Levy & McClellan
A little gem nestled in a Napa Valley vineyard setting
Levy & McClellan is a young winery founded in 2004 by Bob Levy and Martha McClellan but vines were planted in 1999. The vineyard is located in and covers over 2,5 hectares. “When we were looking for a vineyard we limited our research to western hillsides of the valley, not on the flat but just on the beginning of the mountain.”
Previously a stable and a field dedicated to horse riding, Bob and Martha had the chance to be able to start from scratch during the creation of their vineyard but also not to inherit a soil exhausted because of intensive agriculture.
Currently and since the beginning they grow all grape by themselves and do not buy any grapes. Every year they produce around 6.000 bottles divided into two cuvées (only red). Let’s go to meet Bob Levy, winemaker and co-owner of Levy & McClellan
What does wine mean to you?
“Culture, friendship, experiences, something able to open up new sensorial opportunities and many other things. Additionally my wife is a wine maker working for 4 other estates, so it’s a good incentive to take care of our business and improve.”
What is the signature of your wines?
“One can recognize our wine from others thanks to the freshness, ripeness, the minerality and many other features coming from the terroir and the environment around where the vines grow.”
Personally I would add that the beautiful balance between power, richness and finesse are also good indicators. They are beautiful structures and a sense of place (racy rock minerality and biosphere aromas).
Can you tell us about your wine and your estate?
“We both have had a lot of experience in our careers, always focused on Cabernet Sauvignon grown on hillside vineyard sites and became very passionate about them, for their power and concentration and even more because of their sense of place grown in such locations. In this wine growing area the biggest problem especially in my early days (around 1970) was due to many of the old school viticulture and wine making techniques use and the fact that the tannins were not ripe. Furthermore, this problem was increased in our warm region because of a lack of proper knowledge on how to improve the tannins. So, with many years of trials from the late 70’s and throughout the 80’s to improve the tannins in this area, ultimately we were presented with a great opportunity to make a huge difference after the vineyards were replanted due to damage caused by phylloxera.
Previously, mostly hillside vineyards were planted on terrace and the soil was worked with big tractors, the thinking at the time was that it was the best way to control the erosion of the soil. Then, in the early nineties, we changed the way we developed and managed the vineyards as far as the use of the land: we started avoiding cutting of the land, the soil to put in terraces and planted with the vine rows aligned up and down the slope of the hill. We had many ideas for how to improve the tannin quality from these special hillsides grown Cabernets. Among the many practices we brought forth was the idea to raise the vineyard, using irrigation in a manner to promote faster deep root growth while the vines are young so that by the time the cines reach 10 years of age, we can stop using irrigation at all- practicing what is called ‘dry farming’ because the root system had become so well established and deep rooted.
Also, with the change of trellising from essentially head trained vines to vertical shoot positioning, that happened when so many vineyards were replanted in the 90’s, there was a need to respect the correct row direction for balanced sunlight and even maturity of the grapes. With a hillside vineyard where you wish to plant the rows and down the slope, you need to find a site that gives you a slope that will have the right row direction. All these activities and many others were focused to get fully mature and softer tannins
Concerning our terroir, our vines are planted on volcanic soil here known as Aiken series (a reddish colored clay-loam that varies from about 15 cm to about 60 cm deep and sits on top of volcanic ash, called Tufa). The Tufa is very soft and friable and porous. You can break it with your hands because of it having less density. Having worked with cabernet Franc in this type of soil previously and due to it’s porosity we were convinced that areas where the Tufa was exposed to the surface without any clay loam on top of it would be ideal for us to plant Cabernet Franc.
Since Cabernet Franc can have a tendency to be more vigorous than Cabernet Sauvignon, we felt that this volcanic ash subsoil would be ideal in helping to keep control of any excess vigor and promote a more balanced growing condition.”
Do you practice any organic or have you any certifications?
“We follow the most natural farming as possible. We always use organic materials and we do not use pesticides.
To help to continually replenish and improve the soil, the ability of the vines to naturally find the nutrients they require for healthy growth and to avoid erosion in the rainy winters we use 100% native cover crops, certainly during the winter, but in an unusual manner also throughout the dry summer growing season. In this way the microflora that results in the soils and around the native plant root systems can assist the vines in their ability to take in the nutrients from the soil without the need for adding any fertilizers into the soil or to the vines.”
Do you have any new projects?
“We are passionate about what we do and consider our experience in the Napa Valley over the past 40 years as key components to be able to do what we do at a level of quality that we would like to achieve. We have always wanted to simply focus on doing the best that we can do in one location rather than spread our efforts over many different areas.”
Thank you to Bob Levy for the warm hospitality
Choukroun Chicheportiche Jonathan
Levy & McClellan
Website
1881 Howell Mountain Rd
St Helena, CA 94574
