wine specials

Mountain high, prices low on great California rarities

Napa Valley, Anderson Valley, the Rhone, the Rhine, all those rivers, creeks and valleys would make you think wine grows only in the broad flood plain.

Au contraire. Many winemakers eschew good valley soil and prefer mountains and hills which are the flip side of valleys (you can‘t have one without the other). Thank goodness that rivers and seismic elves made so many in California.

I mention this because when B-21 dug out jewels for the current California sale, the best deals to me were from up in the hills, many of them home to very high priests and their cults (the kind that have waiting lists on the web).

Why are they up there? Mountaineers see many advantages: fog burns off early, rocky soil demands deeper roots, steep vineyards open canopy to more breeze and sun; the wines could be rough and tumble or brawny heroes. Maybe the remote site and 45-degree harvests made the land the last and cheapest sites? Or maybe it just appealed to the brilliant and plain ornery, from David Bruce and Martin Ray to the pioneers on Mayacamas and Al Brounstein on Diamond. They’ve appealed for more than 100 years.

No offense to the fine Rutherford dust on Napa’s valley floor, but I always look up. There would be no valley without Mayacamas on one side (Mt. Veeder, Spring, Diamond) and the Vaca range on the other (Atlas Peak, Chiles Valley and Howell Mountain). Harder to get to, but worth it for the wine and the view.

In the 25 percent sale, the climbing is easy – and sometimes $30 to $40 off.