Napa Native was founded by Tyler Jackson with his first vintage in 2013, 50 cases of a 100% varietal Cabernet Sauvignon from his family’s property, Jackson Family Vineyard. Tyler’s grandfather, Lloyd La Brie on his mother’s side of the family was a World War II veteran from Rice Lake, Wisconsin. He was stationed on the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor. But merely a few days before it was bombed he was reassigned to an airbase and subsequently survived the attacks on December 7th. His grandfather later moved to Alameda, CA where he met his wife Phyllis who was working as an air traffic controller. They purchased this property in 1963 for $17,000 and raised their family along with cattle, chickens and horses.
The property is 5 acres of which three acres are planted entirely to clone 337 of Cabernet Sauvignon located on the west side of the Oak Knoll District against the lower slopes of the southern Mayacamas mountains. The site was planted in 1996 by John Truchard of FARM Napa Valley (a vineyard management company). A much smaller block was planted in 2006 to the same clone of Cabernet Sauvignon.
This part of Napa Valley is primarily vineyards (rather than wineries); nearby neighbors include Matthiasson, a Beckstoffer owned vineyard and Moulds Family Vineyard.
Tyler Jackson was raised on this property; his family sold the grapes, first to Laird and then later to John Anthony. He was surrounded by the wine industry but never wanted to pursue a career in wine. However, sometimes one will have an aha wine moment which will change one’s perspective. For Jackson it was while working at what was Restaurant Cuvee near downtown Napa (currently home of Kitchen Door). He was working during a particular event honoring a large group of individuals who were celebrating purchasing property in Napa Valley. The group partied hard all evening, to the point where they left numerous opened but only partially consumed premium bottles of wine. Moments like these are embraced by restaurant staff. One of these bottlings was a 1992 Silver Oak Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. He remembers this being the first bottle of wine he was truly impressed with.
He took viticulture and winemaking classes at Napa Valley College; while in school he also discovered the extensive reviews on the Napa Wine Project and credits this site as being an additional inspiration for wanting to learn more about Napa Valley. Editors note: thank you for this wonderful compliment, Tyler.
His first winery job was in hospitality at O’Brien Estate. While pouring wines for guests, he would sometimes mention his family owned a vineyard about a mile away. They were always impressed and sometimes asked if he was making his own wine from the property. During his three years at O’Brien he met other winemakers who were producing their own brands here including David Yorgensen of Kind Cellars and Grant Long of Aonair. Tyler learned winemaking by doing, in part by assisting Yorgenson. Tyler takes a more minimalistic approach in the cellar letting the vintage and the site do the heavy lifting.
Napa Native Tour Company
Tyler founded Napa Native Tour Company in 2013 when he was only 22 years old. He started the company in part to fund his own wine brand. He remembers starting the business with only $500. The inception of the company was rooted during his time at O’Brien Estate. He would often meet other drivers and owners of various transportation companies and they would give him insights into operating a business.
He would drive some of their clients during his days off. He worked for two years in this capacity before purchasing his first vehicle. Today he employs a number of drivers, primarily individuals and friends who grew up in Napa Valley, maintains a small fleet of vehicles and has several full time employees doing concierge work.
Catering to a variety of interests, Napa Native not only offers wine tours but other experiences including, Wine & Wellness (hiking + wines + lunch), biking in Carneros, kayaking on the Napa River, Napa brewery tours, a private chef and yoga in the vineyard among other offerings.
And Napa Native is one of the few tour companies in the valley who also operates its own wine brand. Both business are symbiotic; clients needing transportation are often introduced to the Napa Native wines.
Select Wines
Napa Native has produced an estate Cabernet Sauvignon every year since the inaugural 2013 vintage. Starting in 2017, Napa Native began producing non estate ‘opportunistic wines’ based on relationships Tyler developed with some of his favorite local growers and wineries. The grape sources vary each year and there are no long term contracts; as a result, the Napa Native non estate bottlings are typically one-off wines. With that said, his wines are crafted to showcase both the variety and the vintage. And this philosophy is clearly evident in his estate wines; each vintage is uniquely different from each other especially the aromatics. And once one gets to know these wines, we are fairly certain one could identify individual vintages in a vertical blind tasting.
The 2021 Napa Native Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley, sourced from a small vineyard in the Carneros District, is medium gold in color; the bouquet delivers both freshness and mineral notes along with aromas of guava, passion fruit, pineapple, citrus blossom and a light herbal nuance reminding one that, “I am Sauvignon Blanc”. There is also a hint of vanilla as the wine evolves in the glass. Flavors include pomelo, lime, pineapple, graphite and a minerality. Its texture is rounded and slightly creamy. There are also stone fruit flavors of nectarines and peaches. Finishes brightly. Pair with a variety of shellfish or as Tyler simply suggests, “this is a summer porch pounder”.
