MTGA Wines

MTGA Wines focuses on thoughtfully hand crafted small productions, initially focusing on a single varietal (Merlot) from a single vineyard each vintage. However, over the years MTGA Wines has diversified its portfolio, sourcing grapes from both within Napa Valley as well as from select vineyards in neighboring Sonoma County. Today production is focused on Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, a red blend and single barrel wines including Merlot, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc. Winemaker, Mike Anderson founded MTGA Cellars in 2010.

Mike grew up in Napa Valley; a remarkable number of his immediate family are involved in the local wine industry; his father and grandfather began their wine journey in Napa Valley in the early 1980s. His grandfather Gus Anderson (died at age 86 in 2016) founded and operated Eagle’s Trace and his father Todd Anderson runs Anderson’s Conn Valley and Ghost Horse World. Mike left the valley for a number of years – attending Gonzaga University in Spokane Washington. Instead of initially following his family footsteps in the wine industry, he majored in Criminal Justice and Sociology.

Eventually he returned to Napa Valley and took a job with Raymond Winery as a tasting room host and later working in the cellar. It is common for children born into wine families to leave Napa Valley for a number of years and then find their way back, “returning to their wine making roots”. Mike began taking wine making classes at Napa Valley College, one of the few junior colleges in the state to own their own vineyards, produce wine commercially while utilizing an on-campus bonded winery.

Through a friend, he was introduced to a small Merlot vineyard just north of the town of St. Helena – along Pope Street near the up-valley campus of Napa Valley College. In 2010, he and friends picked this vineyard themselves – loading the grapes into a bin in the back of their pickup truck. At this time, Mike had no intention of making wine commercially; this was simply going to be a personal project.

Mike enjoys making and drinking Merlot especially from St. Helena, an appellation he describes as where the red wines ‘pop’ – showcasing a brightness of fruit, rather than an over ripeness. Surrounded by hundreds of wineries whose flagship wine is Cabernet Sauvignon, a producer whose inaugural single offering was Merlot was a somewhat refreshing and rare occurrence in Napa Valley.

Reflecting upon those who have influenced his career – he mentions his grandfather, Gus Anderson. Gus was always somewhat of a Francophile – preferring old world wines. Mike strives to create balanced wines with lively acidity, have the ability to age and really shine when paired with compatible foods.

After 18-20 months of barrel aging, Mike started giving samples to friends and family. Urged on by their positive feedback, he decided it was time to move forward and bottled the wine and soon applied for label approval. As any new producer will testify – often choosing a name that is creative yet at the same time is not already in use can be extremely challenging. Each letter of MTGA is the first initial in an immediate family member’s name – M, for Mike (and also Merlot), G for his grandfather Gus, T for his father Todd and A for their last name. We have been priveledged over the years to have spent time with all three generations.

The Merlot vineyard source remains the same each year. However, harvest dates have varied dramatically over the years. In 2011 Mike picked at the end of October 2012 was a month earlier at the end of September and in 2013 he harvested in early September. His strives to harvest when the grapes reach phenolic ripeness rather than letting them hang longer to increase sugar levels and or flavor concentration.

Mike’s winemaking philosophy is to carefully work with the grapes in the winery, rather than mold or manipulate the fruit. His approach is gentle – not overly controlling but rather more of a minimalist style. He uses a variety of mostly neutral or once-used oak, preferring to showcase the varietal characteristics rather than influences from the oak barrels.

These are wines true to the vineyard, the variety, to Mike’s own palate and they are always perfectly saddled between fruit and freshness without either ever tipping the scales too far. As a result, every wine is distinctive in its own way. If we were to summarize these wines with a single word, which is almost impossible to do, we would associate the MTGA bottlings with the word inspired – which is defined by the Oxford dictionary as, “of extraordinary quality, as if arising from some external creative impulse”.

Select Wines
MTGA Whites
The 2021 MTGA Clarksburg Pinot Gris is 100% varietal and was aged for 6 months in 80% French oak barrels and 20% stainless steel. This wine is medium to deep gold in color; the intoxicating and zesty bouquet offers scents of green apple, freshly mowed grass, pineapple, white peaches, green almond, lemon tart, and not fully ripe cantaloupe. Minerally, bright and zesty, but also perfectly balanced across the palate, this wine offers flavors of honeydew melon, Golden delicious apple, lemon zest, bosc pear and honeycomb. Its fleshy texture supports a bright and long lasting fruit filled finish. And it plays a final and lasting but subtle note of dried sweet fennel seed. This latter flavor reminds us of our travels through various parts of India where dried fennel seeds are often served as an after-meal digestive and mouth freshening snack. We would love to pair this with a fresh spring salad lightly anointed in olive oil, vinegar and garlic salt with a side of freshly grilled scallops.

