I'm thinking of cabernets like the 1974 Trefethen estate, which while it has lost its fruit and gone nutty and wrinkled with age nonetheless is an antique both cherished and practical, like a hope chest packed with memories and possibilities; or the 1995 Trefethen estate, which shows that zinfandel alone hasn't cornered all the raspberries in the patch, even after all these years; or the 2004 Trefethen estate, classically proportioned and monumental but a monument of warm redwood, not cold granite; or the 2000 Trefethen reserve, so aristocratic it could be mistaken for the finest Bordeaux; or ....
A few days later, we dropped in for a peek at the first wines from Meteor Vineyard, which is due east from Trefethen and about 500 feet up the rolling foothills of the Vaca Range.
Our hosts were Barry and Tracy Schuler and Bill and Dawnine Dyer.
The Dyers, as longtime Napa Valley winemakers – he at Sterling Vineyards, she at Domaine Chandon – and now at their own winery, Dyer Vineyard, are well known in the valley.
The Schulers, not so much, though their profile is rising, and is bound to rise more – and not solely for the caliber of their cabernet sauvignon.
Barry Schuler fell in love with the Napa Valley decades ago but didn't buy the couple's piece of Eden until 1998. Up to then, he'd been pretty busy in a succession of successful high-tech ventures, including a pivotal stint as CEO of America Online Inc.
(Meteor Vineyard gets its name from another of his properties, Medior Inc., a multimedia development company he started, later acquired by AOL.)
Actually, Schuler remains one busy guy. He runs Raydiance Inc., a company that develops ultra-short pulse lasers to remove tattoos, tumors and the like; he's co-producer of the film "Look," shot entirely through the lenses of surveillance cameras, to open March 21; he and his wife founded Blue Oak School, Napa Valley's first independent elementary school; and he's a potter and avid home cook.
"I will not build a winery," vows Schuler. "I bought this place to live, not to make the next great cabernet."
But while he's a Jersey City native with a high-tech background, he also has a farming impulse, thus the 22-acre vineyard just outside the massive and modern rammed-earth residence he and his wife built in Napa Valley's Tulocay district.
The Schulers were content to grow grapes and sell them to such highly regarded boutique wineries as Vineyard 29, Arietta, Lail and Dyer until the Dyers made a 2003 wine from the plot for Barry Schuler's 50th birthday. Out of that evolved the joint venture, with the Dyers making Meteor wines at their Dyer Straits Wine Co. on Diamond Mountain near Calistoga.
The first two Meteors to be released commercially, the Meteor Vineyard 2005 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($225) and the Meteor Vineyard 2005 Napa Valley Special Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ($300), are very much in the Dyer mold, which is to say concentrated, balanced and exacting yet accessible. Bing cherries are in there, and so is a mineral element that gives the wines a sharp edge.
Given the context, I'm tempted to say they're focused like a laser, but I'll resist.
Schuler indicates his stylistic goal is to seize the lush upfront fruit for which Napa Valley is recognized in such high-end cabernets as Pahlmeyer and Harlan, but to hang it on a structure that will ensure that he still will enjoy the wine when he opens a bottle 20 years down the road.
"We're trying to have it both ways," he says of the twin appeals of immediate accessibility and long-term endurance.
His aspirations, therefore, fall in line with just what the Trefethens have been doing for four decades.
For at least the time being, however, given Meteor's small production (700 cases of the regular, 90 cases of the reserve), limited distribution (mailing list, primarily) and high price, the Trefethen cabernets will be easier to get and savor.
Call Bee wine columnist Mike Dunne, (916) 321-1143. Read his blog at www.sacbee.com/ appetizers. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/dunne.
