Founded by Larry Hyde in 1979, Hyde Vineyards is located in the heart of Napa Valley’s Carneros region. Hyde Vineyards has long been hailed a grand cru-caliber site primarily known for its Pinot Noir and Chardonnay fruit, used by some of the most highly acclaimed wine producers in Napa and Sonoma Valleys. In 2009, Larry debuted his own small-lot Pinot Noir project. Today, the Hyde Vineyards Estate Winery looks over the acclaimed vineyards near the Carneros Highway corridor surrounded by 25 acres planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The estate features a state-of-the-art production facility and an elegant tasting room where guests are welcomed to by-appointment, seated tastings of estate-grown wines that showcase several varietals made from this unique terroir.
Merlot
ESPRIT DE PAVIE
Esprit de Pavie is the creation of Gerard Perse, the visionary owner of Chateau Pavie in St Emillion, having produced no less than five 100 point wines at the Pavie estate. He and his team could have sat smugly on their laurels, instead they set out to make a more democratic bottle of Bordeaux for wider enjoyment, Esprit de Pavie is made from young vines from all of Perse’s estate’s, including Pavie, this is definitely a smart case of wine to add to the cellar, given the provenance and price, it’s a Bordeaux to snap up for fun and future.
PAVIE
Château Pavie is a Bordeaux estate in Saint-Émilion known for its Merlot-dominant grand vin. It is one of four châteaux with the Premier Grand Cru Classé A status, the highest classification in Bordeaux’s right bank.
The 37-hectare (91-acre) Pavie estate sits on a limestone plateau on a site known to have been planted with vines since Roman times. The current property boundaries were heavily influenced by the land purchases of Ferdinand Bouffard in the late 19th Century. Bouffard bought a number of vineyards and châteaux, laying the foundations not just for Pavie but several of its neighboring estates, although he continued to manage them as separate entities. In the early 20th Century, Château Pavie was divided into three: châteaux Pavie Macquin and Pavie Decesse were created from land from the original estate. Pavie remains the largest of the three and is one of the largest estates in Saint-Émilion.
Château Pavie was named a Premier Grand Cru Classé B at the 1954 classification of Saint-Émilion. Gérard Perse bought Pavie in 1998 (having previously bought Pavie Decesse) and implemented significant upgrades to the vineyards and winery. Many of the vines were replanted, and Michel Rolland was hired as consultant winemaker. Subsequent vintages have been markedly different and have created some controversy. The new wines are known for their riper, fuller and more extracted expressions with high alcohol content. They have been well received by American critic Robert Parker but not so favorably by others, notable in the poor review the 2003 received from Jancis Robinson. In the 2012 review of the Saint-Émillion classification, Château Pavie was elevated to the highest status of Premier Grand Cru Classé A.
The vineyards are planted roughly 60 percent to Merlot, 20 percent to Cabernet Franc and 10 percent to Cabernet Sauvignon. Along with the eponymous grand vin, Pavie makes a second wine called Arômes de Pavie, renamed from Tour Simard in 2005. This is made from younger vines with an average age of less than 10 years, compared to 43 for the grand vin. The total production of the estate is roughly 8000 cases annually.
BERTINGA
Bertinga winery is located on an exceptional hillside site in the area Gaiole in Chianti. Founded in 2015, it has already an established pedigree in the wine world. Bertinga is one of the best-known vineyards in the area; it was owned by Castello di Ama for many years and yielded wines of wonderful finesse and power, as well as drinkability and longevity.
Crafting small quantities of terroir-driven single parcel/single vineyard wines, Bertinga uses 100% estate grown and organically farmed fruit out its 16.4-hectare planted to Sangiovese and Merlot, both varietals having played the leading role in making the area famous.
The picture is complemented by a world-class team led by the director Luca Vitiello, the production manager Elisa Ascani and the consulting oenologist Stephan Derenoncourt. To secure an enduring place in the history of Tuscan winemaking is Bertinga’s long term aspiration and the goal to share with all partners worldwide.
