I have to smile because here it is, July 4th weekend and I am
sitting down in front of my computer to write a story about
Burgess Cellars. How fitting is it that at a time we celebrate
all things American, I am about to talk about a great
American Family success story. A winery that is built
completely from the ground up by its key components and
that of course is the family members. For over thirty years
Burgess Cellars has been making wine in the Napa Valley
and during that time, nothing has changed. Literally! And
quite frankly, there is no need to. Tom Burgess bought the
winery and the land back in the early 70’s and from day one,
Bill Sorenson has been the winemaker. Not the third, fourth
or fifth winemaker, but the only one ever. Tom’s two sons
were born and raised there at the winery and now are firmly
entrenched in the family business. Perhaps one day, they
will pass on the day to day responsibilities of running the
winery to their children too, but mark my words, Burgess
Cellars will never be just another product in the
Constellation Brands portfolio, they are, have been and
always will be a family owned and operated winery.
This past March I received an email newsletter from The
Wine Market & More in downtown Dallas and it was sort of
a last minute advertisement for a Thursday tasting of
Burgess Cellars wines. The headline read, “Meet Jim
Burgess of Burgess Cellars” as we taste through some of
their red wines from the Howell Mountain region of Napa
Valley. By this time, I already knew I was heading to Napa
for the Chiarello Family Vineyards Spring Release event
and I had started the planning phase for which wineries I
would be visiting. When I received this email, despite it
being last minute on a Thursday and about an hours drive
from North Plano during rush hour, I knew I had to go down
there and meet him. When I arrived, I met a young man, I
should point out that Jim is a tall person, which was
extremely friendly and very humble. Of course he told us a
little about each of the wines he was pouring, all quite good,
but I won’t bore you with all the ins and outs of the tasting
because we have more important things to get into. Like the
winery and it’s history. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting him
and told him that I would be visiting Napa in April. He
whipped out a Blackberry looking apparatus, checked his
calendar and stated, “I will be just coming in that Saturday
and leaving that Monday for Chicago, could you come by
Sunday morning?” Absolutely! And thus it was set in stone.
Jim and I had made plans to meet at the winery at 10:00am
on Sunday morning. The friends I was staying with, Bill and
Suzy, were going to be joining me on my Napa excursion and
so the three of us set out on the hour and a half journey from
Folsom to Napa. Like Pride, Burgess is high up on a
mountain, in fact, you could say they have mountainside
vineyards. Just look at the pictures and you’ll see what I
mean. The big difference is that the drive up this mountain
was much tamer. The mountain I am referring to is called
Howell Mountain and the wines made from grapes grown on
the side of this landmark have fashioned some legendary
names. See Beringer’s Howell Mountain Reserve wines for
reference. (For those of you that are only able to conjure up
visions of White Zinfandel by the mere mention of Beringer,
I should point out that these wines start at $99.00 and go up
from there and they get these prices because they are very
good.)
When we pulled up into the driveway, or really I should say,
drove down the driveway as it sloped down a little, we saw
Jim there ready to greet us in the Tasting Room doorway.
After introducing Bill and Suzy to Jim and dispensing
pleasantries (I stole that line from Darth Vader), Jim took us
inside and wasted no time opening up some wine for us to
taste. On Burgess Cellars website, they boast that they
have the most beautiful view of the Napa Valley of all the
wineries there. When you first pull up, it is hard to see their
vineyards because they are tucked away behind, buildings
and trees, etc… However, just beneath the tasting room
building resides a Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard that affords
you with the absolute most stunning view. The best I had
encountered the entire time I was in Napa. Suffice it to say,
they backed up their boast from their website in spades! In
fact, after downloading all the pictures from my trip, I made
one of the photos of this view my screensaver or wallpaper,
whatever you call it. (And to think, I created this website.
Scary huh?)
Jim opened wine after wine and began to tell us about all
things Burgess. Before I go into the details of his story,
however, I have a few things I feel must be said about Jim
and my experience at Burgess Cellars. First off, I had just
come off one of the most amazing experiences of my life the
night before at Michael Chiarello’s house. Logic would tell
you that I was due for somewhat of a letdown after that.
