The Hills Are Alive
I’ll tell you what…if you’re going to visit Anderson Conn Valley Vineyards, you’d better be ready to step outside your customary Napa Valley Route 29 Comfort Zone. These people grow their grapes way up the hill off Silverado Trail, but the destination is worth the determination it takes to get there.
Todd Anderson
Managed by Todd Anderson and his wife Ronene, the company has been producing fine wines since 1983. But they didn’t exactly do it alone. There’s Todd’s father Gus, who studied viticulture at UC Davis, and their partners Phyllis and Dana Gallagher.
Sidebar: It always amazes me that so many people who make their dreams come true as winemakers get to it from the most unlikely backgrounds. One vintner I met had been a statistician. Two of my vintner friends are doctors. Todd Anderson left his career as a geophysicist (of all things) to make wine up in the hills. Go figure.
The Anderson vineyard -- some of it
The Andersons are also supported by the able contributions of winemaker Mac Sawyer, and I’d very much like to have his job. He went off to spend a year in France as only the second American to attend the famed winemaking program at the Superior School in Montpellier. If there’s such a thing as a major at that institution, Mac specialized in the winemaking styles of Bordeaux, Alsace, and Provence, then brought his skills home with him.
About the vineyard. Way back when, the Andersons started searching for their dream vineyard location, which they found – 40 acres worth of it, with a reservoir in the middle – way up in Conn Valley. Currently, 26 acres are under vine, divided into 9 blocks.
Part of the process
Apparently they discovered the perfect spot. Their neighbors are Joseph Heitz and Joseph Phelps, and the vineyard soils share important characteristics with those on the well-known Rutherford Bench. This terroir yields them around 106 tons of first class fruit a year, from which they produce some first class Bordeaux-style blends. There’s the Cabernet-based Eloge, and their newest wine, Right Bank, which, as the name suggests, pays homage to St. Emilion, building on a base of Merlot with that characteristic touch of Cabernet Franc.
There's wine in them thar caves.
At one point some years back, they brought out the Big Machines and drilled not one, but two caves through the side of the mountain. In there, the reds spend plenty of time maturing in oak. In fact, the Cabernet Sauvignon and Èloge wines may spend up to two years in barrel prior to bottling.
But the Andersons do more than pay homage to French winemaking traditions and styles with their red wines. They have plenty of respect for other regions, as well. Like Burgundy, for example. Their Chardonnay is not your typical buttery California white. It does not go through malolactic conversion, which gives it the lean, focused style you expect from a white Burgundy. And the Pinot Noir is also done in an Old World style. Depending on the vintage, it offers characteristic tobacco and spice, chocolate, and dark fruit.
The selection
While it’s a bit too early to tell which wines they’ll bring with them, they’re licensed to produce 16,000 cases annually, and you can count on a selection at our Grand Tasting and Auction in February.
Arrive thirsty.