Chuck O'Rear on Spring Mountain

St. Helena, Napa Valley, September 2004---A dramatically beautiful image of fog creeping over steep rows of mountain vineyard at Smith-Madrone Vineyards, taken by photographer Chuck O?Rear in 1988, may well be the most popular photograph in the wine world.


The Winemaker’s Dance: Exploring Terroir in the Napa Valley, by Jonathan Swinchatt and David Howell(Univ. of California Press) September 2004	Sunset Magazine (April 1995)	Dreamers of the Valley of Plenty: A Portrait of the Napa Valley by Cheryll Barron (Scribners, 1995)	Wine Country: California’s Napa and Sonoma Valleys by John Doerper (Fodor’s/Compass Guides, 1998)	St. Helena Chamber of Commerce 2000 Directory
[Click any image for a larger view. All photos Copyright © ChuckO'Rear]

The photo (visible at a ?header? on the home page at www.smithmadrone.com or directly at www.smithmadrone.com/press_orear.html) is the cover shot for the new book The Winemaker?s Dance: Exploring Terroir in the Napa Valley, by Jonathan Swinchatt and David Howell (University of California Press), published September 2004). The photo filled the cover of Sunset Magazine (April 1995), Cheryll Barron?s book, Dreamers of the Valley of Plenty: A Portrait of the Napa Valley (Scribner, 1995); John Doerper?s Wine Country: California?s Napa and Sonoma Valleys (Fodor?s/Compass Guides, 1998) and the St. Helena Chamber of Commerce 2000 Directory.

The photograph was made in late summer shortly after sunrise when fog was covering the Napa Valley while Smith-Madrone vineyards and Mt. St. Helena were in full sun. Chuck O?Rear is a leading wine industry photographer (www.wineviews.com), who has published numerous photographic books: Cabernet, Chardonnay, Wine Country, Napa Valley: The Land, The Wine, The People, Beautiful Wineries (to be released January 2005) and Wine Places (to be released May 2005). He was commissioned by Corbis, a Seattle photographic agency privately owned by Bill Gates (of Microsoft fame), to spend 1995 and 1996 documenting the vineyard life cycle around the world. ?I live and breathe "vineyards," O'Rear says. In fact, O?Rear maintains a webcam in the heart of a Cabernet vineyard in St. Helena.

?The shot summarizes what a mountain vineyard is,? suggests Stuart Smith, General Partner, Smith-Madrone, who founded the vineyard-winery on top of Spring Mountain in 1972. At an elevation of 1,800 feet, with vineyards which range in steepness up to 35%, Smith-Madrone is located at the highest point in the Spring Mountain District appellation and is recognized as a pioneer of mountain grape growing in the Napa Valley. The vineyards are ?rooted? in red, rocky volcanic soil [Aiken loam] and are dry-farmed (i.e. no additional watering other than what Mother Nature provides). Stuart Smith chose specific slopes with different exposures for specific varietals when planting the vineyards: eastern exposure for Riesling, southern and western exposures across flat stretches for the Cabernet Sauvignon and the coolest north-facing slopes for the Chardonnay.

Smith-Madrone produces less than 5,000 cases a year of three types of wine---all of which are entirely estate-vineyard-wines (i.e. grown in the vineyards surrounding the winery): Chardonnay (currently available is the 2002 vintage, which sells for $25.00 from the winery), Riesling (2003, $17.00) and Cabernet Sauvignon (2000, $35.00). Winemaker Charlie Smith explains ?our goal is to make artisanal wines which are distinctive and different, an expression of both the vintage and our site and us as vintners, and, above all else, wines which bring pleasure to the senses.?

Smith-Madrone?s wines have accrued an impressive collection of medals at wine industry competitions. The past three vintages of Chardonnay have received a total of 9 gold medals, 8 silvers, 2 Best of Shows and 1 Sweepstakes award. The 2000 vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon has been awarded 3 golds and 5 silvers. The past two vintages (2002 and 2001) of Riesling have received 4 golds. A complete medal count is at www.smithmadrone.com/accolades.

The property which today is Smith-Madrone was listed in Napa County?s 1888 Viticultural Report and had been planted to vineyard in the 1880s, later being abandoned during Prohibition. There are numerous intriguing historical traces on the property; for example, Chinese workers had cleared the land in the mid-nineteenth century and left behind meticulous rock piles, stone walls and underground caves. The remains of a covered wagon sit on an old road running through the ranch. A striking historical and visual note is the dramatic corridor of 22 olive trees---more than a hundred years old--which descend the slope beneath the winery into the vineyards.

A walk around Smith-Madrone means encountering panoramas of vineyard, mountain and forest, thriving with wildlife and the natural world, since the forest encloses all of the vineyards. Deer, fox, rabbits, porcupines, coyotes and the occasional bear and cougar are visible. The largest recorded bear in the history of the state of California was killed nearby in 1967. The bird population includes red-tailed hawks, golden eagles, turkey vultures, piliated woodpeckers and spotted owls. Three rare thorny nutmeg trees sit on a knoll; the stump of an oak tree is the woodpeckers? warehouse, loaded with acorns for winter sustenance.