Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/735312
october 2016 / the tasting panel / 7 Sequoia Grove's founders shared the same vision that drove pioneers like Mike Grgich, Joe and Alice Heitz and Robert Mondavi to gamble on Napa Valley as a home for world-class Cabernet. In the decades that have since passed, it would appear that the gamble has paid off. "Grand Cru" Vineyards Of the original 22 acres purchased in Rutherford from 1979, 18 are now planted to vine, and the property couldn't have proven a better ground to grow some of the best Cabernet in the world. Rutherford is now known as the finest area in the United States for this grape varietal. From Highway 29, the original Sequoia Grove Estate Vineyard shoots straight back to the banks of the Napa River. The Estate Vineyard demonstrates the character of the western edge of Rutherford's unique terroir, influenced by the Mayacamas Mountains on Napa Valley's left flank. Standing under a Giant Sequoia in front of Sequoia Grove's tasting room, winemaker Molly Hill points to the Mayacamas Range, and with her index finger, draws a line from the mountains to where we stand. "There's an alluvial fan of soil that washes out through the famed Rutherford Bench, straight through our property down to the Napa River." Those soils provide excellent drainage and are consistent throughout the Sequoia Grove vineyard. Travel just two miles to the east, and you'll arrive at Tonella Vineyard, the newest addition to Sequoia Grove's estate holdings. Though still in Rutherford, Tonella is nestled directly under the Vaca Range and benefits from its own unique geography (as do its neighbors, such as the Beckstoffer and Caymus vineyards). "It's much more Vaca-influenced," Hill says, "with warmer daily temperatures and soils that have more gravel and clay loam." Together, these two sites epitomize the quality, as well as the variety, of the Rutherford AVA—they are a sort of "Grand Cru" for California Cabernet. They are also the two primary sources for Sequoia Grove's Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. A Steep Learning Curve Rutherford did not always produce such exceptional Cab. In fact, it took Napa's winemakers some time to unlock the potential of the terroir. "In the beginning, Sequoia Grove experi- mented with Chardonnay plantings in Rutherford," says Molly Hill. "But they figured it out, and replanted Cabernet on AXR1 [rootstock] in the '80s. U.C. Davis said that AXR1 was the best rootstock at the time—and it may have been—until growers realized it was susceptible to phylloxera." As a result, in the late '80s and early '90s, much of Napa and Sonoma coun- ties were forced to uproot and replant their vines. Sequoia Grove saw this as an opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade, and planted an experimental vineyard with multiple rootstocks within each row. Their purpose: to deduce which rootstock should be matched to each soil type. "Next we experimented with different clones," says Hill. "That map was like a patchwork quilt of 20 different clone and rootstock combinations." Though it was an enormous amount of work, the result of Sequoia Grove's continued Sequoia Grove's Head Winemaker, Molly Hill.