Verticals (2019) s02e01 Episode Script

(bright music)
(glass clinks)
- Anybody in the wine business
that specializes in
doing hillside vineyards.
There is gonna be a bit of
the loner, of the Bohemian,
a little bit there's some
screws loose in their brains.
There's a lot of metaphysical reasons
why people end up hanging
out in the mountains.
But I think that it is probably ancestral.
Things occur in these mountains
that sort of forge a strong will,
a unique individual and unique wines.
(upbeat music)
I think it becomes very addicting working
in places like this.
The wine business has definitely evolved
over my tenure here.
And Mayacamas was always a shining star.
- Mayacamas Vineyards is
extremely important to Napa Valley
and important to the world of winemaking.
- A lot of people don't realize that
a good portion of the Napa
Valley is very mountainous.
A lot of people associate Napa
Valley with this Valley floor
where a lot of wineries are located,
but Mayacamas is actually
up in the mountains
in the Mayacamas range on a crest.
- [Jean] Sitting on top of Mount Veeder
is a really beautiful,
very rare unique spot.
- [Claire] That elevation
really pushes that acidity
and that structure that
you see in those wines.
- You're always dealing
with mother nature.
But if it's windy down in the Valley,
it'll be ten times windier up here,
if it's raining down in the Valley,
it's been raining harder up here.
It takes, I think a unique individual
to wanna grow grapes
under these circumstances.
(bright music)
- Mayacamas Winery is a
very unique place in Napa.
It has a really long history.
It was started in the late 19th century
by a German guy named Fisher.
Who was a sword engraver
and a pickle merchant.
And this was his side gig.
But then the earthquake of 1906 came
and wiped out his pickle
factories in the city
and the winery got auctioned off
and passed through some hands.
And then it came under
the Travers ownership
and Bob Travers owned that
winery for a very long time.
- [Phil] The 60's was the rebirth of
the wine industry in California.
Where all of a sudden they were starting
to replant Napa and Sonoma.
Is it Bohemian, is it hippie.
That was the beauty of Mayacamas
when I was a kid in the 70's.
- [Kelli] There was a
consistency in the style.
They never modernized.
They were always making
wines in kind of a rustic way
but in a really profound way
and a beautiful understated classic style
that lent itself well to great age.
- The 1970's Mayacamas wines for me
as a winemaker are inspirational.
(instrumental music)
- [Braiden] Bob Sessions
was a winemaker at Mayacamas
from 1965 through the 71 vintage.
- And he's incredibly famous for
the 1970 Mayacamas Cabernet Sauvignon
which was actually his
last complete vintage
for Mayacamas before
Bob Travers took over.
- Got his start at Mayacamas
and then went on to do
incredible things in Hanzell.
- Bob Sessions was a Prince.
Bob had a literature background and,
was who said, wine is bottled poetry.
There's that sign down
there some place in Napa.
But Bob was a real gentle man,
had incredible taste, incredible palate,
and really cherished the
history and art of winemaking.
- His wife, Jean
incredibly special person.
I mean, she's an inspiration
in the wine industry.
She's kind of a legend in her own right
and you know, we're lucky to have
both of them as part of our legacy.
- [Phil] Opening up a
bottle is a mark in time.
I'll never forget sitting
down with Bob Sessions.
Every one of those wines,
the wines that he made was special.
- Bob Sessions, honestly,
he worried about every single one of
the vintages of wines he made.
Worried, worried, worried,
until they were showing beautifully.
Favorite vintages for Bob,
the '66, '68 and '70.
And the '70 vintage,
I think it was another fairly ripe year,
we were out of the drought.
So he just really enjoyed
the elegance of the '70,
'68 was the powerhouse,
and I think elegance in the '70.
This is a legendary bottle of wine,
the 1970 Mayacamas Cabernet, amazing.
This bottle is pristine too.
This was a fun thing,
a conversation I would
have with Bob Sessions
if he was still with me, with us,
and that would be 1970 to 2020.
What is that, 50 years?
I believe in aging wine as Bob did.
Aging wine as part of
the wine making process
because you get characteristics
that happen in this bottle
that you would get no
other way than having time.
It's all about time.
So, but how long?
So we're pretty open about older wine
and being really old wine and tasting it,
but can you expect a great
Cabernet to be 50 years old?
So I think you can on this wine.
So are you sure you really
want me to open this?
All right, so now there's a
controversy among sommeliers,
if I may, of whether you
open it at the top lip
or the bottom.
I think one's American style,
one is French style and somewhere,
sommeliers are going,
Jean we've taught you this.