The 2022 Napa Native Rosé of Pinot Noir, Gaps Crown Vineyard Sonoma County; this wine is pale copper in color; the bouquet smells energetic with aromas of raspberry, dried rose petals, freshly mowed lawn, citrus blossom, lemon zest, tangerine and kaffir lime leaf. We noted the freshness of this wine immediately on both the bouquet and the palate. The palate reveals flavors of grapefruit and pomelo, raspberry, wild strawberries, a lime zest, pomegranate and a subtle note of tarragon on the finish. It shows a lively verve with mouth watering but not racy acidity. Its texture sports an almost saline character. Drinks easily and begs another sip; this is always the formula of a very well made wine. And the 2023 bottling was also sourced from the same vineyard. Pair with a variety of spicy seafood Thai dishes including Papaya Som Tum (with salted raw crab).
Napa Native was one of the last producers to buy grapes from the historic Haynes Vineyard in Coombsville (before its ownership changed) and produced a non vintage Blanc de Noir with grapes harvested in 2015 and 2016.
The 2021 Napa Napa Chardonnay Napa Valley (Carneros) is medium gold in the glass; the bouquet is highly attractive, revealing aromas of dried fruits including apricot and pear, Golden Delicious apples, haystack and a hint of pineapple. No oaky or buttery wine here. There are flavors of stone fruits including nectarines and peaches, mango and mandarin orange. Creamy but not viscous texture. Tyler calls this his, “Farmers’ Market salad Chardonnay”. There is a light and very subtle herbal note on the finish. 30% of this wine was allowed to go through malolactic fermentation. It was aged in neutral oak barrels. This Chardonnay can be enjoyed by itself but is not a meal in and of itself and that is a very important distinction.
The 2019 Napa Native Jackson Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon, 100% estate; this wine is deep ruby. The bouquet is a pleasant union of both barrel spices and fruit. The bouquet is sweetly fruited with scents of blackberry, dark cherry, boysenberry and cassis along with a note of black licorice. Also cherry pie. It features flavors of blackberry, cassis, dark fig and dark cherry. Some of the baking spices on the bouquet also show on the palate including mocha. The tannins are elegant, lightly dusty, rounded and seamless fit into the finish along with a lingering note of tobacco spice. This wine was aged in 70% new French oak barrels from Demptos. This wine like all the Napa Native Cabernet Sauvignon is fermented in t-bins with two punch downs conducted daily during fermentation lasting approximately two weeks – one at 6am and one at 6pm. And depending on the weather, fermentation temperatures are managed by moving the T-bins in and out of the cellar as needed. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered.
The 2018 Napa Native Jackson Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby; the bouquet is savory with darker notes including dried herbs, sage, old cedar box, tobacco spice and dark plum. Let this wine open further, the fruit notes become more expressive and displace some of the initial savory characteristics. Its texture is almost creamy and with more pronounced tannins than in the 2018 bottling. It is brightly light across the palate with flavors of red plum, dark raspberry, blackberry and dark currant. The finish is vivacious and lingers with plenty of brightness from the acidity including a light tartness.
The 2017 Napa Native Jackson Family Vineyard is deep ruby in color and opaque; the nose offers aromas of cloves, damp potting soil and plum. The bouquet is distinctive and one hopefully would be able to pick this out of a lineup of more fruit forward Cabernet Sauvignons from Napa Valley. Some of the darker baking spices on the bouquet are also mirrored on the palate; it sports flavors of dark cherry, plum, blackberry, boysenberry and dark licorice. The finish shows the most pronounced dried tobacco spice of any of the vintages we tried. And Tyler notices this character becomes more prominent as the wines from this vineyard age. The tannins are lightly gravelly, showing more on the front of the palate than the back but continue to persist with a light and accompanying drying character. Tyler highlighted this particular wine as having a perceived sweetness of fruit balanced by a brightness of acidity. Tasting this on a beautiful spring day but made us want a cigar, a cool fall day at Lake Tahoe, a dimly lit lounge and a roaring fire.
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Total production is around 400 cases each year but growing slowly. In addition to wine, Napa Native produces an extremely limited bottling of olive oil made from several olive trees on the property and also a tasty hot sauce using habanero peppers and ginger which we soon learned goes well on roasted lamb.
For more information about Napa Native, including Tyler’s tour company and also to purchase Napa Native wines, visit: www.napanative.com
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