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 Peter Chiarella is a born CFO. He was Chief Financial Officer for Clairol, then CFO for Max Factor, and then once again, this time for Doctor's Company, a medical malpractice insurance firm.
Having moved to Napa Valley to "sort-of retire," Peter's at it again — but this time he's a winery CFO — and now it stands for Crane Family Organizer. And is he ever good at it!
Peter and his wife, Frances Crane Chiarella, are making delicious, hard-to-get, under-the-radar, Napa Valley Merlots. There are two offerings from Crane Family Vineyards — an Estate Merlot from vineyards adjacent to their southern valley home and a Reserve Merlot, which is produced from a different selection of fruit from the same vineyards. The Reserve wine gets an additional year of bottle aging before release. We expect to see the 2000 Reserve Merlot late spring, 2003.
The talented winemaker is Alison Green Doran, who is making intensely flavored wine using low-yield fruit (2.5 tons per acre). Her wines are silky, sensual, sensational. (If you couldn't guess — we love them.)
Peter named his vineyard, planted in 1990, the "Don Raffaele Vineyard," in honor of his father who was knighted in Italy for heroic deeds in World War I.
"In Italy, the title 'Don' is really an earned honor," explains Peter. "Only a man of respect is entitled to be called 'Don,' which translates as 'Sir' in English. So, in effect, my dad was 'Sir Ralph.' I wanted to honor his accomplishments with one of my own."
And what an accomplishment Peter, Frances and Alison have themselves
achieved, as our tasting notes indicate.
2000 Crane Family Vineyards, Napa Valley Estate Merlot.
The robe is deep dark, cherry red; there is a hint of lush cherry on the nose. On the attack, this wine delivers ripe, dark fruit, a hint of bay leaf (possibly from the 200 trees which rim the vineyard) and a soupcon of earth, tobacco and dust. As compelling as the flavors are (and they are many and complex), the weight of the wine is what grabs your attention. This is a voluptuous wine, lush at the front, even lusher on the finish. The long final notes are complex; this is not another Napa Valley fruit bomb. This is a seriously made, compact, wholly balanced wine. To a professional wine taster, it is one of those wines that you know you should swirl and spit — because there are many more wines coming in the course of the day — but it's too good to do so, so you sneak a small swallow. And then another. 93 points.
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ilovenapa.com Rating:
$39 |
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