RIC
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W
hen Napa’s
Grace Family
winery was sold
earlier this year,
it marked an-
other inevitability in Napa’s genera-
tional changing of the guard. The es-
tate was founded by Dick and Ann
Grace on a small property just north of
St. Helena in 1976. Originally, the
front acre plot was an olive orchard;
those trees were soon relocated on the
property and replaced by grapevines.
When the first harvest was com-
pleted, the Graces drove their fruit
down to Charlie Wagner at Caymus,
who liked it so much he bottled it sep-
arately under his Caymus label, label-
ing it as Grace Family. From there the
wine went on to earn one of Napa’s
first cult followings, with winemaking
shifting from Caymus to Grace’s small
basement winery a couple of vintages
later. Production has always been lim-
ited, and much was sold off for charity.
But the wine was distinctive. Marrying
powerful fruit with racy savory and
herb notes, it proved to be one of the
valley’s longest-lived wines.
Fast forward to today. The new owner is Kate Green. Green and
her husband, Jeremy, came to the valley as outsiders with no in-
tention of getting into the wine business. Eventually they planted
a vineyard, and along the way developed a friendship with the
Graces. Family parallels made it a natural fit in many ways.
“My husband is a banker, like Dick was,” says Green. “We
started with olive trees, then went to vines. We didn’t plan this,
but it feels like a calling.” Perhaps the main cog in the wheel is
winemaker Helen Keplinger, who started at Grace in 2014 and is
staying on. Keplinger was also helping Green with her vineyard.
The first order of business for Keplinger was to rejuvenate the
vineyards. There are two blocks, upper and lower. The upper had
been replanted in 1997, but the lower hadn’t, and it was suc-
cumbing to virus. That was pulled out after the 2016 vintage,
with replanting done from a massale selection that had been
started a few years earlier, eliminating virused material. The lower
parcel features volcanic compressed ash, basalt and clay soils, and
according to Keplinger, it gives the wine its soft fleshiness.
The upper parcel needed some work too. It’s situated on red
volcanic soil that is remarkably different, despite the two parcels’being barely a minute’s walk apart.
(Each parcel is nearly 1.5 acres.) Over
time, the vines on the naturally low-
yielding site had been trained on a sin-
gle arm, which was limiting their ca-
pacity to produce. Keplinger is in the
process of switching them to double
arm, to improve sap flow and ensure
longevity for the vines. The upper par-
cel produces the “skeleton” of the
wine, according to Keplinger. It’s the
structure and spine that then marries
with the fleshy fruit of the lower par-
cel. They ripen up to two weeks
apart—another eye opener considering
their proximity.
The Grace Family Cabernet Sauvi-
gnon Napa Valley 2017 shows a very
intense cassis core, tightly focused
structure and mouthwatering savory
and mineral streaks that carry through
a racy finish. The wine is made only
from the upper parcel; the lower block
is not yet back in production. Thus,
the 2017 offers just 150 cases.
The 2018 is still in barrel, and a
sample of the first picking from the up-
per block is even more intense than
the ’17, with blazing purity to the damson plum, dark cherry and
violet notes, which are wonderfully vibrant through the finish.
I asked Keplinger if the ’17 and ’18 are really Grace, as they
lack half their normal vineyard base. “Oh, I think it’s the wine,”
she answers, then pauses. “But it’s also not the full wine, because
I know what that lower block can do and add to the wine. And
when that is back in production, I think it’s going to be even
better than before. But still, this [’18] isn’t an incomplete wine. I
guess I’m talking out of both sides of my mouth, so I better let
the wine speak for itself,” she adds with a light laugh.
The energy between Keplinger and Green is positive and col-
laborative. They both clearly care for the historical significance
of the estate and are committed to keeping its heritage while at
the same time bringing it into modern-day Napa. That doesn’t
mean a style shift—this is a micro-terroir that would be resistant
to any major tinkering in the winemaking. What it means is
more attention to the viticulture and more detail in the wine-
making that will amplify the terroir even more. Grace Family’s
new history starts nows.Senior editor James Molesworth has been with Wine Spectator since
- He is lead taster on California Cabernet.
Grace Family’s New History
The energy between new
Grace owner Kate Green and
winemaker Helen Keplinger is
positive and collaborative.
SEPT. 30, 2019 • WINE SPECTATOR 33JAMES MOLESWORTH