Winemaking Stories from the President’s Desk 2007 to 2016

Highlight of the Year: Winemaking Stories You’ve Never Heard Before

Fall-Winter 2011-2012

Itʼs not that often where you have one event in a year that really stands out as exceptional. 2011 had that singular event for us at the winery.

At this time last year we got the notice from the Napa Valley Vintners Association asking us if we wanted to offer a dinner at the winery for the Wine Auction in June. We hadnʼt done an event for the Auction at the winery for several years and I felt the time was ripe to do another one. I asked Jennifer if she wanted to take charge of this time-eating and non-paying endeavor and she agreed. Well after butting heads with the Auction rules and requirements for two weeks we decided to give up on participating with the Vintners and just throw a dinner at the winery for our 40 top direct buyers and thus was born the ʻTop 40ʼ party.

I asked my great friend Chef Kurt from the Coach House in Oklahoma City to come out and do the dinner and he readily agreed. Chef Kurt is not only enormously talented but rends asunder the notion that great Chefs have to be enormous prima-donnas. Not only did Chef plan the entire meal, he brought out his GM and his top server to help execute the service. And when word got out that he was coming to Napa to do a dinner, four of his former protégés, who are now Bay Area Chefs in their own right, volunteered to help. Iʼve never seen so much talent in our humble little kitchen.

We did the dinner in the cellar, which Jennifer transformed with red carpet, candles and amazing table decorations. It was truly a transformative experience. This was more than just a dinner, it was a night that made me feel an immense sense of pride; in our setting, what our team has accomplished wine wise in the last 12 years, watching my daughter trailing behind the pros carrying every dish down that oversized flight of stairs, and having the kind of friends who can cook like that! I ate every morsel that was set before me. I never do that at wine

dinners.

Needless to say, we want to do this again in 2012. Mark your calendars for Saturday August 4th and stay tuned to find out how to qualify!

Cheers to memories,

–Michael Keenan

Best Ever Winemaking Story?

Spring-Summer 2011

For several years my close friends have been teasing me about my over-usage of the term “best ever”. Each new vintage would be brought forth as the best we have ever produced. Truth be told I do feel that the last ten years in Napa (and certainly for us) have been the best decade ever, perhaps for any wine region anywhere.

Nonetheless I have of late restrained my usage of the term “best ever”, partly because I was tired of hearing myself say it and partly because itʼs like arguing over whom the best baseball player of all time is (oh wait that would be Willie Mays!).

For about eighteen months, roughly when the first ʼ07 Cabernets were being released from other Napa wineries, I have been repeatedly asked by people in the trade if the hype about the ʻ07ʼs was true and did I feel it was the best vintage ever for us. Due to my newfound sense of restraint I would not answer yes directly but just try to describe what I thought were the signature markers of this vintage.

Well if you like deep, dark, rich, sweet fruit flavors with a seemingly endless finish and tannins that are beyond silky, this just might be your cup of tea.I will never forget one of our ʻ07 blending trials. It was mid March 2009, the low point (I hope) of the latest recession. We had just concluded a rather bleak financial meeting in the office and I felt I was literally dragging myself into the tasting room to work on the ʼ07 cabs. After only about five minutes of smelling and tasting the estate cabernets I felt completely transformed. I looked up from my notes and asked Matt and Randy if twelve years ago if they had ever even imagined that barrel samples of estate cabernet could ever taste this incredibly rich and ridiculously smooth. They both answered no, they had never even imagined this.

Best ever? I wonʼt say it – but you can!

Cheers,

–Michael Keenan

Wine Shortage Part 2?

Fall-Winterer 2012-13

For the first time in the history of this newsletter (14 years) there will be no current release Reserve or Napa Cabernet Sauvignon on the order form, ditto for the Chardonnay. The 2011 Chardonnay will be officially released in March of next year and the two Cabernets in April (if you come to the winery before March Laura might pour you a sample!). In addition three of the ʼ09 reds that we just released this fall, Cab Franc, Carneros Merlot, and Zinfandel are already in very short supply. The Cab Franc might not even make it till Christmas.

