thyme, mushrooms and black pepper. - $55
2009 PINOT NOIR 2006 RESERVE CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Our 2009 Pinot Noir has a fruitful nose brimming with dark plum, Deep, dark and delicious. Black cherry, black plum, and fig, along
strawberries, and quince balanced with dark chocolate, anise, and a with a tongue-tingling acidity, balance the inherent savory nature
hint of leather. A classic Pinot Noir body filled with strawberry jam, of our hillside fruit. Grippy, lip-smacking tannins lead into a
cherry pie, hints of thyme, and a light, white pepper spice finish. peppery finish. And everywhere, there is chocolate. Mmm.
Food Pairings: Perfect with lighter meats seasoned with thyme. Try Food Pairings: Try with fine cuts of beef and lamb, and for the
chicken, duck, or lamb on their own, or incorporated into a pasta. - $48 more patient among us-stews. - $100
35 and Going Strong
The year was 1973. Trefethen Chardonnay is
Richard Nixon was still the Grandmother of all
President, the Cold War California Chardonnays.
was raging, no one had
heard of the Internet, Similarly, we have re-
and there were fewer mained steadfast in our
than 25 working winer- commitment to Riesling, a
ies in the Napa Valley. variety that, until recently,
Among them was our has largely been shunned
upstart family winery. by American wine con-
During the 1973 harvest, sumers. (During the past
John and I harvested, year Riesling sales in the
crushed and fermented U.S. have increased 11%,
Trefethen’s first Chardonnay, following up in the most of any variety.) While the vast majority
1974 with our first Dry Riesling. We’ve produced of American Rieslings have traditionally been soft
a Chardonnay and Riesling every vintage since
from our Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley estate
vineyard. This September, we’re releasing our 35th
and sweet, we’ve always made ours in a dry, crisp
style, with fragrant aromas, mouthwatering acidity
and refreshing apple and citrus flavors. Like our
Our Hero
Just last week our Operations Manager of 33
anniversary vintages of these wines, continuing a Chardonnays, our Rieslings develop beautifully in years, Richard DeGarmo, was saluting our
long, rich tradition with the world’s most bottle, with vintages from the 1970s and harvest crew on how clean and careful they
noble white wine varieties. ‘80s still drinking well. have been, not breaking presses, tractors,
or fork lifts. Then Friday night at 7p.m. the
Over the years, our Chardonnays Fortuitously the 35th anniversary crusher de-stemmer stopped working. After
have won many accolades, begin- vintages of Trefethen Chardonnay a few hours of disassembling, it turned out it
ning with the 1976 vintage being (2008) and Dry Riesling (2009) is no fault of our harvest crew (so continued
named “Best Chardonnay in the were both superb years in Napa kudos to them!) but one of the bearings had
World” at the 1979 Gault Millau Valley. The wines are made in the shattered. As the machinery was German,
World Wine Olympics in France. classic Trefethen style with fresh the only part available was on the east coast,
The wine repeated its winning perfor- finely focused fruit, balanced acidity, which wasn’t going to do us much good as
mance a year later at the “Rematch” in and, in the case of our Chardonnay, we still had 17 bins to crush that evening
Burgundy. During the 1980s and ‘90s as many beautifully integrated oak and sur lie aging tones. and a full day of crush Saturday. So enter
California Chardonnay producers began making our hero, Richard, who decided as a wood-
heavily oaked, super-buttery, low-acid renditions, Fashions come and go, but we have stayed faith- worker, he could make a ball bearing just as
we stuck to our stylistic guns, crafting fresh, fruit- ful to the pure, wonderful fruit our estate vineyard they did in the old days. And guess what?
centered, balanced Chardonnays that have aged gives us. I like to think that quality is always in Richard’s hand-made wooden ball bearing
remarkably well in bottle. Now that many of our style, and that by staying the course and not suc- held up all weekend until that silly little part
fellow Chardonnay makers have dialed back on the cumbing to transient trends, we have remained arrived. Hurrah for our hero Richard and
oak and butter, we find ourselves back in the main- true to our roots-literally-with wines that are American ingenuity!!!
stream we helped create in the 1970s. Some say pure Trefethen and pure Napa Valley.
w w w. t r e f e t h e n . c o m
VINTAGE 2010: Riding the Rollercoaster by Jon Ruel
As we wrap up the harvest of 2010, our other varieties survived just fine. Growers that had just removed leaves,
we are both very excited and very though, suffered major losses as the grapes were shocked by the sunshine.
exhausted. We are excited about the Some entire vineyards were lost but more reported partial damage, up to 40%
quality of this year’s young wines and in Chardonnay.
we are exhausted by the farming it
took to produce them. I often say that September had some nice
farming is not for the faint of heart and days but was still cooler
this year will certainly be remembered than average. We often use
as a wild one. “degree days”, or heat ac-
cumulation, as an index
It will also be remembered as a cool for growing season tem-
one, except for a notable two day heat peratures. Our long-term
spell. In fact, all summer long the talk average through the end
among growers was about how cool it of September is a total of
had been-an interesting contrast to 2,672 degree days. This
the scorching heat re- year, we had just 2,223, our
ported elsewhere in the lowest since 1978! You can
nation. On our ranch, imagine our delight when
we realized as early as the first couple weeks
May that cool weather of October brought
could set us up for a sunny and warm days.
