Dusinberre Cellars

Dusinberre Cellars is run by Napa area vintner Jeff Smith who released his first vintage under Dusinberre in 1986 after establishing the winery in 1982. The name of the winery is traced back to his families’ name when his Dutch relations settled in what is now New York in the 1650’s. He was living in Calistoga in the 1970’s working in a non wine related industry when his neighbor asked if he would be interested in working as cellar foreman of nearby Schramsberg winery. Jeff having no experience in the wine industry at the time did not know what to expect. Perhaps the owners of Schramsberg saw a future wine maker, but in any case he was given the job and gained valuable experience with Champagne & the wine industry during this time here. In later years Jeff worked with well-known Napa notables including vintner Philip Togni and the famous Andre Tchelistcheff.

Today Jeff consults for a variety of clients both in Napa & Mendocino counties and beyond. He maintains two wineries, his bonded garage in Napa and another one in Kelseyville to the north. Jeff’s wine has made an appearance at an official White House dinner and also at a U.S. Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations. In addition, over the years his wines have earned a number of high reviews and honors at various tasting competitions. His production is extremely limited and he does not distribute outside of northern California. The wine stop in Calistoga has some of his wine as well as Brannan’s Grill, also in Calistoga. You may visit his website (listed below) or contact Jeff directly for purchasing. Because Jeff chooses fruit from various sources each year, his production varies somewhat. Dusinberre is a very small winery but they have a good overall selection of different types of wines and varietals.

All wines we tasted are from grapes sourced from the Napa area. Their 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon is a bright well-balanced wine with lots of color. The nose is decidedly a mix of ripe blackberries with black currants with great fruit flavors on the palate and a soft finish. Jeff also makes sparkling wine and the vintage we tried was a 2004 Cuvee Rouge. First of all there are very few sparkling wine producers in the Napa area and its guaranteed you won’t find this type of wine anywhere else. It is a blend of Zinfandel, Gamay and French Colombard grapes and two of these varietals are not often seen in Napa wines (Gamay is a very old French varietal and Colombard used to be California’s most planted “white grape” before Chardonnay took over this status). This Cuvee Rouge is red in color with some nice strawberry notes, rose petals and hints of white toast in the aromas. It is soft in the mouth with notes of kiwi & strawberry on the palate. It is a very nice wine and if you are looking for an out-of-the-ordinary limited production Napa sparkling wine, this is a very good choice.

Last but not least, the dessert! We enjoyed his incredible 2004 Late Harvest Muscat Cannelli named Tesoro del Sole or in English, the “treasure of the sun”. The grapes for this wine are typically picked in late November which is well after the normal area harvest is finished. The Brix at harvest was an amazing 41%! This wine is un-fined and unfiltered but remains remarkably clear. Some wines that do not go through these processes are cloudy and have some sediment – not this one. It is a golden amber hue that will only become more golden as it ages. It is a concentrated late harvest wine full of aromas of honey with some notes of orange peel. This aroma is more noticeable if you breath right from the stem of the bottle rather than from the glass where the wine opens up more. We also use a touch of this wine in our salad. Weird? No, its delicious! Visit: www.winecal.com (Website currently offline 9.18.14)