Parable Wines was founded in 2022 by the Eppright family from Austin, Texas including Fred (founder of Eppright Homes) and his wife Paula and their two sons, Trey and Matt. Trey recalls trying his first wine at age 15 while on the gulf of Texas with his father and his father’s friend, a lawyer who was celebrating winning an important trial. The friend brought a case of 1993 Dom Perignon to the party and then asked Trey’s father if he could share some of the wine with Trey; he gave the ok. Not a bad bottle for one’s first wine.
While attending Texas A&M where he earned his degree in Construction Science, Trey was introduced to beer and liquor. Those were not his drinks of choice and he found himself almost always ordering wine. He remembers walking all the way to the other side of campus to the horticulture department and asking a professor if he could have permission to take wine and viticulture classes. The professor said something like, “I’ve never been asked this question before from a Construction Science student”. The professor agreed and Trey took several courses in both wine and viticulture, furthering his interest in wine.
He also became hooked by various episodes of Wine Library TV, starting around episode 180, hosted by Gary Vaynerchuk. These episodes directly influenced his buying patterns; once he turned 21 he began carefully following Gary’s advice on quality to price point wines, sticking with a budget of around $30/bottle. But always purchasing enough bottles to take advantage of the free shipping. He remembers Gary speaking highly of the Amon-Ra Shiraz from Australia and he splurged on this particular bottling. He became obsessive with the episodes, a trait which is common with those who move beyond curiosity and passion in the world of wine. He wore his Wine Library TV wrist band everywhere. Such was Gary’s power of persuasion that Trey also became a New York Jets fan and was moved to purchase various bottlings of black currant jams, gummy bears and other products to further enhance his own sense of taste and smell.
His pursuit of wine education took a hiatus for a few years but resumed with his first trip to Napa Valley in October of 2013. He arrived with a ‘blank slate’, with no plans for his stay in the valley. On his first night he had dinner at Redd in Yountville. One of the servers at Redd texted a friend and setup Trey’s first tasting, a visit to Cade Winery. While at Cade, one of the hosts texted a friend at VGS Chateau Potelle to setup his next appointment.
He met more wine enthusiasts at VGS and joined his first wine club there. He later discovered VGS offered a club member wine focused trip to Bordeaux every year. And then he remembered Vaynerchuk’s love of Bordeaux. He was sold. He recalled visiting beautiful wineries with VGS proprietor Jean-Noelle. Only in his 20s, this trip was an eye opener and inspired him to build his own wine cellar and begin collecting more wines.
He began visiting Napa Valley more often. In 2020, he took some time off from his families’ commercial real estate business in Texas. And re-evaluated what he really wanted to do. Fortuitously, a friend in Oregon who operated a farm supplying restaurants with vegetables asked Trey to move to Oregon and help with his operations. Trey fell favorably into the farming life, getting up early and working long hours. Time here was grounding and made him realize maybe real estate wasn’t his true passion.
He returned to Austin; his family completed a large real estate sale and collectively they decided to invest in a property in Napa Valley. Trey called his friend Matthew Regan who he originally met at VGS Chateau Potelle and Matthew suggested he visit the former Dutch Henry Winery which was for sale. Trey had originally visited this property in 2018. The sale closed on July 16, 2021. Trey moved from Austin to the property a month later bringing only one small backpack with him. He moved into an empty house, recalling at night he had to use his cell phone light to see as there were no working lights in the bedrooms. A few days after he moved to the valley he called up Kale Anderson, who he had previously met at a VGS Chateau Potelle event; Anderson soon agreed to be his winemaker.
The property is 10.5 acres; 2.4 acres were previously planted to Syrah. Today it is all Cabernet Sauvignon; the rootstock was planted in 2022 and then grafted in 2023. Clones of this variety were sourced from iconic Napa Valley properties including Martha’s Vineyard, Spottswoode and Eisele Vineyard. And eventually another section of the property may be planted to either Syrah or Viognier or both. Neal Vineyard Management has farmed the vineyard since the mid 1990s and continues to do so. The vineyard is certified organic (CCOF). The first harvest to be bottled from the property should be in either 2025 or 2026.
