Karl Lawrence Cellars was founded by three partners in 1991 including Ric Henry, his brother Bryan and winemaker Michael Trujillo (who we originally met and who is no longer involved with Karl Lawrence). Ric and Bryan met Michael at a Christmas party in 1989 and Brian suggested they make some wine. In 1990 Brian and Ric made two barrels of Zinfandel in Bryan’s garage with Mike’s consulting help. This was home wine and was never released commercially. Their first commercial release was in 1991. Today Ric and his wife Cheryl Henry are the sole owners of Karl Lawrence.
Trujillo was the winemaker until 2009. Winemaker Bruce Devlin was hired in 2010; he is responsible for making wines for a number of smaller clients and has been making wine at Ballentine Vineyards since 1999. His first vintage of Karl Lawrence was in 2010. Bruce also runs his own wine brand called Three Clicks.
Vineyard sources have changed over the years, but have always been from premium sites. Over the years they have made wine from Morisoli Vineyard, Lamb Vineyard, Henry Brothers’ Ranch, Stagecoach, Beckstoffer’s To Kalon and Dr. Crane. Today Ric’s focus is on Cabernet Sauvignon. Through Bruce’s connections at Ballentine, they were able to gain access to high quality grapes from several historic Ballentine family-owned vineyards. The most recent vintages have been from two vineyards including the Fig Tree Vineyard (near Howell Mountain). This vineyard is located in the northeastern part of the St. Helena appellation and has been owned by the Ballentine’s since 1949. The vineyard takes its name from two fig trees growing near the vineyard.
And grapes are also sourced from the Pocai Vineyard just south of Calistoga (next to the iconic Three Palms Vineyard). Incidentally Three Palms was owned by Lillie Hitchcock Coit at one point (namesake of Coit Tower in San Francisco). The Pocai Vineyard has been owned by the Ballentine’s since 1906. And in a type of transaction that would not occur today, this property was purchased with gold coins.
As a winemaker one has to be patient and not over manipulate the wine, especially when it’s still young. Karl Lawrence produces ripe, plush, higher alcohol but still balanced wines which are enjoyable in their youth and will evolve well over time. Their philosophy has long been to craft wines that are pleasurable when opened young, but even more pleasurable when cellared. When you smell the Karl Lawrence wines you are not going to be able to pick out which cooper and oak that was used during the aging. Or for that matter, any heavy-handed influence of oak, as oak never dominates in their wines.
Select Wines
Karl Lawrence Cabernet Merlot
The 2019 Lawrence Cabernet HBR Merlot is 96% Merlot with 4% 2021 Pocai Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is deep ruby and nearly opaque; its aromas are sweetly fruited and ripe. These scents include baked plums, cherry pie, raspberry and blackberry jam and boysenberry preserves accompanied by mocha, caramel, toffee, honeycomb, cinnamon stick and nutmeg. A mouthful of fruit, the palate does not show quite as ripe as the bouquet. And despite the 15.7% listed alcohol this wine is remarkably well balanced. It reveals flavors of dark cherry, blackberry, boysenberry, Pakistani mulberry, milk chocolate, Graham cracker, mocha and caramel with a light toasted oak influence persisting on the finish. And almost hidden deep on the finish is a note of dried tobacco leaf. The ripe tannins are plush and almost spherical in texture at this age (5 years post vintage), lingering with a lightly grainy and dusty character. This wine is full expression of California sunshine and its resulting ripeness. And worth mentioning; this was the first ever Merlot bottled by Karl Lawrence.
Karl Lawrence Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2021 Karl Lawrence Cabernet Sauvignon is 81.6% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7.68% Cabernet Franc, 5.54% Malbec and 5.17% Petit Verdot. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; the bouquet is immediately a union of moody and floral right upon opening, offering scents of forest floor, mushroom, a meaty character, violets, lavender, smoked sage and rusting iron along with ripe plum, boysenberry, dark cherry, blueberry and blackberry. As the wine evolves, its core of fruit starts to dominate over the other aromatics. This wine shows plenty of layers and complexities both on the bouquet and the palate – characteristics often represented from red wines from Napa Valley from this particular vintage. Dark and savory, the palate offers loads of flavor including plum, blackberry and dark cherry with dried herbs. The firmly textured still very much edgy tannins dominate the finish lingering far beyond the fruit with a drying, dusty and chalky character. This wine is built to age and needs more time in the bottle to be tamed. Three years post vintage it is still an energetic teenager. And besides being a special vintage in Napa Valley, this is also a special wine as this represents the 30th harvest from Karl Lawrence. Most wine brands in Napa Valley don’t even make it 10 years.
