Matthiasson

Ask a Napa winemaker what they drink at home and which fellow winemakers they most admire and the answer, frequently, is Matthiasson. Steve and Jill Matthiasson met through their work in sustainable agriculture, and Steve’s career has also included a decade at Stag’s Leap. Deeply committed to regenerative farming, they regard themselves as farmers first and winemakers second. Eric Asimov has written in the NY Times: ‘Matthiasson wines bear an agricultural stamp, as fresh, lively and alive as the best produce from a farmers’ market.’  

Their standard-bearing viticultural work is matched by an intuitive approach in the winery, and sustainability doesn’t stop with their plants. Steve will talk about his vineyard team’s access to comprehensive health insurance as passionately as he will his cover crop or sulphur dioxide regime.  

As well as poised and refreshing wines from the classic Napa varieties, Steve and Jill are also champions of more ‘left field’ varieties, and we couldn’t resist getting our hands on some of their Ribolla Gialla. Steve travelled to Fruili in the early 2000s and fell in love with the variety, later grafting over seven rows of Merlot in his home vineyard to this ancient, textural grape. They ferment whole clusters of fruit, leaving it on the skins to develop an orange hue, and keep it for 18 months in old barrels. This is a unique and gastronomic Napa wine, with subtle tannins, fresh pear and hazelnut flavours, and stony minerality.  

Linda Vista Chardonnay is Steve and Jill creating the kind of lower alcohol, acid-driven wines they love to drink at home. The vineyard is a stone’s throw from the Matthiasson’s house, in the Oak Knoll AVA once considered too cool for reds. The Chardonnay is picked over multiple passes in the vineyard, by their permanent team, to build a spectrum of ripeness in the cellar. All grapes are whole bunch pressed into old oak barrels, with battonage and malolactic are kept to a minimum. The result is a beautiful mix of sunny fruit, a slight creaminess, but laser-focused, mouth-watering acidity throughout.  

Their Cabernet Franc has quickly become a staff favourite at Flint. Here they use heritage Franc clones from three vineyard sites (ranging from a cool Carneros vineyard closer to the ocean, their own vineyard in the cooler pocket of Napa at the south of the valley, and their celebrated Phoenix vineyard, planted on unusual (for Napa) schist. They use up to 50% whole cluster in the fermentation, before elevage in old puncheons and foudres. All in all, this is an ethereal, silky Cabernet Franc with more than a nod to the Loire Valley.   

Matthiasson’s Cabernet Sauvignon is something of a contemporary benchmark in Napa. Somehow dense and elegant at the same time, it’s a blend of vineyard sites, including cooler fruit from Coombsville at the bottom of the valley where the vines are most impacted by helpful fog and ocean breeze, plus the plush, soft fruit of Oak Knoll, and minerally, graphite-tinged fruit from Rutherford. They pick and end up with around 40 ferments, which are kept separate until bottling. The result is subtle but complex, incredibly sapid and drinkable – a wine that truly encapsulates the Matthiason ‘house style.’