Maître de Chai Gala Mountain Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2019

Maître de Chai is the French term for the vocation of the Cellar Master, the person responsible for the essential and monastic task of watching over the development and aging of fine wine. Established in 2012, Maître de Chai is the joint project of longtime friends Marty Winters and Alex Pitts, who first met back in 2010 while working as chefs under Douglas Keane at Cyrus, his former Michelin Star restaurant in Sonoma. They quickly bonded over their mutual love of wine and how different wines complement different types of cuisine. In the years to follow, each of them moved to Napa separately to pursue careers at Three-Michelin Star Restaurants, pouring their heart and souls into their craft. Marty worked as a Sommelier at The Restaurant at Meadowood, while Alex worked as a Chef at The French Laundry.

Soon thereafter, Alex went on to work under Abe Schoener as the assistant winemaker at the uber-hip Scholium Project. His experience, combined with Marty’s vast understanding of Meadowood’s world-class wine list, inspired their vision to create a sophisticated label centered around outstanding wines meant to be enjoyed with food. Easy enough, their winemaking approach is hands-off: nothing added, nothing is taken away, sourcing their fruit from unique and distinct single vineyards that are impeccably farmed here in California.

Great wine is made from great vineyards and great grapes. As Maître de Chai, “masters of the cellar,” Alex and Marty acknowledge the supremacy of the vineyard and their own somewhat limited role. This particular, delicious single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon was the result of a chance encounter in New York. In 2018, while on a trip to Manhattan, Marty and Alex met a couple at an event called RAW Wine, who happened to own a vineyard back home in Napa. The foursome formed an immediate friendship, and we have this exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon to thank for it!

The grapes for this wine were sourced from the Gala Mountain Vineyard, a biodynamically farmed, six-acre site nestled at 1,000 feet in elevation on the slopes of Mt. George, between Coombsville and Atlas Peak. The fruit was tended to by hand, and after picking, was de-stemmed and fermented with native yeast in small open-top tanks. The wine was then laid down to rest for 16 months in neutral barrels. As a result, this wine exudes all the grace and structure for which mountain Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa is renowned. On the nose, the wine unfurls with red raspberry and sassafras notes, and on the palate, it is reminiscent of juicy black plums and licorice coupled with soft tannins. The classically cool label is an adaptation of an illustration from an 1883 treatise on California winemaking called The Wine Press and The Cellar. Just 26 barrels of this exquisite Cabernet Sauvignon were crafted. Marty and Alex wish for the wine to speak for itself and let me tell you…. this one surely does!!!