California wine may have been profitable back in 2007, but it certainly wasn’t cool. That was the year I started working in retail, and I found myself completely surrounded by an Old World preference within the industry: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Rioja, Tuscany, etc. My friend and previous co-worker Adam (now one of my sales reps) was just mentioning this yesterday, the fact that our entire company was so focused on France, despite the fact that we were located in California.
But there was a reason for that: California winemakers were still in the midst of the Parker point craze. They were making big, sweet, supple, high alcohol fruit bombs to please the palate of just a few critics. Those of us who wanted more food-friendly wines looked to Europe instead. Plus, it was fun. There was so much to learn about these wines: the languages, the local traditions, the indigenous varietals, the culture.
Fourteen years later, we’re in very different situation. Climate change is making a number of Old World wines more New World by default. I sampled a handful of Chablis yesterday that tasted more like Central Coast Chardonnay than the limestone-laden, tongue-tingling, acidity lasers I’ve come to love. California winemakers are also evolving, thinking more about terroir and what they can do to evoke a sense of place from their wines. Uniformity is frowned upon. Low alcohol is celebrated. Organic farming has become the norm.
And one guy in particular has been leading the way in Napa for the last two decades. His name is Steve Matthiasson. You should get to know him. His wines are the most exciting California specimen I’ve tasted in years. He has me completely reshaping both my wine cellar and my preconceived notions about the future of Napa.
We sat down for a half-hour yesterday to talk vineyards and agriculture. Check it out.
-David Driscoll