Delights of Spring Mountain

Sacramento Bee Food Editor, June 22, 2005

The "Napa Valley" you see on wine labels might be as mythical as it is magical.

Yes, there is a Napa Valley, a bucolic enclave about 35 miles long and four miles wide, stretching north from San Pablo Bay.

The "Napa Valley" of the wine label may indeed refer to grapes grown and wine made in that small valley.

Then again, it might not. As an official American wine appellation, "Napa Valley" includes nearly all of Napa County.

Thus, a bottle of wine with "Napa Valley" on the label could be made with grapes grown in one or more of six other valleys in the county ... or on slopes, ridges and mountaintops that you may not be able to see from the valley floor.

What's more, the soils, rainfall, exposures, temperatures and even the incursion of fog into "Napa Valley" vary so dramatically that as a statement of place the phrase is ambiguous at best, meaningless at worst.

But not long after federal officials sanctioned "Napa Valley" as an appellation in 1983, several vintners in the valley recognized the haziness of the term and began to subdivide the region into a series of more-sensible appellations.

Today, there are 14 of them, including Howell Mountain, Chiles Valley, Los Carneros, Stag's Leap and Atlas Peak. Even the valley floor has been partitioned into individual sub-appellations, including Rutherford, Yountville, Oak Knoll and Oakville.

And let's not overlook Spring Mountain, which with just 1,000 or so acres in vines and only about 25 wineries, is one of the Napa Valley's smaller sub-appellations, established in 1993.

But while small, it's also historic and prestigious. Its familiar and highly regarded wineries include Smith-Madrone, Pride Mountain, Robert Keenan, Stony Hill, Paloma, Cain and Fife.

Spring Mountain isn't so much a mountain as a collection of ridges rising up the steep sunrise slope of the Mayacamas range that separates the Napa and Sonoma valleys just west of St. Helena.

Several creeks - Sulphur, Ritchie and York being the most prominent - plunge down the slope, cutting deep incisions that expose Spring Mountain's vineyards to sunlight from virtually every point of a compass, though most of them largely face east.

Those varied exposures are just one factor that helps set apart Spring Mountain's vineyards from others in and along the Napa Valley.

Another is their relatively high elevations, ranging from 400 to 2,100 feet. The compositions of the appellation's soils vary sharply with the rise, but broadly speaking they are poor, well drained and relatively acidic.

The quirkiest climatological wrinkle on Spring Mountain is that days tend to be cooler than in the valley during the growing season, while nights generally are warmer.

Wine grapes have been grown on Spring Mountain since 1874, though some locals suggest they may have been cultivated a decade earlier.

The twin pests of phylloxera and Prohibition set the area back between 1910 and 1940, but its revival began in 1947, when Fred and Eleanor McCrea planted a vineyard and subsequently founded their Stony Hill Winery.

While Stony Hill is celebrated largely for its chardonnay and riesling, Spring Mountain has become known in recent years for cabernet sauvignon and blended proprietary wines that are based on grape varieties also most closely identified with France's Bordeaux.

Today, cabernet sauvignon accounts for slightly more than half the appellation's vineyards, with merlot accounting for nearly one-fifth more.

Wines made with mountain grapes tend to be dense, concentrated and firm if not downright hard, but Spring Mountain's releases, regardless of the elevation from which they originate, couple surprising accessibility with lush richness.

As a group, Spring Mountain's cabernet sauvignons are plush with bright fruit flavors that range from cherries to blackberries, often with suggestions of chocolate when they are heavier in weight, cocoa when they are lighter. They're best with substantial foods.

Here are Spring Mountain wines that are worthy of noting.

Exceptional

* Cain Vineyard & Winery 2001 Napa Valley Cain Five ($90): A blend of five Bordeaux varieties, with cabernet sauvignon accounting for slightly more than half the composition, the Cain Five is wonderfully aromatic with ripe cherry smells accented with licorice, chocolate and a whole bunch of baking spices such as cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. Drinkable now, especially with steaks, but also will benefit by about five years in the cellar.

* Fife Vineyards 1999 Reserve Spring Mountain District Cabernet Sauvignon ($45): Regardless of appellation, cabernet sauvignons just don't come any truer to form than this rigid yet yielding release from Fife. The juicy and sunny flavors are suggestive of green olives and cedar, with an elegance and balance just as memorable.

* Paloma Vineyard 2002 Napa Valley Merlot ($51): Miles, the merlot-hating protagonist of the novel and movie "Sideways," apparently never tasted one of Paloma's takes on the varietal. Vintage after vintage, Paloma turns out remarkably generous and complex representatives of merlot. The 2002 has more going on than a Fourth of July fireworks display - a smell variously of damp green herbs and hard cherry candy, with flavors of fennel, plum and mint, all on a supple superstructure.

* Smith-Madrone 2001 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($35): Smith-Madrone doesn't use the Spring Mountain appellation, even though its vines are about as high on the hill as any. We savored several attributes about this wine - the sweetness of its cherry and plum flavors, bolstered with eucalyptus and licorice; the generous but not overbearing oak; the shifty complexity; the sleek and silken texture. Easily the best buy in a red wine coming off Spring Mountain.

* Pride Mountain Vineyards 2002 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($62): Classic Napa Valley cabernet, with up-front cherry fruit, a spirited lift, restrained oak, tempered tannins and a finish akin to dark chocolate melting in your mouth.

Very good

* Lynch Vineyards 2002 Napa Valley Syrah ($51): Made with fruit grown 800 feet up Spring Mountain, the Lynch syrah is deeply colored, redolent with the aroma of violets, fat with the flavor of blueberries, and firm without being hard. Though its alcohol registers 15.3 percent, it doesn't taste hot.

* Juslyn Vineyards 2001 Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon ($85): The opening smell of cocoa-coated almonds yields to fresh cherry flavors on a build lean and almost delicate for a mountain wine. Just call it elegant, with a finish that will linger until the next day's sunrise again hits Spring Mountain.

* Guilliams Vineyards 1999 Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon ($38): In a blind tasting of six Spring Mountain cabernets, the Guilliams was the most readily drinkable, its ripe and fresh cherry flavors frisky and refreshing. It also is a terrific bargain.

 Good

* Robert Keenan Winery 2001 Spring Mountain Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ($75): Inky in color, smelling characteristically of black cherries and green herbs with overtones of chocolate, the Keenan is nicely balanced, with alluring fruit and a lingering finish.

* Spring Mountain Vineyard 2001 Spring Mountain Elivette ($90): In a blind tasting of six Spring Mountain cabernets (the Elivette is 89 percent cabernet), this was the slowest to open aromatically, but when it did there was no holding it back. Jammy blackberry flavor with a hint of coriander, peppermint and chocolate is backed up with the smoke and vanilla of French oak. It's rich and fairly tannic, but it has refreshing bounce.

* Peacock Family Vineyard 2001 Spring Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon ($60): The Peacock is unusually accessible even by Spring Mountain standards, thanks to the sweetness and softness of its generous oak underlying rich and juicy berry flavors. Not a wine to lay down for long-term aging, but who would want to?