The 2019 Karl Lawrence Cabernet Cabernet Sauvignon is 89% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petit Verdot, 2% Petite Sirah, 1% Malbec 1% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Merlot. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; the bouquet in particular shows a simultaneous ripeness yet freshness of fruit. These aromas are of blackberry, an aroma that reminds us of mid to late summer harvesting ripe blackberries from various wild thickets, boysenberry jam, dark plum, dark licorice, old cedar box, tobacco, toasted oak, mocha and vanilla. Juicy in comparison to the 2018 vintage, with an acidity that complements its ripeness, this gem is very much a lively expression in its youth and if tasted blind, one would be hard pressed to guess its alcohol as its listed 15.5%. On the palate there are both red and dark fruited flavors including cherry, red plum, boysenberry, blueberry and blackberry. The gravelly and grainy textured tannins fully coat the palate and persist with a light to moderate drying character, outpacing the fruit on the finish. This wine is showing in a sweet spot 5 years post vintage at the time of our tasting and like the 2018, was tasted from a 375ml bottle.
The 2018 Lawrence Cabernet Cabernet Sauvignon, Pocai Vineyard is 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Malbec, 2% Cabernet Franc, and 1% Petite Sirah. This wine is deep ruby and nearly opaque; the bouquet offers a union of both ripe fruit and baking spices. These include mulberry, blackberry, boysenberry, dark cherry, baked plums and the skin of Santa Rosa plums, an aromatic we fondly remember from our youth when harvesting ripe and nearly overripe plums of this variety from a tree growing in our backyard. Additional aromatic notes are of sweet tobacco, mocha, vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon. The palate is dark fruited with flavors of cherry at the peak of ripeness, Pakistani mulberry, boysenberry, dark plum, dark chocolate and a light note of dried tobacco leaf. The tannins sport a fine-grained and almost creamy texture. Soft, approachable, hedonistic and a crowd pleaser. For reference we sampled from a 375ml bottle.
The 2014 Karl Lawrence Cabernet Sauvignon is 92% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petite Sirah, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Petit Verdot. The bouquet is very elegant with pretty aromatics including blackberry, a kiss of tobacco smoke and mocha and vanilla undertones. As the wine breathes it almost becomes a bit perfume driven along with eventually showing dessert spices. Very balanced on the palate with both red and darker fruits including plum. This bottling features very good acidity with a noticeable grip of tannins (but not overwhelming) along with a red cherry tartness on the finish. It is approachable young but certainly built to age. The 2014 vintage expresses the “grape” and its varietal characteristics.
The 1999 Karl Lawrence Cabernet Sauvignon Gary Morisoli Vineyard was tasted 24 years post vintage from a 375ml bottling. This wine is deep ruby in color with a rim that has become a bit brickish red. The bouquet offers aromas of leather, tobacco, a meaty/gamey character and assorted dark spices including crushed black pepper. One would not be incorrect in calling its aromatic profile, savory. The palate sports flavors of chocolate, a variety of berries, baked blackberries, dried herbs, red plum, red cherry, currant and Icelandic crowberries; look those up if they are unfamiliar to you as they were to us before we first tried them fresh several years ago. The acidity has carried this wine well. The finish lingers savory, with a light tartness and a brightness along with a note of crushed peppercorn. A drying chalky character continues to persist.
Each vintage always features a different note from Ric & Cheryl on the back label.
Aldin
Karl Lawrence used to produce wines under a second label, called Aldin which is a slight misspelling of Ric’s middle name. Currently this label is not active, but Ric might bring it back at some point as a rosé wine. Long time fans of Karl Lawrence may remember a red table wine and a Chardonnay bottled under this label.
