When you meet Jed Steele, you don't forget him. He's a big, tall, fairly imposing dude, and he doesn't talk a whole lot, He's also rocked a brushy moustache as far back as I can recollect. He has a kind of quiet intensity. He's a man of few words.You would maybe think that he was a Northern Californian going back a few generations, but the truth is that he's originally from New York State. Quite the opposite. Go figure.
I didn't learn until the other day that Steele moved to California on a basketball scholarship back in the day. I'm told that he doesn't like to be interrupted during March Madness. Gonzaga has been very successful lately. And, as a life-long Kentucky fan, I can sympathize.
Jed's first wine cellar job was at Stony Hill in Napa Valley, a winery renowned for long-lived, minerally Chardonnay. That was back in 1968 - the year I was born.
He would graduate from U.C. Davis with a winemaking degree and find a job with Edmeades Winery in Mendocino County. Then he worked for Kendall-Jackson, helping to grow that brand from 35,000 cases to one million cases over the span of nine years (you can read more about that here if you're interested). After that all shook out, Jed decided to pack his bags and make his way to Lake County, which is just north of Napa County and east of, and inland from, Mendocino County.
Jed Steele is probably best known at this point for being one of the great pioneers of winemaking in Lake County. He started his own business in 1991 in Lake County, where the wine business was still in its infancy. At the time, there were only a few wineries up there, even though savvy wineries in Napa have long appreciated the inexpensive, nearby as an important resource, or addition, to their blends.
I had the honor of attending a tasting of Steele Wines at Nancy Oates' San Francisco classic Boulevard Restaurant last month. It was a nice opportunity to meet Jed Steel again - I probably hadn't seen him in 15 years. It was also a delight to re-connect with a lot of great people in the industry from PR mavens Tim McDonald and Rusty Eddy of Wine Spoken Here to journalists, storytellers and sommeliers like Wilfred Wong (www.Wine.com), Chris Sawyer (www.Sawyersomm.com), Deborah Parker Wong (Tasting Panel), Leslie Sbrocco (Check Please) Joel Riddell (Dining Around), Mike Dunne (http://www.sacbee.com/), Ziggy Eschliman (www.ziggythewinegal.com), Catherine Fallis (PlanetGrape.com) and Charlie Olken and Stephen Eliot from Connoisseur's Guide to California Wine (www.cgcw.com).
Upon arrival we were greeted with a glass of 2016 Jed Steele's Shooting Star Sauvignon Blanc, a very impressive, refreshing white with lively melon, grapefruit and sweet pea flavors. It's a pretty great value for $14. Lake County consistently produces impressive Sauvignon Blanc. The grape seems to like the warm climate and intense sunlight there, but generally retains an amiable fruitiness and freshness.
Next we moved through a retrospective tasting of Jed's Bien Nacido Pinot Noirs from the N and Q hillside blocks of that famous Santa Maria Valley vineyard in Santa Barbara County, and some older and current vintages of his Cabernet Sauvignon from the elevated, hillside Red Hills AVA of Lake County.
It says a lot for a winemaker and their relationships when they are able to purchase grapes from venerated sources like Bien Nacido in Santa Barbara County, and Andy Beckstoffer's relatively young vineyard in the elevated Red Hills of Lake County AVA that has become one of the rising stars for California Cabernet Sauvignon.
Jed Steele was a very early customer of Bien Nacido Vineyard in Santa Barbara County, and that gained him the pick of the litter: fruit from the N and Q Blocks of the vineyard that cling to the hillsides, as opposed to the flatter, plateau sections of the renowned vineyard. His Pommard clone Pinot Noirs from Bien Nacido have primarily red fruit flavors ranging from wild strawberry to cherry, raspberry, and tomato leaf flavors, often with hints of cocoa and sometimes with fresh floral notes.
We tasted Jed's Bien Nacido Vineyard Pinot Noirs from the 2002, 2005, 2010 and 2013 vintages.
The most recent 2013 vintage that we tasted had pretty violet aromas, cocoa and subtle toast notes and had a nice range of flavors without being overblown, overly sweet or overly alcoholic.
My favorite was probably the now mature 2010 vintage of the Bien Nacido Pinot Noir, still youthful with spring-like wildflower aromas, framboise and mocha notes. It never left the winery, so the bottle was perfectly stored, and seems to be in its prime.
Next we moved on to 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2014 vintages of Steele's Red Hills of Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon, which comes from a high-altitude property owned by Napa Valley's Andy Beckstoffer.
There is a pristine elegance that runs through all of these Cabernet Sauvignons. One gets the sense that Jed's prefered flavor profile didn't track the trends of the 1990s, when California wines became progressively ripe, sweet and alcoholic.
That trend has now come almost full-circle, in that critics are preferring simpler, less oaky, less ripe wines that are better balanced and less showy. That description also fits Jed Steele's wines, because he just never went to that decadent, over-the-top place.
In some of the older vintages (2003 and 2005) I did pick up some coarser 'green' bell pepper, vegetal noes that were not popular in that era, but that are definitely part of the varietal makeup of Cabernet Sauvignon.Those were probably not my favorite wines, but please note that I don't discount Cabernets for having subtle green notes. That's just the nature of the beast and part of its beauty.
In the 2007, 2009 and 2014 vintages, those 'green' notes seem to have evolved into subtle mint and menthol notes that were more refined and better integrated. The Steele wines were still very elegant, especially by Napa standards for that time. The 2007 Steele Red Hills Cabernet was gorgeous, with mint aromas, red currant fruit and great length and finesse. Likewise, the current 2014 vintage had subtle herb aromas, bright red currant fruit, a whiff of licorice and a fine, long finish. I'd rate both the 2007 and 2013 Cabernets at 92-93 points.
We also tasted a lovely, very small production, Parmalee Hill Vineyard Chardonnay from Sonoma Valley, near Carneros that was barrel fermented but without malolactic fermentation that had fresh Fuji apple and honeydew flavors that were bright, full-bodied and clean without too much new oak.
I left with the impression that while the labels could probably use some updating (and that seems to be in the works), the wines seemed to have come about, in terms of both fashion and relevance. Jed seems to have done some fine-tuning of the wines without abandoning some classical notions of balance.
In a world where trends are pointing toward a more restrained style of new world wines, I wonder if an old bulldog like Jed Steele can't teach the young kids a few new tricks.
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