Well the next two hours with Jim was anything but a let down
and in some ways, superceded my time on Saturday. In my
wildest dreams I would have never believed that a high
profile winery in Napa would ever treat me like royalty and
made Bill, Suzy and myself feel like we were the most
important people on the planet, but that’s precisely how Jim
made us feel. Now you cynics, and you know who you are,
will read this and say to yourself, “He’s just trying to sell
you wine”, but you would be dead wrong! As far as Jim the
person is concerned, what a remarkable human being he is.
Very humble and a joy to talk to. He has a very witty sense
of humor that he will slip in and out of a conversation and if
you aren’t keeping up, the subtlety of it will pass you right
by. The whole time I was there I felt like I was talking to a
friend I’ve known since Junior High. When I got back to
Dallas, people would ask me which winery was your
favorite? I would respond that I had a wonderful time at all
of them, but the greatest time and experience I had was at
Burgess Cellars & Chiarello Family Vineyards.
While standing in the tasting room, which also houses many
of their wine barrels, one of the first wines we tasted was the
2002 Zinfandel. The grapes used to make this wonderful
little wine are all Howell Mountain fruit and come from the
side of the mountain. While drinking it, I noticed how little
alcohol it had by Zinfandel standards. Just 14.3% to be
exact. In today’s wine world, wineries are turning out
Zinfandels with a staggering 16.8%, and I do mean
staggering! These are the types of wines that Michael
Chiarello refers to as “date wines”. You figure that one out.
When I brought this up to Jim, he explained to me that many
winemakers would wait for uniform ripeness in the grapes.
Zinfandel is kind of known for not ripening evenly. When
winemakers wait giving the grapes more hang time, they
drop acid and raise sugar levels, which we all know turns into
alcohol during fermentation. Jim says that his Zinfandel
grapes ripen evenly and that perhaps many of these wineries
have not selected the right spots for their Zinfandel grapes
to grow.
When Tom Burgess bought the winery in 1972, there were
only fifteen wineries in all of Napa. Today there are over
two hundred and counting. Tom was able to buy this
property in the 70’s when land was cheap and this is one of
the main reasons they are able to sell their wines at a
reasonable price. Take their Howell Mountain Cabernet
Sauvignon for example. This is probably the wine that I
would guesstimate Burgess hangs their hat on and it retails
for around $34.00 to $36.00 a bottle. Compare that with
some other Napa Cabs and you will find it is on average at
least $20.00 cheaper than the rest. And keep in mind, this is
Howell Mountain fruit we are talking about, not just some
guy named Bob’s vineyard. Another reason Jim points out
as to why they can get away with making their wines
affordable is that the grapes used in making the wines is
100% estate owned and they do not have to source their
grapes from anyone else. I don’t know if you realize this or
not, but that ensures quality because they have total control
over the decisions made in the vineyard.
Jim goes on to say that land planted with grapes in Napa now
sell for about a million dollars an acre and reading through
the real estate section in the local newspaper is like looking
at the funny pages. Because the land is so expensive now, it
makes it almost impossible to make any money on the forth-
coming wines from these new ventures. You would have to
realistically only pay around $100k to $150k an acre to even
hope to make a profit. Logically speaking, your average
family trying to pursue the dream of owning a winery in Napa
just cannot afford to make it a reality. As families sell their
wineries to the highest bidders, a.k.a. the Gallo’s,
Constellations & Mondavi Corps of the world, the number of
family owned and operated wineries are dwindling. Bad
news for you and I because it is the family owned wineries
that really make a difference in the wine world. The
pessimist in me believes that at the rate things are going in
Napa and Sonoma, pretty soon all the wines will taste the
same. Let’s hope the Burgess Cellars of the world hold out!
(By the way, all five of the wineries I visited on my trip are
family owned. Yeah me!)
While we were still in the tasting/barrel room and I believe
on wine number two or three (as the minutes wore on it got a
lot harder to keep track), Jim preceded to give us a little
lesson in Barrel Cooperage. Now for the most part, they use
French oak barrels. I believe he said from the Troncais
forest, or maybe it was Allier, I can’t remember for sure.
