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David Sullivan
Barrel Sampler
Posts:2276
 | | 05/24/2005 11:12 PM |
| The St. Helena Viticultural Society is throwing The Ultimate Open House on Sunday, June 5, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the historic Crocker Estate in St. Helena, 415 Dowdell Lane (in partnership with Crocker & Starr Wines). Thirty wineries who produce wines grown within the St. Helena appellation will be offering their wines; tickets are $25.00/person and can be purchased online at www.sthelenaviticulturalsociety.org or at the door of the event. The $25 cost includes a $10 tax-deductible donation to St. Helena youth groups, including the St. Helena High School’s Future Farmers of America program and Boy and Girl Scout troops.
“You’ll really be able to taste the flavor of the St. Helena community,” event chair Pam Simpson of Chase Family Cellars explains. “We’re calling this the ‘Ultimate Open House’ because we will be pouring current and library releases of St. Helena-appellation wineries and offering great music and food and great camaraderie, as well as historical displays,’” she adds.
The open house will take place at the historic Crocker estate, one of Napa Valley’s most beautiful ‘ghost wineries.’ The tasting unfolds in a dramatically handsome walnut orchard, which had been a commercial walnut grove at the turn of the twentieth century. The surrounding vineyards are lushly planted to Bordeaux varietals including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Malbec. At the southern border of the ghost-winery estate is a picturesque chapel, once part of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
This event takes place the day after Auction Napa Valley, where the Society will be offering Lot 444, a multi-day extravaganza of experiences in the St. Helena appellation, including a collection of 32 magnums from the Society’s members. Stop by www.sthelenaviticulturalsociety.org for the complete details.
After a 128-year hiatus grape growers and wineries in St. Helena have revived the St. Helena Viticultural Society, to educate people about and to promote the St. Helena appellation. Vintners and growers in the St. Helena appellation began meeting in the summer of 2004. They have already participated as a group at a trade tasting in St. Helena on the weekend of the Napa Valley Vintners’ Premiere Napa Valley, at the St. Helena Hospital fundraising auction, at a KQED/San Francisco Museum of Modern Art event and at the St. Helena Hometown Harvest Festival. The group’s website is regularly updated with news of its activities and members.
The St. Helena appellation was approved in 1995; the appellation is roughly defined by Zinfandel Lane to the south, Bale Lane to the north, the intersection of Howell Mountain and Conn Valley Road to the east and the 400’ elevation line on the west. “We formed this group to focus the public on the exceptional quality of the wines produced within the St. Helena appellation,” explains Beth Novak Milliken. “The St. Helena appellation has a number of unique features---its history, its community, its very specific geographic and climactic conditions, the large number of wineries and growers it supports and the diversity of the varietals we grow,” she adds. “Our goal is to increase awareness of the grapes and wines from the St. Helena appellation,” she said.
The group has brought an ‘old’ St. Helena growers’ group back to life. The St. Helena Viticultural Society was organized by H.A. Pellet and Charles Krug in 1876; its members included Connelly Conn, Charles Wheeler, R.A. Haskin, C. Heyman, J.H. McCord, H.W. Crabb, Dr. G.B. Crane, Seneca Ewer, J.C. Weinberger, John Thomann, John Llewelling, Oscar Schultz, John York and D.O. Hunt. By the early 1880s there were over 100 members, people who grew grapes and made wine in St. Helena. “In fact, it was Charles Krug who urged at the very first meeting of the Club that to win the respect of wine connoisseurs on the East Coast it was not enough just to declare that we own possibly the best soil and climate on earth for growing grapes. We must harvest and produce from this appellation wines made from the world’s best varieties. The direction for St. Helena was forever set at that meeting,” explains Fulton Mather, Chair, History Committee.
Members of the St. Helena Viticultural Society are Luce Abbey Estate, Anomaly Vineyards, Ballentine Vineyards, Beckstoffer Vineyards, Bressler Vineyards, Broman Cellars, Calafia Wines, Casa Nuestra Winery, Chateau Boswell, Corison Winery, Crocker & Starr Wines, David Fulton Winery, Del Dotto Winery, Duckhorn Wine Company, Edge Hill, Ehlers Estate, Freemark Abbey Winery, Fulton Winery, H. Posert & Son, Hall, Hayne Vineyards, Heitz Wine Cellars, Hourglass Wine Company, James Johnson Vineyards, Joseph Phelps Vineyards, Leaf & Twig Vineyard, Leonardini Vineyard/Whitehall Lane Winery, Milat Wine Company, Napa Valley Reserve, Parry Cellars, 1275 Vineyard/Allen Price, Rancho Otranto), Red Wing Vineyards, Revana Family Vineyard, Ruston Family Vineyards, Rutherford Grove Winery, S.E. Chase Family Cellars, Salvestrin Vineyard & Winery, Schrader Cellars, Sequum, Spottswoode Winery, Stanton Family Vineyards, Titus Vineyards, Trinchero Family Estates, Varozza Vineyards, Vineyard 29, William Cole Vineyards and Wolf Family Vineyards. | | | |
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