SPORTO
The Sportoletti family has been passionately dedicated to producing wine in Umbria for generations. In the late 1970s, brothers Ernesto and Remo turned their attention exclusively to winemaking. With great reverence for the teachings of their father Vittorio, they began to bottle wines under their own label. From that point on, they began a long journey in pursuit of the perfect balance between innovation and tradition, endeavoring to unleash the full potential of their terroir – situated on the hills between Spello and Assisi – where they now own 20 hectares of vineyards from which they produce an average of 200,000 bottles per year.
In 1998, the company decided to join forces with the highly esteemed agronomic and oenological consultant Riccardo Cotarella, thus marking the start of a highly successful professional collaboration as well as a valued friendship. They regularly replant their vines and cultivate them using the spur pruning system and high density planting. With 5,000 vines per hectare, they are able to control the number of buds and consequently the productivity of the vines. For the reserve wines, a first harvest of the grapes is carried out while the grapes are just beginning to ripen, in order to obtain an average yield of 1 Kg of grapes per plant. Vines currently cultivated include the indigenous Grechetto, for which they chose the G5 clone, a lower yielding yet more characteristic strain. The Merlot they grow is a particular massale clone that was selected and propagated from an old vine that had been on the property for fifty years and which, over the years, has given rise to one of their most successful wines. Specific clones of Sangiovese that provide a lower yield but are much richer in color were also chosen, the same holding true for their Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc.
It’s nice to see Sportoletti back in the US market. [These wines are] all highly recommended. Even better, they won’t break the bank.
– Wine Advocate, 6/2010
Sportoletti is one of Umbria’s leading properties. Consulting oenologist Riccardo Cotarella oversees winemaking, but these delicious wines stand out for the qualities of the raw materials as much as they do for what goes on in the cellar.
– Wine Advocate, April 2009
ORR
At a bar in San Francisco in 1998, Erica Orr met winemaker Aaron Pott, who convinced her to leave her lab tech job at UCSF to work the harvest with Cathy Corison; she was immediately hooked. In the following years, Erica honed her craft working at some of the best wineries in the world: Domaine Dujac, Rudd Estate, Cain Vineyard and Yering Station. In 2005, she settled in Washington to started an independent winemaking consulting and enology business, where she continues to help great wineries rack up 90+ point scores and Wine Spectator accolades (Baer, Mark Ryan , Guardian Cellars, Sparkman).
In 2013, Erica sourced neglected fruit from heritage vineyards to create a wine all her own. Finding and sourcing a small parcel of Chenin Blanc, in 2013 Erica released the inaugural and limited release of Orr Wines– 116 cases of old vine Chenin Blanc. The wine is a blend of two old vineyards, Rothrock vineyard in the Yakima Valley of Prosser, and Upland vineyard on Snipes Mountain in Sunnyside. Rothrock was planted in 1970 and is a south facing site, 855 feet above sea level with a 15% slope. The shallow topsoil is very fine sand and silt loam on top of basalt bedrock. Upland has incredibly wild and diverse soils. Owned by the Newhouse family this parcel of Chenin Blanc was planted in 1979 on a 25% slope, 1000 foot elevation, facing southwest with a nice view of Mt. Adams.
The Chenin Blanc grapes are always hand-picked and whole cluster pressed. The juices settle in tank overnight and are racked clean to fill neutral old French oak barrels and stainless steel drums. Nothing is inoculated – the nuanced dynamics of native yeast fermentations add complexity. After the sugar has completely fermented, SO2 is added to prevent malolactic fermentation. Lees stirring lends fullness and body to the mouth. In the spring, the wines from the two vineyard lots are blended together, lightly fined and filtered before bottling. Natural corks are used, each one screened for TCA and other off-aromas by Portacork’s “dry soak method”.
Massanois is incredibly excited to welcome this talented, young winemaker to its portfolio with the release of the second vintage of Orr Wines Chenin Blanc – 2014. We can’t wait for you to taste these excellent and singular Washington State wines.