The Patland Blog

2018 Napa Valley: A Stellar Year for Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2018 vintage in Napa Valley emerged as a standout year for our Cabernet Sauvignon wines, marked by ideal growing conditions that yielded exceptional quality and depth.

Throughout the growing season, moderate temperatures prevailed, allowing for slow, even ripening of the grapes. This extended hang time on the vine contributed to the development of rich flavors and balanced acidity, characteristic of our signature varietals.

Early in the season, abundant winter rains replenished groundwater, providing essential hydration for the vines during the warmer months. This ensured healthy vine growth and optimal grape development without excessive stress.

The moderate weather continued through harvest, allowing us to pick the grapes at peak maturity, with fully developed flavors and optimal sugar levels.

As a result, our 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon exhibits pronounced aromas of dark fruits, and rich well rounded-tannin, while our Reserve Cabernet showcases a refined elegance with complex layers of ripe fruit, integrated tannins, and a lingering finish.

Overall, the 2018 vintage stands as a testament to the exceptional quality of Napa Valley terroir and our commitment to crafting wines of distinction.

 

 

The Secrets Behind Our Sauvignon Blanc

Our Sauvignon Blanc is a unique wine that is carefully crafted using a special aging process. Unlike many other Sauvignon Blancs, which are aged in 100%  stainless steel tanks, our wine sees a variety of vessels throughout the aging process. Each vessel plays a vital role in shaping the final identity of our wine.

Concrete Eggs: We ferment a portion of our Sauvignon Blanc in temperature-controlled concrete eggs. This slow, cool fermentation process helps to preserve the fruitiest aromatic qualities of the wine, resulting in a wine with bright, fruit forward aromas and a touch of minerality.

Stainless Steel Drums: Ten percent our Sauvignon Blanc is also aged in stainless steel drums. This helps to enhance the perception of freshness and varietal character in the wine.

Neutral Oak Barrels: The majority of our Sauvignon Blanc is fermented and aged in neutral oak barrels. This helps to build the body of the wine and add a touch of richness.

New French Oak Barrels: A small portion of our Sauvignon Blanc is aged in new French oak barrels. This adds subtle sweet notes of butterscotch and vanilla to the wine, which helps to round out the acidity and create a more balanced wine.

By using this unique aging process, we are able to create a Sauvignon Blanc that is both fresh and rich. We believe that this attention to detail is what sets our Sauvignon Blanc apart from the rest.

2021 Malbec Vineyards Spotlight

We procured our 2021 Malbec from three vineyards, two of which are situated at elevations exceeding 1000 feet: Stagecoach Vineyards and Terra Del Cuore. Stagecoach Vineyards, reaching its pinnacle near 1700 feet, boasts deep red volcanic soil with a sandy texture, ensuring excellent drainage and resulting in an intensely concentrated wine. Conversely, our Terra Del Cuore vineyard showcases terraced vines facing south, maximizing sun exposure. These terraces are meticulously designed to optimize drainage and regulate vine vigor, culminating in a wine of exceptional ripeness and concentration. The third and newest vineyard source is Patland's Oaknoll Vineyard planted in 2019. This vineyard shares its borders and soil with the renowned Oaknoll District praised for its gravelly alluvial loam soil, and deep rooting potential. Thanks to these features we're able to produce wines that achieve optimal ripeness with very well-preserved acid levels. By blending only the finest barrels from each of these sites, we craft a wine that exemplifies the best qualities of each vineyard. Due to the dry, & warm growing season, we were able to achieve phenomenal wine quality but at the expense of bottles produced. With only 90 cases produced, and 20 cases going to the library this wine won't be available for long.

Venturing Beyond Napa

 

The year 2020 commenced like any typical vintage, slightly warmer and drier, with nothing too extraordinary considering California's ongoing drought. The grapes were ripening beautifully, and the vineyards were pruned to perfection. Unfortunately, the Glassfire emerged, consuming over 67,000 acres, casting surreal smoke that dimmed our hopes of producing wine in Napa that season. To assess smoke taint, we conducted trials, sampling each vineyard and fermenting grapes from various locations. Nearly all returned with smoke taint, except for one Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard in Coombsville. Nestled amidst hills and with its unique microclimate, this small vineyard remained untouched by smoke. Although this vineyard’s grapes were healthy, we wouldn’t settle with only producing one wine this season, and as this wasn't our winery's first encounter with fires, we've learned not to give up but to work harder to keep producing the wines that we love.

