Mount Veeder

Posted 03/21/2008 at 11:48 AM by Cathy

Mount Veeder

Mount Veeder and Franciscan wines are, fortunately, available all over the Boston area. Retailers from Gordon’s in Waltham to Kappy’s in Sudbury, and restaurants like Mistral and the Capital Grille in Boston are all on the official list of carriers.

I’m curious about the retailers and restaurants I’ve visited recently who are not on the official list but carry Mount Veeder wines anyway, like the Cork ‘n Cask in Beverly Farms, Mooo Restaurant on Beacon Hill, and Lobby Bar & Kitchen on Broad Street in Boston.

I’m curious about them because they’re onto something – Mount Veeder or Franciscan aren’t the flashiest wines around but savvy retails and sommeliers around town know their quality and consistency score them a spot on their shelves.

That, or they simply read the papers. Wine & Spirits magazine, for example, in their April 2007 Restaurant Poll named the Franciscan Oakville Estate Napa Valley Cabernet number six on their list of Top Cabs by the Glass.

The person responsible for this acclaim and the wines’ overall character is Janet Myers, Director of Winemaking at both Franciscan and Mount Veeder. She likens her role to that of the head chef in a kitchen: she’s the person setting the goals, she takes ultimate responsibility for the wines, and she sets and executes the wineries’ vision, priorities, and style.

That said, Myers knows she couldn’t do it alone. Just as a chef has sous chefs, Myers has two winemakers on her team who play critical roles in the day-to-day management of the vines and the cellar. “It’s important to work with a team,” she says, especially when it comes to tasting the wines. “I wouldn’t want to taste by myself. The time of day, what you’ve eaten, whether you’re tired, all those factors will influence how you perceive things. It’s important to have at least one other person to help ground each other.”

Franciscan and Mount Veeder produce a range of wines but Myers seems partial to the Cabernet Sauvignon. What she loves about the grape is its expressiveness. “I love the mouth feel and the structure of it,” she said. “With Cab there are so many factors that add interest. It has an incredible potential for richness, and body, and power, and incredible aromas.”

I checked Myers’ description of her Cab against a bottle of 2004 Mount Veeder Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.

Myers talked about Cab’s combination of fruit flavors like blackberry, cherry and plum. I smelled and sipped and got a full, rich bouquet of red and black fruits like black currants, cherries, and even some green olive.

Myers also talked about the sweet herbaceous flavors on the Valley floor, like sage or maybe little notes of tobacco. “On the mountain,” she said, “we always find a lot of bay. These tastes comes through in the wine. Those complex factors that turn it from a simple fruit flavor to a more cassis flavor, that’s what really intrigues me.”

To me the Mount Veeder Cab seemed like an envelope that picks up scents and expressions of the locales it crossed from its home to yours. It’s stamped here with cherries, there with plums. Along the way it needed a few extra cents’ postage for extra heft in the nose department.

It was smooth on the first sip, with a dose of tannins mid-palate, and a long finish that mingled accommodatingly with the cured meats on my dinner plate. But I’d look for it on its own too, by the glass or by the bottle, from retailers and restaurants who know a very good wine when they see it.

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