later than usual vintage
and took some proac- The Chardonnay that
tive steps to encourage was usually picked in
ripening. Particularly September had hung
in Cabernet Sauvignon, around into October
our latest variety, we and was now finally
thinned the clusters ripe. The later varieties,
more aggressively than that had benefited from
usual and were care- our early thinning, now
ful to limit the amount of ripened rapidly in the
irrigation. warm October sun. All
of a sudden, everything
By mid-August, the weather was ready at once! This made for some long days (and nights). It
had stayed cooler than was not uncommon for the vineyard harvest to start at 2 a.m. and
average and we were glad the winery crew to finish at 11 p.m. But what a relief to bring grapes
we took those early steps. in before the November rains. Oh yeah, the rains. We actually got
Some other growers in brushed with a couple of early storms, starting around October 17th,
Napa and the other county just enough to add more pressure to an already hectic harvest!
next door, were now get-
ting very concerned about Harvest time at the winery is called “crush” and this year it certainly
delayed ripening and high felt like it. Looking back, I think we were able to succeed with this
mildew pressure and took the unusual step of late-season leaf removal around roller coaster year, to excel really, because we grow all the grapes for our wines
the clusters. The reason we don’t usually do this so late is because of the ourselves, and have been doing it right here in the same spot for over 40 years.
increased risk of sunburn during a heat spell. I guess nobody thought we’d This experience has taught us how to handle the variety of vintages that come
get a heat spell. We did. On August 24th, temperatures soared to 111°F, our way and our estate-grown nature allows us to respond in real-time, craft-
and some grapes got burned. We actually lost a fair amount of Riesling, but ing world-class wines, from the ground up.
The Three Amigos from the University of California at
Davis and then worked for several
years in the biotech industry, focus-
Thanksgiving Tribute
to all our employees with an extra
ing on cancer research. A love of
special thank you to the following that
wine led him back to school for his
have been with us for 10 years or more:
Masters in Viticulture and Enology
at UC Davis. After his Trefethen Alfonso Beas Lynne McComas
internship, Zeke worked at Bonny
Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz and Alvaro Mendoza Marcelina Sanchez
Schug Carneros Estate Winery be- Angel Solorio Mario Sanchez
fore rejoining us in 2008 as Assistant Bertha Garcia Martin Cruz
Winemaker. In January 2009 he was
promoted to Winemaker. Betty Calvin Mary Ware
Jon Ruel, Zeke Neeley and Bryan Kays Cindy Leonard Michael Baldini
Bryan earned an undergraduate
David Alosi Mike “Bear” Evans
No, we’re not talking about LeBron James, Dwyane degree in English Literature from Cal Poly SLO and
Wade and Chris Bosh of the Miami Heat, but our wine- then, like any self-respecting English major, turned to David Whitehouse Moices Dorado
making team of Jon Ruel, Zeke Neeley and Bryan Kays. wine as a career. He worked at Story Winery in the Debby Hansen Paulino Cortina
Sierra Foothills and, after a few vintages, earned his UC
Ernesto Duran Peter Luthi
We are extremely fortunate at Trefethen to have a Davis Viticulture and Enology degree before joining
talented trio of youthful (all in their 30s), yet highly Trefethen in 2006 as a Viticulture intern. Bryan then Ernesto Llamas Phil Manifold
experienced winegrowers. Jon Ruel, our Director of worked his way into the cellar, and ultimately to the Eva Cortina Prudencio Meza
Viticulture and Winemaking, brings a vast knowledge Assistant Winemaker position.
Gavino Villegas Ramiro Garcia
of viticulture, a rigorously scientific approach and a
keen environmental consciousness to the company. Jon, Zeke and Bryan confer constantly, reflecting the Gerald Bush Richard DeGarmo
Jon summarizes Trefethen’s estate-based sustainability synergy between vineyard and winery. “We have a great Graciano Garcia Robin Schneider
programs as “more balance, less input” and “controlling collaborative decision-making process,” Jon says, “which
quality from dirt to table.” is founded on seeking consensus. I bring knowledge of Heliodoro Tapia Sandra Harmyk
the vineyard to our discussions, while Zeke and Bryan John Harrington Steve Baldini
Working closely with Jon are Winemaker Zeke Neeley execute our decisions in the winery. Maybe it’s because
Jorge Santos Tony Baldini
and Assistant Winemaker Bryan Kays, both of whom we all have degrees from UC Davis and are roughly the
began their winemaking careers interning at Trefethen. same age, but we have an excellent working relationship, Joseph Cusimano
Zeke earned his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry which I think is reflected in the quality of our wines.”
w w w. t r e f e t h e n . c o m