Believe it or not, that is important. Jim says that oak barrels
are like a winemakers spice cabinet, used for adding
complexity and additional flavors. There are different
degrees of toasting on the barrel. This is a process done at
the cooperage whereby the inside of the barrel is scorched
by an open flame. The barrels are labeled accordingly, like
MT for medium toast and HT for heavy toast. A barrel that
is labeled “Toasted Head” implies that even the ends (lids)
of the barrels were toasted. Medium toast plus is the most
common barrel found in wineries, including Burgess Cellars.
You also have French oak flavors and you have American
oak flavors. Jim goes on to make the analogy for all you
spirits lovers that American oak flavors would be more like
what you find in Bourbon or Whisky and French oak flavors
would be more reminiscent of Cognac. I’ll have to take his
word on that because when I smell Whisky or Cognac, all I
smell is a wild evening filled with dumb decisions and
stupidity, followed up with a morning chocked full of
headache’s and nausea. But that’s just me!
Before exiting out the Barrel/Tasting room, Jim poured us a
Cab, (hey, I told you this was a wonderful experience) and
then we made our way to a deck that overlooks the
Mountainside Cabernet Vineyard with that incredible view.
The vines are planted in rows and in a stair-shaped fashion
as to provide each row of vines with a stadium seating type
of view of the lake. (see the pictures) Jim says that they
were planted in this fashion for many reasons, but one being
so that they could get a tractor onto to each row to mow the
cover crops, etc… Call me silly, but my behind is not getting
on a tractor in those steep vineyards! These rows though do
make it a lot easier and safer for the vineyard workers to do
their thing in the vineyards. Originally they were oriented
straight down the mountain, yikes, but they replanted them
in 1977 & 1978 in the current fashion.
These hillside vines that are planted here are twenty-eight
years old. That is, by the way, a lot older than most vines in
Napa for one main reason. That reason being a tiny aphid
known as Phyloxera. Back in the 1980’s, Napa was planted
almost exclusively with the AXR1 rootstock, which was an
amazing rootstock. It was drought tolerant and could
withstand wet feet. It was great at up taking nutrients from
the soil and was able to grasp on to many different vines.
However it’s Achilles heal was that it was not resistant to
Phyloxera and that little critter destroyed most of the
grapevines throughout Napa. But not the ones growing at
Burgess Cellars, because they were isolated from all the
other vines on the valley floor.
The soils throughout Burgess Cellars are between 0 to 18’
inches deep, consisting mostly of shallow rock. This shallow
rock, called Toof (made from volcanic compacted ash), helps
the soil drain quickly and it also reflects sunlight, thereby
bringing up the temperature, which in turn, brings the vines
to life. Although this rock is a positive for the vineyards it
does present them with some interesting challenges.
Grapevines after all do not have an unlimited supply of
nutrients and water. That is why they dig down into the earth
for it, but that of course is tough for a vine to do when it is
faced with solid layers of hard rock. When Jim’s dad planted
these vineyards back in 1978 he had to use a bit of ingenuity
to get the vineyard going. He would dig a small hole in the
ground where they intended to have a grapevine growing and
place a stick of dynamite in it. The dynamite would explode
fracturing the rock so that the vine would have a place to go.
All of this was done at a time when you could just go down to
your local hardware store and buy a stick of dynamite or
two. Can you just picture the hassle you would have buying
it today? Look at all of those vines on the side of the
mountain in these pictures. How would you’ve like to be one
of Tom’s neighbors during all of this commotion? As Jim
was telling me this, I couldn’t help but laugh. All I could
picture was those two old guys in a boat on the lake in the
movie “Doc Hollywood” dropping sticks of dynamite off the
side of the boat just to catch fish.
