The 2012 J Gregory Cabernet Sauvignon is from a small vineyard in Coombsville.

Notes of citrus – orange, mandarin and a nice tartness lingers on the finish for some time.

It has weight and a slight viscosity but also retains a crispness. On the nose the wine shows notes of stone fruit and pear – the palate is beautifully balanced between weight, flavor of fruit and acidity. He allows the wine in barrel to undergo full malolactic fermentation whereas the wine in stainless sees none. Mark ferments half of this wine in stainless steel tanks and the other half in new French Oak barrels. The vineyard is on the Napa side of the Carneros District. This wine was sourced from Mark’s friend and longtime Napa farmer Buck Bartolucci. Only 100 cases were produced of the 2013 J Gregory Chardonnay. As a result of his experience with barrels, barrel selection and when to use and or not use certain types of barrels are a critical part of his wine making. While at Mondavi Mark worked with a Master Cooper and ultimately made barrel purchasing decisions for the winery. He tries to manipulate the wines as little as possible. In the winery, Mark takes a hands-off approach – preferring to ferment with yeast already present on the fruit when it comes into the winery. Mark works closely with several long-time farming families and has direct input and makes decisions on how the vines for his wines are managed. Rather than owning vineyards Marks looks for premium vineyards and enters long term leases (they have a 40-year lease on one of their source vineyards). He wants elegant wines with pleasing mouth feels (that can be enjoyed young but will age well) instead of being dominated by alcohol and tannins. Balanced fruit in the vineyard equates to balanced wines. He picks the fruit when it is ripe but not over ripe – he wants a good balance of pH and acidity when the grapes come into the winery. Mark’s philosophy of wine making is rooted in Napa’s past and in old world traditions. To this Mark has created a lifestyle around the J Gregory Wines – keeping production small enough so he and his wife Kandice can easily manage the business, spend time doing winemaker dinners in the select states their wines are represented in and have enough time left over to be able to travel. Mark’s father said something like this during his final days to Mark, “when you look back on your life no one ever says they wished they worked more”. The vision for J Gregory Cellars is to remain small – under 3,000 cases with most of the production sold direct to consumers either through visits or the wine club. As Mark says, it was time to “slow his soul down”. Jessup was so successful and had grown rapidly that it was no longer a tiny winery and required a much greater time commitment. Mark began Jessup Cellars on his own in 1996 and was winemaker there until 2008 when he decided to leave and focus on J Gregory Cellars. He remembers there were only a team of four people working on those wines at that time. Mark was on the original wine making team at Opus One – when the wine was made in the city of Napa prior to the winery being built. As a young winemaker he recalls being influenced by other winemakers he met at Mondavi including Charles Thomas, Mike Farmer (now running Euclid Wines), Mike Mueller (McKenzie Mueller) and Richard Arnold. He credits his work and contacts at Robert Mondavi as influencing his career. From there he worked the 1979 harvest at Robert Mondavi Winery (the winery was only 12 years old at the point) and Mark did not leave Mondavi until 1994. His first wine job in the Napa Valley was working in the cellar at Inglenook vineyards in 1978. He later enrolled at Napa Valley College and took wine and viticulture classes.

Helena, he remembers exploring vineyards, watching the vineyard workers work on the vines and being attracted to the smells of being out in a vineyard as well the sweet smells of fermentation during harvest. He was attracted to vineyards from an early age. Mark was born and raised in the Napa Valley and is a 3rd generation to the Napa area. J Gregory Wines was founded in 2005 by vintner Mark Jessup.

Mondavi opus one 2012