Keeping the Faith : Freemark Abbey Celebrates 100 Years in Napa Valley

Ah, the Napa Valley! What romantic and bacchanal splendors come to mind at the mere mention of this verdant vale of the vine. A continuing series of centennials remain in prospect, though some worthy wineries have already passed the century mark. Charles Krug made the first commercial wine in the valley in 1861, with an apple-cider press borrowed from his friend, Count Agoston Haraszthy of Sonoma. He planted his vines on the land dowry of his bride, Caroline, the grandniece of Gen. Mariano Vallejo, and during the next two decades he became the “wine king of the Napa Valley,” his wines and brandies enjoying worldwide reputation.

In 1879, a young Finnish sea captain, Gustave Ferdinand Niebaum, purchased a small, established spa on some acreage nestled in the Mayacamas foothills. With a fortune in furs from his trading days in Alaska, he built the semi-Gothic and Eastlake three-story Inglenook winery that, to this day, impresses all beholders with its architectural design. Completed in 1887, it also houses one of the finest libraries on wines and wine making, with books and manuscripts from every European wine country. Niebaum’s architect, Capt. Hamden McIntyre, would also design those equally impressive modern wineries, Trefethen and Far Niente, which still cause tourists’ speed to slacken on California 29.

Jacob and Frederick Beringer established their winery in 1879, building the impressive Rhine House from their memories of their home in Germany. Even before that, in 1870, that itinerant barber to the gold-mining camps, Jacob Schram, had begun burrowing cellar tunnels into the hills of his home high above the valley. On an afternoon in 1880, the honeymooning Robert Louis Stevenson took his horse-drawn buggy up the winding road to the Schram cellars and, on the veranda, he later wrote, “all trimness, varnish, flowers and sunshine, among the tangled wildwood . . . tasted every variety and shade of Schramberger. Much of it goes to London.”

From those reflections, he would write the chapter on “Napa Wine” in “The Silverado Squatters,” which stands today as some of the most eloquently lyrical prose extant on the subject of wine: “Those lodes and pockets of earth, more precious than the precious ores, that yield inimitable fragrance and soft fire; those virtuous Bonanzas, where the soil has sublimated under sun and stars to something finer, and the wine is bottled poetry.”

California’s first female wine maker, Josephine Tychson, arrived in the valley from Oakland in 1881, believing that her vineyard site above St. Helena would be a more healthful climate for her Danish husband. When he died in 1886, she built a small wooden winery on the present site of Freemark Abbey, and by 1888 it was producing 20,000 gallons of wine per year. She sold the winery to Antonio Forni from Lombardy, who built the locally quarried walls that still stand, still carrying the stone logo of “Lombarda Cellars,” which endured as a winery until Prohibition.

In 1967, the present ownership took over from the trio who gave the winery its name. Curiously, Freemark Abbey has never housed a religious order. The title was derived from the names of the three men who acquired the property after repeal: Charles Free man, Mark Foster, and Abbey , the nickname of Albert Ahern. Today, Charles Carpy, a third-generation Californian of Napa Valley heritage, heads the group of partners, which includes Frank Wood; attorney and vineyardist William Jaeger, and distinguished biochemist Bradford Webb. The wine maker is Larry Langbehn.

In 1976, the whirligig of fortune that saw the Pillsbury doughboy retreat from the perils of the wine industry in California gave Carpy and company the opportunity to buy the handsome Rutherford Hills winery, which had started as Souverain of Rutherford, under the Pillsbury banner. Today, this sister winery to Freemark Abbey, with larger facilities (and more partners), is equally dedicated to quality, pursuing its own complement of varietals, making one of the most marvelous Merlots in the state, and an ever-engaging Gewurztraminer.

Freemark Abbey will celebrate its centennial next year, as the area continues its incredible expansion. By the latest figures, more than 150 wineries are producing fine wines from 28,996 acres of choice varietals in this mountain-rimmed, 35-mile-long valley.

Wine production at Freemark Abbey has settled into a comfortable figure of about 28,000 cases per year. National distribution permits Carpy to allocate the good wines to fine wine shops and restaurants, assuring their continuity. In March, 1973, I was involved in arranging a landmark tasting with a group of New York wine-establishment panelists that included Alexis Lichine, Paul Kovi, Terry Robards, Sam Aaron, Gael Greene, Alexis Bespaloff, Gerald Asher, Chuck Mueller of Kobrand, Joan Fontaine and Jack Oxley of the Wine & Food Society. We sat down to a blind tasting of French and California wines of Chardonnay heritage, including the great Le Montrachet of the Marquis de Laguiche.

The No. 1 winner? Freemark Abbey 1969 Napa Valley Chardonnay. Shock waves hit both sides of the Atlantic; the first French wine to show up in the ratings placed in a tie for fifth place. Ever since, Freemark Abbey Chardonnays have been pacesetters. The 1983 current release is another toasty winner, at an acceptable $12.50 tab.

WINE OF THE WEEK: True Cabernet Sauvignon lovers well know the Freemark Abbey Cabernet Bosche. It’s from the Bosche vineyard that adjoins the widely known Beaulieu Vineyard No. 2, from which the famed Georges de Latour Reserve Cabernet is made. Since the late 1970s, Freemark Abbey has taken the full output of this premium vineyard. The 1981 Freemark Abbey Cabernet Bosche ($14) is raspberry-jam rich in luscious aromas. One taster described it as “spicy strawberry”; another found hints of white pepper. Serve it with game or, after the roast, with cheese, to allow full sensory appreciation of this glorious, world-class wine.