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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Julie Ann Kodmur, 707/963-9632, corking@julieannkodmur.com
or
Stuart Smith, 707/963-2283 or www.smithmadrone.com
SMITH-MADRONE RE-RELEASES 1997 RIESLING
Spring Mountain, St. Helena, Napa Valley, Summer 2003---This
fall, a
pioneer in Napa Valley mountain-grown Riesling, Smith-Madrone
Vineyards & Winery,
is taking the unusual step of re-releasing a limited
quantity of its 1997
Riesling . [3-bottle limit per customer, $50.00/bottle:
more info at
smithmadrone.com). Current
releases (available at the winery or at the
website) are the 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon ($37.00, estimated
national
retail price), 2000 Chardonnay ($25.00) and 2002 Riesling
($17).
Why? Stuart Smith, who founded the winery in 1971,
explains that this is
quite an important and personal issue for him: "Thirty-two
years ago I only
read about the aging of other people's Rieslings. Now
I know that our
Rieslings age with beauty and grace and become magnificent
wines, every bit
the rival of great Cabernets and Pinot Noirs. Americans
think that red wines
should age and white wines don't---that's rubbish. Great
Rieslings and
Gewurztraminers only get better with age. As a champion
of Riesling for 30
years, I have always dreamt that someday I could take
this last step to
educate people. They'd take one sip and realize that
Riesling is one of the
greatest wines in the world and ages beautifully," he
says.
"
1997 was one of our earliest harvests ever," explained
Charles Smith, who
is the winemaker and Stuart's brother. "The wine
is wonderfully floral with
great balance," he adds. This wine received a gold
medal at the California
State Fair; it was the only Riesling from the Napa
Valley to receive a gold
medal. The 2002 vintage won a gold medal at the Orange
County Fair and that
was the sixth vintage in a row where a Smith-Madrone
Riesling won a gold
medal at one of America's major wine competitions.
Smith-Madrone is a pioneer in the growing and making
of Riesling in
California: Smith-Madrone‚s Riesling was the first
in the U.S. to be labeled
simply „Riesling." How do they do it? "When
people ask that we say that it
isn't any one thing that we do," Stuart says. "We
treat Riesling with
respect, as the noble grape that it is; we have great
vineyards. Our
vineyards are truly mountain vineyards (at 1,800-foot
elevation on top of
Spring Mountain) with slopes up to 35%, dry farmed
in red volcanic soil,
with 31-year-old vines, all of which we planted ourselves.
When we first
planted Riesling in 1972 it was considered one of the
four most important
varietals in the world. It still is. Like Pinot Noir
and Cabernet Sauvignon,
winemakers for this varietal cannot "create" fine
wine from grapes that do
not inherently contain that quality. "That" is
an ephemeral quality which
begins with the right climate, the right site, the
right soil and the right
attitude by the grower. "You can only make good
wine from good grapes" is an
old winemaker's adage, but never truer than with Riesling," he
explains.
"We've received enormous recognition for
our Riesling since our first
vintage of Riesling in 1977," Charles adds. A bottle
of that 1977 vintage,
left over from a trade tasting in Europe, was casually
entered in the
Gault-Millau wine competition of that year, where it
won the top honor as
'Best Riesling' out of a field of Rieslings from around
the world, including
all of Europe's respected Riesling producers.
This Smith-Madrone wine has been called "one of
the New World's finest dry
rieslings" (by Robert Whitley, San Diego Union-Tribune
on 3/27/2002) and in
an August 2003 Wine Enthusiast article on Rieslings
around the world:
"Napa Valley still has
a champion of the varietal in Smith-Madrone
Vineyards. Located high on Spring Mountain, the
winery has grown Riesling for three decades.
Their 2001
vintage is crisp with concentrated flavors of apples,
lime and minerals, encased in fine acidity, steely
and sleek. The residual sugar is 0.7%, which is off-dry,
but the acids are so good, the wine feels dry in
the mouth."
RIESLING NOMENCLATURE
Smith-Madrone labels this wine Riesling; other wineries
use "Johannisberg
Riesling," "White Riesling," "Dry
Riesling;" why? "Because that's the true
name of the varietal. When was the last time you had
a red Riesling?" Stuart
Smith explains. "White Riesling is redundant; Johannisberg
Riesling is a
cute little winery in Germany not too dissimilar from
Smith-Madrone. Why
should we call Riesling 'Johannisberg Riesling' if
we don't call Pinot Noir
'Romanee Noir' or Cabernet Sauvignon 'Lafite Sauvignon?" The
true name of
the varietal is simply Riesling. In 1983 we started
using just `Riesling,'"
Smith adds.
THE WINERY
Smith-Madrone is a family-owned estate-bottled winery
dedicated to producing
fine wines exclusively from its own vineyards. It
was founded by Stuart
Smith and Charles Smith in 1971 with the purchase
of 200 acres on top of
Spring Mountain west of St. Helena in the northern
Napa Valley. One of the
least-known and most scenic appellations of the Napa
Valley, the Spring
Mountain District was recognized by the B.A.T.F.
in May of 1993. The winery
enjoys dramatic views of the floor of the Napa Valley
and the Sierra Nevada
Mountains in the distance, as well as of its own
steep dry-farmed vineyards.
At elevations between 1,300 and 1,800 feet, the vines
flourish in red, rocky
volcanic soil [Aiken loam], which is well-drained
and friable. In exploring
the property before purchasing it, Stuart Smith discovered
old grape stakes
interspersed with the forest's tall trees, evidence
of a vineyard planted in
the 1880s and abandoned with the onset of Prohibition.
The name for the
winery came as a tribute to the Smiths who pursued
their dream and to the
madrone trees which distinguish the property.
THE SMITH BROTHERS
Brothers Stuart Smith and Charles Smith are the owners,
vineyard managers
and winemakers at the winery. Their family lineage
includes David Hume, the
eighteenth century Scottish philosopher, and Denver's
first U.S. marshal.
Stuart has taught enology in Napa and Santa Rosa,
served as 1986 Napa Valley
Wine Auction Chairman and founded Farmers for Napa
Valley, aside from other
wine industry leadership roles. Charles Smith is
a world-ranked croquet
player and currently holds the World Croquet Federation
record for the
longest single match (7 1/2 hours in a tournament
in Newport, Rhode
Island--he won).
SMITH-MADRONE IN YOSEMITE
Stuart Smith will conduct a tasting of Smith-Madrone
wines as part of The
Ahwahnee Hotel's vintner series December 7-9,
2003. For more information:
www.YosemitePark.com or call 559/252-4848.
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