Very few Napa Valley based producers make Riesling and those who do often have to source grapes from outside of Napa Valley – simply based on the fact that there is so little Riesling planted in the valley. MTGA produced Riesling through the 2019 vintage; the vineyard they used to source from was burned in wild fires and as of our latest update to this review, MTGA no longer produces a Riesling.

The 2018 MTGA Riesling was sourced from a vineyard at around 1,500 feet in the hills above Lake Sonoma in the northern part of Dry Creek Valley in neighboring Sonoma County. This vineyard used to always ripen late, sometimes even after his red grapes were harvested. Mike calls this the most ‘technical or nerdy’ of the wines he produces. It was fermented slowly and then aged primarily in stainless steel barrels but also saw some neutral oak (about an 80/20 ratio). Offers pretty aromatics with both sweet fruit, floral notes and some citrus on the bouquet. Texturally, the wine is like velvet across the palate – but with plenty of acidity to showcase a lively feel through to the finish. Fermented to dryness but the ripeness of the fruit offers a slight perceived sweetness. The fruit was picked right after a heat spike, so the sugars spiked a bit – it is 14.5% alcohol with a pH of 3.20.

MTGA Reds
The 2021 MTGA Bennett Valley Pinot Noir is 100% varietal crafted with 57% clone 115 and 43% clone 667. This wine was aged for 11 months in 30% new French oak barrels. It is pale to medium ruby in color; the bouquet summons one in immediately with its aromatic layering. It offers scents focused primarily on red fruits including raspberry, cherry, currant and cranberry with more subtle aromas of rhubarb, Tonka bean, root beer, coca cola and clove. And there is a note of rose stems, a character that was first pointed out to us by Opus One winemaker Michael Silacci. Fresh, juicy and red-fruited, on the palate there are flavors of currant, cranberry, tart cherry, raspberry, plum and white pepper. The tannins offer a light grainy touch, fitting seamlessly into the finish and paralleling the fruit for some time. Next time we needle this bottle, it will be in the company of our favorite raw salmon recipe including thinly sliced onions, hot chili flakes, Vietnamese coriander, fish sauce, culantro and freshly squeezed lime juice.

In 2018 Mike produced his first ever red blend called Repechage, a term that refers to a second chance. Mike was on the rowing team in college – repechage refers to boats in races not qualifying in a first round but having the chance to compete in a second round for another opportunity to qualify. This wine is a a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (Mike’s winemaker friend Yannick Rousseau helped him secure the vineyard site on the lower slopes of Mt. Veeder) and Merlot from St. Helena. The 2018 MTGA Cellars “Repechage” is a blend of 57% Merlot and 43% Cabernet Sauvignon (both varieties were co-fermented); the wine is medium garnet in the glass with purplish tinges on the rim. Shows an elegant bouquet with primarily darker fruits including plum along with hints of chocolate. Juicy across the palate showcasing a bright acidity. Lingers with still tightly woven tannins and a spicy tartness on the finish. Aged 19 months in 67% new French oak – only 32 cases produced.

The 2021 MTGA Cellars “Repechage” is a blend of 57% Merlot and 43% Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is deep ruby in color; the bouquet is straight up a bowlful of cherries along with notes of sage and several layers of sweeter dessert/baking spices including chocolate, espresso and Graham cracker. The palate is red-fruited with flavors of cherry, currant, cranberry and plum. The tannins are integrated seamlessly into the finish, lingering with a light grainy character. This wine is balanced, juicy and brightly lit. And in the spirit of this wine and second chances, 10% of all sales of the “Repechage” bottlings are donated to select charities including the Wounded Warrior Project and Napa Humane Society.

The 2019 MTGA Napa Valley Merlot is 100% varietal and was aged for 22 months in 30% new French oak barrels. This wine is deep ruby and nearly opaque in color; the bouquet smells fresh, alive and bright with aromas of Santa Rosa plum, bramble (primarily blackberry), red cherry, a note of red chili spice, tobacco, blood orange and a subtle nuance of dried bay leaf. On the palate there are flavors of red plum, raspberry, cherries harvested early in the season before they reach their ultimate ripeness, currant and strawberry. Juicy and crunchy, this wine delivers a mouth watering freshness and vitality and begs another sip. Its texture features grainy but well-integrated tannins which ultimately outpace the red fruited flavors on the finish. We enjoyed the companionship of this bottle with recently picked shishito peppers from our garden, cooked in our Hestan nanobond frypan with olive oil from DOGFARM Winery, sea salt and freshly squeezed lemon straight from the trees at Regusci Winery.

