Gemstone Vineyard

Gemstone Vineyard was founded by Suzie and Paul Frank in 1997 (their first vintage). The Franks built a successful gemstone business (diamonds) in the Los Angeles area (hence the name of the wine) and both have enjoyed wine since college. They met Ren & Marilyn Harris (owners of Napa’s Paradigm Winery) who were specializing in vineyard real estate in the 1990s. After looking for property for some time the Frank’s purchased their 17-acre vineyard in 1992. The Harris’s introduced the Franks to a number of winery owners based in Napa Valley over the years.

Paul has led a successful career; he was a founding director of both the Jewelry Circle of the City of Hope Medical Center and the jewelry panel of the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. More recently he has been director of the Emeril Lagasse Foundation.

In 2008 the Franks sold the vineyard, label and inventory to Carole and Michael Marks (the Franks actually stayed on as consultants for several years). Michael has an impressive resume of managing high tech companies in Silicon Valley. He ran Flextronics Corporation and turned it into one of the largest electronic manufacturers in the world; he was also a former minority owner of the Golden State Warriors basketball team. Later he served as an interim CEO of Tesla and in 2015 co-founded Katerra (no longer in business), a sizable construction company that within only a few years built hundreds of projects and became international in their scope. And he was a founding partner for several investment companies including Riverwood Capital and Celesta Capital.

In support of their generous donation to the Juilliard School in New York, the career services and entrepreneurship center located in the main Juilliard building is named the Alan D. Marks Center for Career Services and Entrepreneurship in honor of Michael’s late brother Alan, a 1971 graduate of Juilliard School. Alan’s debut was at Carnegie Recital Hall, also in 1971 while still a student at Juilliard. Alan’s short career was as an award-winning international pianist with performances given from New York to Los Angles, from London to Israel to Japan. He was based in Germany until his untimely passing at age 46 from cancer in 1995.

Juilliard is generally considered one of the top performing arts schools in the U.S. Many prominent artists have either attended or graduated from Juilliard including Robin Williams, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Philip Glass and Sarah Chang. The college is located in Manhattan, within a short walk of Lincoln Performing Arts Center, Fordham University and Central Park.

Carole and Michael’s daughter Amy Dornbusch served as President of Gemstone and oversaw all sales and marketing efforts for a number of years. In addition to her time at Gemstone she is also the General Partner of Willowtree Venture Fund, (an investment fund) and is the co-director of the Marks Family Foundation.

In 2023, Gemstone Vineyards was sold to Jason Rebrook, a petroleum engineer was raised in the mountains of West Virginia. His career has focused on the energy sector, primarily oil and gas. He currently serves as CEO of Houston based private equity JDH Capital Company. And with the transition in ownership, winemaker and production locations have changed yet again. As of our latest update to this review, Julien Fayard is now the winemaker for Gemstone Vineyard.

Gemstone Vineyard is located in a small strip of the Yountville appellation, but for all intents and purposes, this part of the appellation could be either Oakville or the Stags Leap District as both of these sub appellations are located within a short distance of this property. The decision to purchase a vineyard may have been quick but the actual search took some time. The Franks were very particular about the type of vineyard they wanted; it needed to be land that was rocky with bench land soils and western facing exposure.

When the Frank’s acquired the 16+ acre vineyard it was planted entirely to Chardonnay – certainly not the variety that quickly comes to mind when discussing this part of Napa Valley. When it was time to re-plant Paul contacted a number of his friends in the valley to receive clones of their Cabernet Sauvignon. As a result, the vineyard is planted to a number of well-regarded Cabernet Sauvignon clones as well as Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. The best block of Chardonnay was not removed and today it produces enough fruit for merely 50 cases of wine (allocated to mailing list members).