While winemaking currently is at a custom crush winery in south Napa, a 4,400 square foot cave dating from 2007 is located on the property. Eventually plans call for winemaking to be moved on site.
The previous winery, Dutch Henry was founded by Less and Maggie Chafen; they were looking for a weekend escape from San Francisco and initially purchased a vineyard in Calistoga in 1986. The Chafen’s founded Dutch Henry Winery in 1992; its namesake was in homage to a mercury prospector who had previously lived in the hills behind the property mining the rich pockets of mercury ore. The winery burned down in the Glass Fire of 2020 but the cave and residence on the property were not affected. A private road of the same name and Dutch Henry Canyon are both located nearby.
The original Silverado Trail used to run through the property; an old stone bridge dates from 1938 when the Silverado Trail passed through what is currently the footprint of the driveway. This is a premium vineyard neighborhood; the iconic Three Palms Vineyard can easily be seen from next to the winery located on the other side Silverado Trail. Other neighbors include Switchback Ridge and a little further away, Hourglass.
Nothing in the wine business moves quickly; Parable Wines is being built slowly, thoughtfully and for the long term.
Select Wines
Whites
Parable produces three different Chardonnays; highlighting both differences in site but also each wine is treated differently in the cellar. These are exceptional white wines, well worth seeking out.
The 2022 Parable Chardonnay A18, Atlas Peak is medium to dark gold in color; the bouquet offers aromas of dry hay, chamomile, honeycomb, pineapple, and as the wine evolves in the glass it reveals a light touch of crème Brule and vanilla pudding; this is not an oaky or buttery bottling on the bouquet or the palate. The aromatics are well layered. The palate is brightly lit; this is a fresh showing of the variety. The palate features lively acidity with flavors of orange and other citrus notes, apple, and honey dew melon. Its texture is supple and rounded but complemented nicely by its bright acidity. The finish is energetic and flavor filled including a lingering nuance of citrus lemon/lime. It is always a joy to discover a food friendly bottling of this variety grown and produced in Napa Valley.
This Chardonnay was sourced from the Antinori Estate on Atlas Peak at an elevation of over 1,000 feet. This bottling is from the Weimer clone of Chardonnay (originally from Burgundy). This clone often experiences shatter regardless of frost each year; on Atlas Peak, it produces very small berries and is low yielding with 1.5 tons per acre considered a good year. It makes a concentrated wine with plenty of natural acidity. And at its higher elevation, the resulting wine has a lower pH. This wine went through partial malolactic fermentation and was fermented entirely in French oak barrels. It was aged in 50% new French oak barrels.
The 2022 Parable Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay is medium gold in color; the aromatics are immediately beautiful, showcasing fresh pear and apple and a sweetly fruited thread which runs the length of the bouquet including of nectarines, apricot and mango accompanied by vanilla, and as it opens further, light butterscotch and honeycomb. The bouquet sports a simultaneous elegance but also a ripeness. The palate offers a perceived sweetness of fruit with flavors of peach, nectarine and some honeyed notes. Balanced. The fresh stone fruits on both the bouquet and the palate remind us of wandering through U-pick orchards in California’s central valley in the summertime harvesting fruits at the peak of their ripeness. The finish is bright and mouth watering with a citrus zest; this acidity balances out the richness of the persistent flavors. Supple texture. Half of this wine was fermented in stainless steel and the other half in oak of which 25% were new barrels. This wine was made entirely with a Montrachet clone of Chardonnay.
It is also worth nothing that a large grove of eucalyptus trees growing near this particular block were removed in mid summer 2023, exposing the vines to both more sunshine and the Carneros breezes from the nearby San Pablo Bay. All their wines feature labels with a symbol directly related to either property or vintner. In this case, the label contains a small mustache in homage to grower and namesake of this vineyard, Larry Hyde. Graphic artist Michael McDermott designed all the creative Parable labels.
