August Briggs Winery

August Briggs Winery is a small family owned and operated long time Napa/Sonoma producer with a tasting room located in downtown Calistoga. Founder and winemaker, Joe Briggs graduated from Fresno State in 1984 where he studied winemaking. He began producing his own wine in 1995 under the August Briggs label after consulting for several wineries for a number of years. August is Joe’s real first name while Joe is his middle name. In 2003 he built a physical winery; this opened in 2004 on the northern part of the Silverado Trail within the Calistoga city limits. In 2011 he and his wife Sally (who we originally met with) sold both the physical winery and property to another Napa Valley producer as well as the August Briggs label to several long-time employees. The winery was a family affair; Joe’s parents Bob and Betty Briggs used to work in the tasting room as did his nephews Aaron and Jesse Inman.

Today Joe’s former employees, Colette Milliman who grew up in Occidental in neighboring Sonoma County and Matthew Gacso are the co-owners of August Briggs Winery. Matthew used to own William Cross Wine Bar in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. He eventually sold this business; however it is still operating under different ownership. He also worked at Bouchaine Winery and first met Joe when Joe was working at what was called Kirkland Ranch in the south part of Napa Valley. The original August Briggs Winery is now home to Aubert Winery and guests who visited this space while it was August Briggs would no longer recognize the changes and updates the current owners made. After the physical winery was sold, production was moved to and still is located in Santa Rosa in neighboring Sonoma County.

Colette and Matthew operate a small tasting room in downtown Calistoga; when they opened this space in 2010, they were among a number of relatively new tasting rooms to open within the city limits. Currently there are approximately 10 stand-alone tasting rooms within the city limits of Calistoga. Often either Colette or Matthew will be inside greeting visitors. The tasting room is divided into two tasting counters, one for walk-in visitors and one for their mailing list customers. Several tasting options are offered including wine by the glass or bottle. And weather permitting, an outdoor patio with several tables can also be used for tastings; this is a relaxing space along the banks of the overgrown Napa River.

Parking can be an issue in the tiny downtown of Calistoga but not so here – along with another vintner in the same building they share a parking lot for guests. During the weekend when the nearby bank closes additional parking is available in the same lot.

Jesse Inman’s was the winemaker for August Briggs for a number of years; his childhood is a story that sounds right out of California’s mining lore. He grew up in the small town of Yreka in northern California in a cabin with his family (no electricity or flush toilets). His father mined for gold in the area on his mining claim. His story is an appealing one to us; we used to have a 10 acre mining claim in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. During our time maintaining this claim, we discovered over a pound and a half of gold including one beauty which weighed about 6 ounces (a gold in quartz specimen).

Jesse’s uncle is Joe Briggs. Jesse first joined August Briggs in 2006 as an assistant winemaker and became head winemaker since 2011, although he is no longer the winemaker for August Briggs.

August Briggs is noted for their diversity of wines especially from historical vineyards, primarily in Calistoga but also in neighboring Sonoma County. As of our latest update to this review, they produce 16 different wines. Some of their most historical source vineyards in Napa Valley include Luvisi Vineyard dating back to 1908 and the Canard Vineyard in Calistoga with its oldest Zinfandel vines planted in the mid 1880s. August Briggs also sources from the Frediani Vineyard (also in Calistoga) planted in the 1950s, and the Monte Rosso Vineyard in Sonoma County which dates back to the 1880s.

August Briggs established relationships with growers over the years and regardless of the change in ownership, they continue to source from some of these same vineyards.

Select Wines
Whites
The 2020 August Briggs Chardonnay Leveroni Vineyard Carneros (Sonoma side) is deep gold in color; the bouquet is highly aromatic and richly layered immediately upon opening and does not lose its olfactory intensity even after sitting in the glass for some time. It offers scents of ripe corn tassel, overripe honeydew melon, apricot, peaches in light syrup, pineapple, vanilla, melted butter, coconut and hazelnut. The palate is also rich, although perhaps not quite as much as the bouquet. It offers flavors of golden apples, honeydew melon, pineapple and and mango accompanied by a diversity of stone fruits including peach, nectarine and apricot. The finish lingers with a light hazelnut character. This wine is showing very well four years post vintage at the time of our tasting. Its texture is silky, perhaps emulating velvet if velvet came in a liquid form. This wine is not overtly oaky or buttery but there are nuances of both characteristics on the bouquet and the palate.

Another variety that is fairly rare in Napa Valley is Pinot Meunier which is a close relative of the Pinot Noir grape. Pinot Meunier is normally grown in Champagne, France and used in wines from Champagne. However it grows well in the southern and cooler part of Napa Valley and also makes a nice still wine. Until 2013 August Briggs was sourcing Pinot Meunier from a vineyard in Calistoga which is not a part of the valley known for this variety due to the warmer conditions here. When that vineyard was replanted, August Briggs began sourcing Pinot Meunier from neighboring Sonoma County.

Reds
One wine rarely seen from Napa Valley wineries is Charbono, originating in the Savoie region of eastern France; the reason being is there are less than 100 acres of this variety planted in the entire state. However, there are several plantings growing in the Calistoga sub appellation. August Briggs produces a 100% varietal Charbono from the historic Frediani Vineyard in Calistoga each year.

