Mayacamas Vineyards: Mount Veeder Star

Mayacamas Vineyards is named for the mountain range where it resides, which itself derives from the Wappo language term for “the howl of the mountain lion.” An homage to the howl is represented on the Mayacamas label, which features two lions dancing within a grand letter M.

The Native American Wappo tribe were the first to live on what we now call the Mayacamas Mountains, with this winery estate stretching 1,800 to 2,400-feet above Napa’s valley floor. Both traces of obsidian arrowheads and stone grain-grinding bowls have been found on the property. 

Since its founding as a winery and vineyard estate in 1889, Mayacamas Vineyards has had only four main owners, continually rising with each change in stewardship to great new heights on the world wine stage. It continues to honor its well-earned legacy for outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot with more modern takes on how to achieve the highest quality, both in the cellar and among the vines, now farmed organically and biodynamically.

Tastings

Tastings at Mayacamas are available at two locations: at the estate daily by appointment or Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in downtown Napa.

Downtown options include a one-hour seated white wine tasting ($35), one-hour seated red wine tasting ($50), one-hour seated current vintage tasting ($35), or 1.5-hour seated library tasting ($85).

An Estate Tour and Tasting ($125) explores the winery’s history and mountain terroir and includes a tasting of both current and library Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot.

Setting

Historic Mayacamas Vineyards is set high atop Mount Veeder between 1,800-and-2,400-feet elevation across 475 acres of volcanic mountain soils, 50 of which are planted to wine grapes. Surrounded by the rugged natural environment of this area, it takes time to wind one’s way from the valley floor up to this remote site.

The centerpiece of the property is the old stone winery dug into the side of a dormant volcano crater in 1889, which has been recently renovated but retains its original sheen. The old is complemented by a suite of modern-yet-still-rugged buildings that welcome visitors for tastings. Views from the mountain estate look southward out to the San Francisco Bay and beyond, with cooling influences coming from the Pacific Ocean to the west. 

Current Offerings

Braiden Albrecht is the Mayacamas Vineyards winemaker and oversees the estate’s CCOF organic viticultural practices. 

The 2020 Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon has a powerful, darker fruit profile, excellent depth and complexity and great acidity. Albrecht says it is, “still a bit tightly wound, so while it’s drinking nicely now, it will benefit from additional bottle aging.”

The 2021 Mount Veeder Merlot comes from six different blocks spread across the estate planted in a range of soil types. It is aged in oak of various sizes and origins for 24 months and in bottle for an additional year before release. 

The 2022 Mount Veeder Chardonnay comes from plantings of Wente Clone vines on St. George rootstock and does not go through malolactic fermentation, fermenting and aging in French and Austrian oak barrels of different sizes for 12 to 18 months and in bottle for an additional year prior to release. 

Mayacamas also makes smaller offerings of Grenache Rosé and Sauvignon Blanc in addition to its Special Bottling Series of small lots with unique characteristics and stories, which are often a block selection of Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Additionally, it offers Kosher bottlings of its Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Grenache Rosé.

History

Mayacamas Vineyards is one of the most storied properties in the Napa Valley. Its stone winery was built in 1889 by San Francisco pickle merchant John Henry Fisher, who planted Zinfandel vines and called his burgeoning wine enterprise Fisher and Sons, selling wine by the barrel to residents of the city. 

After losing his pickle business in the 1906 earthquake and fire, he declared bankruptcy and the winery was sold at auction for $5,000 in U.S. Gold Coins. It then fell into disrepair until Prohibition’s end, though some bootlegging by then-owners, Pietro and Maria Marenco, had gone on. 

The Marencos sold the winery to Henry Brandlin in 1921, who operated Mayacamas and planted neighboring property on Mount Veeder over the next several decades. Brandlin sold the property in 1941 to Englishman Jack Taylor and his wife Mary, a native of California.

The Taylors brought Mayacamas Vineyards back to life, naming the winery, planting Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon vines and publishing a regular newsletter detailing their life on Mount Veeder and new releases of the wines. But that would all pale in comparison to when Robert (Bob) and Elinor Travers took over in 1968, and catapulted Mayacamas to even grander heights. 

An already well-established winemaker, Bob Travers had worked at Heitz Cellars and lived on Martha’s Vineyard in Oakville. At Mayacamas he decided to focus on Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay with the goal of producing wines of great character and longevity, establishing the winery’s well-earned reputation for making classically balanced and intense wines with rustic mountain character.

Travers cemented Mayacamas’ mystique with his 1971 Cabernet Sauvignon, recognized in the 1976 Judgement of Paris tasting as one of the finest wines in the world. In the original tasting it placed seventh, but in the second tasting (in 1986) it placed second, beating all the French wines. In the third tasting (in 2006), it tied with a Heitz Martha’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon for third.

In 2013 the Jay Schottenstein family took ownership of Mayacamas, introducing organic farming and undertaking an extensive replanting and restoration of the estate with the help of famed winemaker-viticulturist husband-and-wife team Andy Erickson and Annie Favia and organic viticulturist Phil Coturri. 

Current winemaker Braiden Albrecht was also hired to take over winery operations. In 2014 the team introduced biodynamic farming and began a meticulous restoration of the winery.

Mayacamas Vineyards is one of the Napa Valley’s most important and historic producers, set atop the wilds of Mount Veeder, making Chardonnay, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon wines that stand up to the best in the world.