are located high on the slopes of Pritchard Hill at about 1500 feet and on a clear day you can easily see the San Pablo Bay at the far end of the Napa Valley and sometimes even the skyscrapers of San Francisco in the distance. In the last 15 years much of this area has been planted with vineyards and their nearby neighbors are Continuum, Chappellet and Stagecoach. Versant has about 30 acres of planted varietals including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc, Merlot and Petite Sirah. As of press time they currently make several hundred cases of a single vintage Cabernet Sauvignon and also sell quite a few of their grapes to other wineries. They have plans to ramp up production to about 1000 cases.
This is a small family run winery; the owner and founder Richard Martin is an architect from Los Angeles who was good friends with Gustav Dalla Valle. Gustav was a vintner in the Napa Valley who encouraged Richard to plant vineyards – he also gave his stamp of approval after walking their current vineyard. The soils in this area are extremely rocky and often quite shallow. There is a cross section of the earth on site that clearly shows the characteristics of this soil. The first 4 or 5 feet are completely riddled with rocks and boulders leaving little soil and underneath the “soil” is solid bedrock. To grow and thrive in this environment is a testament to the strength of these grapevines and vineyard management.
Initially Richard wanted to grow and sell grapes exclusively but the “Napa Allure” of owning a winery took over. The vineyards were planted in the mid 90′s and by 2000 they released their first commercial wine after dabbling with home winemaking. The primary definition of Versant means slope or angle on the side of a mountain and this is a very true representation of their vineyards. We tried their 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon which is slightly blended with Merlot and Cabernet Franc. It is wine such as this that gives Napa its reputation of being an excellent Cabernet producing region. The alcohol is not too high, the tannins are well managed and the mouth feel is what you expect of very high quality Cabernet Sauvignon. It is soft, silky and smooth in the mouth with just a touch of tannins and smokiness on the finish. The nose is strong and opulent with aromas of ripe blueberries and blackberries. The grapes for this wine are whole berry fermented and aged in new French Oak for some 18 months.
A variety of Tuscan olive oil varietals are planted on site and each year Versant produces high quality olive oil. It is always refreshing to try olive oil from small producers after having tasted more than our share of the mass produced bulk olive oil. This is an oil that has its own unique flavors and tastes much more “natural” compared to the mass produced oils. www.versantvineyards.com
NOTE: This review has been archived.
REASON: Stopped producing wine commercially, sold property to what is now owned by Continuum Winery
Leave a Reply