Family matters: 2014 Cardinale and Vérité releases

The masterclass was held on 2 October at The Corinthia Hotel, and moderated by Patrick Schmitt MW

Let’s face it, Londoners are spoilt. Such is the wealth of drinks-related events in the capital, one could spend every daylight hour, and quite a few after the sun has set, attending something.

It’s a wonderful position to be in, and the city is lucky to have the international drinks trade passing through its hotels and bars so regularly, willing to show off their wares.

Among the visitors, London is particularly fortunate to see the Jackson family regularly, including its chairman and proprietor, Barbara Banke, who is always present for the annual vintage releases of its flagship Californian brands: Cardinale and Vérité.

London is blessed because this group’s top wines are first-rate rarities in the UK market, and they are labels that enjoy levels of demand that outstrip their supply, particularly in the US.

While competitor fine wine producers might expect the wine trade to make an appointment to try their latest releases at their wineries, the Jackson family brings their brands to European shores and shares them in the informative setting of a masterclass, led by Banke.

It’s a great chance to see what the vintage produced at the highest level, and in two expressions from two areas: Sonoma and Napa.

Of course, the Jackson family has a good reason to present its top labels in the UK – it wants to ensure that Cardinale and Vérité are seen as truly global fine wine brands, not wine ‘icons’ tied to a single market. Indeed, last year, the group appointed five of Bordeaux’s top négociants to handle the international distribution of Cardinale and Vérité to “enrich” the global distribution of its “jewels”, according to Banke.

Presenting these wines in London to buyers and press is part of this aim, and a technique that has been used to raise the international profile of the brands for the past six years. After all, however rare and sought-after a wine may be, it must be tasted before it can be promoted.

On the panel was (left to right): Gayle Bartscherer, who is senior vice-president, international marketing and business development at Jackson Family Wines; Barbare Banke’s daughter, Julia Jackson; Vérité winemaker Pierre Seillan; Jackson Family Wines proprietor Barbare Banke, and Dimitri Mesnard MS

While this year’s releases were from the 2014 vintage, the Jackson family also presented some older wines to show the evolution of both labels, as well as giving attendees a chance to compare the influence of different weather conditions, and discuss changing approaches to sourcing and winemaking. For Frenchman Pierre Seillan, Vérité’s winemaker, the masterclass was also an opportunity to promote the quality of wine from Sonoma.

As he presented his wines on 2 October at The Corinthia Hotel, he expressed his pleasure that he chose to make wine in this region. “After 22 years making wine in Bordeaux I saw the maximum I could do due to French rules, but in Sonoma, after 20 years, there is still more to do, and the rules allow it. I can have a blend from different terroirs; I still haven’t

seen the maximum I can do – there is more potential in Sonoma than anywhere else,” he said.

Vérité, a label launched with the 1998 vintage, was conceived in the mid-90s following a meeting between Seillan – then a winemaker in Bordeaux – and the late Jess Jackson of Jackson Family Wines, who wanted to make fine wine from Bordeaux grapes in Sonoma County – where the group has its headquarters.

Vérité (meaning truth) comprises three wines: La Muse, which is Merlot-dominant, and seen as Sonoma’s answer to Pomerol; La Joie, which is a Cabernet-dominant equivalent to Pauillac; and, finally, Le Désir, which is dominated by Cabernet Franc, and considered to be more akin to Saint-Emilion.

The grapes for Vérité are mostly sourced from the 45-hectare Jackson Park Vineyard, situated at more than 165m above sea level on the rolling slopes above Bennett Valley in Sonoma. They also come from the Alexander Mountain Estate in the eastern part of Alexander Valley, which covers slopes from 200m-700m altitude, and, to a lesser extent, the Kellogg Estate in the volcanic soils of the Knights Valley.

Over the 16 vintages on the market, from 1998 to the just-released 2014, Vérité has gained as many as 13 ‘perfect’ 100-point scores from Robert Parker, making it one of the most highly awarded wines in California – or, indeed, the world – and, with a retail price point of around HK$3,000, relatively affordable compared with the cult Cabernet blends of Napa – Sonoma’s more famous neighbour.

Seillan told attendees that he chose to make wine in Sonoma over and above any other part of the world because it has “complex, exceptional topography”, which he compared in visual terms with the landscape of Tuscany – where he also makes wine for the Jackson family, overseeing the production of the group’s Arcanum label.

He also said that he selected Sonoma because of its specific and complex weather conditions, heavily modified by the Pacific, noting that the combination of the ocean influence and the mountain topography made Sonoma special.

Highlighting the rich diversity of soils in Sonoma, he said that there is a greater range of soil types in Sonoma’s hillside vineyards than in all of California. “With the soil diversity in Sonoma, the topography, and because the rules allow me to blend across different terroirs, we have more potential in Sonoma than the rest of the world.”

In terms of the best grapes being used in Sonoma to realise its fine wine potential, Seillan told the drinks business that the region is “starting to make exceptional Pinot Noir, and exceptional Bordeaux blends”. In particular, he drew attention to the quality of Cabernet Franc from Sonoma – a grape with a lesser reputation than other Bordeaux varieties Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.