(bright music)
You're gonna make me cry.
I think of the wine as time travel.
That, he watched those grapes,
much like at Hanzell,
at Mayacamas he knew every vine.
So he actually took care of this wine
and made this wine and
put it in this bottle.
So, yeah, it's very meaningful.
So the fill level of this wine is amazing.
It might have a slight ullage on it,
but that is an amazing,
it's been extremely well cared for,
and may I grab my glasses?
- [Male Voice] Yeah, of course you can.
- Thank you.
(chuckles)
I just decanted a lot of wine recently,
at older vintages and
with a prize like this
you really want to be careful.
And I found just the regular
osso with this old cork.
Is really, oh
This bottle is extremely rare.
That's why I'm being really cautious.
I'm amazed to see the
label in this condition.
Was it little bit of sediment
tartrates on the cork.
Look at that cork though,
this is a 50 year old cork.
It's a tradition that
the women get to do their
little finger in the bottle
to wipe out any of the leftover cork.
(tranquil music)
Oh my gosh, I can smell it.
Look at that color.
This bottle is pristine.
I have no idea that this,
the 1970 Mayacamas, this color.
(sighs)
It's gorgeous.
It is gorgeous.
Ooh, so proud of him.
Just so proud of him
and Bob Travers, he bought a jewel.
Bob and Noni,
and they bought a jewel of a property.
And Bob tended it and
stored it very, very, well.
(tranquil music)
I think it's a Bob Sessions wine.
It's the tannins are,
there's bracing acidity.
There's still fruit.
It's going to open up, I think.
The color as a 50 year old wine.
Oh my gosh.
It is extraordinary.
The time travel.
I would wish he were here
cause he would go on about this wine.
Wow, it's good.
It's right, to say it's right.
If I was in a wine tasting,
I would think this would be
maybe a 20 year old wine.
I just love that.
And I love that he made it, thank you.
I am really doing my best not to cry
because it just is moving, it's emotional,
wine is emotional.
The characteristics too are just lovely
and it's cool cellar temperature.
So as it warms to the room temperature,
it's gonna be beautiful.
I am stunned.
I did not think,
I thought 50 years was
too much to ask of a wine,
to be honest.
This is certainly not the case.
I like that.
I like being surprised.
And especially with one of Bob's wines,
that is an honor.
I love too that the cork,
when I decanted some of the older wines,
good corks that were used,
the winemaker decided
to use really good cork.
They're still sound.
There were a lot of first there's.
They use cement fermenters
and now cement fermenters
are back for Cabernet.
So the 70's were that time of innovation.
But I think if you value history
and storied and legacy,
Mayacamas is extremely important.
And to find vintages like this,
it's just a joy.
So I'll be going now.
I'll take this wine with me and-
(bright music)
- With Mayacamas I would
say most people know
the Mayacamas of Bob Travers,
who bought the property in 1968
and really created the style
and the wines that everybody knows.
But, the history goes way back.
- It's one of the few wineries
that survived prohibition.
They were continuously making
wine through the whole fiasco.
- Really to understand prohibition
and what happened in Napa Valley,
you have to go way back to
when this place started
and the 1890s, early 1900's.
I mean, when you look at what
was going on during that time
there were a lot of
people making wine here.
And then all of a sudden
prohibition comes.
Nearly everybody goes out of business.
Some people continue to sell grapes
to produce wine for the church.
Some people may have bootlegged,
we're not sure.
There may be some caves
up on this mountain
where barrels and bottles were
stored during prohibition.
I don't know Braiden who's
the winemaker at Mayacamas,
may know the location of these caves.
You'd have to ask him, I'm not sure
- You guys got to promise not
to tell anyone where this is.
(chuckles)
We found three caves so far
that we think they used
for stashing booze.
We'll see if we can get there.
It's kind of overgrown.
So bear with us.
(chuckles)
There's a lot of poison Oak,
lots of ticks and other than that,
we should be fine.
Hopefully there's no bear
kinda hanging out in there,
probably fine.
It's napa.
It's not too bad.
The Brandlin's bought it in
1922 and owned it till '41.
So they would have kinda been using
a couple of these caves for bootleg.
And this one I'm gonna try
and find for you guys is the biggest,
it's about a 100,
we think it's about 150 feet
and it cuts back into
the side of this Hill.
All right, let me see here.
What is the best way?
(slashing)
(panting)
(sighs)
It was a lot easier before the fire.
(chuckles)
It's not been,
it's been at least a year
since I've been out to the cave here.
