Vinoce Wines

Vinoce Wines was founded by Brian & Lori Nuss (tragically Lori, who we first met with passed away in early 2016). Brian is originally from New Jersey; in 1976 he and his brother spent several months driving across the country, one taking the northern route and one taking the southern route. Both settled in Los Angeles and began a general contracting company.

Through their contracting work they were introduced to actor Billy Crystal and built a guest house for him. When Crystal heard that Brian and his brother had moved to northern California he introduced them to his friend, actor actor Robin Williams who had purchased land on Mt. Veeder. The brothers were invited to Napa Valley to oversee the construction of his new home in the hills of the Mayacamas mountains. Both Brian and his brother moved to Napa Valley and over the years built several homes for Robin and his family. Robin’s estate, called Pym-Rae was approximately 600 acres; when the Williams decided to plant vines (Robin’s father was the first to suggest this), they hired Brian to oversee the vineyard development. The problem was that Brian had no experience in developing vineyards. Fortunately, one of his mentors, winemaker and viticulturist Robert Craig (who was president and general manager of The Hess Collection winery at the time) had plenty of experience developing vineyards including on Mt. Veeder and Brian quickly sought out his advice.

Brian remembers ordering young vines that were grafted onto AXR root stock (not resistant to phylloxera) but just before they planted the vines, he heard about other vineyards in the valley on AXR starting to fail due to phylloxera. They quickly changed their order to vines that were grafted on to phylloxera resistant root stock. Brian oversaw the planting of 25 acres to Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot and later for many years oversaw the management of Robin’s vineyard. This is the northern most vineyard in the Mt. Veeder Appellation and one of the more remote vineyard locations in Napa Valley.

During our first introduction to Vinoce, a visit with Lori we walked part of this vineyard; unlike on the Napa Valley floor which is often planted entirely to vineyards, the landscape up here is decidedly different featuring both steep hillsides and plenty of surrounding native vegetation on rocky sedimentary and former seabed soils. This part of Napa is also home to mountain lions, deer and sometimes black bear. And is is often cooler here than on the valley floor with long evening ripening contributing to a balanced acidity in the wines.

In 2013 Brian acquired 15 acres not far from the original vineyard he developed which is now owned by the Tesseron family from Bordeaux and whose property is know known as Pym-Rae. He planted this to Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc; currently 12.5 acres of vines are planted. Over the years Brian has learned that an important part of wine making occurs in the vineyards; great attention to detail is given to every single vine from pruning and trellising to crop management.

Brian spends most of his time living in Mexico but returns for harvest every year. Over the years he has employed the help of several talented consulting winemakers including Rudy Zuidema, Chad Alexander and Keith Emerson. The first vintage of Vinoce wine, a Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot red blend from what is now the Pym-Rae Vineyard, was from 1996 and was made at Bremer Family Winery in Deer Park (just below Howell Mountain). Since 2013 the Vinoce wines have been made at Vineyard 29 and are overseen by winemaker Keith Emerson. And his son, Tim oversees their operations as the General Manager.

Select Wines
Vinoce Whites
Vinoce produces two dramatically different styles of Sauvignon Blanc. One that sees some oak and one that doesn’t. And a side-by-side comparison is a good way to notice the differences between the two wines both of which were sourced from the same vineyard. After Lori passed the family decided to create a wine in her honor. She always enjoyed drinking Sauvignon Blanc. And as the story goes, she found three pennies, always heads up during three years at Oracle Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants Stadium during their playoffs. Once was in 2010, then again in 2012 and finally in 2014 – each year the team won the world series. Every year Vinoce bottles this wine with an image of a Lincoln head on the top of the foil covering the cork and silkscreened on the bottle.

The 2022 Vinoce Lori’s Lucky Penny Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley is deep straw in color; the bouquet smells fresh and fruity with Spring florals, a time of year we wish we could chase around the planet and strongly avoid anything resembling winter. It offers aromas of honeycomb, orange blossom, honeysuckle and jasmine. But there are plenty of fruit aromatics at play here including of kaffir lime, pineapple, tropical guava, mango, yellow peach and apricot. Balanced, bright and with a rounded texture, this wine offers flavors of lime, lemon juice, grapefruit, chamomile and pomelo. It finishes bright and energetic but not green or grassy. This is the type of Sauvignon Blanc that Napa Valley produces well, a wine that is balanced between the more austere New Zealand bottlings and wines which are more tropical. It was fermented using a combination of stainless steel tanks and new French oak barrels.

The 2017 Vinoce Lori’s Lucky Penny Sauvignon Blanc saw some oak during its aging. Much more limited production then their other Sauvignon Blanc. More restrained on the bouquet, features aromas of citrus, a lemon-lime zest and passion fruit. Noticeable immediately is the suppleness on the palate; it is rounded, soft and almost velvet like. Yet this wine also has bright acidity. It shows some minerality nuances along with stone fruit and citrus. Immediately we thought of pairing this wine with scallops.

