Over the past three weeks we’ve been featuring the AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) of Napa Valley beginning in the north with Week 1 highlighting Calistoga, Spring Mountain AVA, and Diamond Mountain AVA. Week 2 focusing on Howell Mountain AVA, Chiles Valley AVA, and St Helena AVA, and Week 3 with the big boys of Rutherford AVA and Oakville AVA. Today, we’re shedding light on, perhaps two of the most obscure AVAs of Napa: Atlas Peak AVA and Wild Horse Valley AVA.

(Slowly conquering Napa Valley….AVA by AVA)

1. Atlas Peak AVA

(awesome view in Atlas Peak AVA photo credit)

The famous Tuscan producer Piero Antinori founded Atlas Peak Winery in the late 80’s and began planting Sangiovese in the early 90’s, believing the climate would suit it well. This prompted local producers to follow suit. It turned out that Atlas Peak was no Chianti Classico and the majority of the Sangiovese was very mediocre. Since then, the growers and producers of Atlas Peak have been working at redefining their image. Bordeaux varietals, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay have all since been planted, but the reputation has been gaining for, yup you guessed it, Cabernet Sauvignon.

Atlas Peak’s 11,000-acre boundary is situated on the west side of the Vaca Mountain Range at high elevations, with the majority of the 1500 acres of planted vineyards situated between 760 and 2660 ft. To further classify things, Atlas Peak contains 3 distinct sub-valleys, all with slight climatic differences: Foss Valley, Rector Canyon, Milliken Canyon.

There are somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 wineries producing wine with the Atlas Peak designation. Some of the other producers joining Atlas Peak Vineyards include Cobblestone Vineyards, Bialla Vineyards, Dominari Wines, Krupp Brothers, Pahlmeyer, Jocelyn Lonen, Vin Roc.

I haven’t seen or tasted any of these wines but I’d still love to try some of Atlas Peak Vineyards’ Sangiovese vintages from the early 00’s (they don’t make it any longer) to see how the grape manifests itself here.

2. Wild Horse Valley AVA

(image left from GourmetGirlMagazine.com and right from Heron Lake Winery)

The Wild Horse Valley AVA is somewhat of an obscurity. It has one resident winery, Heron Lake Winery, and only a few vineyards. The 3300 acre valley is only planted with 100 acres of vines, and apparently due to land and lake preservation measures, there isn’t a whole lot of options for further development. The Wild Horse Valley beats out Carneros for being the coolest area in all of Napa, heavily influenced by the breezes off the bay to the south. The vineyards are able to escape the fog and gather plenty of sunlight exposure, thanks to the elevation. The rocky volcanic soils are almost exclusively planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Heron Lake Winery only makes 500 cases of one wine using Wild Horse fruit, the Miss Olivia Brion Pinot Noir, much of which is sold to big name restaurants around the country. Because of its rarity and reasonable price tag, I was determined to find a bottle and K&L’s website displayed 3 bottles in their San Francisco store. After scrounging the shelves by myself and later with the help of staff, we eventually liberated the hidden bottles buried in a rack. A few members of K&L’s staff weren’t at all familiar with this wine, which further proves its obscurity.

Heron Lake Vineyard ‘07 “Miss Olivia Brion” Pinot Noir
The nose catches my attention right away and makes me instantly picture Oregon Pinot Noir, with my next thought being of an amplified Central Otago Pinot. Regardless, I would have never thought of this as Napa and possibly not even California Pinot Noir. The colour is fairly dark with a purplish hue.

The nose is definitely fruit driven, black cherry with strawberry and mild spice notes as the wine breathes. I love and find it relieving that I’m not overwhelmed with oak at all. The palate is juicy, but balanced with a lot of acidity and the finish has a nice length. This is good Pinot Noir.

In this market, I feel that $35 is pushing it, yet when considering the small production and the interesting story, I have no regrets paying it.

Please feel free to contribute any information, experience or tasting notes you have that relate to Atlas Peak or Wild Horse Canyon below and check back next Sunday for more AVA action.