It's kind of all overgrown after the fire,
all this bay,
but before the fire,
I think it was like 2015,
probably during harvest in 2015.
We brought a bottle of 1998 Merfandel
which was like a holiday release.
Merlot-Zinfandel of some sort of blend.
And the very back of the cave
there's this little area
that was like the bore hole.
So we placed it in the
back as kind of a homage
to the mountain gods just to pay homage
and help us make good wine that vintage.
(panting)
Oh yeah, here we go.
(sighs)
Oh, so nice and cool in here.
Come on in.
(chuckles)
One of my favorite things
about walking in here
is you get this cross section
of the soil as you move from front to back
and you get to see all
the striations as you go.
It changes quite a bit from,
you're kinda in this sedimentary
rock, external shell,
and you get into more volcanics
and you can really see the color change
and a lot of the stripes,
different mineral deposits.
It's pretty cool.
I mean, it's not often that you get
to see 150 feet into a mountain.
Every now and again,
you'll see like square nails from
when they were using some
sort of light in here.
The Brandlin's were making
a lot of different varietals
but Zinfandel probably been one of
the reds you would've seen.
The story goes that they would,
they would kind of
store a good chunk of their wine in
the caves and then leave some,
So that when the alcohol
enforcement got up there,
they found something.
So they weren't, you know
Oh, you guys aren't doing anything.
At least they'd get a
little slap on the wrist.
They'd lose that wine
and then you'd kind of still have
the majority of your stock
in these different caves.
Pretty cool.
One day we'll use it.
I'm not sure for what but,
(chuckles)
grand ambitions,
but the Merfandel is here,
(instrumental music)
1998 Merfandel,
a blend of Zinfandel and Merlot.
The label hasn't held up very well.
Never actually tried it.
But there was two bottles of it
and he felt like when
we came into the cave
we wanted to kind of pay
homage to the mountain gods.
So, we stashed the bottle back here.
Still in pretty good shape.
I mean, it's nice
humidity and temperature.
So yeah, pretty good fill.
One day we'll drink it
and we'll replace it with something else,
carry on the tradition,
but not today.
(chuckles)
Couple of mice in the back.
(sighs)
(chuckles)
- The fill level looks
fantastic on this bottle.
So this is a Magnum of
1994 Cabernet Sauvignon.
And the reason I chose to
open this bottle is because,
well, for several reasons,
first of all 1994 was my first
vintage ever in Napa Valley.
- Andy Erickson he's a Napa legend.
I mean, he's been making incredible wines
in Napa Valley since 1994.
Certainly, as a young winemaker
looking at all the
different wineries in Napa
and who was leading the charge there,
Andy has been a name that
comes up time and time again.
- You had the previous generation,
which would include Mayacamas and Bob
and Bob Sessions and other people
who were making these wines
that were classically styled.
And all of a sudden in the early 90's
you have this movement of people
that were making quote
unquote modern wines.
And so that's this point in the Valley.
And yet up here on the mountain
it was just another vintage.
There was a big shift
in the mid to late 90's
to start using a lot more new Oak,
to make these wines a lot bigger
to pick later higher alcohol,
higher sugar content.
But Mayacamas didn't go with the trend.
- He basically relied on
Bob Travers recipe book
when making the first couple of vintages
and said he was really nervous.
He had never harvested fruit
at that low of bricks before.
Never used Oak that old before,
didn't believe it was possible
that it wasn't biologically contaminated.
- I would meet with Bob and talk to him
and he told me once that,
he never changed anything
he was doing in 45 years.
He just made the wines the
way he knew to make the wines,
which is awesome.
So 1994, as I said,
it's my first vintage in Napa Valley.
And I was very lucky that my
first vintage was actually
at Stags Leap Wine Cellars,
in '94 which turns out
that was one of the wines
that was featured in
the Paris Tasting as well.
When I first came here in 1994,
I was someone who had an interest in wine.
I wanted to work in wine,
but I had never heard of
the Paris Tasting before.
And so, working at
Stags Leap Wine Cellars,
I learned about this whole thing
and the fact that Mayacamas
was a part of it as well.
It's pretty interesting.
(upbeat music)
It smells really good.
I just wanna tell you right now,
it smells really good.
I mean, for me,
it just smells beautiful.
It has all those tones that
you want in an aged wine.
It's got the Cedar cigar box,
but there's still so much fruit
and the color is still bright.
And then just talking about the history.
I mean, this wine was made the
year that I arrived in Napa
and it still has so much to say,
and it's just pretty awesome.
And this will live for
another 20, 30 years probably.