The 2017 Vinoce Sauvignon Blanc is pale golden in the glass; this wine offers an immediately intriguing bouquet with pretty aromatics including tropical and floral overtones (honeysuckle and citrus blossom). Very fruit driven and highly aromatic. The palate is balanced showcasing a riper style then this variety is commonly associated with. Has some weight, with both citrus and melon flavors along with minerality notes. It was fermented entirely in stainless steel tanks. Drinks very well by itself. As Brian’s son Tyler calls this, “our crowd pleaser”.

Vinoce Reds
The 2021 Vinoce Cabernet Franc is a blend of 85% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Merlot. The grapes for this wine were sourced from the Vinoce owned Mt. Veeder property at an elevation about about 1,500 feet. It spent 18 months in new French oak barrels, thin staves with medium plus toast. This wine is deep ruby and opaque in the glass with an amaranthine rim; the bouquet offers aromas of dark tobacco spice, freshly tilled earth, rose petals, violets, and lavender. Its floral influences are an appealing part of its aromatic presentation. The fruit aromatics are also present with scents of plum, blackberry and bramble accompanied by old cedar box. This wine is brightly lit across the palate; it is youthful, fresh and lively at this age. The palate reveals flavors of flavors plum, red cherry, and blueberry. It finishes dusty, and earthy, with firm, chewy, grippy and long-lasting tannins coating the entire palate. Their texture is broadly distributed with a persistent dusty character on the finish. We noted a noticeable density of tannins and a tension between fruit, texture, and acidity. They dominate on the finish at this age and outpace the fruit by a mile. We could see pairing this wine with a well-marbled steak or grainy aged gouda cheese to cut through their texture. This is a serious Cabernet Franc for collectors and enthusiasts of robust mountain wines from Napa Valley. And a very age worthy bottling.

The 2021 Vinoce Cabernet Sauvignon Mt. Veeder was aged for 16 months in new French oak barrels. This wine is a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc and 5% Merlot from an elevation of about 2100 feet. This wine is deep ruby and opaque – there is no problem with getting color with this bottling. The bouquet is dark fruited including bramble, blackberry, and boysenberry with a savory woodsy note and a red chili spice. There are also some floral notes here including lavender. In its youth, this wine delivers loads of layers in terms of both texture and flavor (primarily dark plum and blackberry). Medium plus acidity. The bright finish features firm, grippy and chewy tannins, with an accompanying persistent drying character. The finish also features notes of dried herbs and crushed dark peppercorn. This wine has lots of life ahead of it with proper cellaring; we would like to see where its at in 10 and again in 15 years. Rarely do we categorize wines as favored by people in certain U.S. states, but if we did so, this would certainly be favored by red wine enthusiasts from Texas.

The 2019 Vinoce Cabernet Sauvignon St. Helena Napa Valley. The grapes for this wine were sourced from a vineyard on Ehlers Lane just north of the town of St. Helena. This wine is deep ruby in color; the bouquet offers a beautiful union of both primary fruit and secondary aromas. These include scents of blackberry, Santa Rosa plum, dark cherry and boysenberry paralleled by notes of melted brown chocolate, espresso, mocha and old cedar box/toasted oak. The bouquet is ripe but doesn’t quite flirt with falling into the opulent or hedonistic category. The palate features darker fruit and echoes the bouquet to some extent with flavors of dark cherry, blackberry, Pakistani mulberry, chocolate, dried tobacco leaf and a lingering woodsy spice. The tannins sport a gravelly and grainy texture with a light but persistent drying character; they ultimately outpace the fruit on the finish.

The Grappler has evolved since it was the first wine bottled under the Twenty Rows label in 2003. It honors Tim’s interest in wrestling and was inspired by a particular Lucha Libre show he attended in Mexico. This is the name for a type of Mexican freestyle wrestling. Today they bottle The Grappler with six different colorful and collectible labels (each with a proprietary name) to honor the Luchador, a Mexican wrestler. And its the look of the label which Tim told us, “allows us to not take ourselves too seriously but always treat the wines seriously”.

The 2021 The Grappler Sonoma County Zinfandel is a blend of 85% Zinfandel, 10% Syrah, 3% Petite Syrah and 2% Grenache. This wine is deep ruby in color; there is nothing shy about these fruit-driven aromatics – the ‘arms’ of this bouquet are open wide. It offers sweetly fruited scents of cherry pie, raspberry jam, blackberry preserves and red plums accompanied by tobacco spice, licorice and mocha. It is not as ‘ripe’ on the palate as one perhaps might expect from the generous bouquet. This balanced bottling reveals flavors of cherry, plum, currant and dark raspberry. The tannins feel densely packed but are perfectly spherical so that their texture is well integrated on the finish. This wine lingers with a chalk-like texture/dryness along with dried tobacco leaf and light nuances of dark pepper. Bright acidity.

