There’s a she-bear stealing grapes from one of
Jackson Family Wines’ Sonoma properties and I thought – for a moment - I’d use it as an
intro for the
Decanter feature I’m writing on JFW’s CEO,
Barbara Banke.
Something along the lines of, ‘Banke gives it a wide berth, and I’m sure the feeling’s
mutual – it would take a brave bear to tangle with the formidable etc etc.’ A bit glib, of course...
Banke may be modest (the family/corporate pic on the website has her diminutive and smiling in the second row; if you didn't know her you might take her for a loyal and valued senior staffer) but formidable she certainly is. Since her husband
Jess
Jackson died in April 2011 she has increased JFW’s holdings to the tune of 14 new
estates (from Oregon to McLaren Vale), spending some US$100m a year for the past three years. If JFW was a
force in California three years ago, it is now well on the way to international
First Growth cachet.
This is a deliberate and planned policy, as evidenced by the
latest tasting of the company’s flagship wines,
Lokoya,
Cardinale and – at the
very top of the pyramid –
Vérité.
Banke, often accompanied by one of her daughters, both of
whom are deeply involved in the family company, has been coming over to London
every autumn for the past few years to show the latest vintage of these wines,
which are made in small quantities from the premium vineyards of Napa and
Sonoma. Lokoya is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, made by Chris Carpenter from the
four great high-altitude appellations of Napa: Mount Veeder, Spring Mountain,
Diamond Mountain and Howell Mountain. Cardinale, also by Carpenter, is a
Cabernet-Merlot from Oakville.
Vérité was born in 1998 when Jess Jackson suggested to the
French winemaker Pierre Seillan (originally from the Loire but with a Bordeaux
pedigree) that he could make a wine from Sonoma ‘as good as Petrus’. Ninety-eight
was cool and ‘Bordeaux-like,’ Banke says. ‘It rained all the time’ and the wine
(which I haven’t tasted) is ‘ageing very well’.
|
Standing, left to right: Jennifer Jackson Hartford, Don Hartford, Laura Jackson Giron, Rick Giron, Barbara Banke, Christopher Jackson, MacLean Hartford. Seated, left to right: Katherine Jackson, Julia Jackson, Hailey Hartford. |
There are now three Vérité
wines based on some or all of the five Bordeaux grapes, sourced from the Sonoma appellations Alexander Valley, Bennett Valley, Knights Valley and Chalk Hill.
According
to Jackson’s – and Seillan’s – vision, each wine aims to evoke a different Bordeaux
terroir. The Merlot-based La Muse is inspired by Pomerol; Le Desir, Cabernet
Franc, is St Emilion (Cheval Blanc is frequently mentioned at tastings), while
the Cabernet Sauvignon-based La Joie takes Pauillac as its benchmark.
They don’t slavishly ape
Bordeaux (I always think American winemakers must get sick of the constant
referencing). ‘Of course not. These are California wines,’ Banke says.
This year’s tasting marked a
coming-of-age for the wines. In a low-key fashion, without much noise, Banke
and her right-hand man Nick Bevan put together a splendid line up of
international icons, including Lafite 2001, Tenuta dell’Ornellaia 2004 and
Mouton 2004, for a comparative tasting.
Pitting your wine, blind or otherwise, against the established greats is something of a rite of passage for new world wineries aspiring to first growth status. Eduardo Chadwick does it to great effect with his well-known
Berlin Tasting series, and every year there's any number of Judgment of Paris lookalikes.
This was an eccentric exercise in
a way – we tasted Grange 2007 and Pingus
2007 against Cardinale 2007 – that is, a Shiraz and a Tempranillo and a
Cabernet. It wasn’t done blind: ‘The idea wasn’t to do a Judgement of Paris,’
Bevan said. ‘But to show that our wines can genuinely hold their own alongside
the first growths of the world.’
And hold their own they did. However great the company (the
Lafite 01 was effortlessly poised) they
were never eclipsed, and in some cases they sang – I was particularly impressed
by how the Cardinale showed against Grange and the overoaked Pingus.
For what it's worth, Robert Parker, and latterly Antonio Galloni, love these wines. Parker has handed out seven 100-point scores to Vérité since 1998.
I love tasting the 2011s, a famously cool and difficult
vintage. I was in Oakville, at
Opus One, and
Screaming Eagle, in October of
that year. Those winemakers who celebrate restraint were pleased with the
quality (if not the quantity) –
Michael Silacci at Opus was particularly
excited. But it was an incredibly difficult year, with producers losing row
after row to botrytis; no one was complacent about it.
2011 Tasting
The Dorchester Hotel, London, 7 October 2014
Vérité La Muse 2011, Sonoma County
14.3%
89% Merlot, 7% Malbec, 4% Cabernet Franc
Very elegant restrained nose with hints of briar fruit and
damson and ripe plum, sweet cherry, tobacco leaf with undertow of fresh nettle.
Sour plum and damson on palate, snapped stalk greenness, not dense but feeling of
lightness and open freshness. Length elegant, the tannins tactile and chewy and
never taking over but delivering welcome fresh juice like tiny darts in the
mouth.
Vérité La Joie 2011, Sonoma County
74% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 7% Merlot, 6% Petit Verdot, 3% Malbec
13.8%
Lovely fresh nose, savoury, mint and marmite, some medicinal
and saline notes. Structure and precision – tannins tightly-wound, dense dark
damson fruit in high register, ending in tannins with dry grip releasing
back-palate juice. Savoury, saline length
Vérité Le Desir 2011, Sonoma County
14%
54% Cabernet Franc, 36% Merlot, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Malbec
Opulent nose with dark chocolate and coffee – roast fresh
coffee – with ripe briar fruit. Palate perfumed, ripe dark fruit at first then
redcurrant, coffee and chocolate, mouthwatering freshness from the acidity.
