TheDailyMeal.com Announces New Annual Honor
Napa Valley and New York, February 2015 – New York-based online magazine TheDailyMeal.com has chosen Smith-Madrone Vineyards and Winery as its 2014 Winery of the Year. The article is here. “For their passion and for their activism, but most of all for a long history of quietly making excellent wines at sensible prices, we name Smith-Madrone Vineyards & Winery as The Daily Meal’s first Winery of the Year,” TheDailyMeal.com says
As editor Colman Andrews explains: “Wine-lovers who live in the United States are blessed. No other country in the world has access to such a wide range of bottles…All this wine means that there are many, many thousands of labels in the American wine market today, from many, many thousands of wineries around the globe….. Now, for the first time, we are honoring a Winery of the Year, as well. Reflecting the availability of wines from just about everywhere on our wine shop shelves and restaurant wine lists, we threw the field open to the whole world. Our intent was to choose one property or enterprise, anywhere in the world, that has not only produced excellent wines consistently over a substantial period of time but has also served as an innovator and/or inspiration in the wine business, whether dynamically or simply by example.”
The nominees were Charles Smith Wines, Chateau Pontet-Canet, Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Domaine Paul Mas, Linden Vineyards, Ridge Vineyards, Smith-Madrone, Tablas Creek Vineyard, Taylor Fladgate and Tyrell’s Wines.
Smith-Madrone was included in this group “For creating, without fanfare, some of Napa Valley’s best wines for almost 45 years, for industry leadership in labeling reform, and for utilizing innovative vineyard techniques that have led the way for other producers,” according to TheDailyMeal.com.
“We would have happily given honors to any of these properties, but as it happened, the majority of number-one votes from our panelists went to a 44-year-old Napa Valley winery that is highly respected within the industry, though neither a household name nor the object of a cult following….Connoisseurs who really know California wine, though, tend to love them. The chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon regularly wine gold medals around the country, and the winery’s exquisite riesling was named “Best Riesling in the World” in 1979 at the International Wine Championships sponsored by France’s Gault-Millau magazine,” explains TheDailyMeal.com.
The runners-up were Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Tablas Creek Vineyard.
Founded in 1971, Smith-Madrone Vineyards & Winery is one of the few entirely estate-vineyard mountain wineries in the Napa Valley. Smith-Madrone’s grapes are grown at the top of Spring Mountain (1,200 – 1,900-foot elevation with slopes up to 35%), west of St. Helena in the Napa Valley. The vines are planted on very steep slopes in red “Aiken” soil which is derived from weathered volcanic materials and sedimentary rock.
The current releases are 2012 Chardonnay ($20), 2013 Riesling ($27); 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon ($48) and 2010 Cook’s Flat Reserve ($200). All the wines are estate grown and estate bottled from the Spring Mountain District appellation.
Smith-Madrone is perched at the top of Spring Mountain in St. Helena and is open for tours and tastings Monday-Saturday, at 4022 Spring Mountain Road (St. Helena, California 94574, 707/963-2283, www.smithmadrone.com, info@smithmadrone.com). Tastings and tours are by appointment and are always conducted by either Charles Smith, winemaker, or his brother Stuart Smith, the GM/enologist.