I think the Mayacamas wines
aged so well because of
all the acidity, all the tannin.
These wines have always
been made in a style
that you wanna see what
they're gonna taste
like 10 years from now,
20 years from now.
I mean, I think I first had
this one 10, 15 years ago
and I don't think it's
changed much at all,
which is amazing.
So it's just on this path.
It's like just on a plateau.
And I think the wines have been like that
they age well, lets put it that way.
(soft music)
- Braiden Albrecht, the current winemaker,
(chuckles)
33 years old,
which is pretty incredible.
And he started in 2016.
It's awesome.
- I mean, we basically
stole Braiden from Phil.
- Braiden, the current winemaker
graduated with my son from high school.
We would always call him Gramps
cause after skiing he'd
be the guy sitting there
with three blankets on
and just talking nobody
knew what he was saying.
- Braiden was working
for Phil in the vineyard
and at the end of harvest,
we needed somebody to
come into the winery.
And Braiden came for a couple
of days and started working.
And I called Phil and said,
Phil, Braiden's working
in the winery from now on.
I'm sorry, we're taking him.
And now he's the wine maker.
- There are big shoes to fill.
This is an estate that's been
continually producing wine
since the late 1800's.
It's a lot of pressure.
- [Phil] I liked seeing
the next generation come in doing this.
I'm working with both
my sons and my business.
Wine is multi-generational.
So it has to be passed on.
- People come to this
property and this mountain
and just fall in love with it.
- It's got a legacy
- [Kelli] And he has continued
to innovate the winery
while still staying true to their roots,
still staying true to
that wine making style.
That is so classic to Mayacamas.
- [Claire] he's definitely
pushing it forward.
Renovating a lot of the vineyards,
expanding a little bit
bringing in some new varietals,
all going to be very classic
style Mayacamas Wines though.
- He and I work really well together.
And there's just this tuning in
that you have on the mountain
and when you're tuned into it
you just do it because you love it.
- Wine's immortal.
The history of this vineyard
is gonna live on forever.
And the wine is just who's
the caretaker at the time
that you open that bottle.
- Taking over a project of this magnitude
of this importance, I think,
is not something to be taken lightly.
I certainly don't,
but I think I got to find a place
where I'm not really worried about that.
And just focusing on appreciating the land
that we're getting to farm
and turning that into great wine.
This is the 2016 Mayacamas Cabernet.
And, this is a special wine for us.
I mean, there's a number of reasons.
One of the reasons is that
it survived the fires,
the 2017 fires.
And this one was a year out
from being ready to be bottled
and was in the cellar.
And we weren't sure,
when the fires came through
how it was gonna fare,
and it survived beautifully.
'16 was a great vintage.
Kinda ideal conditions year round,
and it's turned into a beautiful wine.
We're really, really happy with it.
(soft music)
- In the fall of 2017,
the North Coast wine growing areas
experienced some pretty devastating fires.
- The fire was a life-changing event.
There was no question.
- One of the biggest areas
of damage was on Mount Veeder
and the Mayacamas Winery was unfortunately
right in the fire's path.
- The fire in '17 is still
a huge event in my life.
It's certainly one that
I'm still processing in a lot of ways.
We obviously were hit pretty hard.
- I remember driving here
two, three days after
the big burn went through,
on the ATV from Cavedale
Road through Sky Vineyards,
and everything's in black and white.
I thought I'm in the
middle of a Fellini movie,
and you see everything that you've done
just sort of up in flames.
- Most of the vineyards were fine,
but the rest of the property,
a lot of it was impacted
and we were in the middle of harvest.
So it was a very challenging time
to have to go through such an event.
Obviously, we were really fortunate that
we didn't lose the winery.
No one, our team was
injured or lost their homes.
I mean, those are the
most important things,
our team was safe.
(soft music)
- [Phil] Fire in lots
of ways is a good thing.
As the Phoenix rises from the fire
as from these ashes,
we find these Olive Trees
that were planted out
here a 100 years ago,
from the fire we are seeing
there's a change in our view scape
but we're seeing the earth heal itself.
Vintages are marked by moments in time
and occurrences in those moments in time.
And that's how I remember a vintage,
that vintage will always be
noted as the fire vintage.
(engine revving)
- The 16 to me is we're getting into
the next chapter of
winemaking at Mayacamas,
winemaking and grape growing.
And, we've done a lot in the vineyard
and in the cellar to pay
homage to what's been done
but also to look forward to what's next.