So to fill out the order form for this newsletter I thought we would include four wines from the library, the ʼ97 Napa Valley Merlot, ʼ04 Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, ʼ05 Napa Merlot, and ʼ05 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. I cannot emphasize enough how important aging is to the enjoyment of fine wine. We hold our wines back before release a little longer than the norm but that being said they are still just beginning their drinkable period.

Two of my drinking highlights this year were library wines. In September I did a dinner at the Meadow Club in Marin. The first wine served during walk around appetizers was the 2010 Chardonnay, delicious, made a great first impression. Then for the first seated course we had the 2005 Chardonnay with angel hair pasta with scallops in a light saffron cream sauce. The first smell and taste of the ʼ05 registered as quite different than the 2010. The ʼ05 was darker, earthier, a little nuttier, more complex, and a little dare I say ʻBurgundianʼ, clearly older. The magic came as we began eating the pasta course and sipping the wine. With each bite and sip the wine appeared to get younger and show more fruit, by the time the course was finished it was difficult to tell the wines apart, an amazing transition.

The other library wine that really made my highlight list this year was the ʼ97 Reserve Merlot Mailbox Vineyard. I showed this wine in San Diego the week before Thanksgiving during a seminar on Merlot. I was quite struck by the now 15 year old wine and the core of bright, sweet, red cherry fruit that it had retained; it still is a ʻyoungʼ wine!

So if you have not had the chance to try some of our older wines and you really want to buy some Keenan Cabernet this Christmas I heartily recommend taking advantage of our current offer – while it lasts!

Holiday Cheers,

–Michael Keenan

Highlights of The Drinking Year: Winemaking Stories that Surprise and Enchant

Spring-Summer 2009

My favorite trade event of the year is the Napa Premiere Auction in February. For this event we make a unique auction lot blend and people from the trade and media come from all over the world to bid and enjoy a week in Napa going to open houses, parties and all manner of special events. After the auction last February our friends from Arkansas took us to the Martini House (sadly now closed) to celebrate another successful auction (they have purchased our lot several years in row). On the way out the door to dinner with Jennifer I thought that I should bring something special to celebrate. We had been drinking barrel samples of the auction lots most of the day and young current release wines most of the week so I grabbed a magnum of 2001 Napa Merlot and a magnum of 2000 Cabernet Sauvignon. We ordered the famous Martini House Mushroom specials and began to pour the Merlot.

My, oh my, how mighty damn good that Merlot was with those mushrooms! Chris Robertson, one of the Arkansans, exclaimed, “Michael, that might be the best damn Merlot I have ever had!” When I told him how much the wine had retailed for five years ago ($30/750ml) he then muttered something about those damn French wines being so ridiculously expensive!

Speaking of French, highlight #2 was at Fandango, a French Bistro in Pacific Grove, Ca. They had recently ordered the ʼ07 Carneros Merlot so imagine my surprise when the ʼ02 Napa Merlot was presented. This wine didnʼt even need any food; it opened up immediately and showed copious rich red cherry fruit and a velvety deep texture that just said pure pleasure! I donʼt even remember what I ate with it – it simply didnʼt matter.

Highlight #3 was in Tampa, Florida at Bernʼs Steakhouse the first week of November. Could be the greatest wine list in the world. 1943 Cheval Blanc, it still took an hour to open up! 67 freakin years old! Tannins still had a little grit to them, lovely violet like perfume coming out at the end, sublime. I heard that back then everything went into the crusher, stems, leaves; no such thing as a sorting table.

The theme here is age. You simply canʼt in any way replicate what time does to a great bottle of wine.

Speaking of time: in the past year the wine business seems to have rebounded from the abyss of winter/spring of 2009, and for this I would like to give a very special thank you to our loyal wine club members who have played a very large part in making this last year a year worthy of giving thanks for.

Cheers!

