Navarro Vineyards

In 1971 Ted Bennett and Deborah Cahn began seeking a location in California to grow Gewürztraminer and Pinot Noir. In 1973, Deborah and Ted purchased a 900-acre sheep ranch in the Anderson Valley in Mendocino county. The site not only met specifications of the U.C. Davis Enology Department, which considers climate the most important variable affecting wine quality, but also those of French Enologists, who believe that soil or vineyard site is the most important consideration. The coastal climate would assure that Gewürztraminer grapes would ripen late in the season when the weather is cool, and the gravelly clay soils were similar to famous vineyard sites in Alsace, known for producing elegant dry wines.

Vineyard planting began in 1974: closely spaced vines (700 per acre) were carefully situated on contoured, terraced hillsides. Ninety acres are currently planted, which include 32 Gewürztraminer, 31 Pinot Noir, 16 Chardonnay, 4 Pinot Gris, 3 Riesling and 3 Muscat Blanc. The newest vineyards are more densely planted, with up to 2,000 vines per acre. The higher elevations (1,000' to 1,500') are cooler during the day, but much colder at night: conditions that produce high acidity. All of the white grape varieties are grown here. The eventual goal is a total of 120 to 130 acres, with the future plantings to Riesling, Pinot Gris, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.

While waiting for the vines to become productive, Ted and Deborah continued to raise sheep, totally unprofitably, for five years. Wine production began in 1975 with grapes purchased from neighboring vineyards. Production was modest for the first three years, and under the direction of consulting winemakers, afforded the founders an education in winemaking. Production is currently about 30,000 cases a year, two-thirds of which is produced from estate-grown grapes.

Navarro's style of winemaking is slowly evolving as the vineyards reach maturity, since the fruit produced by a vineyard is a unique combination of microclimate, soil, and cultural practices. Generally, Navarro strives to produce wines in which one can "taste the vineyard," similar perhaps to the French idea of "gout de terroir." Each vineyard site is fermented and aged as a separate lot; experiments within these lots are helping the winery define its style.Most of the wines are produced by the French cuvee system. A cuvee is selected by blending the individual vineyard lots together to produce a single wine that is better than any of its separate components. To achieve a perfectly balanced wine, some lots are added in their entirety, while others are only partially added. The remaining lots of wine are used in the production of house wines.

The style of some of the wines produced was planned. Navarro's dry Gewürztraminer is perhaps the best example: Deborah and Ted love Alsatian wines and specifically selected a vineyard site with soils to produce a similar wine. Other wines were serendipitous: it was preferred not to spray chemicals on the vines, so by harvest some of the grapes were rotten. The rot that dominates in the cool, humid climate of Anderson Valley is botrytis cinerea. Ted says, "If anyone had told us in 1974 that we would be producing sweet wines from rotten grapes and enjoying it, we would have considered them crazy!"The cooperage used is quite traditional: 50 gallon Burgundian barrels for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. German and French oak ovals (300 to 1500 gallons) for Gewürztraminer , Pinot Gris, Riesling and Muscat. The latest high-tech equipment is used in the production of white wines, (e.g. stainless panels for temperature control inside every oak oval, stainless steel membrane press, progressive cavity pumps, etc.) but Navarro Pinot Noir is made by "Methode l'Ancienne" (without modern machinery). The winemaking regimes are frequently a blend of traditional and modern techniques and have been arrived at by experimentation to best suit the grapes from the ranch vineyards.

Ted was born in Canada, and in 1950 moved to California to establish residency in order to attend the chemistry department at the University of California at Berkeley. After receiving a business degree in 1960, he co-founded Pacific Stereo which was sold to CBS in 1970. Deborah, General Manager of Navarro Vineyards, is a native Californian. She spent most of her childhood growing up in Los Angeles. After receiving her BA from the University of Chicago and a MA in literature from the University of California at Berkeley, she worked briefly in the advertising department of Pacific Stereo, where she met her husband, Ted Bennett. (Navarro's Vineyard Manager).

Jim Klein, Navarro's winemaker, trained at U.C. Davis and apprenticed in the Santa Ynez Valley at Brander Vineyard and for Kevin Judd in New Zealand. He served as enologist at Charles Krug Winery in the mid 1980's. Prior to joining Navarro, Jim lived in Israel and was winemaker at Yarden in the Golan Heights. Sweden's Gourmet Magazine named him "Winemaker of the Year" for his work there. He now lives with his wife Rinat, and their 3 children in the redwoods overlooking the Anderson Valley. Jim works closely with owners Ted and Deborah to create the wines of their shared philosophy.