The 2019 August Briggs Charbono Calistoga is deep ruby, opaque and sports an amaranthine rim; the bouquet is darkly fruited with its fruit scents dominating over a gamey or dried meat character. This wine offers scents of bramble, dark plum, blackberry, boysenberry and mulberry. Its non fruit aromas include violets, an almost sanguine character, rusting iron sitting in hot sun, and freshly ground dark peppercorn. The aromatics at play here are both brooding but also simultaneously expressive. The palate is also darkly fruited with flavors of plum and blackberry accompanied by a dark spice character which in a blind tasting might have led us to identify this wine as Syrah. The tannins are remarkably resolved in its youth, especially for this variety which is known for its robust texture. They sport a lightly grainy and drying texture texture which are both felt more on the front of the plate than the back and outpaces the fruit on the finish. With its gamey and dark spice characteristics we would love to pair this wine with a dry-rubbed rib-eye steak on the BBQ (using a healthy amount of pepper and various dried herbs).

Worth trying, both for the quality of wine, but also for an extremely rare glimpse into some of Napa Valley’s early viticulture history, is the August Briggs Zinfandel. There is no legal definition when using the term, old-vine on a wine; in our opinion, a wine should not carry this term on the label unless it is at least 50 years old. In California it is most associated with Zinfandel. But there is another term to describe the oldest of the oldest vines; August Briggs uses the term, ‘ancient vines’ to appropriately describe the source of their Zinfandel. It is from Canard Vineyard in Calistoga. According to the Vineyard Historical Society, Canard Vineyard is one of the two oldest planted still producing vineyards in all of Napa Valley – the other one being just south of St. Helena and providing grapes for the Crane Assembly.

The 2020 August Briggs Zinfandel Calistoga Napa Valley Ancient Vines is deep ruby; the bouquet reveals aromas of raspberry, red vine licorice, red plums, white pepper and old cedar box. The aromatics have some character and are not ripe, jammy or opulent, somewhat surprising considering the listed 15.5% alcohol on this bottling. We love that the bouquet smells like the variety. The palate features flavors of cranberry, currant, red cherries, licorice, Chinese five-star spices, nutmeg and finishes with a red-fruited tartness and dried sage. The palate is bright lit with lively acidity leading to a mouth watering finish. The tannins are grainy and still show youthful four years post vintage at the time of our tasting and linger with a light drying character. We would love to pair this wine with Thai Suea rong hai (crying tiger) and its accompanying spicy Nam jim jaew (spicy dipping sauce) on a warm winter evening from a rooftop bar in Bangkok overlooking the entire city skyline.

The 2013 August Briggs Zinfandel is similar in style to previous vintages we have tried on earlier visits; it is very food friendly and balanced. This wine was sourced from two of the oldest Zinfandel Vineyards in Napa Valley including the younger Luvisi Vineyard and the ‘ancient’ Canard Vineyard. Refreshingly, this is not a super ripe, jammy, feel the burn alcohol wine, that this variety is often known for especially from warmer California sites. The bouquet offers plenty of fruit including red cherry and raspberry complemented nicely with dessert spices including clove. Balanced across the palate, this wine offers mouthwatering acidity, especially on the finish with a slightly lingering tartness of both red cherry and cranberry.

The 2013 August Briggs Petite Sirah was sourced from Calistoga from vines that date from the 1950s; dark crimson in the glass it offers appealing aromatics including chocolate (especially as the wine has to breathe) along with a subtle dried rose petals. But mostly the bouquet is about the fruit – presenting darker fruit aromas including plum and boysenberry. Big but with restraint, the palate shows plenty of red-fruited flavors including cranberry. Bright acidity.

August Briggs produces several Cabernet Sauvignon wines including a wine from the historic and well-known Monte Rosso Vineyard located at about 1000 feet in the Mayacamas mountains in Sonoma County. Production was lower in 2008 due to frost related issues; this vintage is concentrated and displays a very aromatic bouquet. More red fruit shows than dark fruit. This wine has bright natural mouthwatering acidity.

Enjoy Pinot Noir? Joe certainly does. He worked with this variety in Oregon as well as cooler growing regions in Northern California including the Russian River, Sonoma Coast and Carneros. Note that none of the grapes for their Pinot Noir bottlings were ever planted on their former Calistoga estate as it is too warm here for growing premium wines of this variety. Rather, they produce Pinot Noir from neighboring vineyards, primarily in Sonoma County including from the Russian River Valley.

The 2008 August Briggs Dijon Clone Napa Valley Pinot Noir is beautiful wine. The fruit is sourced from a vineyard south of Carneros. This is a very fruit driven Pinot Noir both on the nose and on the palate. Delicious, concentrated flavors show including cherry and strawberry with some clove and white pepper spice that show up on the mid palate.

NOTE: additional tasting notes of more current release wines coming by the end of the 2024.

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In the past the winemaking team at August Briggs also produced wine for NASCAR Driver Jeff Gordon called the Jeff Gordon Collection but that these wines produced under the Jeff Gordon label were discontinued in early 2018.

Today production is usually between 2,000 to 3,000 cases annually mostly sold direct through the tasting room or their wine club. Sometimes some of their smaller production wines will be sold out. For more information, to purchase wine and or to join one of their two wine clubs, visit: www.augustbriggswines.com