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WINEMAKER MINUTE
Alison Bailin Batz » The Entertainer!
Ever wanted to know the stories behind your favorite wines—from red to white to blends, and everything in between? The Entertainer! has you covered. Each month, we will interview winemakers nationwide whose varietals are popular in the area to give you the inside story of what goes into a good bottle—and more. This month, we sit down with Janet Myers, director of winemaking at the Franciscan Estate Winery in the Napa Valley.
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Janet Myers of the Franciscan Estate Winery
First, tell us about you and your path to Franciscan. Traveling a wine road wasn’t my original path by a long shot! In what now seems like another life, many moons ago I gave up my pursuit of a doctorate in biological anthropology to move to London, where I worked in the restaurant industry. Living above a wine shop, I enjoyed sampling the wares of my downstairs neighbor and decided to learn about wine production. When I realized that this was an industry that combined science and agriculture—which is my family’s background—I enrolled at UC Davis and haven’t looked back. My first harvest was at the Robert Mondavi Winery in the Napa Valley. After graduating from UC Davis with a master’s in enology, I pursued a harvest abroad to enrich my experience. Wanting to connect to my roots by spending time in Italy, my mother’s ancestral home country, I turned to the celebrated Antinori Winery in Italy, who offered me a harvest internship at their Santa Cristina Estate in Chianti. Prior to joining Franciscan Estate in August of 2003, I also enjoyed stints in Australia’s Margaret River region and in the Napa Valley at renowned Cabernet producers Beaulieu Vineyard, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and Louis Martini Winery. How did the winery make its mark? Franciscan was established in 1973 in an ideal location in the heart of the Napa Valley in Oakville. Our 240-acre home estate of prized land features loamy, gravely soils, which allow for dry-farming techniques, producing smaller, concentrated fruit and building wine of good structure, body and texture. Our optimal location in the center of the Napa Valley allows our Bordeaux varietals to enjoy the cooling marine influences of the San Francisco Bay at night while still receiving plenty of sun and heat during the day, creating deep color and maximum fruit character and complexity. This terroir gives our fruit the ability to maintain its vibrancy while ripening to its full potential. Over the years, we’ve had many successes, but two of our most significant contributions are our Estate red blend wine, Magnificat, and our Cuvee Sauvage Chardonnay. Magnificat was one of the original Meritage wines (a Bordeaux-style
red wine blend) in the Napa Valley and continues to be a standard bearer in the category. Franciscan was also the very first winery in the Napa Valley to bottle a Chardonnay—our Cuvee Sauvage—using only wild (native) yeasts. How would you describe some of your best-selling varietals? We have some tremendous vineyards, so it’s important to me to let the vineyard and the variety show through. From there, it’s a personal interpretation of when to pick, how to vinify, and choices in blending. I’m looking to make wines that are rich, balanced and very expressive of their vineyard and variety. Some of our best sellers, aside from the Magnificat, include: Franciscan Estate Cuvee Sauvage, Carneros Napa Valley: Rich pear and apple aromatics revealing hints of lemon, crème brulee and toasted hazelnut, with a vibrant, full, creamy palate. Franciscan Estate Equilibrium, Napa Valley: Beautifully aromatic with floral notes of jasmine, orange blossom and honeysuckle intertwined with passion fruit and lychee. Franciscan Estate Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley: Lovely aromas of lime zest, grapefruit and crushed seashells, with a round, crisp palate bursting with fresh citrus and minerality. Time to brag. Tell us about any awards you, your wines or the winery have won. We are lucky—there are too many to count. We’ve taken home honors several times over from the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition, Sunset Wine Competition, Sunset International Wine Competition and Grand Harvest Awards, just to name a few. Having worked harvest in Australia’s famed Margaret River, are there any winemaking practices or decisions that differ from what you do in California? Their winemaking practices, like ours, blend old world and new world philosophies. But they leaned a bit more toward the unconventional, making a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Semillon. At the time this was something you wouldn’t have seen much in California, with our stricter adherence of keeping Bordeaux and Burgundian varieties separate. It was delicious though, as were their Chards and Cabs, owing to their moderate coastal climate, yielding wines with great finesse and richness.