Book Excerpt:
Common Ground – Charting the Future of Napa Valley

BY RICHARD MENDELSON | SEPTEMBER 04, 2024Vineyard Registry

I spent a large part of my career working with growers and
vintners to capture in our federally recognized American Viticultural Areas
(AVAs) the essence of what makes Napa Valley a unique and world-class
winegrowing region. Defining those AVA boundaries was often contentious. And
the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and later its successor,
the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) had a bias in the early
years—and perhaps still— toward enlarging proposed appellations to ensure that
neighboring lands whose owners wanted to be included were allowed in.

Over time, we have come to recognize some of the
viticultural distinctions that were overlooked. I think back to the appellation
battles of the 1990s over the proposed Rutherford, Oakville, Rutherford Bench,
and Oakville Bench AVAs. Growers and vintners whose vines were included in the
communal AVAs but not in the Bench AVAs felt slighted, as if their vineyards
had been declassified. But the terroir differences between the eastern and
western foothills and the river-fronting valley floor sites are real and are
increasingly acknowledged.

I do not expect these AVA boundaries to change. The
community-named AVAs—Yountville, Oakville, Rutherford, St. Helena, and
Calistoga—are easy for consumers and the trade to understand. They bring
together in one organization significant segments of the grower and vintner
community, with some clout in the marketplace.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1725471034735-Richard+Mendelson+Cover_2_copy.jpg">But AVAs are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to
capturing the unique and special qualities of the land. To mix metaphors,
vineyards are the last peel of the onion. “Great wine is made in the vineyard,”
so the saying goes. 

Unlike AVAs, vineyards are not defined or mapped by TTB. The
definition and use of vineyard designations is left to the growers and vintners
who separately—or jointly—decide on their names and locations. Over time, with
new owners, the names and boundaries may change. TTB’s sole requirement is that
a vineyard designation cannot be used on a wine label unless 95 percent of the
wine in the bottle was produced from grapes grown in the named vineyard.Grape grower Andy Beckstoffer, following the settlement of
his lawsuit with Robert Mondavi Winery over the To-Kalon name, encouraged the growers trade association,
Napa Valley Grapegrowers (NVG), to establish a registry of our historic
vineyards. The goal of the project, which NVG began in 2004, was to identify,
map, and certify these historic vineyards. The research and fact-finding phase
was completed, but the project ended prior to the mapping and certification phases. 

The Historic Vineyard Society has taken on some of this
work. It certifies California’s “heritage vineyards” that are at least 50 years
old. The vineyard must currently produce grapes, and at least one third of the
producing vines must be traced back to the original planting date.

Napa Valley should be at the forefront of establishing a
vineyard registry and that registry should be expanded from historic vineyards
to all vineyard designations in Napa Valley that are used on wine labels. The
vineyard registry need not have the force of law. Where the facts are not clear
or are in dispute, such as the ongoing dispute over the To-Kalon name and
boundaries, the registry would so state, and any disputes would be resolved by
TTB, in a court proceeding, or better yet by a non-biased organization like The
National Register of Historic Places or the Historic American Landscape Survey
that are experts in historical authentication.<img alt="" src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.vinous.com/uploads%2F1725471169634-Common+Ground+Sheep_2.jpg">In my view, this project also should record the history of
the vineyard and the historic vineyard practices. This would set the stage for
preservation, and in some cases readoption, of some tried-and-true but now
largely forgotten viticultural practices. Among them are field-grafted vines
instead of bench-grafted vines; the use of cuttings from an existing vineyard
to propagate a new vineyard instead of clones; dry farmed, non-irrigated
vineyards that were the norm before the advent of PVC pipe and polyethylene
drip hose; goblet-trained (also known as head-trained) vines instead of the
Lodi ladder; and field blends of multiple varieties planted in a single
vineyard. 

Today’s wine enthusiasts and wine critics focus increasingly
on wines from specific vineyard sites—Dr. Crane, Martha’s Vineyard, To-Kalon
Vineyard, Eisele Vineyard, to name a few. Already there is talk about the
Grands Crus and the Premiers Crus of the Napa Valley. (A cru in France means
“growth.” In Burgundy, it refers to a high-quality vineyard, which is
classified as Premier Cru or Grand Cru.) By establishing a list of our vineyard
designations including their names, boundaries, and past and current owners,
Napa Valley would enhance the integrity and the relevance of these sites and
give wine critics and consumers reliable and verifiable information for their
classifications.

A vineyard registry also would help stem the tide of
wineries that convert geographic place names into brands and then use those
brand names on wines from other places, capitalizing on and sacrificing the
goodwill associated with those places. 

Our renowned vineyard-designated wines, along with our
celebrated estate wines made from estate-grown grapes like Harlan Estate,
Screaming Eagle, Dominus Estate, and Heitz Martha’s Vineyard will secure Napa
Valley’s reputation in the fine wine global market. They are now global
benchmarks, just like Haut-Brion, Petrus, Rousseau Chambertin, Domaine de La
Romanée-Conti La Tâche, and Conterno Barolo Riserva Monfortino. Anything we
can do to recognize and publicize specific vineyard sites will benefit the entire
Napa Valley.© 2024, Vinous. No portion of this article may be copied, shared or re-distributed without prior consent from Vinous. Doing so is not only a violation of our copyright, but also threatens the survival of independent wine criticism.<hr> You Might Also Enjoy<a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/book-excerpt-appellation-napa-valley-stags-leap-district-jul-2017">Book Excerpt: Appellation Napa Valley – Stags Leap District</a>, Richard Mendelson, July 2017 <a target="_blank" href="https://vinous.com/articles/the-rutherford-and-oakville-avas-early-days-sep-2016">The Rutherford and Oakville AVAs - Early Days</a>,&nbsp;Richard Mendelson, September 2016

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