–Michael Keenan

Director of Social Media/Raker of Leaves

Spring-Summer 2010

That is the title on my son Reilly’s freshly printed Keenan Winery business card. He has been working for us on and off for the past couple of years, mostly under Randy’s guidance in the cellar or any where on the property where work needs to be done. He is the bottom man on the totem pole, hence, on occasion is asked to clear the driveway of leaves.

A few months ago I had what I thought at the time was a brilliant idea: let’s put Reilly in charge of starting our Facebook page! He’s young, computer savvy, always connected to his friends and would have no trouble figuring this out. I hear about Facebook seemingly all the time from our customers and industry colleagues and they all say that the winery should be on it. I have no clue how to do this. I’m pretty sure I was in the bar having a beer with Betty White when they had the seminar on what Facebook was all about!

Having a teenager is a lot like being in the stock market these days. One day they are up and full of promise for the future and the next day they are lying slack-jawed on the couch seemingly unable to feed themselves. When Reilly and I met a while ago to talk about our Facebook thing I showed him another winery’s page and just said, “Make it better than that.” He replied, “That’s not a very high bar to jump over.” I looked at our page last week and thought I’m not really sure he has done much jumping.

I do encourage any of you who use Facebook to hit the link on our homepage and do whatever it is you do there on our page. If you have any ideas/requests let Reilly know. Reilly@keenanwinery.com. And if you come to the tasting room this summer on a Saturday you may run into him. He’s easy to spot; he’ll be the tallest, skinniest, blondest fellow in the room. If you get a chance ask him to tell you the story of when the Fed-ex guy imitated him

using the leaf-blower last winter, it’s hilarious.

Amazing how easy it is to imitate a teenager, probably because we have all been there!

Cheers to the 3rd generation, our future!

–Michael Keenan

30th Anniversary Vintage: A Winemaking Story to Remember

Spring-Summer 2009

One of the things that I have realized recently is that I have had to “unlearn” some of the fundamental axiomatic truths about wine that my father instilled in me many years ago. For him great wine was all about intensity, structure, complexity, and the ability to improve through the aging process. This is why Dad only looked for property in the mountains, thinking this setting would better achieve this dynamic than a valley setting. He was absolutely right about Spring Mountain. Grapes grown here are more intense. To further augment intensity watering, like in France, was prohibited. Nothing was done to enhance soil health, this would “spoil” the vines, and to achieve greatness the vines must really struggle! This theory, while sound on paper, ended up producing wines that were a little too intense with tannins that only a father could love.

It took me years to realize it but augmenting intensity was not the way to go. Our appellation does enough of that on its own. Enhancing soil health through sustainable practices such as growing cover crops and applying organic compost is the way to go. And for Gods’ sake if the vines need water let them have a drink! This produces wines with a better tannin texture and a more expressive nature.

But the biggest surprise for me over the last decade has been the relationship between quality and quantity. One of the great axioms in the wine world is that lower yields produce higher quality. While I’m sure this must be true for other appellations this has surprisingly not been so up on the mountain.

2006, our 30th vintage, produced a record Chardonnay yield and a record Merlot yield. Quite frankly we were all a little shocked over the Chardonnay yield and I decided to keep it a state secret until the wine sold out for fear that people would think less of it had they known how much of it there was. But now I feel comfortable enough about these truths to talk about them in real time.

The wine on the cover, the 2006 30th Anniversary Reserve Merlot from the Mailbox Vineyard is simply put the most mouth watering, delicious Merlot that we have ever put in bottle. I’m sipping on a glass right now: the depth of fruit, the spiciness, the big rich velvety texture, oh my- oh my!

Well, here is to thirty years of living and learning on Spring Mountain and feeling our identity forming!

Cheers,

–Michael Keenan

Sugars and Acids together, oh my!

Spring-Summer 2009

We saw something in the vineyards in 2005 during the ripening process that we had never seen or heard of before. That is for about a week we saw acids and sugars go up together. Normally acids and sugars have an inverse relationship, when the sugars are going up during the ripening process the acids are going down. And the trick with hitting just the right time to pick is catching the moment before the spread

between sugars and acids

gets too big.

