Vichy & Vine Red Wine Napa Valley 2019

It seemed for many years that the northern portion of Napa Valley was getting all the love. Tourists would bypass the city of Napa and its surrounding vineyards to flock to the glamorous estates and resorts of Calistoga, St. Helena, and Yountville. And the wines of up-valley appellations like Oakville, Rutherford, and Stags Leap District garnered the most attention and praise. But in the past few years, the city of Napa has undergone a drastic revitalization, seemingly overnight, with new hotels, shops, and restaurants creating a vibrant buzz downtown. Simultaneously, the previously lesser-known AVA of Coombsville, established in 2011 and just to the east of downtown Napa, has begun to receive long-overdue acclaim. ACME was an early supporter of the gorgeous wines from this underdog sub-region and regularly featured Coombsville offerings from Farella, Realm, and Favia-Erickson on our famous wall. Acclaimed vintner Bernard Lacroute realized the benefits of this cooler climate corner of Napa County when he purchased a dime-sized estate vineyard in Coombsville a few years ago. We are thrilled to feature his inaugural release, Vichy & Vine, with our Apex members. 

Bernard was born in 1943 in a small village on the eastern edge of Burgundy. As a brilliant young engineer, Bernard arrived in the United States on a prestigious fellowship from NASA and then parlayed his technological skills into a prosperous career in the software industry. Having grown up surrounded by some of the most illustrious vineyards in France, wine was an omnipresent and nostalgic elixir for Bernard. In 1991, he saw the then-untapped potential for winemaking in Oregon, and he and his wife Ronnie purchased a 420-acre cattle ranch in Yamhill and founded WillaKenzie Estate. The winery became known for world-class Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, taking its name from the nearby Willamette and MacKenzie River watersheds. By 2008, WillaKenzie was named one of the Top 100 Wineries in the World by Wine & Spirits magazine. After 25 years of accolades, in 2016, the Lacroutes, looking to retire, entrusted the WillaKenzie legacy to the Jackson Family and moved to the Bay Area to be closer to their son and his family. 

But retirement for Bernard doesn’t mean idleness. A sprightly septuagenarian with a quick wit and quicker smile, Bernard decided to shift gears from Burgundian varietals to Bordeaux grapes upon finding a hidden treasure of a vineyard on Vichy Avenue in Coombsville.  Bernard farms his coveted plot organically and maintains low crop yields to achieve maximum concentration in the fruit. Comprising a field blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec, this is an intense yet elegant wine. Vichy & Vine was crafted at the state-of-the-art Lithology winery in St. Helena by none other than Avery Heelan, the esteemed winemaker for Larkmead Vineyards. After a gentle fermentation in 500-liter French oak puncheons, the wine was then aged in French oak barrels for 20 months. This wine features aromas of dark berry alongside herbal notes reminiscent of garrigue. The tannins are pronounced, but well-integrated and soft, and this wine can be enjoyed now and for many years to come. On the label, you’ll find the latitude and longitude coordinates of Bernard’s estate vineyard: he’s literally helping put Coombsville on the map! Location, location, location, as they say. Just 80 cases produced.