View As PDF - Wine Country This Week

NAPA VALLEY | WINE COUNTRY THIS WEEKTasting Room of the Week:EHLERS ESTATEby Charles NeaveMaybe you haven’t been to Ehlers Estatelately (you should go). Maybe you have neverbeen (shame on you). No matter which, get inyour car, saddle up your horse or get on yourbike and head to this amazing winery just abit north of St. Helena.A few years ago I wrote that the EhlersEstate winery is “a bit like finding a Picassohanging in a log cabin, or spotting a vintageDuisenberg underneath a tarp in some Ozarklean-to” … that is about what it is like whenyou head down the drive to Ehlers Estatenorth of St. Helena. It is even more like thattoday, with all the positive connotations.The tasting room has a lot of historystanding behind it. From the outside you canimagine Andrew Wyeth painting it. Inside aneasy informality reigns above all, one that atfirst almost belies the quality of the wine youare about to try.This is not a tasting room with pretensions;the emphasis here is on the wines and comfortand style. This is a building where wine reignsabove all, where it seems like it is 1886 allover again. In fact the history of the winerydoes indeed stretch back to 1886. That iswhen a Sacramento grocer named BernardEhlers started it with seven grand in gold, andthat is when the stone winery was built.He also planted the olive trees next to thewinery, where today there is a bocce courtand fountain. When Bernard Ehlers died in1901 the property passed into the hands ofhis wife, Anne. Then in 1923 a local residentnamed Alfred Domingo purchased the landfrom her. Since only home winemaking waslegal (this was the crippling era of Prohibition,after all), Domingos and his brother“bootlegged” wine and brandy to a steadystream of Bay Area visitors. Story has it thatthey kept a big cask of their “homemade”wine in what is now the tasting room. Whenpeople would “visit” they would fill up abottle, slap a label on it, presumably somemoney would change hands, and no onewas the wiser.Eventually the Leducq family from Franceentered the picture, at first producing wine atthe winery under their name. When theyacquired the balance of the 42 acres thatcomprised the original estate a few years ago,the name Ehlers went back on the label.Today Jean Leducq is gone but the FondationLeducq, a non-profit philanthropic entitywhose sole purpose is to support internationalcardiovascular research, serves as thebeneficiary of the Ehlers Estate wines. Lookclosely at the ‘Ehlers’ in the label and you willfind the ‘heart’.Today the winery makes all of their redestate wines on the property: the “1886”Cabernet Sauvignon, the “One Twenty OverEight” Cab, a Merlot, and they’re usually soldout Cabernet Franc. The wines are also madeat the winery, using the crush pad in front andto the side of the stone building. The SauvignonBlanc, their only white wine, is also adelight, and a perfect wine to have after youtaste inside at the picnic tables to the side.Behind them are the boxed vegetable gardens,the produce of which goes to those who workhere. The whimsical contemporary artwork atthe new state-of-the-art winery is an amusingbackdrop, as is the mix of furnishings – frommodern to classical – in the tasting roomitself, presided over by hospitality managerMaria Newman. The ceilings are high, thewalls stone, the bar long and polishes wood,the atmosphere welcoming and casual.A short drive down the lane to this beautiful“old Napa Valley” winery is a quiet strollback in time. The wines are unquestionablyaward-winning, but so is the entire experience,one worth making time for no matterhow long or how brief your visit to this partof the Valley might be.Ehlers Estate is located at 3222 EhlersLane off of Route 29 north of the town of St.Helena about two miles, on the west side ofhighway. They’re open from 10 a.m. until 5p.m. Private tours and wine tasting are alsoavailable. For more information and directionsyou can contact them at (707) 963-5972 or look go to www.ehlersestate.com.42 www.WineCountryThisWeek.com