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 You may have seen him on TV — he was on screen for years on a show called Fall Guy with Lee Majors; or you may have caught him acting on a popular show called Designing Women, which is now on Lifetime.
Or possibly you've enjoyed some of Doug Barr's screenplays, written for popular made-for-TV movies.
Not to worry; if you've missed careers One and Two, you can still enjoy Doug's handiwork in Career Three — making wine.
His brand is the easy-to-recall "2480," which happens to be
the street address of his home in Napa Valley.
"We wanted to honor the work — and memory — of Maynard Amerine, the Godfather of Modern Winemaking," explains Doug. So we named our wine after his original homestead — he used to live in this very house."
From the 1930s onward, Amerine taught winemaking and viticulture at UC Davis, developed the classification of climates in California that is still in use, wrote more than 200 scholarly articles and several technical books about winemaking.
Here's a crazy thought; he likely would have been thrilled with Doug Barr's wine.
Doug, the wannabe winemaker, teamed up a few years ago with an old college roommate, Bruce Orosz, to make wine. They called their enterprise Hollywood & Vine Cellars, given that Doug works in the entertainment industry and spends a fair bit of time in L.A., and Bruce is an events producer.
Doug confesses: "I learned everything I know about winemaking from John Williams of Frog's Leap Winery who told me: 'When you want to get into the wine business, don't buy a vineyard… don't buy a winery… just go out and buy great grapes and great barrels. And hire yourself a great winemaker.'" 'Nuf said.
Doug and Bruce took the advice to heart and are presently working with an extremely talented wine consultant, Celia Masyczek, whose handiwork you've tasted in many great brands. Hers was the hand that raised Staglin Family Vineyard to prominence in Rutherford, for example.
Today, she is producing about 1,000 cases of exceptional wine for '2480.'
Our winemaking philosophy is simple," says Doug. "If you're buying really great fruit, there is no sense in covering it up with wood flavors and oak. If you have something to hide, then maybe you go that route, but that's not our style. We let the fruit speak."
'2480' wines usually have a geographic, or clonal, pedigree.
Doug contracts for fruit from small plots tucked away in corners
of Napa Valley; special clones are sought; Celia treats the
fruit with minimal intervention. The results speak for themselves,
as our tasting notes reveal.
2001 Hollywood & Vine Cellars '2480' Napa Valley Chardonnay
Oooh, how do I love thee, let me count the ways. On the nose, in the mouth, on the finish. The fruit comes from a single vineyard on Atlas Peak; the clone was brought here in the 1960s from Burgundy by a vintner named Hermann Weemer. Which explains why this wine smells, tastes and looks like a Burgundy. The only others who have access to this clone, according to Doug, are Patz & Hall and Pahlmeyer, and you know how well loved their wines are.
The better restaurants in America have added this wine
to their lists. It is sold at The French Laundry in Napa
Valley, at Gary Danko and Bacar in San Francisco and at
Capo, Chinois and Patina in L.A. There is not very much
left for the general retail marketplace, but you will
find it at several local, Napa Valley, wine retail shops
– so be on the prowl when you head this way.
Don't expect to taste your typical California, buttery, malo'd, butterscotch'd wine. Here the fruit speaks, not the wood. This stunning Burgundy-like wine is reminiscent of a delicious Batard-Montrachet.
The nose is juicy and filled with fruit and there are minerals and yellow plums on the palate to give the wine complexity and interest. The wine is leaner than it is oily or fat, and the finish is long and focused. Close your eyes and swallow — you'll swear it's a Batard-Montrachet — at half the price.
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ilovenapa.com Rating:
$40 |
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2000 Hollywood & Vine Cellars '2480' Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
The fruit comes from three vineyards; two on a hillside
in the Coombsville region of Napa Valley (southern) and
one with ancient vines in Oakville (mid-valley). Upon
opening the bottle, the room is filled with plums, black
currant, ripe blackberry and ripe black cherry scents.
The flavor profile is no less fruit ferocious; gorgeous
ripe cherry and ripe black cherry compete for attention
and there is a hint of chocolate, almost suggestive of
Merlot — but this is 100 percent Cab, except for
the teensiest spill of Petite Sirah that was found in
the vineyard. The finish is enormous. It lingers. And
lingers. And continues onward until you're ready for your
next sip when it starts all over again. |
ilovenapa.com Rating:
'99 - WS91
$78 |
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