2019 Ovid Experiment N4.9 Red Wine Napa Valley 750 ml

Every vintage, in addition to their perennially sought-after Pritchard Hill flagship, Ovid makes a small quantity of “Experiment” bottlings. These are tiny-production, world-class wines that disappear into the cellars of a few lucky collectors and are never made again.

For the 2019 Ovid Experiment N4.9 Red Wine Napa Valley, winemaker Austin Peterson went beyond the estate and purchased a small amount of grapes from one of Ovid’s famed Pritchard Hill neighbors. Their goal was to observe the impact of their neighbor’s row orientation and trellis system, and the resulting wine proved such a success that Peterson and his team will be planting new rows in this style—rows that, when mature, will become a permanent part of Ovid.

At vineyards at Ovid and all over Napa Valley, the standard vine-training protocol is VSP, or Vertical Shoot Positioning. This technique opens up the vine canopies, allowing more air flow (thereby reducing disease pressure) as well as more sun exposure. The technique the Ovid team sought to experiment with is called Modified California Sprawl, which lets the shoots grow long and high, eventually bowing into the rows in between the vines, thereby providing their own shade from the sun.

Observing the growing season and then tasting the results, Peterson and his team concluded that MCS vines were better shaded than the VSP vines, providing gorgeous, robust berries that showed little dehydration. After vinification and 20 months in oak, the result is not just a first-of-its-kind wine but one that fits perfectly into Ovid’s world-class lineup.

This wine will be a cellar showpiece—and a surefire conversation piece—for years and years.