Speaking about his wines from Arcanum, which specialises in wines from Bordeaux grapes in Tuscan terroir, he said: “Every year, Cabernet Franc is the superstar.” And, in Saint-Emilion’s Château Lassègue, where he also oversees the winemaking for the Jackson family’s sole French property, he also said that the Cabernet Franc is exceptional. However, turning to Vérité, to highlight Sonoma’s superiority with this variety, he said: “In Sonoma, the Cabernet Franc is super-exceptional.”

As for the latest vintage releases, he confirmed that, after the brilliant 2012 and 2013 harvests in California, 2014 was again an “exceptional growing season in Sonoma” with perfect conditions during blooming and again during veraison. Sunny but not too hot, he said the ripening for all the grapes used in the Vérité blends was ideal, pointing out that “too much heat is the enemy of quality”. He professed his love for cooler vintages in California, speaking about Vérité’s inaugural 1998 vintage in Sonoma – where it seemed as though the rain would never stop – and the wettest vintage of this decade, which was 2011. In terms of the latter, he described it as “the vintage of the spice”, stating, “it is a great vintage of the future”, suggesting that its qualities will be fully appreciated when the wines mature further.

The London event was held to launch the 2014 vintage of Jackson family flagship wines Vérité and Cardinale

When it came to an example of a more mature version of Vérité, attendees were poured the three wines in the line-up from the 2008 vintage. Speaking about the two sets of wines, Banke compared them to horses, drawing attention to her passion for racing, as well as wine. Concerning the 2014s, she said her favourite now was Le Désir – which contains the most Cabernet Franc – and, among the 2008s, it was the Merlot-dominant La Muse that showed the best. “Le Désir is charming when it’s young, but La Muse is better after 10 years. It’s like racehorses, you have some that start out in front, and others that come from the back,” she said.

The masterclass then moved on to Cardinale, which, unlike Vérité, is a label for a single expression, always dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon. Born in 1982, it was conceived to produce the best possible example of Cabernet Sauvignon, initially taking grapes from vineyards in Napa Valley and Sonoma County, including To Kalon, Veeder Peak and Les Pavots.

However, from 2002 onwards, Cardinale has become a brand for just Napa-sourced fruit, and increasingly focused on mountain-grown grapes, above all those from Mount Veeder and Howell Mountain. This move to Napa sourcing followed the appointment of Christopher Carpenter to the role of Cardinale head winemaker in 2001. Although Carpenter wasn’t able to present the 2014 release in person, he did speak to the drinks business after the launch, admitting that 2014 completed a triumvirate of great harvests in Napa.

“2014 was another great vintage,” Carpenter began, “but normally in Napa we get two great vintages in a row, such as ’90 and ’91, or 2012 and ’13, but then we had 2014, which followed these great years. And, while I was really excited about the ’14s, I realised that I was putting together another great vintage. Will that mean there is a fatigue; will it affect buying decisions? I don’t know, but it is definitely another great vintage.”

As for changes to the wine style since Carpenter took control of Cardinale, he said that he has tried to keep the character of the brand consistent. However, small improvements have been made, including, in particular, the use of more fruit from Spring Mountain, an American Viticultural Area within Napa that was established in 1993, and famous for producing grapes with floral aromatics. “We have a fairly good base of sourcing for Cardinale; for example, Mount Veeder, Howell Mountain, Diamond Mountain and now Spring Mountain too, so there is a consistency of style there,” he said.

The proportion of Spring Mountain fruit in Cardinale did increase in 2014, however, because, Carpenter recalls: “We hit our stride in terms of farming our vineyards on Spring Mountain – the vineyards were fairly new to us, but by 2014 we had figured out how to farm the site and when to pick to suit our winemaking style.”

Carpenter also admitted to slightly tweaking his cellar techniques, although any changes are subtle. “The basic tenet of the wine – how I blend that wine – has not changed,” he began. “But if there has been a bit of a change, which has maybe been influenced from my time working in Australia, it is that my oak regime has been modified. I’m not using as much new oak, and I’m using more subtle oak. This is tracking a little bit the style changes in the market, and also my palate evolution as I’ve gotten older – less oak-in-your-face character is more interesting for me, and hopefully for my collectors.”

As the masterclass on both sets of wines drew to a close, db asked the Jackson family representatives why they came to London each year to present their wines, even though they could sell their entire production in the US alone. Banke replied: “Because we want to go to great accounts in London and around the world and see the wines; we want to bring the wines to the world and it helps us in the US as well – and we just want to do it.”

The event introduced the latest vintage of the two top-end labels to London’s leading wine buyers

Also in attendance was Barbara’s daughter, Julia Jackson, who added: “We like to see them at high-end accounts throughout the world, and, given our limited production, we don’t want to put all our eggs in one basket, and who knows what will happen with the US economy. We are really a global company and we have a global vision, and for the health and equity and brand building of each of these wineries not only do we try to hold back some of the vintages and release them at a later date but we would also like to see them at the top accounts worldwide.”

Nodding, Barbara concluded: “So that’s our plan, but it will take a while.”