Arietta – A Complete Retrospective: 1996-2015

BY
ANTONIO GALLONI | MAY 3, 2017&nbsp;

This complete retrospective
provided a fascinating opportunity to track the evolution and growth of Arietta
as the winery reached its twentieth anniversary. 




















Historical BackgroundArietta was born as a
partnership between the Hatton and Kongsgaard families. Auctioneer Fritz Hatton
was working for Christie’s in the mid-1990s when he was asked to help sell a
few lots at the Napa Valley Wine Auction. It didn’t take long for Hatton to
strike up a friendship with John Kongsgaard, with whom he shared a deep passion
for classical music going back several decades. Among other things, Hatton is a
concert-level pianist, while Kongsgaard’s interest in music spans composition
to hosting an annual festival that draws some of the most highly respected
artists in the world.




















The Hattons and Kongsgaards
soon formed a partnership. The new Arietta label would focus on Bordeaux reds, while
the Kongsgaards’ winery specialized in Chardonnay and Syrah. John Kongsgaard
made the wines, Fritz Hatton’s job was to sell them, and Kongsgaard’s wife,
Maggy, took care of the business. In 2005, after a decade of working together,
the families agreed to dissolve their partnership. The Hattons bought out the
Kongsgaards, who took the proceeds of their sale and purchased the Atlas Peak
ranch where they live today. Andy Erickson, John Kongsgaard’s hand picked
successor, took over winemaking duties at Arietta in 2005. Since then, the
Arietta range has grown to include a number of selections.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1493836190793-Lineup2.jpg">I tasted all
of the wines in this complete retrospective with John Kongsgaard and Andy
Erickson in October 2016 at Arietta. It is the rare producer who wants to show
a complete survey of their work. Most owners and winemakers would prefer to
cherry pick the gems. Over the arc of time though, we all have our ups and
downs. Not all wines can be outstanding. That is a given. But complete verticals
really do afford the taster a unique perspective on the evolution of a winery.
Perhaps most importantly, there are almost always surprises. Some wines don’t
develop as well as expected, while others turn out far better than originally
thought.





































Some of the
revelations were wines from vintages like 2011, 2008 and 1998, none of them
highly regarded at the outset, especially 2011 and 1998. Conversely, I was
disappointed with a number of Arietta’s older wines. I suspect overly lavish
oak is to blame for the way some of the early vintages have aged. I have also
noticed that, when young, the wines seem to go through periods of openness, and
especially closure, that can be quite dramatic and frustrating. Some of that
may be because many wines feature Merlot, a
variety winemakers in Napa Valley often curse for its unpredictable and moody
personality when young. With a few years in the bottle, though, the wines
really blossom. Once again, I have to stress how well wines from lesser years
showed in this tasting.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1493836220839-OnTheWhiteKeysAriettaCover.jpg">

On The White Keys &amp; On The White Keys Artists' Reserve

Arietta makes two whites, both of which take
their inspiration from the dry whites of Bordeaux. On The White Keys is
Sauvignon Blanc/Sémillon that spends about nine months in barrel. In top vintages, a
few lots are selected for the Artists'
Reserve, which spends
two years in barrel and is made with a higher percentage of Sémillon. 


The Sémillon is sourced from old vineyards at Hyde, while the Sauvignon
Blanc is purchased from Farina, a site on Sonoma Mountain. Like all of the
Arietta wines, On The White Keys takes its name from the world of music, in
this case the white keys that correspond to the C Major scale.&nbsp;

Quartet




















First made
in 2004, Quartet is Arietta’s entry-level red. In its first few vintages
(2004-2006), Quartet was essentially culled from barrels that did not go into
the Cabernet Sauvignon. Fruit sites were top notch and new oak was 100% because
all of the lots were conceived with the idea that they might make it into the
top label. Much of the fruit during this time came from David Abreu’s Las
Posadas vineyard. Since around 2007, Quartet has been made from the outset to
be an entry-level offering. The blend is typically 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and
the rest Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Although Quartet is made in a
style that offers quite a bit of early appeal, based on the track record so
far, it also ages quite well. 

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1493836270554-Lineup1.jpg"> 

Cabernet Sauvignon &amp; Cabernet Sauvignon
88 Keys&nbsp;

The first
few vintages of Arietta’s Cabernet Sauvignon were mostly made from David
Abreu’s Las Posadas vineyard on Howell Mountain. Since 2007, the main fruit
source has been Meteor, one of the most highly regarded vineyards in
Coombsville. Arietta also buys fruit from Huckfeldt, which lies at the southern
end of Coombsville near Paul Hobbs’ Nathan Coombs estate. One of the recent
evolutions at Arietta has been a move towards picking the Cabernet a bit
earlier than in the past. The 2014 and 2013 are good examples of that, but both
wines are also on the lighter side. I was not at all surprised to learn that
starting in 2015, picking times have been moved back again. In top vintages, Arietta releases the Cabernet Sauvignon 88 Keys,
which is a selection of the top two or three barrels in the cellar. For 88
Keys, the winemaking team is looking for barrels that are complete on their
own, hence the reference to the full 88 keys on a piano keyboard. These lots
get an extra six months or so in barrel. So far, the 88 Keys has been bottled
in only three vintages; 2010, 2012 and 2014.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1493836290828-Merlot.jpg">

Merlot Hudson Vineyards

Arietta’s Merlot emerges
from Lee Hudson’s well-known vineyard in Napa Valley’s Carneros district. The
wine was born in 1998, when John Kongsgaard found that he had some Merlot left
over after putting together the blend for the H Block wine. The Merlot was too
good on its own to discard, so it was bottled separately. The Merlot was not a
permanent part of the Arietta range until 2011. That year, Arietta also
switched over to the I Block, which are
the oldest Merlot vines at Hudson.

H Block Red Wine Hudson Vineyards&nbsp;




















The original Arietta wine,
H Block Red Wine is a Cabernet Franc/Merlot blend from Hudson. The vineyard was
planted by Lee Hudson in the early 1980s. John Kongsgaard has bought this fruit
continually, in every vintage, since the mid 1980s, starting with his days at
Newton. At Arietta, H Block has been made in every vintage except 2010, when
the late season heat spikes roasted the fruit. Today, the Cabernet Franc is
sourced from H Block, while the Merlot typically comes from the G and I Blocks,
which are adjacent. The fruit is co-fermented, an approach that yields highly
distinctive wines. In the early days, H Block saw 100% new oak, which resulted
in accelerated aging for several vintages in the late 1990s and early 2000s,
some of which are also flattened by oak to the point of being hard to
distinguish from each other.

<img alt="" src="https://allgrapes.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads%2F1493836325470-VariationOne.jpg">Variation One&nbsp;




















Variation one is a blend of
Merlot and Syrah. At the time Variation One was first conceived, Arietta did
not have a Merlot program. The idea was to blend Hudson Merlot with some of the
Hudson Syrah that John Kongsgaard was using for his own Syrah. As is the case
with H Block, the fruit is co-fermented. Kongsgaard adds that in the early days
he always kept a bit of Merlot and Syrah separate for possible use in touching
up the blends later, but found those components never added anything to the
final wine. For that reason, all of the fruit is now co-fermented. Since 2005,
Variation One has favored Syrah in the blend. 


















<a target="_blank" href="http://vinous.com/wines?sort%5Bdirection%5D=asc&amp;sort%5Bname%5D=id&amp;wine_filter%5Barticle_id%5D=1632&amp;wine_filter%5Bproducer_id%5D=3349&amp;producer=true">See the Wines in the Order Tasted</a>

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