Heitz Cellars is a Napa Icon. In the 61 years since their first vintage Heitz has cemented itself as one of the valley’s true gems, a winery with a style that is entirely its own, producing wines that speak of a bygone era and the birth of Napa’s wine scene. From the off, Joe Heitz pioneered both site selection, and a method of producing great Cabernet Sauvignon that was both iconoclastic and truly individual. A full year in 1000 gallon American oak vats, follows three years in French barriques, allowing the wines to gain a unique sense of transparency and aromatic elegance. Curiously, they eschew malo-lactic fermentation – a feature which truly sets them apart, but one which gives rise to wines of exceptional freshness, with wonderfully savoury overtones, and the necessary acidity to last for decades. Legendary bottles like Martha’s Vineyard 1974, 1975 and 1978 regularly sit atop truly discerning drinkers’ desert island wine selections – to this day, possessing an extraordinary sense of life and lift, not to mention Martha’s signature minty eucalyptus notes. With today’s release of the 2014s, the Wine Enthusiast 100 point scoring Martha’s Vineyard and 96 point Trailside, perhaps we’re in the presence of future icons. They certainly look set to live for decades.
It is worth noting that Virginie Boone, the Wine Enthusiast’s Californian reviewer since 2011, has never awarded 100 points to any wine before Martha’s 2014. Tasting it blind she remarked, “Something was different during a tasting last December. The stars aligned. The angels sang. My senses took over and didn’t allow my brain to overthink…. There was something about the 2014 Heitz Cellars Martha’s Vineyard that spoke repeatedly to me over several tries in the blind flight. Of course, I observed the aromas, the texture, flavor and balance. Of course, I tasted its complexity and structure, the beauty, the length, the longing for more. It inspired the confounding curiosity of just how fermented grapes can achieve such grace. It wasn’t flashy, or overly engineered. It wasn’t a wine that hits you over the head, nor fades away. It tasted of history. Of substance. Of place.”
Read MoreThe 2014 vintage sits in the middle of a string of great Napa vintages and has produced some exceptional wines. It was the year of the Napa earthquake, a sudden tremor which caused dry creeks and rivers to flow, bringing much needed water to the dry soils. One theory suggests it was this natural event that allowed the grapes to maintain such impressive freshness, despite the previously drought-like conditions. Certainly, both Martha’s and Trailside 2014 possess remarkable amounts of vim and vigour – both wines require at least a further decade of ageing to be at their best.
In 2018 Heitz was sold to Gaylon Lawrence, an Arkansas billionaire. While we haven’t met the new owner, we’ve had regular calls with the new team and there’s a renewed sense of dynamism about the estate. Very little is changing in the winery, more precise selections, more refined extractions, a touch less new oak, but essentially the identity of these wines will remain the same. What looks certain is a new level of sophistication and refinement across the range, one that will bring an extra touch of magic to an already winning formula. A new dawn rises over Joe Heitz’s original vision – you would hope he would thoroughly approve.
The wines are currently abroad and will be shipped in the Autumn of 2020.