Property History

Aida Vineyard is located approximately 2 miles north of the Vineyard 29 winery, on Highway 29. It is an historic property that has produced wine since at least the 1920s, when Petite Sirah vines were first planted at this site. The old-vine petite sirah, as well as zinfandel and cabernet sauvignon grapes from the property, have in the past been sold to local wineries--most notably Turley Wine Cellars, which produced an Aida Vineyard designate Zinfandel and Petite Sirah for a number of years.

In 1996, Oliver and Karen Caldwell, art dealers and wine lovers from San Francisco, purchased Aida and initiated a systematic replanting and upgrading of the property, including the planting of 5 acres of premium quality cabernet sauvignon, and 2 acres of merlot.

In 2001, this already well known vineyard was purchased by Chuck and Anne McMinn as an ideal complement to Vineyard 29's home vines. The property is in the same St. Helena appellation and tended by the same vineyard manager as Vineyard 29, David Abreu. Yet, the very different microclimate present at Aida led both David and Philippe Melka to believe strongly in the tremendous potential of this site for premium cabernet sauvignon that would serve as an ideal compliment to Vineyard 29's wines.

Chuck and Anne completed the Aida Vineyard upgrade in 2001-2002 with the replacement of the petite sirah vines which, sadly, were too old to continue producing the quantity and quality of fruit we desired. In its place, an additional 5 acres of cabernet sauvignon were planted, consisting of 3 different clones, on 3 different rootstocks. This cabernet now serves as the backbone for our Aida Red Wine blend, comprising approximately 75% of the blend from year to year.

We have continued the Zinfandel program at Aida, producing an elegant, mineral tinged Zinfandel from the Aida fruit. In addition, we have now instituted a berry select program to produce a non-vintage late harvest wine from the raisinated berries found on those vines.

Acreage

Planted: Petite Sirah - 1920s (removed in 2001)
Zinfandel - 1973; ~5 acres
Merlot - 1990s; ~2 acres
Cabernet Sauvignon - 1998 & 2001; ~8 acres

Producing: Presently, 11 acres of Aida Vineyard yields fruit. When in full production, the vineyard will comprise approximately 15 acres of vines.

Climate

Aida Vineyard experiences a unique microclimate for the St. Helena appellation. Thanks to its vineyard floor location, the vineyard receives a tremendous amount of afternoon sunshine, making it a hot microclimate, and also benefits from the hot wind that is drawn through the valley as the Pacific marine influence forces cool air over the mountains from the coast. This breeze contributes to some desiccation of the fruit, creating the raisining we see on some of the zinfandel vines, and providing cabernet and merlot grapes with a higher sugar concentration.

Aspect

Although technically on the floor of the Napa Valley, between the Vaca and Mayacamas mountain ranges, Aida Vineyard is not at all a flat, "valley floor" site. Stretching from Highway 29 eastward to the Napa River, the vineyards at Aida undulate, encompassing several hillsides and knolls. These hillsides lend effective water drainage, placing stress on the vines and causing them to produce lower yields of highly concentrated grapes.

Soil

At one time, the Napa River flowed over the entire vineyard space at Aida. Much narrower in flow today, the remaining soils are all second generation river deposits, and hence quite rocky. Much like those seen in the southern Rhone valley of France, these soils force the vines to work very hard in order to find water, and thus yield smaller grapes with higher levels of sugar, producing wines with fully ripened fruit flavors and firmer tannic structure.

Our strategy during the growing season is to use deficit irrigation with the grapes. By measuring the moisture in the leaves of the vines (an indicator of "vine stress") we are able to cut irrigation to a bare minimum, providing water only when the vines are in dire need. This prevents the vines from being able to provide water to the grapes, and keeps the berry size small. Smaller grapes have a higher skin to pulp ratio, allowing us to extract more tannin during fermentation. Sugar levels vary year to year, but we intentionally push the grapes to full physiological ripeness, which will often result in grapes with a high sugar content, as water is evaporated from the grapes when we allow them to hang longer in the vineyard. Thus, our smaller grapes yield grapes with higher tannin levels and greater concentration of alcohol, translating into well structured wines with grip, and depth of flavor carried along the palate by the alcohol.
The ripeness we can achieve at Aida gives us a great deal of scope with regard to winemaking. We use specific Bordeaux isolated yeasts which impart an exotic character to the wine. The nose often will be reminiscent of violets and dried apricots, while the palate is concentrated black stone fruit, tobacco and licorice.