Generally the vineyard is harvested over a span of 4-5 weeks as picking decisions are often made by individual rows and or small blocks. This is of course a very time and labor-intensive process, but their goal has always been to make the best wine possible in small quantities. When optimum maturity is reached the fruit will be picked regardless of how small an area in the vineyard. Once the blocks are harvested, they are fermented and aged separately until much later when the blending decisions are made. The focus of their wine production is on three individual very limited production Cabernet Sauvignon bottlings from the estate: Heritage Selection, Alluvial Selection and Ruby Barrel Selection.

Through the 2022 vintage, highly sought after Thomas Brown was the winemaker; noted winemaker Philippe Melka made the Gemstone wines for a number of years starting in 2005, prior to Thomas. Thomas Brown and his team are one of Napa Valley’s most in-demand winemakers, and for good reason. He is a talented artist who works with a number of the finest vineyards in the valley. Over the years his wines have been highly validated in the press with top scores coming from wine critics and accolades from wine writers.

In 2010, Thomas was named Food & Wine Magazine “Winemaker of the Year.” He continues to consult and make wine for a number of premium producers in the valley. His personal label, Rivers-Marie interestingly enough focuses on Pinot Noir from neighboring Sonoma County, although the physical winery is located in Calistoga.

Select Wines
Gemstone Facets
The 2021 Facets by Gemstone Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is deep ruby, opaque and completely amaranthine in color; there is a lot to like about this bouquet and collectors of serious Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon will be wowed by its ripe but fresh aromatics. These include dark plum, boysenberry preserves, dark cherry, blackberry jam and mulberry – paralleled by complementary barrel influences of mocha, cinnamon stick, clove and cardamom. The palate is dominated by an intensity of fruit including of blackberry, boysenberry, dark plum and black cherry paralleled by toasted cedar, dried tobacco leaf and dark chocolate. Fully ripe but not over ripe. Hedonistic. The chewy, grainy and firmly textured tannins persist for an extended period of time, their dusty influence ultimately outlasting the fruit. Highly representative of this particular vintage in Napa Valley, this powerhouse is built to age, or built to enjoy with a well marbled piece beef and a BBQ. It was aged for 20 months in 70% new French oak barrels. This wine clearly overdelivers for the price point.

The 2019 Facets by Gemstone Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is dark ruby and opaque with purplish tinges along the rim of the glass; the bouquet is opulent and highly aromatic in its youth. It offers a diversity of aromas including ripe blackberry, boysenberry, dark plums, violets, rusted iron and steamed rhubarb. These scents are complemented with underlying secondary aromatics including mocha, cocoa powder, cardamom and clove. The palate is built upon dark fruit including plum, bramble and dark cherry. A lingering mouthwatering acidity gives the finish a noticeable lift. The broadly distributed tannins are dark and earthy and display a gravelly texture which persists for quite some time on the long finish. This wine was barrel aged for 20 months in French oak of which 80% were new barrels including premium coopers such as Tonnellerie Baron, Darnajou, Ermitage and Taransaud. Some wines we classify as overdelivering for the price; this is one of those bottlings.

The 2008 Gemstone Facets is blend of primarily Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with tiny amounts of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. The bouquet on this wine is all about the fruit; it is ripe, rich and opulent. Predominately blackberry with notes of black cherry is complemented by baking spices (hints of white pepper) and brown chocolate. The mouth feel is plush and rounded with pleasing velvety tannins. This wine is drinks well by itself despite being so young at the time of our tasting.

Gemstone Heritage Collection
The 2019 Gemstone Heritage Collection Cabernet Sauvignon (Estate Cabernet Sauvignon) is deep ruby, almost purple in color and nearly opaque with an amaranthine rim. The bouquet reveals ripe fruit and dessert like aromas of freshly picked blackberry, blackberry jam, boysenberry, Pakistani mulberry, and Santa Rosa plum complemented by dark chocolate, mocha, cloves, chocolate and an oak spice. All the fruit aromas in this deeply layered bouquet smell like they were harvested at the peak of ripeness. One also has a perception of ripe fruit across the palate with many of the aromas echoed as flavors – primarily blackberry, boysenberry, dark plum and black cherry. This latter flavor immediately reminded us of harvesting cherries in Brentwood, late in the season and specifically targeting the darkest and ripest of the fruit. The texture is creamy with dense but chalky-like textured tannins. Opulent, hedonistic and a crowd-pleaser are all words which came to mind when describing this wine. Winter holidays, cozy cabin at Lake Tahoe, a roaring fire and this bottle.

