Winereviewonline.com
Doing the Right Thing
By Robert Whitley
February 23, 2010
I’m in the camp that holds Franc has untapped potential to produce seriously good wine from the Napa Valley…
Blackbird is a significant player in this story because the wines are inspired by the Right Bank Bordeaux districts of Pomerol and Saint-Emilion, where the predominant grape varieties are Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Cabernet Sauvignon is little used or not at all because the cool clay soils of the region foil just about all attempts to properly ripen the grape.
Pott has intimate knowledge of Cab Franc and Merlot from the Right Bank, where he once upon a time made wines for Saint-Emilion grand cru producers Troplong Mondot and La Tour Figeac. At Chateau La Tour Figeac he also doubled as the general manager.
He is no less experienced in the grapes of the Napa Valley, having logged stints at Newton, St. Clement and Quintessa in addition to a number of consulting gigs. At Blackbird, where Pott has taken the reins from star winemaker and good friend Sarah Gott, he inherits the 10-acre Blackbird Vineyard, certainly among the top five Merlot vineyards in the valley.
Pott, as any good Right Bank winemaker would, believes the Cabernet Franc adds structural elegance and longevity. Yet, stylistic benefits aside, Pott offers a more practical argument for utilizing more Cabernet Franc and Merlot in Napa Valley red wines.
“We are finding out that these cool-climate Bordeaux grapes do better in areas like Carneros and the southern end of the Napa Valley than Pinot Noir,” said Pott. “Carneros simply isn’t cool enough for really, really good Pinot.”
Whether he’s right or wrong, there is little doubt that the Pinots of the much cooler Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast, each with a more profound Pacific Ocean influence, have overshadowed the Pinots of Carneros.
The Blackbird vineyard is right at the northern border of the cool zone, located in the Oak Knoll District near the city of Napa. Most of the Cabernet Franc used is purchased from growers in southern Napa Valley and Carneros.
There’s also a fair bit of clay in the soils at the southern end of the valley, which when combined with the cooler days and still cooler evenings leads to wines with fresher acidity and firmer, more prickly tannins and little or none of the jammy characteristics found in Napa reds north of the Oak Knoll District.
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