Doug Wilder, Purely Domestic Wine Report  June, 2011

For the most part, unless a grower also produces a wine from property they own it is fairly certain that the average wine consumer, or for that matter a wine writer would not have much reason to make a connection with them, at least directly. We would usually only experience what they do through the efforts of winemakers if the label includes vineyard designations such as Alder Springs, Monte Rosso, Larner, Stagecoach, Georges III, Martha’s, To-Kalon, Hyde, Hudson, Shea, Cohn, or Vine Hill Ranch. Generally the way we consider winemakers is the same way winemakers consider growers – The top names are who we want to work with, or in other words follow the winemaker and they take you to the dirt.

In February, I attended the Napa Valley Vintners Premiere Napa Valley, the winter barrel auction. It is to wine as Cannes is to film; everyone in town is either a distributor, broker, retailer, restauranteur, sommelier or writer. Over the past couple years an unofficial trade-only tasting happens the day before in the caves of a winery on Silverado Trail put on by broker, Kimberly Jones whose portfolio of wines is more like a gallery of carefully curated works. If you knew nothing about wine walking in you would leave three hours later having been exposed to wall to wall excellence. Because I expect nothing but the best when I attend, the event is always a pleasure and even more so when I meet a new producer.

People in the wine business are a collegial bunch, and we trade tips freely on what to try. Generally I pay attention when somebody tells me ‘you NEED to taste this or that!’ So after I heard several comments about newcomer, Vine Hill Ranch, I made my way to the table which happened to be mobbed by at least a dozen people. Two people were behind the table, I recognized one of them and only then did I understand what the fuss was about – It was the winemaker, Francoise Peschon who has only been associated with the best as long as I have known her; Araujo, where she started in 1993, and Drinkward-Peschon, her own project that was an overnight success, literally, during my time at Dean & Deluca. Instantly, I felt about 70% of what i needed to know was standing in front of me. If I follow her, I will know the rest. The man with her was Bruce Phillips, proprietor of Vine Hill Ranch. He was patiently answering questions posed by a man who to the rest of seemed to be conducting an impromptu interview. Francoise saw me and was able to get a quick pour in my glass and after a few minutes introduced me to Bruce for no more than just a quick handshake.

I got a chance to visit a little longer with both at the Oakville Grower’s Tasting in April. Both tasting opportunities so far indicated very high quality in the bottle. The more I learned about the project on paper convinced me that it needed to be on the short list of places I personally visit before the launch of purely domestic wine report. After a little planning around calendars, the three of us finally got together for a visit yesterday. Francoise suggested that I ‘bring my boots’ since a trip to a vineyard for the first time is more about understanding the different blocks before tasting the wine, which in the case of Vine Hill Ranch is their premiere release of 300 cases. I should point out they do not have a tasting room, nor are they open to the public.

We set out from the farmhouse on foot to transit the entire seven blocks of vines comprising seventy acres whose production, with the exception of a sliver of each retained by the grower, is contracted out to other wineries. Bruce’s family acquired the property in 1959 (through his grandfather) with the focus being toward grape-growing. The history of the property is documented in archival preserved pages of county farm records from as far back as 1884 and that link to to farming heritage is intrinsic in the message of the new winery— “Land is at the heart of the story”. Boundried by neighbors, Dominus Estate to the southeast and Harlan to the northwest, the western perimeter is forested slopes of the Mayacamas range. The well drained soils and eastern exposure along with a flexible, three wire canopy management system make this a textbook place to grow cabernet sauvignon. After completing the walk we returned to the farmhouse where Bruce shared the inspiration of the label and packaging with me. I look at a lot of labels and realize more than most that in most instances, the story is very short and the collateral material is fairly simple. In this case (literally) you get a sense of the history of the place—a cedar wood box with what looks to be brass nails affixing the lid hold three bottles of VHR, tissue-wrapped with a print of the 1884 farm record. What is very different and reminds of how things were done by hand in another era is the label (shown left) is designed like a farm tax ledger. It contains seven columns representing the distinctive blocks that are available and every year the label will display ‘hole punches’ indicating the blocks used along with the vine count, harvest dates and acreage.

To me there is a tremendous amount of appeal to the packaging, so carefully conceived and executed with a design and quality of finish that I imagine were consistent with 1884, and maybe even 1959.

The success of the premiere release is a given however there are no plans to dramatically increase production from the estate. “We have always been about growing fruit for others”, said Phillips, “we intend that to continue for generations”.