Sylvan Lake Vineyards Wine: Luscious Quality to Discover
Sylvan Lake Vineyards’ recent vintages
Howell Mountain is more than a beautiful area in Napa Valley, California. It is also an American Viticultural Area (AVA) characterized by high elevation boundaries and delivering intense, structured wine profiles. There is a newer addition to this AVA; and, while the owner/vintner has been in the area for a long time, the vineyards are relatively new. The vines were planted in 2014 and produced lovely fruit for vintages starting in 2021. What is different about the vineyard is that vines are facing east, allowing for different sun exposure. This gives lovely fruit from a well-manicured vineyard.
The owner/vintner of Sylvan Lake Vineyards is Armin Fisher, whose family has owned this property since the early 1980s. The property was originally a fruit orchard, and Armin replaced some of the fruit trees with Cabernet Sauvignon vines in 2014. While the vines and vintner are relatively young in experience, the winemaker is not. Celia Welch is the winemaker, and her history of success spans five decades. I was fortunate enough to discover Celia’s wine in the early 2000s. Her personal label was Corra with the first vintage in 2004. I became an avid follower from then out. Only later did I discover the long list of wines she crafted for other wineries, including Scarecrow from its inception, Keever, Signorello Estate, and Schramsberg. This is taken from Wikipedia, and I fully concur:
In 2022, the San Francisco Chronicle described her [Celia] as a member "of an elite order of Napa winemaking consultants" along with Philippe Melka, Mike Smith, Andy Erickson, Aaron Pott, Julien Fayard, Jean Hoeflinger, Sam Kaplan, Tony Biagi and Heidi Barrett.
Sylvan Lake Vineyards is a project with Celia’s comprehensive oversight. Many people think that the winemaker takes over at harvest, yet that is not true. A winemaker is on site with vision, knowledge, and decision making that includes the vines’ exposure to the wind and sun, the amount of sun on the grapes, the time to harvest, how the grapes are handled after harvest, how the juice is fermented and aged, and when to bottle the wine. All of these steps contribute to the evolution of the vines and the fruit and wine they deliver.
Antonio Galloni’s ratings of Sylvan Lake Vineyards’ 2022 and 2023 vintages
The high quality of Sylvan Lake Vineyards wine is very present from the beginning vintages. Go to Sylvan Lake Vineyards to join the mailing list. Then you will be alerted when an allocation becomes available. You can also reach out by email to info@sylvanlakevineyards for more information about the vineyard and wine availability. It is truly worth it.
Enjoy!
