Albion News

Napa Spring Report

Nancy and I stopped by Ehren Jordan's Failla Vineyards this weekend to pick up a few bottles of his GREAT wines and to see his new hillside cave.There is nothing quite like Napa Valley in the Spring: the incredible wysteria at Merryvale (above), the annual Mustard Festival or just kicking back on top of Spring Mountain. Read on...

Forget Property, Buy Lafite

Amid this incredible, worldwide, subprime mortgage furor, comes this reprint from the London Independent: Fine wines beat stock market with 39% gains. I guess this is good news for me in the winecellar business but somehow, I'm not amused.

Wine Wars

With Napa cabernet prices reaching the stratosphere and no end in sight for deeper pockets, let's reflect on France. Remember them? As their vines were rotting, they grafted american root stock to create what is the current sum total of French wine as we know it. With Napa's great 2002 Screaming Eagle cab at $2000 per bottle... but I digress... Here is an article from the BBC on ground zero Languedoc.

Albion Cellars

   

The new Albion Cellars website is finally up. So often I am contacted at the end of someone's project after all the walls are done without proper humidity and temperature controls, cheap AC coolers and the client wonders why things aren't working. When the job is done right, a wine cellar is an investment in wine and an increase in economic value in your home. More importantly, its a wonderful focal point where people gather for conversation. OK... you can drink there too.

I've just started a new cellar in St. Helena, Napa County, right next door to the renown Grace Family Vineyards. My friend's grapes have been going into Dick Grace's cabernet for years and they're talking about soon bottling their own. I can't wait.  RP

Here are some nice books on wineries:

Lake Tahoe Wine Cellar

Indian Summer in Lake Tahoe is not to be missed; 80 degrees during the day and 39 degrees at night under crystal clear skies. The foreign tour buses have vanished after Labor Day and the great cafes like Blue Lake Bistro on Timber Cove are quiet with fabulous views at sunset.

The Albion Millworks recently built a wine cellar in Carmel for discerning clients who also live on the east shore of Lake Tahoe on the Nevada side. They have a timber frame compound right on the shoreline built by the renown, local craftsman, John Percival. Large, open beamed spaces look out on the lake and the boats of the community.

The home is paneled entirely in pecan with Italian travertine, tumbled stone floors. We are changing an entry area off the garage into a wine storage area and bar of focal interest adjacent to the existing dining room. The cellar will also be made of pecan with three, nine foot sliding glass doors. Each refridgeration system is fitted to the requirements of the designed space and contains humidification/de-humidification functionality to attain an optimal 55 degree/70 percent humidity threshold.

As the project develops, we will post more photos. In the meantime, I recently had the 2004 Roar, Gary's Vineyard Pinot Noir from our nearby Santa Lucia appellation. Grab it quick from your local sources or at Jacques Melac's Rancho Cellars.  RP

Albion Millworks and Clos du Bois

Our friend in all things wine Erik Olsen, VP and head winemaker at Clos du Bois Vineyards, asked us to build a wine library for his company based in Geyserville, CA. Erik and Deborah Olsen are the nicest and most gracious folks we know. Erik remains very humble about his years of experience with Simi, Chateau St. Michelle, and Mondavi. I had built (along with the help of his great kids Caroline and Christian) a residential cellar in their wonderful Healdsburg home.

The main wine lab and corporate tasting room at Clos du Bois needed organization for the vintages of their numerous vineyards. The task was to create a system suitable to address the various needs of case storage, ease of access and code required health regulations.

Given the commercial budget and needs, we focused on a custom, aluminum system which is two bottles deep so that one case would fit on a shelf. This way a specific vintage could be easily located and tasted over time. Storage was created to accomodate 750's, magnums and 375's. Since the lab is a few feet away, the area is central to all staff for tastings and conferences.

Fortune Brands, which recently purchased Allied Domecq (of which Clos du Bois is a majority holding), manages a broad portfolio of vineyards from Mumm to Jerry Garcia, from Sonoma to Argentina. Erik's love and focus is on the premium boutique holdings and he is on the road constantly connecting with their growers. I believe that Clos du Bois buys 20% of Sonoma County grapes which makes them a major player in sourcing choice grapes. Here is an excerpt from a Santa Rosa Press Democrat article by Kevin McCallum:

Clos du Bois, already one of the largest wineries in Sonoma County, is planning a $28 million expansion that would double the production capacity of its Geyserville facility. The winery, which Fortune Brands purchased last year, gained approval in May to increase production from 1.75 million cases annually to 3.5 million. The project is a sign that yet another leading Sonoma County winery is planning for continued growth.

"The demand for quality Sonoma County wines has never been stronger," said Mary Burnham, spokeswoman for Beam Wine Estates, the Healdsburg-based wine division of Fortune Brands, a consumer products conglomerate. "We are very excited by the future."

Completion of the expansion, which is not expected until 2011, would make the Geyserville Avenue facility the second- or third-largest wine production facility in the county, depending on its competitors' plans. Kendall-Jackson Winery is currently the largest winery in the county, producing 3.5 million cases annually at its facility near the Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport. Gallo Family Vineyards winery in the Dry Creek Valley makes about 3 million cases, and has approved plans to increase production to 4.9 million cases, which would make it the largest winery in the county.

Clos du Bois has seen steady growth for more than a decade. It is the second-largest U.S. wine brand in the over-$10-per-bottle "super premium" category, Burnham said. The vast majority of its wines sell for between $10 and $18 a bottle, with some reaching over $100.

Try their Marlstone, Dry Creek Zin or Alexander Valley cabernet for a true taste of their quality.  RP