Napa Valley’s First New Appellation in 13 Years!

Transcript:

00:00:00:00 – 00:00:45:03
We have a brand new appellation and it’s been all over the wine news, Decanter magazine, Jancis Robinson, the San Francisco Chronicle’s, Vine Pair, all talk about it. For which area is this New AVA for? Here is a breaking news in the world of wine for you. Let me break it for you. And I mean break it. When is the last time that you heard of an entirely new appellation being created in France, for example, in Burgundy or in Bordeaux, or in Italy, essentially like a new village that got its own recognition and its own brand new designation of origin, the French wine appellations as we know them, like Chateauneuf du Pape and Margaux von Neumann,

00:00:45:03 – 00:01:11:04
a generation beaten to name a few, are about 80 to 100 years old at this point, and we hardly create any new ones nowadays. But as of a week ago now, the Napa Valley has got a brand new wine appellation whose name is, roll the drums… Crystal Springs. And no, it’s not for bottled water. It’s, yes, delicious wine.

00:01:11:04 – 00:01:46:17
So why on earth did Napa Valley need to add a new official sub designation on top of the existing ones like Calistoga, Saint Helena Rutherford? In a way, it makes total sense. In another way, it totally doesn’t. In any case, it’s an interesting event, so let’s talk about it.

00:01:46:19 – 00:02:08:23
Hello, bonjour, and welcome to your new Bonner Private Wines video where we talk about wine here weekly. I’m your host, Julien Miquel, Bordeaux trained wine maker. Yes I’ve spent the last 25 years making and tasting fine wines in top wine regions around the world and starting in the Grand Crus of Bordeaux, in Tuscany, in Spain, in California, Australia, New Zealand.

00:02:09:00 – 00:02:43:24
For the first time in 13 years, Napa Valley has created a new appellation as the TTB, the alcohol and Tobacco trade Bureau officially recognized a few days ago. On October the 18th, a brand new AVA, American Viticultural Area, called Crystal Springs. Where I want to get to with you, is discussing whether this is all really necessary or not, and what does that mean for the Valley and more importantly, for you wine consumers.

00:02:44:01 – 00:02:55:06
But for this, we need to explain briefly what exactly happened first.

00:02:55:08 – 00:03:25:20
The last new AVA officially recognized in Napa Valley was Coombsville, and that was in 2011, some 13 years ago. By the way, have you ever heard about Coombsville, or tasted any wine from there? Me neither, but we’ll get back to that. Now, in 2024, we have a brand new appellation and it’s been all over the wine news, Decanter magazine, Jancis Robinson, the San Francisco Chronicles, Vine Pair, all talk about it.

00:03:25:20 – 00:03:53:04
For which area is this new AVA for, you probably wonder? Well, it gets a tiny bit technical, so bear with me for 30s. It’s actually quite easy. There has been within the Napa Valley, a sub area with its own AVA called the Howell Mountain one of Napa Valley is most prestigious hillside AVAs north of Saint Helena, but within the designated Howell Mountain AVA.

00:03:53:04 – 00:04:21:23
This area, some vineyards are at lower altitude, and to claim the Howell Mountain AVA on wine labels, vines have to grow above 1400 feet of altitude. Anything below is not allowed the Howell Mountain designation, even though it is within the Howell Mountain perimeter, you could say. It’s just called, if you’re too low, just Napa Valley wine. Why 1,400 feet, you may wonder?

00:04:21:23 – 00:04:48:02
It’s the fog line, above which the morning fog is lifted much earlier during the day, or there is not much fog at all above that line. Below it is much foggy and cooler all across the season. The new Crystal Springs Ava is for these 4,100 acres of vineyards that are below the fog line, and I’d say the foothills of the Howell Mountain.

00:04:48:04 – 00:05:12:13
I think the TTB has a really good map of the area, so I’ll try to show you where that is exactly. Jancis Robinson also has a great summary map as well. Here it is. So what does this new AVA do in practice for wineries and for wine consumers, is this going to change the whole game?

00:05:12:15 – 00:05:33:11
Well, here is where I break it for you. Here’s the rub. So far, no one seems to be really sure what the new Crystal Springs appellation is for, exactly. Or who’s going to use it at all. There is some really good reporting by W.J. Gray of Wine Searcher. I’ll put a link in the description if you want to read more all of the details.

00:05:33:11 – 00:06:04:08
But here’s the tl;dr. In summary, there are around 30 commercial vineyards in these new AVA’s area, although only three wineries are actually located within its boundaries. That’s Viader, Bremer Family, and Somnium. Viader told Wine Searcher that they didn’t need this AVA at all, that their winery name — they’re quite famous — their brand is more important to their customers than the AVA itself, so that’s not a great start.

00:06:04:08 – 00:06:28:16
One of the most famous producers there doesn’t really care. And then Bob Boleyn, no winemaker for Bremer Family Winery told Jancis Robinson that, quote “the Bremer team is in favor of the AVA and that it would be nice to be able to label their wines from the vineyards outside the whole mountain AVA with a bit more clarity then the larger Napa Valley AVA provides.”

00:06:28:18 – 00:06:51:10
So that’s okay. That’s a little bit of support. Final point, the proposal for this new AVA was put together by Stephen Burgess, who started working on it back in 2006. So he started assembling a fund to put forward these new AVA. But he finalized the proposal in 2020 only, which is when the file was given to the TTB.

00:06:51:12 – 00:07:17:05
But in the meantime, Burgess Cellars was sold to Lawrence Wine Estates. So Burgess Stephen is no longer a vintner himself. In conclusion, no one really knows what these new AVA will do or how it’s going to be used at all. No one is really pushing it. Backing it. No winery at this point seems to be either ready or prepared to push the new appellation forward, reputation wise, or put it really on the wine label.

00:07:17:06 – 00:07:42:17
Essentially, it seems to me that the Napa Valley created a new AVA before there was a need for one, before the local terroir, the local soil, the climate had demonstrated it is a unique area in that it makes great wine, which really seems counter-intuitive. In the Howell mountain, which is the famous AVA deliberately excluded those lower altitude vineyards.

00:07:42:17 – 00:08:07:06
Did we really need an AVA for those? Honestly, I don’t know the area well enough to really tell, and I don’t want to say anything bad about these vineyards. I’ve never tasted any of the wines from there, but it’s certainly it raises a few questions that no one has come forward to answer yet. What do you think? Is it better to create an AVA to make the local wines famous?

00:08:07:08 – 00:08:28:14
Or do we make the wines from an area famous first for the quality and then we create the corresponding AVA It seems to me they’ve created the AVA before anyone really knows what it’s going to be for even Steven Burgess is a bit out of the game at this point. Do you think these new AVA makes sense at all?

00:08:28:15 – 00:08:52:21
Here it is. This was a little bit of interesting wine news for you, and some food for thoughts I quite like. And let me know in the comments if you would like me to read through the wine news a little bit more like I did today, I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Do you personally rely on AVAs much for your wine buying decisions, or is the winery more important to you, especially in the Napa Valley?

00:08:52:23 – 00:09:18:24
It would be great to hear from you in the comments and discuss. Here’s a couple of videos to watch next, including about this disastrous 2024 vintage in France. Another piece of important one news. Take care and I will see you soon in the wonderful world of wine. Cheers!