Determined, we decided to journey outside of Napa. I, having studied and graduated from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo already had an idea of what the region had to offer. It didn’t take much convincing to get Jay on board with his passion for producing all types of wine. So we made our way South and tasted wines from esteemed producers to understand the region's highest caliber offerings. Although distinct from Napa Cabernet blends, the Paso Rhone blends stood out in a league of their own. Unlike the bold and tannic Napa blends, Paso's Rhone blends were more gentle and lively on the palate, yet possessed exceptional fruit and flavor ripeness.
After exploring numerous vineyard sites, we settled on the most well-exposed and drained locations to create our Rhone Style Paso Blend. With our palates attuned to the best of Paso, and our vineyard sources secured, the rest became history. After four years of aging, we are thrilled for you to taste the wine and discover the finest that Paso Robles has to offer.

Stagecoach Chardonnay

Our 2018 Chardonnay embodies the essence of balance as we carefully selected fruit solely from the esteemed Stagecoach Vineyards. Renowned for its extraordinary mountain vineyard locations, Stagecoach boasts an elevation that surpasses the fog line, ensuring abundant sunlight exposure and optimal ripening conditions. Moreover, the cooler temperatures at these higher altitudes during nighttime gracefully temper the ripening pace. This unique combination fosters the ideal environment for flavor maturation and acid preservation, ultimately resulting in the remarkable character of our Stagecoach Chardonnay. Its potency and balance exemplify why we are captivated by mountain vineyard sites. 

Chardonnay with Nina Patland

We often hear about "summer wines" being bright and refreshing. Another way to say that is... they have a lot of acid! On a really hot day, no doubt about it, that's what you want. But what about those cooler summer nights? Maybe you're out on the deck grilling. What do you drink then?

Well, Nina Patland has a suggestion for you. She and her husband, Assistant Winemaker Felix Patland, are big time advocates for Chardonnay. It's a wine that has plenty of acid, but also enough nuance and complexity to make for a truly unique drinking experience.

It all starts in the vineyard. Our winery has been sourcing from the legendary Stagecoach Vineyard for years, and is also extremely pleased to have started incorporating fruit from Hyde Vineyard in Carneros. Mountain fruit combined with cooler climate fruit is the foundational building block of a balanced Chardonnay.

In the winery, Felix and Winemaker Jay Buoncristiani are very careful not to come in heavy handed. This fruit has spent so much time ripening and developing on the vine, and the winery is the place to gently guide that fruit to wine. Never too much oak or malolactic fermentation. You could say these things "frame" the wine, but we're really letting the fruit and the vineyard speak for themselves.

The result is always a gorgeous and beautifully balanced wine. Perfect for cool summer nights, and particularly good with summer barbecue. Grilled artichokes? Corn on the cob? Lobster? The possibilities are endless! 

SHOP CHARDONNAY

Why San Luis Obispo?

We are thrilled to announce that this year, we have sourced grapes for our Rosé from San Luis Obispo as well as Napa Valley, and we have a very special reason for doing so. Asst. Winemaker Felix Patland spent four years in San Luis Obispo, studying viticulture and winemaking at Cal Poly.

His experience gave him a deep understanding of the region's unique terroir and the potential of the grapes grown there. With an extra warm growing season in Napa Valley, Felix and Jay, our head winemaker, sought to incorporate a cooler climate element to the Rosé. To achieve this, Felix suggested incorporating one of his favorite grapes from San Luis Obispo - Grenache. Incorporating Grenache from San Luis Obispo allowed us to enhance the brightness of the wine and introduce more high-tone red fruit flavors to our Rosé.

 

At the heart of our winemaking is a deep appreciation for the magic and beauty of nature. We strive to create wines that are a reflection of both the vintage and our vineyard selections. By sourcing grapes from San Luis Obispo, we were able to create a wine that is truly unique. We can't wait for you to try this year’s Rosé and taste the difference for yourself. 

Much to Celebrate 🥂

Ever since the advent of Champagne, sparkling wine has become synonymous with celebration. We see it at birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, and more! Whenever we reach a significant milestone, the cork goes pop! 

This year our family and winery reached a lot of great milestones, and you can bet we did a lot of celebrating. To list a few things…

We finally completed the rebuild of the Main House! Henry and Olga have made the move to Napa full time and have been loving their new home. It’s quite different than the original structure, which many of you may remember. This new build has a lot of their unique style and personality. It’s truly gorgeous and we couldn’t be more thrilled!

If that wasn’t enough, we just signed the paperwork on rebuilding the back cottage. Some of you may recall this is where Henry kept his car collection. We expect the stables will be stocked again soon!

Another exciting bit of news is that we recently signed up with Vintage Wine Marketing as our exclusive California broker! Now don’t get too excited. This doesn’t mean you’re going to start seeing us at your local Trader Joe’s. However, you might want to start keeping an eye out at your favorite steakhouses and specialty wine shops. 

