Home Industry News Releases Smith-Madrone Named a 2015 Top 100 Winery

Smith-Madrone Named a 2015 Top 100 Winery

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by Wine & Spirits with San Francisco event to honor winners

Smith-MadroneNapa Valley and New York, September 2015 — Wine & Spirits Magazine has selected Smith-Madrone as one of its Top 100 Wineries of 2015. “Celebrating its 12th anniversary, Wine & Spirits’ Top 100 Tasting Event honors those wineries from around the world that delivered the best overall performances in Wine & Spirits tastings throughout the year. Since its inception eleven years ago, the event has been produced in San Francisco, with Bay Area chefs and local artisanal purveyors serving signature specialties to complement the premier bottlings of the honored wineries,” explains editor and publisher Josh Greene.

The magazine celebrates the winners at a special event on October 20 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at City View at Metreon (135 4th Street) in San Francisco. The event is a benefit for San Francisco Baykeeper. Ticket info here. Wine & Spirits Annual Buying Guide, on sale October 13, 2015, will feature each of the wineries.

Another recent honor for the winery was when the prestigious New York-based food and drink mega-site TheDailyMeal.com chose Smith-Madrone Vineyards and Winery as its 2014 Winery of the Year. Smith-Madrone was described as “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,” they said. The runners-up were Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Tablas Creek Vineyard.

In an article in The New York Times this summer, the winery was recognized as a leader in dry farming.

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 2013 Chardonnay ($32), 2013 Riesling ($27); 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon ($48) and 2009 Cook’s Flat Reserve ($200). All the wines are estate grown and estate bottled, with all of the grapes coming from the winery’s estate vineyards surrounding the winery in the Spring Mountain District appellation.

Perched at the top of Spring Mountain, Smith-Madrone is open for tours and tastings by appointment on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, at 4022 Spring Mountain Road (St. Helena, California 94574, 707/963-2283, www.smithmadrone.com, info@smithmadrone.com). Tastings and tours are always conducted by either Charles Smith, winemaker, Sam Smith, assistant winemaker, or Stuart Smith, the GM/enologist.

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