The 2022 Parable Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay is from older Wente clone vines; this wine is deep gold in the glass. The bouquet offers beautiful aromatics with honeyed notes including honeysuckle and honeycomb along with pineapple, ripe mango, vanilla, butterscotch and crème Brule. The palate is richly textured with a creamy and rounded character, but is not viscous. This is perhaps the most intensely flavored and sports the longest finish of their three 2022 Chardonnays. The palate showcases the richness of this variety with flavors of red apple, comise pear, yellow nectarine and pineapple along with beeswax. Lingers with a very subtle nuance of hazelnut. This wine tends to be a little lower in pH compared to the Hyde Vineyard Chardonnay. For 2022, this wine was fermented entirely in concrete vessels. And in 2023, it was both fermented and aged in concrete.
Reds
The 2021 Parable Vangone Cabernet Cabernet, clone 169 is deep ruby; this bouquet is beautiful, a union of both fruit and spice characters. Offers scents of sweet baking spices, freshly tilled potting soil, a woodsy spice layer, old cedar box, plum and a hint of clove. The aromas are dark and layered with dried herbs, garrigue, blueberry, red cherry, dark raspberry and currant. As the wine evolves the bouquet becomes more fruit dominated. The attractive aromatics offer loads of layering. But give it time to open. The palate sports flavors of red plums, dark raspberry and cherry. Juicy finish. The tannins are gravelly, pixelated and grainy and show more on the front of the palate than the back. There is a light and lingering dusty character on the finish. The grapes for this wine were from slightly older vines planted during phase 1 of the property’s vineyard development. Some of the spices on the bouquet also appear on the palate.
Vangone Vineyard is located on steep slopes across from Rector Reservoir, the water supply for the town of Yountville. From here the views are exceptional. Part of this vineyard was planted in response to a contract from Pahlmeyer who was looking to expand their production but wanted to continue to produce wine from grapes growing in this particular part of Napa Valley.
2021 was a lower yielding vintage in general in Napa Valley including from this property, but the grapes ripened evenly and fully without experiencing any heat spikes. This wine was aged for 22 months in 85% new French oak barrels from a diversity of premium coopers. A silhouette of a VW is on the label, paying homage to a VW that used to be on the Vangone property.
The 2021 Parable Bourne Vineyard is deep ruby; its initial aromatics reminded us of water being poured on slate sitting in the hot sun and the resulting dusty character. There are also some floral notes at play including violets along with darker baking spices and dried herbs including sage. The palate features bright fruit including flavors of dark plum, blackberry, red cherry, dark raspberry and currant. It persists with a light red-fruited tartness of currant and cranberry. The finish lingers dusty/earthy and drying for a long time. Lively and bright acidity. The tannins are moderately gripping and are still tightly wound in their youth; they parallel the fruit on the finish until both eventually drop off. More Taransaud oak was used during the aging of this wine versus the Vangone Vineyard. Pair this with well-marbled T-bone medium rare steak on the BBQ.
The 2022 Parable Trailside Vineyard Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon barrel sample is deep ruby in color and nearly opaque with an amaranthine color; bouquet is dark fruited, it needs some time in the glass for the aromatics to fully evolve at this stage. It offers aromas of dried herbs. These grapes were harvested the second day of the sustained heat spike around Labor Day. Flavors are dark fruited including of blackberry, dark plum and blackberry. Chewy tannins, edgy, with a dark finish. We also wrote gravelly to describe their texture and then found out that the vines coincidentally grow in a very gravelly section of the vineyard. There is a light dusty character on the finish.
The 2023 Parable Trailside Vineyard Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon barrel sample is deep ruby and opaque with an amaranthine rim; this wine shows some reductive characteristics in late March 2024. This wine really needs some air. The aromatics are dark, meaty and savory including a note of roasted coffee beans. Flavors are blackberry, boysenberry, dark raspberry. It shows a memorable intensity of fruit. Layered and bright. The tannins are pronounced, course, chewy, edgy, and feature a finish sporting a long lasting and drying character which far outpaces the fruit at this early age. Dried tobacco. Was fully finished with malolactic fermentation and SO2 adds completed at the time of our tasting.
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Their inaugural bottlings incorporating wines from both the 2021 and 2022 vintages were released on May 1, 2024. Total production is around 550 cases per year but will be growing. For more information or to join their allocation list, please visit: www.parablewines.com
“Napa Valley: there is no bottom to the well” ~ Kale Anderson
The next year i have the chance to do the best vintage I have ever created. ” kale
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