VWM was founded by Steve and Faith Ventrello in 2002, and since then they’ve been instrumental in building up some great brands. To name a few you might know, Frank Family, Patz & Hall, Del Dotto, Smith-Madrone, and the list goes on! We’re so happy to have found a home with them, and look forward to sharing Patland wine with even more wine-lovers like you! 

Lastly, we had the return of the Patland Release Party! We were joined by friends, family and club members on Saturday, November 5th at The Caves at Soda Canyon. 

Music was pumping through the caves all day long. Chef Munther was dishing out the goods. The wine bars were perfectly stocked. Brix the wine dog greeted everyone personally. Some very exciting cars made an appearance! It was a great day, and just so nice to be reunited. We can’t wait for the next one! 

You can bet bottles of Patland bubbly were popped at every one of these occasions! Some of you were even there for them. Remember getting handed a coupe upon your arrival at the Release Party?! We’re always happy for the opportunity to toast with you.

So the next time you reach a great milestone, we hope you’ll let us join you for the celebration. Pop the cork on a bottle of Patland, not just to celebrate the accomplishment, but all the effort that went into reaching it. Cheers!

SHOP SPARKLING WINE

Just in Time for the Holidays!

We all know wine is meant to go with food, and there's no better time of year to celebrate that than around the holidays! Thanksgiving is rolling around the corner and soon our homes will be full with the smell of pies baking and turkeys cooking. Better yet, the dining table will be surrounded by beloved family and friends. Such a joyous time of year!

So with all these festivities coming up, we wanted to share a few of our favorite Patland food and wine pairings. We decided to break it down by course, so here goes!

Course 1 - 2017 Chardonnay

The weather may be chilly, but inside we've got crackling wood fires and, in some cases, gas furnaces. Either way, we're staying warm and cozy inside, so there's no problem enjoying a chilled white at the start of the meal. We're recommending our 2017 Chardonnay. Balanced in every way, and perfect with those holiday classics! We're looking at you mashed sweet potatoes. 👀

Course 2 - 2021 Rosé

Ok, now let's kick that color up a notch! Mother always said a colorful dish is a healthy dish. (Although let's not read too far into that around the holidays 😉) A classic pairing--in our humble opinion--is our 2021 Rosé with cranberry sauce. Just trust us on this one. Between the colors and flavors, it just works. 

Course 3 - 2019 Pinot Noir

So here's the wine we're highlighting this month--the 2019 Pinot Noir. Sort of an anomaly of our wine portfolio... No one ever expected us to make a Pinot Noir. Our founder, Henry Patland, is a die-hard Cab-lover, and Pinot is really on the other end of the spectrum. Still, our winemaker, Jay Buoncristiani, was able to make a bold-style, complex Pinot Noir that Henry actually really enjoyed! Ever since, this has been a wine a somewhat regular guest in our portfolio. 

Here's the great news for you, though. While our Cabernet can frequently benefit from a few years in the cellar, our Pinot is so approachable right out the gate! This makes it the perfect red for your Thanksgiving dinner. Use it to lift up those entrees. (We all know turkey needs a little help!) It's actually surprisingly good with stuffing, or even savory bread pudding! 

Course 4 - 2016 Port

No holiday meal is complete without the dessert course! Luckily, we have a beautiful dessert wine to offer, and that is our Port-style "D'Oro". It's an ideal pairing for any chocolate or fruit inspired dessert, but don't right off a nice pumpkin or pecan pie either. It just might surprise you!

Shop Thanksgiving 4-Pack

 

Credit to Compine Wine for supplying food.

Credit to Eyeconik Media for photography.

Sauvignon Blanc with Felix Patland

 

Here at Patland Estate Vineyards, we've always prided ourselves on making unique and balanced wines. Yes, of course we want our wines to be a true representation of Napa Valley, but we also want them to be special!

Whenever we can, we add our own twist. With our Sauvignon Blanc, the twist is often in the aging. This wine goes into four different aging vessels, including Stainless Steel, Neutral Oak, New French Oak, and Concrete Eggs!

Every one of these vessels contributes something different to the wine. The stainless steel allows the wine to maintain bright, fresh aromatics. The concrete egg adds minerality and a fuller mid-palate. Lastly, the oak adds color, as well as a subtle butterscotch creaminess on the finish. 

The real beauty of this wine, though, is in its balance. Too many of any of those characteristics could easily be a bad thing in a Sauvignon Blanc, but under the tempered hands of our Winemaker (Jay Buoncristiani) and Assistant Winemaker (Felix Patland), this wine hits the mark every time. 

It's refreshing and crisp, full of lemon zest and kiwi flavors. It's the perfect thing to sip on by the pool, and food friendly too! Favorite salad or seafood dish? Try it with this. You won't regret it. 

SHOP SAUVIGNON BLANC