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20908 Roscoe Boulevard Canoga Park, CA 91304 (818) 341-1234 FAX: (818) 341-9232	Friday, 20 November 2009
All of the wineries presented in "Hot Off the Vine" are featured at the Duke of Bourbon. Please call the store for wine availability and pricing • 818-341-1234 or Outside California 800-4-FINE-WINE

STAG'S LEAP
WINE CELLARS NEWS

FALL 1997
VOLUME TWENTY
Kasia Winiarski Amparano

Illuminations Through Cristal
The Cristal Dinner of Thirty - They are thirty. They own the world's most prestigious vineyards and produce the best wines on the planet. At Louis Roederer's initiative, they will meet together for the first time ever on September 8, 1997 at the Tour d'Argent, for a unique evening to celebrate the art and culture whose one objective is to perpetuate perfection. (Reprinted from the program for the Diner des Trente, La Tour d'Argent, September 8, 1997.)

A brilliant comet blazed across the horizon of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. To celebrate his thirty years with Louis Roederer Champagne, Managing Director Jean-Claude Rouzaud wanted to acknowledge thirty of his favorite wines in the world. This event, a celebration of another anniversary, brought a luminous quality to reflections of how far we had come.

His invitation to us came as a great compliment because it came from another winemaker. It also made clear how far California wines had come. His gesture symbolized that the French had, to some degree, forgiven California's impertinence in winning the Paris Tasting twenty-one years ago. To honor the man who had so honored them, Warren and Barbara Winiarski went to Paris to pour Stag's Leap Wine Cellars' wine.

In the resplendent La Tour d'Argent in Paris, the reflective ceiling glimmers with city lights mirrored by the Seine, creating a roof of stars above the dining room. To the celebrants on September 8, this was more than just another wine dinner - it was "a dinner party that Bacchus would toast," Frank Prial wrote in the New York Times (September 10). The party that night became a celebration for wine, a moment to be treasured by those who make and enjoy wine everywhere. It was a time to think about what it took to "perpetuate perfection."

"I have learnt that to produce great wines, you not only need the right kind of soil that yields exceptional grapes but also and above all, you need a lot of persistence, patience, courage and last but not least, humility!" Rouzaud said. "The fact that the owners of thirty of the world's greatest wines have accepted to attend the <> is for me, a tremendous pleasure and a great honour. I wanted, above all, to pay them a tribute, as men and women who personify the art I so much admire and who have been a great source of inspiration to me throughout these past thirty years." Many of those present remembered lonelier, humbler beginnings or, at least, times when the way was temporarily lost.

Our own sense of achievement and the joy that Rouzaud's gesture engendered must also acknowledge the people, forces and influences that helped us along the way. As an origin or source, as a basis or foundation, as heart or sustenance, essence or potential - one's influences form a richly woven tapestry that reflects who or what we become. Jean-Claude Rouzaud's Cristal Dinner of Thirty was itself a celebration of the things that influence one's life and art. In particular, we saw similarities between the winemakers' stories. We also saw the intricate relationship that now exists between France and California.

From left, Warren Winiarski, Al Brounstein, Frank Prail, Anthony Dias Blue enjoying a toast with Roederer Crystal.

Jean-Claude Rouzaud's grandmother was Camille Olry-Roederer, Champagnes Louis Roederer's last director with the family name. Thirty years ago, Jean-Claude Rouzaud began working his way up the ladder in the Champagne House which created Cuvee Cristal for Czar Nicholas II in 1876. In those thirty years "I only ever had one goal," stated Rouzaud, "to see to it that Champagnes Louis Roederer should be recognized as superior wines in their own right and Cristal, as one of the finest amongst them.

At some point, one's influences can become a self-perpetuating dream. For Warren Winiarski, the idea of winemaking was, to some degree, also inherited. "Winiarski" means "from the vine" and the homemade versions of dandelion wine and fruit cordials brewed by his father in a home basement, although far from the kinds of wine Warren ultimately made, were a beginning. As a young student in Italy, his drinking of wine in the lemon-scented olive groves of its country-sides continued to strengthen his interest. After he returned to this country and a friend brought over a domestic wine for dinner, he began to feel that wine would lead him on a great journey.