Dry, arrow-sharp tannins dissolving to juice. A tour de force.
Cardinale 2011, Oakville
14.5%
Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot
Intensely lush and opulent medicinal nose with great
concentration. Palate elegant and powerful with dense dark fruit and brisk
acidity, lovely juiciness setting off elegant dry tannins. Full length,
continues for more than a minute and then subsides slowly. Delicious
Lokoya Spring Mountain 2011
14.5%
Cabernet Sauvignon
Almost raisined nose leading to fresh and bright open
palate, graphite, stony minerality, open and juicy, fresh, with wonderful
cedary brightness. Elegant
Lokoya Diamond Mountain 2011
14.5%
Cabernet Sauvignon
Tight ungiving nose. Refreshing acidity, very approachable,
juicy, mouthwatering cherry and damson fruit. Rugged, dense with juicy acidic
finish
Lokoya Howell Mountain 2011
15%
Cabernet Sauvignon
Massive, tarry, sweet fallen black stone fruit, lovely
tactile grainy tannins. Wonderful freshness borne out of intense acid and
tannin. Length very fine
Lokoya Mt Veeder 2011
14.5%
Cabernet Sauvignon
Carpenter calls Mount Veeder ‘the beast’. Quite
undemonstrative nose, tarry, then on palate really powerful tannic edge,
intensely dry, powerful with concentrated dark fruit slowly gathering itself to
push through the tannin. This will evolve, the tannins will calm, the fruit
will sweeten. Good length
2004
Vérité La Muse 2004, Sonoma County
Lovely dense sweet
nose with ripe plum and damson, then on restrained coffee and mocha, sour plum, saline/mineral texture, very open and fresh,
sense of juice and freshness
Tenuta dell’Ornellaia Masseto 2004
Tar on nose, powerful,
intense tarry chewy tannins, ripe macerated black fruit. Powerful and rather brash
Chateau Mouton-Rothschild 2004
Wonderful evocative perfumed nose, lots of elegant earthy notes, tannins in a lower key, there’s perfume and grip
but the juice is restrained, holding back now, leading to dryness at finish, charming but lacking in punch
2007
Cardinale, Oakville 2007
Damson bright fruit, dusty dry tannins, tannins dominant and
strong, very powerful, very strong, still incredibly young and powerful
Grange 2007
Tarry intense medicinal nose. Opulent palate, very new world
with sweet raspberry fruit, dark chocolate – almost jammy! – tannins intense
and precise to the end with very good length, length intense, concentrated, massive.
Dominio de Pingus 2007, Ribera del Duero
Slightly closed nose. Sinewy, chewy tannins almost swamping sweet blackberry fruit, which comes through with graphite, and smoky damson. I find the oak – 23 months new French - drying and over-powerful and I fear the tannins are not going to get any sweeter.
2001
Lokoya Mt Veeder 2001
Deep spicy nose – brooding – then very
juicy, the tannins giving out juice from dark fruit, ripe plum and damson, even hints of sloe. Full-bodied and concentrated, with extraordinary structure and fine
length
Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia 2001
Struck match and coffee nose, dense knitted dry tannins,
full savoury even meaty nose. Perfumed palate, concentrated dark fruit, very fresh acidity with dry tannins dissolving to juice. Fine length
Chateau Lafite-Rothschild 2001
Sweet and wonderfully juicy from the beginning – poised and precise, fine-grained tannins,
acidity and oak beautifully integrated, dark plummy fruit concentrated and intense. Effortless finesse, standing out even in this company as quite masterful.
In addition, the following wines were tasting at
AWC, London, 6 October 2014
Vérité 2011 - see above
Vérité 2007
Vérité La Joie 2007, Sonoma County
Gorgeous cedar (old armoire) nose, velvety almost porty raisined grape aromas, pot pourri. Still very young, a bit closed now, tightly-wound tannins holding out promise of juice to come, overall fresh and brimful of potential.
Vérité La Muse 2007, Sonoma County
Toasted oak on nose, meaty and savoury notes hint of very ripe redcurrant, even tending to jam. Palate with powerful tannins, ripe, fresh acidity carries through to finish, though there seems a slight disjoing in the integration of acidity, tannin and oak. Lovely length, and as wine opens in glass any angularity softens.
Vérité Le Desir 2007, Sonoma County
Wonderfully savoury, tarry nose, then bright, fresh tannin and acidity on palate. Fresh and dense, opening out to juice and sweetness of blackberry and blackcurrant fruit, integrated oak and acidity and leading into a pure, concentrated finish. magnificent
Vérité 2004
Vérité La Joie 2004, Sonoma County
Tarry perfumed nose with sweet ripe black cherry and damson. Fruit carries through satisfyingly to palate with saline notes and brisk minerality, very intense chewy tannins, hints of camphor. The tannins are there, young and vibrant to the end, dry but releasing spurts of juice. Lovely
Vérité La Muse 2004, Sonoma County
See above
Vérité Le Desir 2004, Sonoma County
Nose has a wonderful freshness - fresh cigar, even a note of hay - getting some age now, sweet ripe fallen damson and pot pourri, lovely earth and dark, spiced chocolate, camphor. Velvety tannins enriched with black cherry, the whole freshened by racy acidity. Delicious