I’m stating the obvious here, but no country manufactures celebrities and fawns over them quite like the United States.
In fact, during the past decade, we’ve created a whole new category of celebrity: people who are famous simply for being famous, who have no demonstrable talent save for getting themselves on television and in the tabloids (whether the sex tapes that some of these people have made offer proof that they are not entirely talentless is a matter of personal taste, I suppose).
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Although Sonoma and Napa are a long way from Hollywood, the celebrity mania has encroached on the American wine scene. Over the past 20 years, as America’s wine revolution took root and blossomed, American wine culture has made celebrities of critics, winemakers, consulting winemakers, and (lately) sommeliers. All this is just part of the natural exuberance of the newly converted. But as America’s wine culture matures, the time has come to finally, truly put the spotlight where it really belongs: on the vineyard.
In my last column, I called attention to arguably the most exciting aspect of America’s wine revolution – the fact that the U.S. has become a lifeline for a number of wine grapes and winemaking styles that might otherwise be headed for extinction, a role that it has come to play because Americans have proven to be such curious and ecumenical wine enthusiasts.
The enthusiasm with which Americans have taken to wine is gratifying, but it is hardly surprising that one manifestation of that zeal has been a tendency to glorify people who work in wine. The most obvious example, of course, is Robert Parker. Forget that he is arguably the most powerful critic in any realm that we’ve ever seen; has there ever been a critic in any field who has enjoyed as much fame or reverence as Parker? No, he doesn’t have Brad Pitt’s name recognition, but American wine culture made a celebrity of Parker nonetheless.
We’ve also made superstars of winemakers – think of Helen Turley, for instance, and Manfred Krankl. Nowadays, thanks in no small part to the recent documentary "Somm", the fickle gaze of celebrity has fallen on America’s sommeliers. They are being hailed as the new tastemakers, their Twitter feeds are followed with slavish devotion, and it is widely agreed that they are the coolest kids in the wine business. One can only imagine that veteran European sommeliers, surveying this from afar, must be shaking their heads in disbelief and envy. Sommelier – a glamorous profession? Who knew?
It’s easy – and tempting – to be cynical about all this attention being lavished on sommeliers; to dismiss it as just a silly fad. But sommeliers have actually played a small but important role in generating interest in wines that tend to be ignored or shunned by Parker and other critics, and the celebrity sommelier phenomenon is a harmless thing – just another byproduct of a delightfully overcaffeinated wine culture.
That said, Americans aren’t exactly newbies anymore, and it would be great to see us move on from this tendency to glorify wine personalities and to put a little more focus instead on the most important player on the wine scene: the vineyard.
Obviously, vineyards are just pieces of land – they don’t talk, they don’t have personalities in the way that people (or pets) have personalities. While it’s easy to anthropomorphize wines (and there is a long tradition in wine writing of doing just that), it’s not so easy to attribute human characteristics to vineyards. And let’s face it: for most of us, no matter how passionate we are about wine, talking about Parker’s latest online screed tends to be far more entertaining than talking about, say, soil composition.
But I also think that Americans are naturally resistant to the idea of putting the vineyard front and center. Sure, our winemakers all say that great wine begins and ends in the vineyard and certainly the U.S. wine industry has plenty of committed terroirists (think Paul Draper, Jim Clendenen and Kevin Harvey).
However, to acknowledge that the vineyard is the master is to concede that soil is destiny, that you as a winemaker are only as good as the land you own. This is a notion that runs counter to the American can-do spirit, a belief that with enough hard work (and investment), pretty much any problem can be surmounted. The indiscriminate planting that has gone on in places like Napa and Sonoma over the past two decades reflects that attitude: people believed that if they threw enough effort and money into a vineyard, they could overcome whatever deficiencies it might have and produce great wines – a fool’s errand, of course, but plenty of people gave it a shot.
But even so, there have been powerful counter-examples – vineyards in California that have been proving their greatness going back decades and demonstrating that, when it comes to wine, it really is location, location, location. Eisele (which is owned by Araujo Estate, a winery recently acquired by François Pinault), Napanook, Monte Bello, Hirsch, Bien Nacido, Sanford & Benedict – these are some of America’s greatest vineyards and are names that ought to figure as prominently in any discussion of America’s wine revolution as Parker, Shanken, and anyone else you can mention.
The good news is that the producers who are the vanguard of California’s less-is-more movement have truly internalized the idea that the vineyard is king and, hopefully, their belief in the primacy of site will rub off on American wine culture in general. We’ve had the celebrity wine critic, the celebrity winemaker, and the celebrity sommelier – it is time for the celebrity vineyard.
Wines from Mike's star vineyards:
Eisele Vineyard, Calistoga, Napa Valley
In the past, fruit from Eisele was used by Ridge Vineyards, Conn Creek, and Joseph Phelps, but really the only wine is the Araujo Estate Eisele Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon.
Napanook Vineyard, Yountville, Napa Valley
The obvious choice from this vineyard is undoubtedly the Dominus Estate.
Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, Santa Rita Hills, Santa Barbara
Sanford Vineyards, Au Bon Climat, and Tyler are among the wineries using fruit from here, but my pick is the Sandhi Sanford & Benedict Pinot Noir.
Bien Nacido Vineyard, Santa Maria Valley, Santa Barbara
Wild Horse, Qupé, and Tyler are among the wineries using fruit from here. I'd go for the Au Bon Climat Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir.
Hirsch Vineyard, Sonoma Coast
While Failla and Littorai all take fruit from here, Hirsch Vineyards Pinot Noir is the natural choice.