2011 Gamble Family Heritage Sites Old Vine Red Blend 750 ml

Historic Heritage Sites Old-Vine Blend: Coming Up Aces in St. Helena

If you’re ever fortunate enough to spend a couple hours with Tom Gamble, who ranks among the most brilliant and fastidious growers in Napa Valley, you’re in for a treat. Unlike so many in the valley these days, Gamble is loathe to toot his own horn, letting his Oakville Cabernet Sauvignons (drawn from two small vineyards, one spitting distance from PlumpJack, the other just down the road from Opus One) do the talking.

But over lunch at Thomas Keller’s Bouchon in Yountville, it was when Gamble began talking about his family’s Heritage Sites Vineyard in St. Helena that he shifted into high gear, passionately describing one of the most extraordinary parcels in Napa Valley.

Positioned in the northeastern quadrant of St. Helena, just up the road from Meadowood, any winegrower focused only on ROI would have ripped out this historic planting 20 years ago — replacing gnarly bush plants with higher-yielding, more lucrative Cabernet Sauvignon.

Tom conceded that during a 2011 growing season in which yields were down nearly 40% from the norm, and Heritage Sites barely eked out 2 tons per acre, for a moment, he actually considered doing just that. But then he reminded himself of the decades of labor his family had put into not so much simply farming, but tailoring each plant, and he banished the thought, and did what the Gambles have always done: He went back to work.

Nestled in a little nook, and surrounded on three sides by hills, the Heritage Sites Vineyard is planted to old-vine Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Charbono. With deep-rooted vines now 40-60 years of age, Gamble has trained the vineyard to not just survive, but to flourish without a drop of irrigation.

In the summer of 2011, the old vines were dealt an unusual hand. The diurnal temperature shift — the difference between daytime highs and nighttime lows — was nearly 40 degrees, helping to stretch out the growing season. Tom trusted the robustness of his plants, and let clusters hang, despite the risk of inclement weather. That decision came up aces, as Gamble’s first call to pick wouldn’t come until the first week of October, with the last Petite Sirah clusters not harvested until October 20th!

While some in St. Helena struggled in 2011, at Heritage Sites, Gamble told us over Keller’s boeuf bourguignon, this was a vintage for the ages.

Winemaker Jim Close’s 2011 Heritage Sites old-vine blend is comprised of 46% Zinfandel, 41% Syrah, 9% Charbono, and 4% Petit Syrah. Brilliant purple-black. Gorgeous aromas of mountain blueberry, blackberry, ripe currant, and roasted coffee. Rich, terrifically concentrated, yet in no way overripe or Port-like. Featuring a luscious black-fruit core, sprinkled with white pepper. At once finely delineated like an excellent Médoc, but with the youthful black-fruit intensity of excellent Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink now — almost impossible not to — or lay down until the early 2020s.

$40 on release. $24 this morning — and (emphatically YES), a MUST-case-buy.