And perhaps time has healed Miles aversion to Merlot as portrayed in the movie Sideways. He would most certainly not be throwing out strongly worded negative one-liners about Merlot after trying the beautiful MTGA expressions of this variety. In fact, the next time we see Sideways author, Rex Pickett (who spends a lot of time in the city of Napa), we will tell him to make sure Miles tries the MTGA Merlot in any future screenplays he may write.

During our first visit with Mike, we tried a barrel sample of the 2012 MTGA Cellars Merlot. We noted at that time this was a more robust bottling than the much cooler 2011 vintage. And it was a treat to try this wine again 12 year post vintage. It is medium to deep ruby in color; the attributes that stood out the most to us during this revisit were its freshness and youthfulness, both on the bouquet and the palate. In a blind tasting we would not have guessed it to be more than a decade old. The red-fruited bouquet offers scents of raspberry, plum, cherry and currant with an accompanying note of tobacco spice. The palate is poised perfectly flavor, texture and acidity. The lightly grainy tannins and the fruit parallel each other with neither one giving way on the bright and mouth watering finish. Beautiful.

2011 MTGA Cellars Merlot – which recently had been released. This wine does not have the characteristics of what is commonly perceived of wines from this vintage in Napa Valley; this was a challenging vintage for a variety of weather-related reasons including late rain in spring, early rain in fall and generally cooler conditions. Mike admits challenging vintages can be extra stressful, but he relishes the challenges and nuances of working with these particularly rare years.

The 2011 MTGA Cellars Merlot was unfined and unfiltered and was made with minimal use of SO₂. This wine shows an initial herbal component – not overly green at all but rather a pleasing mix of sage, a hint of wood influenced spices and a distinctive smokiness. As the wine breathes the herbal component becomes more restrained and red fruit aromas rise to the forefront. The wine features a natural bright acidity without being too bracing. The palate reveals a variety of red fruit flavors including red currant and red cherry. The finish is bright and lively with dusty well integrated earthy tannins. This wine is built to age for years to come.

The 2016 MTGA Cellars Merlot. Similar to the select previous vintages we have tried, the bouquet sports an herbal note. Offers hints of menthol, dried tobacco leaf and berry fruit aromas. Give this bottling time to breathe as the secondary aromas will be replaced by additional fruit aromatics. On the palate there are flavors of blackberry and black licorice with notes of cherry towards the back and a finish which lingers with a pleasing tartness and moderate grip of tannins. Very food friendly.

Blaire Payton Wines
Blair Payton wines are the project of Mike’s wife, Brittany Blaire Payton Anderson. The first vintage was in 2021; to date, this label has focused on Grenache from Clarksburg.

The 2022 Blaire Payton Rosé of Grenache, Clarksburg is deep copper in color; the bouquet smells minerally/flinty along with scents of hibiscus, dried apricot, melon, strawberries, raspberries, marmalade and subtle nuances of light toast and vanilla. Energetic, playful and fruity, yet also balanced across the palate, this wine offers a mineral character and flavors of strawberry, dark raspberry and red cherry with a subtle lingering note of tarragon. The fleshy, silky and almost saline texture is supported nicely by the lively acidity. This is not a lightweight Grenache rosé. We wouldn’t mind pairing this with Mussels stir-fried with Thai roasted chili paste and fresh Thai holy basil.

The 2021 Blaire Payton Grenache, Clarksburg is medium garnet in color; the bouquet offers aromas of stewed strawberries, various dried red berries, toast, coffee, mocha, vanilla, roasted fennel and a sweetness of other assorted baking spices. Very lightly textured across the palate, this wine offers flavors of cherry, strawberry, raspberry and blood orange. It also reveals some oxidative characters, both on the bouquet and the palate. For reference we tasted this wine three years post vintage. The finish lingers with a dill/fennel nuance that we often notice in wines from this variety.

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In addition to producing his own wines, Mike offers winemaking consultation for small brands.

Other than a select few retail outlets in Napa Valley, the wine is currently only available directly through their mailing list or by reaching out to Mike. His first vintage in 2010 was only 43 cases – 2013 was under 140 cases. In subsequent years, his production increased – currently he produces around 1,000 cases annually of all his wines. And some of the wines are wine club exclusive including DIVERSUM and the “Let It Run” Cabernet Franc, with each vintage featuring a unique label designed to look like an 8-bit video game.

This is an opportunity to be a part of a passionate winemaker’s exciting and limited production bottlings. And as the brand has evolved, MTGA has developed a finite collection of library wines available for sale. Looking for special gifts for friends, families or holiday presents? MTGA can customize large format bottles.

To purchase wine, to schedule a visit with Mike, to join the MTGA allocation list or one of several wine clubs with three shipments per year (each can be customized), visit: www.mtgawines.com