Gemstone Alluvial Selection
The 2016 Gemstone Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, Alluvial Selection is dark ruby in the glass with purple tinges on the rim; it is almost opaque. The aromatics initially show a dark and meaty note, almost gamey with some nuances of mushroom. Give this wine time to open and these characteristics will dissipate fairly quickly, revealing plenty of fruit including ripe cherries, dark plum, blackberry and a floral note including violets and lavender. It also shows hints of old cedar box. The aromatics are generous and so are the flavors including of black plum and blackberry. This wine finishes savory and dark with earthy and gravelly textured tannins, some darker spices including crushed peppercorn and a light note of dried tobacco leaf much deeper in the finish. The tannins are persistent and long lasting along with a mouthwatering brightness of medium acidity. We tasted this wine 6 years post vintage.

Gemstone Ten
The 2006 Gemstone “Ten” was a special release made for their 10th anniversary vintage. This wine is primarily Cabernet Sauvignon with a small touch of Petit Verdot. Initially the bouquet exhibits pleasing earthy and dusty notes and mineralities which makes way for generous black and blue fruit aromas as the wine evolves in the glass. The entry is soft, smooth and rounded which continues through to the finish. Flavors of chocolate and layers of blue and black fruit show on the palate. Fine-grained tannins anchor the long and smooth finish.

Rebrook
After acquiring Gemstone Vineyards, Jason Rebrook launched another label called Rebrook whose tagline is, “the beauty is about the journey”. Its first vintage was from 2021; wines under this label are from mountain sites including a Pinot Noir from Fort Ross-Seaview appellation in western Sonoma County and a Cabernet Sauvignon from Pritchard Hill in Napa Valley. The branding on the label incorporates a visual look of ‘facets’ borrowing from the appeal of the Gemstone label.

The 2021 Rebrook Pinot Noir Fort Ross-Seaview is medium ruby in color with purplish tinges on the rim; the bouquet immediatley reveals aromas of dark plum, blackberry, boysenberry, blood orange, toast, damp potting soil, coffee/espresso and dark chocolate. This wine needs some time in the glass to evolve for its core fruit aromatics to fully express themselves. On the palate there are red-fruited flavors of cherry, currant, cranberry, pomegranate rhubarb, toast and crushed pink peppercorn. It is fresh, bright and mouth watering as one would expect from a vineyard site as close to the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean as this one. The tannins are grainy and still a bit edgy three years post vintage; they are felt with a light drying character, noticeable more on the front of the palate than on the finish. This wine was 100% destemmed prior to fermentation at cool temperatures and was then aged in 100% French oak barrels, 90% of which were new for 24 months prior to being blended and then bottled unfiltered. It is a refreshing listed 13.2% alcohol.

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Gemstone has long been supporters of V Foundation (helping find a cure for cancer) and the annual wine celebration. In 2020 Gemstone donated a very unique bottling – a one off Cabernet Sauvignon specially bottled, etched and waxed and also lined with real rubies (offered in a 3L Jeroboam bottle). Gemstone partnered with Stephen Silver Fine Jewelry to create this one-of-a-kind offering called the Ruby Barrel Selection.

Total production of their wines is around 2,000 cases per year with plans to increase production. In addition to being sold direct to consumer, the wines are selectively distributed nationally in key markets including New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and California. One can also find their wine at any of a number of fine restaurants in Napa Valley or by joining their allocation list.

Visits to the vineyard and the intimate tasting salon are for serious wine enthusiasts and are by appointment. For more information visit: www.gemstonewine.com

Hospitality Space

Gemstone Truck