Where did Jean-Claude's resolve come from? Inheritance alone does not determine the degree of one's devotion. Part of it most likely came from his predecessors. His inherent passion was to some degree fed by looking around and before him. It was fed by looking from the realm of possibilities to other standards of perfection and interpreting the ways in which that perfection could be applied to the Roederer House. Thus passion is sustained by possibility and one's dream or vision.

Warren's interest in wine grew rapidly once he saw that making it here was possible. Had we in California not had the soil or climate to grow Vitis vinifera, the species that had the qualities universally accepted as those needed to make good wine, the story would have ended abruptly. The European influence throughout the history of California winemaking can never be over emphasized. This influence came partly from its winemakers' willingness to teach. It also came from the splendor of their wines. California's success came in part from its willingness to learn.

Rouzaud recalled the first time he had tasted each of the thirty wines as having "the emotion that we feel for creation or the revelation of beauty." For Rouzaud the evening was "an homage to you, owners of mythical terroir: thanks to your passion, your tenacity, your constant reevaluation, you have known how to get close, reach and sometimes even exceed the very standards of perfection." In such a way, Warren also looked to the great Bordeaux wines. Not just the wine type, but the example of its perfection encouraged his own pursuit. "The ultimate of wine for me was, for many years, the 1959 Lafite. It was a wine of such perfection that I could think of nothing to add to it, nor to take away from it. It was complete in its splendor." (The day after the Dinner of Thirty, the Americans poured their wines at a tasting held at the Louvre and organized by Jean-Claude Rouzaud. Warren Winiarski poured 1985 Cask 23, a wine which he referred to when it was produced as his 1959 Lafite.)

The wines which were brought to Paris for the event would never have come to be had there not been a solution to phylloxera. On their trip, Barbara and Warren took some time to visit the Roederer House in Champagne. This is a place where riddling is still done by hand and tiny portions of dosage are labored over as the important element in creating consistency in the Champagne's quality from year to year. The expanse of vineyards appeared to be part of a bucolic dream, and the magnificent immutability in which they seemed to be wrapped did not suggest anything of the lonely moments pioneer work entails. "I was tempted to think of it as a special paradise," said Barbara Winiarski "-a paradise that sleeps still under an enchantment that has passed away." Not long ago, a destructive force disturbed that tranquillity, sending shudders through those who had devoted their lives to the vine. Phylloxera's devastation on both sides of the Atlantic occurred because of the fascination which California and France had for one another. In order to produce wines more similar to the ones they admired from Europe, the Americans had to embrace rootstock that was their own. Europeans had to borrow American rootstock, and with it came the opportunity to improve their wines by changing methods they had used for hundreds of years.

California had an additional challenge. It was not enough to grow Vitis vinifera on this continent. They had to learn how to moderate the growing conditions here in order to produce wines that were as balanced and elegant as those found in Europe. They had to make wines that did not so clearly show where they came from, just as the greatest wines do not shout their varietal components, but rather delight us with the sublime amalgam that is the creation of terroir, grape and winemaker. The Paris Tasting showed the world that winemakers in California had achieved this. While no love was lost on the part of the French at the time, there was chagrin and the grudging acknowledgment that California had learned how to make good wine. In the years immediately following this spectacular event, the Californians put more energy into crowing than in the acknowledgment that we had learned how to make great wine by using French wine as models.

Americans in Paris: From Left, Warren Winiarski, Al Brounstein, Joseph Heitz, Jerry Draper.

Sometimes something happens which captures the essence of what we were all looking for when we chose to devote ourselves to wine. Winemaking itself, as an art, brings nourishment to the soul, but its greatest happiness in true Socratic fashion, comes in the company of other followers of Bacchus, without whose company our endeavors cannot ever be completely fulfilled. The daily "work" of creating (and selling) this perfection can diminish the god's voice to a dim presence. But suddenly, sometimes so unexpectedly that it takes the form of falling in love again, the magic is recaptured in a moment that reaffirms all of our earliest inclination.