The 2004 Karl Lawrence Aldin Red Table Wine Napa Valley was tasted 19 years post vintage date. This wine is medium ruby in color; it has held its color well over nearly two decades. The bouquet offers a beautiful diversity of both secondary and tertiary aromas including coffee, cedar, coconut, toast, chocolate, leather, cooked blackberry and dried fruits. The palate offers flavors of cherry, blackberry, dried berry fruits and black raspberry. The tannins are still a little grainy and gritty but overall rounded in their textural feel and persist with a light dryness. Medium acidity. The wine finishes with some darker baking spice notes along with both white and darker pepper and a touch of lingering dried tobacco leaf.
The 2005 Karl Lawrence Aldin Chardonnay (at the time of our first visit to Karl Lawrence) was deep golden in color with aromas containing nuances of minerals, honeycomb, lemon twist and wet straw. The palate features a pleasing phenolic grip in part a contribution from its higher alcohol. This wine reveals a variety of flavors with lemon, and pear being the most noticeable, lingering with assorted baking spices on the finish. And for a Chardonnay, this bottling showcases plenty of length on the back end.
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Ric has has lived in northern California for decades, including in Angwin. Driving with Ric through the hills surrounding Angwin is like driving through Howell Mountain’s rich and varied history. He has lived in numerous locations on Howell Mountain and has an intimate knowledge of the landscape and the people who live here. His father was a preacher (Seventh Day Adventists). Ric graduated from Pacific Union College, in Angwin.
Guests who meet Ric often become good friends and clients. Ric is laid back, honest and devoid of pretense and as he says, does not use superlatives to describe his wines, winemaking or vineyards. Over the years, word of mouth has become Karl Lawrence’s strongest marketing tool – which continues today. Ric gets to know his customers and then they in turn share their experience in Napa Valley and the wines with friends and family.
Ric’s family owned Henry Brother’s Ranch from 5/5/1978 through 3/12/2021; they sold the the ranch to AXA Millésimes, the owners of nearby Outpost Winery. This site is located high on the red soil slopes of Howell Mountain and has an uppermost elevation of just under 2,000 feet. This property is 36 acres of which 18 are planted to vines. Ric and Bryan’s parents purchased this land in 1978 for $150,000; at the time it was forested along with manzanita and as Ric recalls a small prune orchard. Over the years, Bryan and his two sons have developed the vineyard site and grew nearly all red varieties including mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with a tiny block of Petite Sirah and a 1/4 acre of Sauvignon Blanc, the only white variety that grew on site. The grapes were highly sought after with a number of mostly smaller producers purchasing fruit each year. After the sale of the vineyard to AXA Millésimes it was completely replanted in 2022.
The last vintage of Karl Lawrence from the Henry Brother’s Ranch was in 2019, merely 2 barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon that Ric purchased from his nephew, winemaker Mike Henry as well as a small amount of Merlot which was also bottled.
At the height of their production Karl Lawrence was making over 1500 cases; today Ric has scaled back the operations significantly. The 2014 was under 200 cases and subsequent vintages will be around 250 cases. In 2019 Ric released his first ever wine in a can, a very well-balanced rosé with an initial production of 100 cases bottled under the Allison Avenue label. The name is a tribute to a special street in St. Helena with one of Ric’s cars featured on the label including its license plate, Old Yeler. These wines were awarded a gold medal in the International Canned Wine Competition and a double gold in the American Fine Wine: Rosé Competition.
Because Karl Lawrence’s production is so limited each year, they do not offer a wine club. Rather the focus of their sales is direct to consumer through their mailing list. For some time, select vintages of Karl Lawrence were available at the French Laundry. Ric remembers receiving many emails from customers back then with an introduction something like, “I had your wine at the French Laundry, how can I get on your mailing list.” The wines are selectively distributed in California including in Napa Valley and Los Angeles. Locally one can sometimes find their wines at Sunshine Market in St. Helena and the Oxbow Wine Merchant in the city of Napa. The wines are sold throughout California by Kimberly Jones Selections.
The wine is reasonably priced for the quality. Their mailing list is open for new subscribers; for more information, visit: www.karllawrence.com
Been looking for your wine … had some a few years back at Half Moon Bay and really enjoyed it.
The production is so limited they don’t distribute – best to contact Ric directly through the website.