And, that comes with changing
where certain varietals are planted,
a rootstock selection,
clonal selection and basically flipping
the production at Mayacamas
from being more planted to Chardonnay
planted to Cabernet.
So things are changing.
I'm not gonna sit here
and say that we're doing
the exact same thing
that's been done.
I mean, we always have
one foot in the past,
but you got to look to progress
and make your process better every year.
So in the vineyards we've done a lot,
we've transitioned to organic farming
and really kind of beyond
that in a lot of ways into biodynamics.
Which really has never been done here.
And that's really important part of
why I got into winemaking was
to kinda make my corner of the world
a slightly better place.
And so, to me,
what this wine kind of symbolizes
is the next step in that transition.
Wine is the time aspect of it
is things don't happen
overnight in the wine world.
This is kind of in that
middle of that transition,
but what it signifies is
kind of a renewed commitment
to great wines, sustainability
and kind of the next
generation at Mayacamas.
'16 you know, when I taste it now,
when I taste it in barrel.
When I taste it 20 years from now
it's gonna bring me back to that year.
It's gonna bring me back to
certain moments of that harvest.
Wine is a living evolving thing,
and every time you taste it
it'll be a little different.
And hopefully it progresses in the way
that a lot of the incredible wines
in Mayacamas history have.
And I think it will,
I think it's got all the right ingredients
and all the love, all the passion,
the thoughtfulness that it takes.
I guess we'll see.
(chuckles)
Maybe I'm wrong.
(wine gurgling)
(soft music)
That's delicious.
It's got great energy.
Acid is really the backbone,
I think of the Mayacamas style,
whether we're talking
about white winemaking,
with our Chardonnays
or reds with the Cabernet's and Merlot's.
If we don't have that,
I think you lose that beautiful tension
and structure in the wines
that really give themselves
to where they are now and
where they're gonna go.
And so, when I try our younger wines
I got to make sure that they have that.
That's that kinda the starting point,
and this wine definitely
has great structure,
really beautiful.
This obviously so young,
it's got plenty of fruit.
It's very much in our kinda
red to blue fruit savory style,
but it's got kind of a
beautiful mid palate to it
and great length.
So, I'm really happy with where it's at,
it's got some rugged tension
to it that come from grapes
that are grown where the soils are weak
and you're in the sun for 12 hours a day
and it's not easy growing
conditions up here.
And the grapes carry
this intensity intention
that come from that.
And the 2016 Cabernet will age
in a really similar trajectory
to the 1994 Cabernet
and the '70 Cabernet.
That's to me probably
the most reassuring part
of trying it now is,
it's tasting great now,
but I know that it's gonna
be around for a while.
- The wine is a reflection of
the winemakers personality.
I worked with winemakers
that are really uptight and nervous.
You're tasting wines.
The wines are a little
bit uptight and nervous.
Braiden's not uptight,
his earlier wines were a little bit young,
but then Braiden's a little bit young so,
(chuckles)
and we'll see what the
market and time happens,
where in 40 years
there'll be somebody
else standing in here.
And you're talking about
drinks at 2016 Mayacamas,
that Braiden made in
somebody else's taking
the reigns of it.
That's the beauty of a piece of property.
That's a beauty of what we do.
They're lucky to have him here.
And he owes me cause I got him the job.
(chuckles)
Mayacamas is famous for staying true
to their beliefs in wine making
and not being swayed by trends.
And, I think as time goes on,
they will continue to be that way.
- The magic that occurs of
creating sugar to the alcohol
and then the brotherhood,
the sisterhood, the family hood
that occurs working late
at night making wine,
it's surrounded by magic.
And, I think most people that
you talked to in this business
especially those involved
in working iconic properties like this,
are here because of that Magic.
(soft music)
(bright music)
(glass clicking)
- I'll never forget.
When we first got here,
we did a full vertical
and going through the 1970's
wines was so much fun.
Not only because of the
quality of the wines,
but because of Phil Coturri,
who I think had an acid flashback in
the middle of the vertical.
- I mean, I don't know
if I could say this,
but I remember one time I overdosed on LSD
and I was totally out there.
And where I found solace in my mind
was I was in a wine cave
with my brother drinking
wine as a peasant.
- That may or may not be true
but I think it could have happened.
But listening to him
talk about the vintages.
There was so much color.
- So this is a current on in my mind,
and I felt right at home.
And I felt right at home what I'm doing,
but halfway through drinking
this wine in this cave
all of a sudden I have a
baseball bat in my hand
trying to cap to see who
gets the last glass of wine.
(chuckles)
So, that's the insanity
of living in the Hills.