The dinner held at the prestigious La Tour d'Argent on Paris' Left Bank, famous home to artists, writers and thinkers, was a "great testimony of friendship and universality - a friendship born out of the same passions, the search for excellence in winemaking." Jean-Claude Rouzaud, himself a poet, lover and artist, gathered wines from France and nine other countries and brought to reality that which his words "strangely resembled a dream." He brought together a "universality of wines" for which the boundaries and limitations of terrior, varietal and winemaker fell away in one resplendent moment of celebration. This magical event celebrated the art of winemaking as much as the individual wines, the transcendence of specifics.

"Wine enthusiasts will argue over some of his choices for the 30 wines," Frank Prial wrote, "but any dinner that includes all five of the First Growths of Bordeaux - plus the chateaux Petrus, Ausone, and Cheval Blanc; Romanee-Conti from Domaine de la Romanee-Conti; Ridge Vineyards' Montebello Cabernet; Stag's Leap Wine Cellars' Cask 23; Trockenbeerenauslese from the Schloss Johannisberg, and Chateau d'Yquem - is certainly hitting the highpoints... Wine dinners of one sort of another are not all that rare. But dinners featuring the glittering array of wine-industry celebrities who gathered together yesterday are hardly commonplace." Other wines included are were Diamond Creek Volcanic Hill; Heitz Cellars' Margaux Montrachet-Marquis de Laguiche, from Joseph Drouhin; Chevalier-Montrachet, from Domaine Leflaive; Clos des Cortons, from Domaine Faiveley; Cote Rotie la Turque, from Etienne Guigal; Grange from Penfolds; Merlot Cuvee Alexandre from Casa Lapostolle, Chile and Solaia from Antinori.

The Smithsonian's Last Recording
As the vines began to turn amber and gold, the Smithsonian Institution's oral history crew wrapped up a year-long project of recording life here at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars. We were sorry to see them go. In four visits over the course of a year, the crew had become part of our family. From their first visit, with sleeves rolled up, and cameras and cassette tapes rolling, they documented all aspects of our work including pruning, grafting clonal material, harvesting and blending. Their avid curiosity, dedication in getting the story just right and refreshing humor will make this project worth visiting in Washington, D.C. Materials are being organized and transcribed for completion in late 1998. A later newsletter will let you know when this project is completed and how you can access its information.

Steamer trunk outside of the fourth cave portal.

Another Door Opened
In the green light of summer, not long ago, we gathered staff, growers, neighbors and friends to observe the opening of the final portal of our cave (see Stag's Leap Wine Cellars News, Fall 1996, Volume Eighteen) and partake in its benediction. An old steamer trunk placed near where the cave drill was to pierce the hillside symbolized another chapter in our family's history. This trunk traveled with Warren's grandfather when he came by ship to Ellis Island over a century ago. The cave's progress continues as scheduled for completion in the spring of 1998.

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WINE FOCUS
HAWK CREST CALIFORNIA 1996 CHARDONNAY -
A luminous suggestion of gold. Fresh melon and pear aromas intertwine around traces of lemon and butterscotch. Abundant fresh fruit characteristics introduced in the nose are fulfilled on the palate with mouthfilling plumpness lightened by a bright acidity. Try with fried calamari with spicy aioli or clams over pasta.

HAWK CREST CALIFORNIA 1995 SAUVIGNON BLANC -
Lush honeysuckle and melon aromas elicit the anticipation of warmer days. This wine has a delicate, yet firm entry on the palate with a refreshing interweaving of honeydew melon and Bartlett pear characteristics. A tangy, bright middle makes this the ideal wine for fried calamari accompanied by a Cajun aioli or clams steamed in garlic, butter and wine.


STAG'S LEAP WINE CELLARS
5766 Silverado Trail
Napa, California 94558

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