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Check out Lyle's Trip to Napa!

Last month I was blessed to have a quick get-away to the "American Eden," the heart of Napa Valley. A tightly focused, yet very casual trip, we'd be seeing the absolute origins of Napa and visiting with one of its greatest long-term visionaries.


One night staying in an old roadside pull-in motel on Hwy-29, you can still get plenty of old Napa charm strolling down the road past Gott's Roadside, just casually passing by historic sites like Dr. Crane Vineyard — it's hard not to smile. Not impossibly expensive, with some throwback vibes, as I crossed paths with a young couple walking down the way with a handful of bottles - it felt timeless, you'd have to be a stone to be uncharmed strolling this stretch north to St. Helena.


A group of just six people, we were able to meet at the hidden gem of Ulysses Vineyard with Christian Moueix for a few hours to discuss his 40+ years in Napa, the challenges of the present, and forecasting the uncertain future. You'll scarcely find a proprietor more honest and thoughtful than Christian, a multi-faceted fellow who is always thinking in the long-term. Decisions he's made have scarcely been commercial, dry-farming being a commitment from day one since founding Dominus. We learned about the off-market, handshake origin story of purchasing the cherished parcel of Ulysses (then called Schmidt Ranch) from Clarke Swanson (of Swanson Food legacy) in 2008, and some of the envy it stirred in others. Christian revealed that always wanted property in Oakville, and were it available in the 80's - it would have been preferable to the Dominus site. His belief is Ulysses should ultimately overtake Dominus, the site offers more ripeness AND acidity. To accomodate dry-farming, the entire vineyard had to be replanted upon purchase, he simultaneously re-oriented the rows to east-west to more evenly accept the sun's heat throughout the day. Those vines are now hitting their full stride and the 2019 we just tasted (for the second time in a week) was remarkably vivid and lit up the room. A controversial take is his insistence on rinsing grapes, which some locals mistake as him irrigating - which is specifically to rid his wines of the "dust" which is synonymous with Rutherford just to the north. He doesn't partake in night harvests out of respect to labor relations, preferring daybreak for worker safety and morale. We discovered there will be no 2022 Ulysses, a product of the times when an unusual heat event cooked the vineyard at 118 degrees, anthocyanins baked, grapes unsuitable to his demanding quality standard. A blessing was that at Dominus he had installed misters, which can be activated at such moments to decrease the vineyard heat by about 10 degrees. Not yet installed at Ulysses at the time, you can imagine it's on the wishlist for next year! In further heartening news the Valley is a-buzz about the quality and quantity of harvest they earned in 2023. A long-to-set vintage, without extreme heat, we were amazed to still see fruit on plenty of vines around the Valley during our visit in late October. While going through a vertical tasting of Ulysses, Christian regaled us with details about rootstock selections that I could frankly not keep up with. Proof-in-the-pudding, in the vineyard he showed off preferred parcels planted on the old Rupestris or St. George rootstock which seemed to yield healthier, sturdier vines - a difference I could notice in overhead photography. Cover crop management is being explored to leave more material in, understanding its role in reducing ground temperatures. Nothing pragmatic is dismissed at a Moueix estate, he remains deeply curious and his emphasis is in the vineyard. He diversified our tasting with harrowing tales of his effective rebuilding of the estate at Belair-Monange in St. Emilion — and of COURSE we tasted it, and drank Trotanoy 2010 at lunch... such a difficult line of work this is! It's not nearly as difficult as the three years of 24/7 refurbishment of the collapsing limestone quarries underneath Belair-Monange. His friend, the old cellar master at neighboring Ausone, admitted that they would sneak the old Belair into their wine - his father had always told him it was the best site in St. Emilion, and Christian never forgot that. The man who piloted Petrus for 40 years, seems to put that same level of intensity and resource in his pursuit of perfect expression in all these properties. Immensely charming, thoughtful and revealing - I was blessed he spent so much time with me.


Speaking of France, don't miss Bistro Jeanty in Yountville. Get pate, tomato soup, rabbit. Honestly though - you won't go wrong with anything there.


Inglenook. Depending on the age and experiences of the ears that word falls upon — it might elicit very different reactions. The near genesis of the Napa Valley with the aspirational home estate of Gustave Niebaum, the Finnish sea captain. Perhaps it's the legendary wines made here in the 40's, 50's and 60's by John Daniels Jr., father of Robin Lail (originally one of the founding partners of Ulysses). Let's hope it isn't jug wines that tarnished the reputation of this property - absolute Rutherford royalty. Perhaps more than film, Francis Ford Coppola's most intentional legacy is this reunited property at Inglenook where he and his family reside. Bit by bit he purchased the vineyards back, but the trickiest bit was procuring the Inglenook trademark itself. This property is absolutely stunning. The vineyards up onto the Rutherford Bench, the old Chiles house, olive grove, the incredibly preserved Château. Did you know that Scarecrow comes from a plot slap-dab in the middle of the huge Inglenook vineyard? I did not, but there it is! The old cat-walks above the Rubicon room's old wood fermenters in-use until 2019, and now the incredibly tidy and precise subterranean vinification and aging cellar. Upstairs, one of 51 Tucker 48's ever crafted, chassis #1014 for those counting. It's effectively a wine museum, a film museum and an art museum all-in-one. It's a true treasure, tasteful and timeless. It's now also far from tourist taint. Advice? Sign up for a bistro experience and just hang out. It's relaxed, remote and feels positively European. This is THE Napa Valley experience people are missing. The mass-market Coppola wines are gone, sold-off. The emphasis is on Inglenook Cabernet and Rubicon, led by the managing director of Château Margaux, Philippe Bascaules — but no decision ever goes past Francis, il capo. You might just find him hanging out in the front gardens in incognito mode. I've never done anything deserving of the to-die-for three-course lunch that the family's personal chef made for us. Again, it's tough, ain't it?


Far from my mid-summer barrage at Oregon's Pinot Camp, this was an unwinding two and a half days of mellow tempo and narrower focus. If you have any questions, or especially thoughts or anecdotes - my inbox is always available to you at lyle@vinchicago.com - peace!



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