The Vinoce 2014 Cabernet Franc (Mt. Veeder) is also blended with much smaller amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The bouquet reveals a variety of red fruit aromas along with cedar, mocha, chocolate and a hint of graham cracker. Clean, balanced and approachable, a soft entry continues across the palate. Flavors of both plum and cherry with fruit continuing onto a somewhat spicy finish (white pepper, cigar). Dusty and slightly gravelly tannins. Not harsh. Very good acidity.

The Vinoce 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon (Mt. Veeder) shows darker fruit aromatics including blackberry and plum with more subtle hints of dessert spices as the wine continues to breathe. Surprisingly approachable for a mountain Cab it has very good acidity. The tannins show more in the front of the palate rather than the back – a very balanced showing. Flavors of blackberry, boysenberry and blueberry. Ripe fruit. Some spice notes on the finish including white pepper. The tannins are gravelly or dusty in texture but are not course.

The 2004 Vinoce Cabernet Sauvignon was produced in extremely limited quantities. The reason for this downturn in production for this particular vintage was a freak hailstorm hit the vineyard after fruit had set and destroyed the majority of the crop. An event such as this is much more likely to occur in the Mendoza wine growing region of Argentina (where special nets are placed on top of high-end vineyards to guard against such damage). In any case what ended up in the bottle is very representative of Mt. Veeder grown fruit. It is a dark inky wine with forward aromatics along with earthy nuances and white ground pepper. On the palate, flavors of cherry, plum and chocolate. The finish is slightly spicy, warm and is extended in length.

The flagship wines from Vinoce’s production are from their Mt. Veeder vineyard but they do source from select vineyards in other parts of Napa Valley and beyond. Vinoce’s total production is about 2,000 cases annually.

Piccola Noce
After the sale of Twenty Rows to Napa Valley based Ca’ Momi Winery, the Nuss’s began another second label called Piccola Noce. Tim has both Italian heritage (near Naples) and German heritage (Alsace). Nuss in German means nut. And Piccola in Italian means small. Their first vintage under this brand was in 2021, a Cabernet Sauvignon.

The 2022 Piccola Noce Rossi Vineyard Sonoma Valley is a unique blend of 50% Roussanne, 26% Grenache Blanc and 24% Marsanne. The Rossi Vineyard was first planted in 1910; today slightly more than half of its 42 planted acres are Rhone varieties. This wine is deep straw in color; the bouquet is a bit shy upon opening and needs time to fully evolve. It sports ‘wake me up’ aromas of freshly mowed grass, lemon zest, passion fruit, citrus blossom, grapefruit, quince, not fully ripe pineapple and green apple. Superbly balanced, this wine reveals flavors of honeydew melon, Golden delicious apple, lemon drop candy, pear, pomelo, and dried orange peel. Zesty, lively and mouth watering. We could see pairing this wine with one of our favorite Thai seafood dishes, the incredibly spicy Goong che nam pa (raw shrimp) served with mint, raw garlic and slices of bitter melon.

Tasting Room, Tannery District
For ten years the Nuss’s operated a sizable tasting room at their winery on Vallejo Street just north of downtown Napa. They shared their winery with other wineries including Robert Craig but after the other wineries moved their operations Vinoce took over sole ownership of the facility. Vinoce has since moved out of that location.

In early 2019 they opened a tasting room in the old Sawyer-Tannery Building for both Vinoce & Twenty Rows in Napa’s Tannery Bend District – a very historic part of the city of Napa along the Napa River. The Sawyer Tannery building dates from the 1880s; this was once the largest tannery west of the Mississippi and where Nappa Leather originated from. Napa’s leather industry began along this part of the Napa River in 1869 and is in a part of town named after both a bend in the Napa River and the old leather tannery.

The previous tenant used what is now their tasting room space for wine storage as part of a wine shipping company. Brian renewed his contractor license and oversaw the upgrades and improvements to the space. The before and after photographs show a remarkable difference.

When one has been in the valley as long as the Nuss’s have, one makes a variety of connections with other wineries and winemakers. Wood for the one of their bars was recycled from the old Graeser Winery on Diamond Mountain courtesy of Richard Graeser and rusted metal siding from an old barn at Caldwell Vineyards, courtesy of John Caldwell was creatively used to partly line one of the sides of the room. Plenty of both table and lounge like seating are available. And local Napa artist Oscar Aguilar Olea has been Vinoce’s artist in residence since 2011 – his select works hang on the walls and are for sale.