As far as vineyard management goes, Burgess Cellars does
all the usual things. They plant cover crops between the
rows of vines, like mustard (yellow) and radish flowers
(white), and these of course provide a habitat for beneficial
insects. On a normal basis all they will do is spray for
mildew. This spray could consist of sulfur, copper or stalled
oil. Even organic vineyard farmers use these types of
sprays. All of the Cabernet Franc vines are head-trained
and cane pruned, but every year the vineyard guys will prune
according to the strength of the vine. These vineyard
workers by the way, have been there for over twenty years
and Jim grew up with them. When these guys harvest the
grapes they do so from 5am to noon. For one, it is not as
hard on them to work during this time of day, but most
importantly, it is best for the grapes. The warmer the
temperature gets, the more acid and water the wine grapes
will lose. These of course are very necessary. The vines
higher up the mountainside take longer to bud break in
spring because the weather is cooler there. Jim says that
their Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes ripen about the
same time, but Merlot ripens a little earlier than the rest. Of
the eighty acres on their property, only thirty acres are
planted with grapevines. Jim says that a lot of the land is
just too steep to plant. Upon hearing this and looking down
over those Mountainside Cabernet Vines, all I could muster
was a “Too Steep, Holy Cow!”
In the 2005 season, the last day of harvest didn’t occur until
November 1st, which is extraordinarily long. Needless to
say because of the extra hang time the fruit received, the
2005 vintage should be remarkable. It was also an abundant
crop, but he says that the 2006 crop will be much smaller.
Jim explained that the prior vintage year’s weather will
determine the crop size of the current vintage. Think of it as
the grapevine making plans for the upcoming year. While
the current vintages fruit are growing on the vine there are
buds forming inside of the vine. These are called the “shoot
primordial” and they determine the number of tendrils a vine
will have, how many clusters per tendril, and the amount of
berries per cluster. The whole time he is going over this I
was thinking, “Man, I should have paid more attention in
Biology class!”
Just as a humorous side note, there is a basketball goal that
is next to the cellar building that Jim and his brother used to
play basketball on. If the ball was to take an unfortunate
bounce, getting away from the two of them, it wanders off the
driveway and plummets down the mountainside. Jim and his
brother would argue over who had to climb down there and
get the ball. Bummer!
When I was surfing Burgess Cellars website, I noticed that
they referenced the fact that they use rotary fermenters. I
know what a fermentation tank is, but a rotary fermenter
was news to me. So Jim took us over to see them. They in
fact have five of these contraptions and what they appear to
be is a normal fermentation tank that is resting on its side.
However, the difference is that instead of letting the grape
skins float on top of the tank, they spin the juice and the
grapes around in a circular motion. Since wine gets its color,
flavors and tannins from the contact it has with the grape
skins, this device allows them to finish fermenting their
wines in just five days as opposed to the weeks it would take
other fermentation tanks to accomplish the same goal. Who
cares you ask? If this process is done quickly, the less time
the wine is exposed to oxygen and the less sulfur is needed.
That is why we care. These nifty tanks can mix a whole
content of grapes in five minutes where as it would take the
regular tanks anywhere from ½ hour to forty-five minutes to
do the same thing. These tanks are fully automated and
they program them to come on about four times per day.
The last benefit these tanks afford Burgess Cellars with is
that they give the juice minimal contact time with the skins
and seeds, which can cause the tannins in a wine to be too
high.
Cleaning these monster-sized tanks is a hazardous chore and
believe it or not, someone dies every year in Napa and
Sonoma due to prolonged exposure from carbon dioxide.
Jim says that it is tricky business because the carbon dioxide
levels sneak up on you. Some people that are exposed to it,
will fall asleep inside the tanks and of course they never
wake up again! At Burgess they use a combination of
ventilation and the buddy system to clean their tanks. While
someone is inside the tank cleaning it, they are tied to a rope
that is held on to by someone standing outside. Personally, I
think they should also use this method to harvest those
mountainside vines!
From here we ventured over to the coolest building on the
property, the cellar building. No pun intended! Okay, I was
reaching with that statement, but it his very cool both in
terms of appearance and historical significance as well as
temperature wise. This property was originally bought and
planted by Swiss homesteaders in the 1880’s and this cellar
building, which is the oldest building on the property was the
original stone cellar they used for their winery back in the
1800’s. I believe Burgess has added on to it over the years,
but it does reflect that period of time and has a medieval
look about it. Today it houses more steel tanks and barrels
for aging wines. On the way into the building you are
greeted by some busy honeybees that go about their day
with a dutiful sense of purpose. At one time, Jim’s family
decided to try and rid themselves of these honeybees, but
nothing they conjured up ever worked so they decided to just
allow them to go about their business.
