‘Anywhere with a decent Bordeaux list should have the benchmark Napa wines,’ says MW
As Napa’s 2025 harvest gets underway, Beth Pearce MW reveals why the UK represents “a huge opportunity” for the Californian region if the market can overcome price barriers and a “lack of opportunity to taste mature Napa wines”. Sarah Neish reports.
Napa wines can be a tough sell in the UK. Yes, average bottle prices tend to be cloud-piercing, having surpassed the US$108 (£80) mark a couple of years back, but there’s more to it than simply RRP.
While you’d be hard pushed to find a single UK wine lover who has not heard of Napa Valley, longstanding availability issues mean that few UK consumers, or collectors even, have had the opportunity to try a comprehensive selection of Napa wines. So the Californian region is familiar by name, but perhaps not by nature.
Speaking exclusively to the drinks business, Beth Pearce MW, head of buying for UK fine wine merchant Flint Wines, says: “Historically, only a tiny proportion of Napa wines has ever made it to the UK. In many cases, 85% of a Napa winery’s production has been sold directly to domestic consumers, with the remaining 15% split between US distributors, and then multiple export markets.”
As a result, adds Pearce, “it’s unlikely that top wine professionals and collectors in the UK have tasted mature Napa wines extensively, such is their rarity here.”
Furthermore, those in the trade who tried Napa’s riches years ago may have found them out of synch with UK consumer preferences. “There was a time when Napa wines were made in a style that didn’t appeal naturally to the UK palate,” says Pearce. “But wines that were made before that trend bedded in, with serious bottle age now, are much more appealing, and have become the reference points for the last few vintages, with today’s Napa producers looking for greater balance and expression of place.”
Huge opportunity
Providing President Trump refrains from lobbing any further tariff grenades into the arena of international trade, then we could soon begin to see a stronger connection forged between Napa Valley and UK wine drinkers. According to Pearce, “more and more Napa wineries are realising they need to have a presence in the UK market, as the fine wine capital of the world, and are looking to develop their exports here.”
Convinced that the UK market represents “a huge opportunity” for Napa, Flint Wines is keen to drive the next chapter in the unconventional marriage. This week, Flint added Realm Cellars to its growing stable of Napa producers, which includes St Helena properties Snowden Vineyards, Continuum Estate, Rosemary Cakebread’s Gallica and Grace Family Vineyards, along with Aubert in Calistoga, and The Mascot in Oakville. The merchant will be the sole distributor of Realm Cellars in the UK, with wines available to pre-order from September.
Calling Realm “a seriously exciting winery”, Pearce tells db that its unique selling point lies in the fact that it “combines an estate-vineyard focus with access to wines made from ‘household name’ vineyards like To Kalon.”
Because Realm uses its own grapes as well as grapes from other renowned growers to craft its wines, it is able to cover “an incredible breadth of terroir” across Napa, meaning that “you can almost take a complete tour of the Napa Valley region and its history via a single producer,” enthuses Pearce.
Price barrier
It’s little surprise that Realm’s prices nudge the top end of the spectrum, with bottles in the collection starting at £80 and climbing up to “£770 in bond per bottle”, Pearce reveals. The question is: will the UK market accept such high prices?
“The obvious barrier here is price,” says Pearce. “But I would argue that anywhere with a decent Bordeaux list should have the benchmark names of Napa. Prices in Napa are high relative to the rest of the world, but I don’t see Napa pricing escalating further, and there is plenty of relative ‘good value’ to be found, in the context of the very expensive wines of the region.”
She adds that she has been having “productive discussions with our producers about their export pricing” and that in many cases wineries are noting the global economic context “and being more realistic about their pricing aspirations in the competitive UK market.”
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Napa’s UK strategy
According to Pearce, Flint is “determined to become the go-to importer for any customer in the UK looking to get their hands on the most exciting Napa wines.” That’s fighting talk. So what is the merchant’s strategy? And where would Flint like to see its Napa wines listed?
In the case of Realm Cellars, the plan is to target a range of on-trade establishments at different price points. “Realm’s The Bard is the perfect benchmark Napa Valley red for any wine list. Its single-vineyard wines suit anywhere a serious wine collector might go, from Michelin-starred restaurant lists to the great London hotels,” says Pearce.
Additionally, Flint will hold back “a separate allocation of these tiny production, highly sought-after cuvees, earmarked to sell directly to top private collectors.”
Seducing somms
Winning over more UK somms will be imperative, though there are “already some great sommeliers at great addresses flying the Napa flag,” says Pearce, who namechecks 1 Hotel, Goodmans, The Corinthia, and Hide as just a few of these establishments. At the latter, a bottle of Aubert UV-SL Pinot Noir 2021 will set you back £424, and Screaming Eagle The Flight 2019 is priced at the more eyewatering £1,415, while The Corinthia offers Chardonnay ‘Red Shoulder Ranch’ 2022 by Shafer Vineyards for £145 a bottle, or £26 per glass.
Bringing more unusual Napa expressions to the fore will help to showcase the valley’s diverse offering. For example, while Cabernet Sauvignon is Realm’s calling card, the producer also makes one white wine in small volumes called Fidelio, inspired by white Bordeaux.
“Fidelio was Beethoven’s only opera, when he was known for symphony. Realm is known for Cabernet and they produce one white wine, so that was the inspiration for the name. It’s 100% Sauvignon Blanc from the Farella vineyard, a cool site in the Coombesville AVA,” explains Pearce.
Pervading image
Pearce acknowledges that there is “plenty still to be done to translate Napa’s brilliant wines and stories for our trade customers and their guests”.
Continuing, she says: “There’s a pervading image of Napa in the mind of the consumer, and it doesn’t do justice to the patchwork of vineyards you experience when you visit the region. I don’t think it’s too trite to say that Napa has echoes of other acclaimed regions, including Burgundy, where small vineyards are translated into the glass with nothing spared in the pursuit of quality.”
Word on the grapevine is that 2025 could end up being the “third amazing vintage back-to-back” in Napa Valley, following one of the coolest summers in recent memory, providing arguably yet another reason for UK buyers to take another look at the region. Speaking to db, Napa producers have so far reported ideal growing conditions combined with slightly more generous yields than last year, when the valley saw a record low crush.
“Anything can happen until early September,” cautions Pearce, echoing the words of various Napa producers who told db they needed the rest of harvest to take place without significant rainfall or heatwaves to get it safely across the line. “But so far, so good,” says Pearce.
Perseverance and sheer luck
Realm Cellars has been on a rollercoaster ride for the last decade or so. In 2012, Realm was a virtual winery on the brink of bankruptcy, before current owner Scott Becker acquired the business and set out to revive it. Realm now owns three winegrowing estates with 75 acres (30ha) of vineyards across Napa Valley, including in the Stags Leap, Pritchard Hill and Coombsville sub-regions. Alongside its estate vineyard sites, Realm Cellars has also partnered with prestigious Napa growers and vineyard sites, including To Kalon and Beckstoffer Dr. Crane vineyard, originally planted in 1858, to source grapes for its fine wines.
The producer will be hoping the UK can play a key role in its fortunes over the coming years, though making the market a priority is a calculated risk.
“Until fairly recently, Canada has been the top export market for Napa wines, but the UK’s historical significance for fine wine makes it a top target for any US producer looking to grow their presence in the global market,” says Pearce.
According to Realm, great things happen “where perseverance converges with sheer luck”. In the UK, it will find plenty of each.
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