after the quake “I don’t know if music can change the world overnight but I know that music can help someone make it through a diffcult night.” – Michael Franti photo by ART & CLARITY Napa bounces BAcK Aby Kari Ruel and David Robertson s Napans move further away from the difficult memories of the August 24 earthquake, the stories shared are less about the damage, both to our homes and our psyches, and more towards positive tales: Stories of salvaged wines, both bottled and still in barrel, of the quick upward bounce of tourist visits, of a harvest promising to be an unheard-of third year a in row of fantastic fruit. One such story involves the brothers Buoncristiani—Aaron, Jay, Matt and Nate. Thankfully their winery damages remained minimal; the roof of Napa Barrel Care, however, where they housed many of their wines in barrels collapsed. Close to 15,000 wine barrels are stored there on behalf of many local wineries and most of those barrels came crashing down during the earthquake. It took the Napa Barrel Care crew and a team of volunteers weeks to get everything back in order. To thank the volunteers and crew at Napa Barrel Care, the Buoncristiani Brothers decided to prepare a very special lunch for them. Using oak staves from their damaged wine barrels the Buoncristiani brothers fired up their wood-fired oven and cooked 40 pizzas in 90 minutes. But together is how the Buoncristianis work. While all winery teams are a wonder of synergy, the four brothers take the idea of “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” to another level. In a typical winery team, each member brings a particular expertise to the wine making process. For the Buoncristianis, they developed collectively as wine professionals, having traveled broadly for wine knowledge experiences, growing as winemakers and consultants, and garnering the marketing know-how integral to 14 www.nAPAVA L L E Y L I F Emagaz ine.com successful winemaking. But added to that impressive resume they also bring the power of family, the power of brotherhood. They started working elbow to elbow, growing, harvesting and bottling under their father’s tutelage. Soon after came garage (read “boutique”) efforts, and eventually in 1999 they bonded formally as Buoncristiani Family Winery. Over those years this deep and varied experience is obvious in their bottles. Notables under the family label include: the Napa Can blend OPC or “Old Pa’s Cuvee”—a nod to their father’s winemaking and the knowledge he bestowed on them, made luscious with Napa Merlot and Malbec; a three-vineyard Chardonnay from Hyde Stagecoach and Pahlmeyer that is a remarkable representation of the grape; and a Syrah that exhibits multi-layered complexity while delivering balance among those flavors and an incredible mouth feel. The earthquake also touched their winery lives through their representation at the Vintner’s Collective, housed in the hard-hit Pffeifer Building. That building is under extensive repairs and the collective now does wine tasting out of a donated Airstream trailer in their parking lot. So the wine is still flowing there. But the greatest amount of wine now flows out of The Caves at Soda Canyon, a collaborative effort working with Patland, Lobo and Waugh Cellars. There, the brothers can occasionally be seen atop the mountain that is home to the Caves, either brainstorming or kicking back with a wine tour while hitting biodegradable golf balls from a makeshift tee. It’s a scene that best describes this family affair: that being together, reinforcing their fraternal bond, that will take them forwardzin their pursuit of creating the much-sought-after, high-end wines that Buoncristiani Family Winery is already known for.
NVLife_NovDec_2014
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