The giant steel tanks that house the wine all serve their
purpose and if oak barrels are the spice cabinet for a
winemaker, then these tanks are like the pots and pans in a
kitchen and you can never have enough. Wines can be aged
in these separately making blending a whole lot easier.
These tanks and barrels can hold enough wine for them to
produce about 24,000 cases per year. The building itself is
built into the hill and is half covered by dirt that helps keep
the inside cool and provides natural humidity. Both
conditions are obviously very important in aging wines.
There is in fact a private wine cellar in this building that
contains some of Jim’s father’s wine collection. Being the
nosy person that I am, I peeked through the metal screen to
have a look and noticed a Pinot Noir with a Burgess label on
it from 1980. I guess that at one time they dabbled a bit with
that grape, but not anymore. Surprised at the sight of this
bottle I asked Jim, “Is that pinot still drinking well?” To
which Jim replied, “Ah…No!” Just to the immediate right of
this makeshift wine cellar is another tank and Jim said he
was giving a tour last fall when he found a little rattlesnake
coiled around that tank. I guess he was cooling himself down
from the heat. When he mentioned this to us, Suzy promptly
exited the cellar building.
While we were in the cellar building, Jim poured us a bottle
of wine called Enviere (ahn-vee-air). Yes, that is a French
name and probably named so because it is modeled after a
Bordeaux blend. This blend consisted of Cabernet
Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and
Malbec. Burgess Cellars made this wine for their 25th
anniversary but discontinued making it in 2002. Let’s see,
how would I describe this wine? Ah…remarkable, stunning,
masculine…a “how many can I carry on the plane back with
me” type of good wine! True to their hopes, it was very
much indeed like a fine Bordeaux wine. In fact, I think their
wines have more in common with the French style of wines
then they do with Napa wines. It is not a case of winemaking
decisions or preferences per say. No, I believe it has
everything to do with where they are growing these grapes
and that is on the side of a mountain where it stays cooler
longer than the valley floor. This means the grapes have an
added complexity to them that give them more of a
masculine style of wine (especially the Cabernet Sauvignon
wines) and certainly enough balance to give their wines
exceptional age worthiness. Where other Napa wines are
passed their prime by ten years of age, Burgess Cellars
Cabs are just starting to hit their stride. I guess Tom figured
this out because they have started a program whereby they
will hold back 1,000 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon each year
and re-release it ten years later. Hey, it’s like having
someone else with a cellar age your wine for you. Pretty
neat, huh? I have already started putting together a vertical
of their Cabs going all the way back to their 1993 vintage.
Their wine club, which you can sign up for online, has
fantastic offers on it with amazing prices. Their club
membership requirements are very reasonable and an
absolute no-brainer to join.
I asked Jim for a little background on himself and he
informed me that he went to college in Boulder, Colorado. I
think that is the University of Colorado. He stayed there for
two years before coming back to California to acquire a
degree from UC Davis in viticulture and enology. Ah, a
budding winemaker in the Burgess family. Once again,
sewing the seeds of keeping the winery a family business.
Jim’s wife is also a daughter of a winery family in Napa. He
jokes that they are doing their part to keep Napa Valley
incestuous.
I hope Jim and his brother continue to keep Burgess a family
affair. I look forward to my regular shipments of Burgess
Cellars wines. As we wrapped up the tour, we asked Jim to
recommend a place for lunch and he suggested Taylor’s
Refresher, a local hamburger joint off the main strip in
Napa. He said when the line gets long, and it usually does,
he just calls in the order using his cell phone while sitting in
his car in the parking lot. That way he doesn’t have to stand
in line. You see, I’m telling you, Jim is a crafty one and that
is why I am betting that the future is bright for Burgess
Cellars! One thing is for sure; he is one hell of a host and he
sure knows how to make you feel special!
