Minority Report: Ethnic Diversity & Small-Production Meet Up in Napa Cab

At a new, small California winery, an ethnically diverse pair are making low production Cabernet Sauvignon. Very, very good Cabernet, that is.

For those of you who are playing along at home, I’m going to introduce this article with a bit of background, because it’s several months in the making.  Also, if I don’t start out with some preliminaries, it’s going to confuse the hell out of me.

Also, since we’re going to end up connecting Oaxaca (that’s in Mexico), Napa Valley, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Opus One, Mario Bazán Cellars, and ethnic diversity, we need to make sure we’re all on the same page before we start.

Bear with me, you’re probably smarter than I am, ok?  Here’s the recap:

• During a recent Twitter Taste Live event featuring St. Supery wines, I railed a bit on my overall disappointment with Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc.  This led to a challenge of sorts from Opus One winemaker and friend-of-the-Dude Michael Silacci, who dared me to compare Napa SB wines like Toquade against their counterparts from France or New Zealand, or at least to try Toquade.
• During a recent jaunt to the Left Coast for the American Wine Bloggers Conference, I did just that (tried Toquade, I mean, not just jaunted), along with some other great Napa wines (more on that in a few minutes) when I visited Michael for dinner (he didn’t pour any Opus, by the way… jerk…!).
• In the meantime, I’d opened up a fairly sizeable barrique of worms when I highlighted the fact that there is an incredible lack of ethnic diversity in winery ownership and in winemaking in general, and discussed with you fine readers the value of writing about very small-production wines (like Toquade).

Right… that’s Twitter, TasteLive, Napa Valley SB, Opus One, the Wine Bloggers Conference, Toquade, ethnic diversity in winemaking, and my coverage of small-production wines.  Crystal clear, right?

Anyway… at that same dinner with Michael, I was introduced to another (very) small-production wine.  A red this time, from a winery owned by a Mexican-born immigrant who employs a young African-American female winemaker.

In other words, I’d hit the serendipity synchronicity jackpot.  Which means that this is the one chance I may have to piss off everybody in a single post… I cannot screw this up!

[ Editor’s note: for those who are humorless, the preceding statement is a joke; in fact, those who are humorless are probably reading the wrong blog and should leave immediately for the sake of preserving their own sanity. ]

Background setup complete – now, let’s get talking about the wine…

The wine is Mario Bazán Cellars Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.  The owner is Mario Bazán, who arrived in Napa from Oaxaca, Mexico in the early 1970s.  The winemaker is Victoria Coleman, who assisted Michael Silacci when they were both at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars.  Interestingly, Mario had worked at Opus One in the early `80s, when he was put in charge of outside management there, but it was at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars where he met Michael and Victoria.

I tasted two vintages of Mario Bazan Cellars wines, and I was impressed with the focus and depth of both, though it was in the later vintage (not yet gone to market) where the wine seemed to hit its stride.  Victoria told me that this is due primarily to having more influence over the activities in the vineyard.  Whatever the reason, the wine started out as very good and is clearly improving.

What struck me was how well – and quickly – Mario and Victoria have captured ‘classic’ Napa Cab; concentrated, dark black cherry fruit is there without coming off as over-extracted; hints of an interesting future is there, too, with notes of graphite and chocolate.

Now, you might be thinking that Victoria got some help from Michael with these wines – and you’d be right, though not in the way that you might assume at first. Michael has helped out, but not as a vintner.

“I am attracted to the integrity and authenticity with which Victoria works,” Michael told me. “It is a joy for me to pull hoses and take orders from Victoria . She is very much in touch with her wine. I enjoy drinking it with her, because she really loves it.”  In other words, when he does help out, Michael is acting like a hired hand and is pulling grunt work (according to him, it’s a nice mental break from running the show at Opus One).

Ok, so that’s Oaxaca, Napa Valley, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Opus One, and Mario Bazán Cellars, only just not quite connected in the way that you would have first thought.  If you ever had thought about connecting Oaxaca, Napa Valley, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Opus One, and Mario Bazán Cellars in your spare time, I mean.

It should be fun to see where the Bazan take the wine from here.

That’s assuming you can get your hands on their wine, of course – and that have the 70+ beans to shell out for a bottle.

Cheers!

(images: futuremusic.com, mariobazancellars.com)