Robert Sinskey Vineyards

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The Capa Vineyard

I still feel the excitement - and the fear. It was almost three decades ago and I was about to buy my first piece of property as a thirty-something. Until then, I slept wherever - mostly rentals - while I figured out if Napa and wine was my future. Just prior to this life changing moment, I was living the boomer nightmare, in the guest room of my father’s house as I saved pennies for a down payment on anything.

Sometimes the stars align. For years I had been making the commute from the Carneros Vineyards to the Winery in the Stags Leap District and on that route was a fifteen acre piece of land with a 100 year old cottage, a few barns, outbuildings and a classic Carneros junkyard of old cars and other detritus of someone else’s unrealized dreams. Every day, while driving past, I would repeat the mantra: “If only that farm would come up for sale…” and one day, it did.

Though my father had planted other vineyards, this was my first vineyard. A south facing slope meant good sunshine for a vineyard in a relatively cool climate zone. We collected some heirloom selections of Pinot Noir for the hillside and a couple of French selections (Pommard massale field cuttings and the Dijon 115 clone) on the lower blocks. I was happy and scared at the same time. In the past, I assumed risk for others. Now I was assuming that risk for myself… and it was just beginning.

I built a house, got married, had two kids and watched them go to college, buried my favorite dog, Capa, on the hillside and, along the way, each vintage memorialized life’s moments in an expressive bottle of wine. To me, the Capa Vineyard Pinot Noir is the captured essence of each passing year - a documentary of my family’s life… a personal document to be shared with family, friends and those we have yet to meet.

Soup + Pinot Noir

I love a good hearty soup, especially served with a nice hunk of warm bread and some salted butter. The apple picks up a hint of sweetness in the squash while the chestnuts add an indescribable subtle spice. These flavors are carried beautifully in a silky smooth puree that has a luxurious texture.

It’s this type of soup that actually works with wine. Many are too light, with flavors that disappear before you get to sip the wine. Not this one. It lingers while allowing you to enjoy a sip of wine to appreciate the flavors of both together.

The Capa Vineyard Pinot Noir is delicious with this soup. It has earthiness and spice which hums along merrily with the slight earthiness of the squash and the spice of the chestnuts. They’re pretty darn good together.

Until the Next Wine....
Maria

EAT: Roasted Squash, Chestnut and Apple Soup

The hillside Pinot Noir on the Capa Vineyard was ripped out at the end of 2014 leaving just three blocks, two of massale field selection Pommard and one block of Dijon 115 Pinot Noir. The lower blocks get less sun than the hillside but the selections on those lower blocks are earlier ripening so do well in that location and produce beautiful, dark and intense fruit. The vintage of 2015 was another drought vintage with a relatively small crop of Pinot with amazing structure and density.

The Dijon selection always ripens first and was hand picked in the wee hours of the third week of August with the Pommard selection following a week later. The fruit was de-stemmed and fermented in small non-temperature controlled ½ ton picking bins and larger open top four ton temperature controlled fermenters. After fermentation, the wine was laid to rest in tight-grained, French oak (30% new) and aged for just shy of a year in the caves behind the winery. The individual lots were blended by taste to create this elegantly, intense and memorable bottle of Pinot Noir.