The weather in September of !05 was not the usual textbook California dry and warm weather. We had an unusual cool period near the beginning of the month. The sugars had begun to rise and the acids had begun to fall but when the cool weather hit they both reversed direction. This is rare but not unheard of. Now when the sun came back out and warmed up the vineyard the sugars made the U turn and began to go up again but what was really unusual was for almost a week the acids kept going up as well. We had literally never heard of this before.

The weather generally remained somewhat mild for the rest of the harvest season and we were able to pick at a relatively calm pace and with slightly higher than normal natural acid levels. The resulting wine in barrel showed a wonderful precision of flavor, bright, defined notes, seamless velvety tannins, and a remaining dark sense of undefined richness. My overall assessment, or grade, for the vintage was very high, equivalent to the rich and robust !04 vintage. In the back of my mind though, I wondered how Parker would rate these wines. The !05s were decidedly more elegant and refined than the very rich !04s. The !05 vintage, more like great Jazz or classical music compared to the rock and roll of the !04s, and the general assumption about Parker is that he prefers rock and roll.

Not so surprisingly he did rate most of the wines a point or two lower. The reason I am bringing all of this up is that I have been genuinely surprised by how much the !05s have matured in the bottle in the last six months. We released the Napa Cabernet in April and the Reserve Cabernet this week. I had not tasted either wine for 6 months prior to release and I was quite amazed at how much richer and more defined these wines have become with more bottle time. Parker rates the wines when they are very young, two months after bottling. Not so surprisingly the Wine Enthusiast, which tasted the wines very recently for review in their August issue, rated all the wines two points higher.

I had a very special feeling about the !05 growing season as it was unfolding which I mentioned in newsletter #14. I feel this may be one of our longest-lived and most interesting vintages.

Cheers to the Future! Cheers to winemaking stories to remember from the past!

–Michael Keenan

Cabernet Franc the Fourth Reserve wine

Fall-Winter 2008

Even though it doesn’t say it on the label or in the shape of the bottle we consider the Cabernet Franc our fourth ‘Reserve’ wine. When my father planted it thirty years ago I don’t think he ever imagined that we would be bottling it as a single vineyard wine. Now we have an as yet unresolved debate going at the winery as to which Bordeaux varietal is our strongest. A case can be made for each of the three, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot. Each has received scores in the nineties for every bottling in the last five vintages from Robert Parker. To confuse matters further our blend Mernet has garnered the highest ratings of the four reserve wines in that same five years.

Fortunately unresolved debating makes me very thirsty, I think I’ll go and open a bottle of wine…ah, that’s better.

Not being able to see into the future in 1975 or even at the time of the great replanting of 1997 we did not put in much Cabernet Franc, thinking that it would be used primarily for blending. Wrong-o. The ’01-’04 bottlings of Estate Cabernet Franc became our hottest and most allocated wine. We couldn’t even put the ’04 on the order form on the website.

Blessedly, Mother Nature gave me a wonderful idea at the conclusion of the ’03 harvest. We ended up with a record Merlot crop even though we had to abandon a two- acre block at the top of the ‘Upper Bowl’ because it got too ripe before we could pick it. Needing more Franc and less Merlot the decision to graft over that block to Franc seemed like a no-brainer. Walking into the vineyard the day after the grafting was done was one of the more shocking sights I have ever seen. The vines had been cut off at the knees and for all intents and purposes looked quite dead. “I will surely pay for this in the after-life”, I thought, “what was I thinking”.

Thankfully vines are semi-miraculous life forms. Within weeks of the butchering, new shoots were coming out of the seemingly lifeless stumps. There was even a teeny crop in ’04 and a shockingly robust yield in ’05. No wonder ancient cultures worshipped these plants.

Happily for the first time I have been able to show the Cabernet Franc to the trade and public and yes, put it back on the website. So remember in this time of economic madness and stress great wine makes everything better.

Cheers,

–Michael Keenan