Their tasting room is located directly across from the Napa River – with the Vine Trail (bike and pedestrian pathway) paralleling the river and located just below their parking lot. One could bike or walk here from just south of downtown Napa. While there is no dock on the river directly in front of the tasting room, the Napa Valley Yacht Club maintains a dock within a short walk of the tasting room and allows guests boats to make a docking request and pay ahead of time via their website. One could visit the tasting room coming from boat on the Napa River.

And during good weather, outdoor seating is also available overlooking the Napa River. Before guests leave, they should sign their name on a wine barrel located near the entrance to the tasting room. Be sure to signup for their mailing list; Vinoce hosts a number of fun events throughout the year utilizing both the indoors and outdoor space weather permitting. These include holiday parties, lobster feed and sushi and wine among other gatherings.

Besides available at their own tasting room, visitors can taste the Vinoce wines at Vintner’s Collective in downtown Napa. Vintner’s Collective is a multi-winery tasting room focusing on premium mostly Napa brands. And an interesting piece of trivia: Vinoce was the first winery to have its wines available for tasting at Vintner’s Collective (this collective is very selective on whose wines they represent).

The Vinoce wines are mainly sold direct (other than at several select resort locations in Vegas). They used to be found in select retail outlets in southern Vietnam of all places. For more information and or to join their mailing list or wine club, visit: www.vinoce.com and www.twentyrows.com

Tasting Room

Old Tasting Room, Vallejo Street Napa (we keep these photos here for historical sake).

Twenty Rows
The name Twenty Rows comes from 20 hillside vineyard rows from their original home vineyard on Mt. Veeder. These rows always produced quality fruit but never found a home in their Vinoce label, so they decided to bottle this as a separate label.

NOTE: this brand has since been sold to another Napa Valley based producer, Ca’ Momi; rather than the wines continuing to be sold direct to consumer, the Twenty Rows wines are now being produced for distribution. We are no longer updating our notes on this section, but we keep them here for historical reference.

Tim originally told us in regard to the Twenty Rows wines, “this is Napa wine that you can drink everyday”. These wines are priced very reasonably for the quality. Compared to Vinoce which is boutique and very small production, Twenty Rows at one point under the Nuss ownership reached a production of around 14,000 cases. The first vintage of Twenty Rows was from 2003; the first bottling that year was The Grappler.

Twenty Rows sourced Sauvignon Blanc from Pope Valley in eastern Napa County for every vintage. This is a wine to be paired with food. The 2009 Twenty Rows Sauvignon Blanc is crisp with notes of lime on the bouquet as well as on the palate. Citrus, herbal notes and pear round out the palate. It has a clean quick finish.

The 2008 Twenty Rows Napa Valley Merlot shows black cherry and baking spices on the bouquet followed by darker fruits on the palate with a finish that is pleasing – soft but with structured tannins. As with their other wines they try to maintain the integrity of the fruit from vineyard to winery. I.e., not picking to ripe – but focusing on the fruits’ characteristics and eliminating the “showy and bold tannins”.

The Grappler when it was bottled under Twenty Rows was a California red wine blend; the 2006 Twenty Rows Grappler vintage is a unique blend, predominantly Zinfandel with Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. A name like this is perfect for this type of blend. It is named after Brian’s sons, Tim and Tyler who were wrestlers in college. This is not a wine however that needs wrestling with once it’s in your mouth; it is a food friendly balanced wine with pleasing notes of plum and red cherry on the palate. The bouquet is quite aromatic including aromas of candied fruit and red cherry. It’s a lighter styled red blend with just a touch of cedar and spice on the finish.

The 2012 Twenty Rows Grappler is 85% Zinfandel, 5% Syrah, 5% Petit Verdot, 3% Cabernet Franc and 2% Grenache sourced from both Napa Valley and other California vineyards. This vintage sports a powerful bouquet, cherry liqueur and a vanilla/mocha component which turns to aromas of brown chocolate the longer the wine breathes. The wine is a lighter style and is easy drinking and smooth on the palate. Red and darker cherry flavors show with hints of tobacco towards the finish. The tannins are fairly delicate and start in the front of the palate slowly working their way to the back of the palate. This wine was produced in very limited quantities primarily for their wine club but with bottlings also available in the tasting room.

The flagship Twenty Rows is a Cabernet Sauvignon (priced extremely reasonably) with grape sources initially coming from well-known appellations in Napa Valley but over the years in order to keep the price reasonable, was eventually sourced from outside of Napa County. In later years it carried a North Coast designation.

The 2008 Twenty Rows Cabernet Sauvignon is ready to drink young; it’s certainly not one of those robust Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon wines that leaves your mouth dried out; rather it is constructed to drink young, with food. It is dark ruby colored in the glass; the bouquet offers notes of mocha. It is smooth across the palate with more red fruit rather than dark fruit showing including notes of tangy plum and cherry. This is a rare wine coming from Napa Valley which has quality yet also delivers comfortably on the price point.