New Blancs Show Greatest Promise : Brothers’ Modernizing Brings Dramatic Winery Changes

With more than 1,200 acres of choice vineyards it has always been a mystery to me why the Christian Brothers did not make the finest, most exciting wines in the Napa Valley. Instead, they chose to produce very good, not necessarily great, wines in volume to support their institutions of education.

The new wine-making team of enologist Tom Eddy and Brother David Brennan is methodically changing the Brothers’ direction by modernizing winery equipment and isolating grapes from high quality vineyards in an exciting, overdue, upscale wine-making program.

New releases and barrel samples confirm the Brothers ability to make wines of superb quality. Foremost is a still-in-the-barrel Cabernet Sauvignon, 1985, from Oakville, a charmer with a big, assertive, minty nose and a deep, rich taste of considerable depth and length. In a soft, early-maturing mode with no hard-edged tannins, this wine will be released within two years at about $8 a bottle. Definitely a steal, it ranks with other ’85 California Cabs that will sell for two to three times that price. An immense wine and a sign of things to come.

Dramatic Change

Not blending Cabernet grapes from all of the Brother’s Napa Valley vineyards represents a dramatic change of wine-making policy. The grapes are from a superb vineyard known as the Money Road Vineyard, which is just across the river from the Mondavi-Rothschild Opus Vineyard.

Already showing as a benchmark Napa Valley vintage, the 1985s are primed for future marketing and hailed as at least an equal to the vaunted cab vintage of 1974. Frankly, at the same stage of maturation, the ‘85s are showing better--more lush with fruit and less hardness--yet with an obvious ability to age long and well.

For today’s consumption, Cabernet Sauvignon, 1982 is in a lighter, leaner, yet full-fruited style but without the depth and substance of the ’85. More by vintage than design, the wine needs early drinking to take advantage of its no hard-edged character and simple, one-dimensional taste. It is not likely to be a hot collector’s item like the ’85 but is a good value at around $7 to $8.

Other releases at a recent tasting at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel included a Chardonnay, 1984, which will sell for a modest $7.99. It represents the Brothers’ characteristic common sense in comparison to the many overpriced Chardonnays in the $12 to $15 range. Aged six months in French Limousin oak, the wine is in a lighter, crisper style, with an attractive, apple-like accent with a tad higher acidity. It should age for an additional two or three years but is eminently drinkable now.

Another New Twist

The Chardonnay, 1985 Reserve, another in the Brothers’ new direction (priced at around $10) will be released next year. It follows the same theme but has greater fruit and complexity derived from an outstanding harvest. Ultimately it will be a blend of wines with some barrel fermentation and the use of two different French oaks, Nevers and Voges. Little of the latter is used in the Napa Valley, but more use is likely in the future as it seems to make a richer style wine than the Nevers with less domination of floral, fruit character. Apparently the Brothers are on to something fascinating.

Two other new releases worth tasting are Fume Blanc, 1985 and Chenin Blanc, 1985. The former is, thankfully, not in a grassy, currently fashionable style, but rather a wine with excellent fruit, in a grapefruit-like mode that comes across with a texture of fine Chardonnay. With nonintrusive 13.1% alcohol and six weeks in French oak, the wine at $5.99 is definitely a good value.

As good, if not better, is the Chenin Blanc. Not dry at 1.5% residual sugar, it has an extraordinary melon-like taste and a fatter texture. Eddy decribes this wine as having been picked under veritable ideal conditions with a surprisingly high acid that should allow the wine to age well. As an aperitif, and for fans who favor slightly sweet wines, it is more than a fine value at $4.99.

Two popular blush-styled wines, from the recent vintage of 1986, are another indication that the Brothers are moving with the times. Both are in the current popular mode of finishing sweet and are priced right at $4.99. I prefer the Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc, 1986, over the Zinfandel Blanc, 1986; the latter at 3% sugar is rounder, a bit more sweet, and shows a pleasant fragrant style.

“Conditions were slightly less than ideal for Zinfandel in the valley,” said Eddy, “and it was a hard struggle to keep ours as delicate and light as it is. This is only our second effort at white Zinfandel.”

Crisp Taste, Finish

Much the better, the Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc benefited from fruit maturing evenly and early picking. Color extraction was not excessive while the wine fermented to a very pleasant 9% alcohol. The first the Brothers have produced, it is sweet, clean and high in acidity, which makes for an attractive, crisp taste and finish.

Eddy, 34, is one of the youngest of Napa Valley wine making chiefs. He intends to do more isolating of grapes from the Brothers’ huge vineyard inventory, probably the largest concentration in the valley. Last year he designed and introduced the successful Premium California Red, White and Rose table wines that are still good bargains in the $3 to $4 range. The 1982 Cabernet does not contain his imprint, but all the other new releases do.

Much credit for the new directions should also go to Brother Brennan, who is president and chairman of the board of Mont La Salle Vineyards, which operates the Christian Brothers winery. He has also spearheaded the emphasis on vintage dating and the new line of reserve wines and is considered an authority in management and finance. Dick Maher, former chief of Beringer Vineyards and responsible for its dynamic growth and wine improvement, is chairman of the board of Fromm & Sichel Inc. the exclusive marketing company for Christian Brothers wines, an ecumenical partnership that dates back to 1937.

Not to be forgotten is Brother Timothy, who inspired the Brothers’ wine-making operation beginning in 1935 when Americans cared little for wine in favor of spirits. Now 75, Brother Tim still turns in a full day’s work of consulting and keeping a watchful eye on holding prices at popular, affordable levels to maintain the 13 schools the Brothers support in the Western United States.

A prime project is the repair and expected reopening in June, 1987, of Greystone, a magnificent castle-like structure of volcanic stone rising three stories high that is located off Highway 29 in St. Helena.

In the latter part of the last century, William B. Bourn II, a rancher, financier and president of San Francisco Spring Valley Water Works, conceived the idea of establishing it as a wine cellar equipped with fine cooperage to mature Napa Valley wines. Now the Christian Brothers Wine Aging Cellars, upon rehabilitation, Greystone will be a kind of testament to the Brothers’ new directions and drive to make it into a hospitality and tasting showplace in the valley.

It is no secret that for some years the Brothers rested on their laurels producing decent wine at equally decent prices but rarely offering the exciting, complex, nuanced bottle. While they issued 40 products--including varietal, generic sparkling wines and brandy--they did not always take advantage of their super premium vineyards, opting for blend sometimes as large as 100,000 to 200,000 cases. Indeed, I once asked Brother Tim to bottle a Cabernet from a single vineyard, a wine that to this day stands in my memory as one of the finest Napa Cabernets I have ever tasted. Notwithstanding, none of the Brothers can recall the name of the vineyard, and the wine ultimately became part of the big blend.

“Under our new regime,” Eddy emphasized, “that will not happen again--more important, more of the great single vineyard is on its way.”