Jordan Estate Tales - Volume 11, 2016 - 10

Rob Davis with André Tchelistcheff at
the Jordan crush pad in the late 1970s.

IN GOOD COMPANY

Forty harvests for an American winemaker at one winery is
quite a feat. Paul Draper has been in charge of winemaking at
Ridge Vineyards since 1969. Mike Grgich, now 92 years old, will
oversee his 40th harvest at Grgich Hills this year. Peter Mondavi,
who passed away in February at age 101, was put in charge of
winemaking at Charles Krug in the 1950s and reported to work
until he turned 100.
None of these luminaries is (or was) as hands-on as Davis.
He walks the vineyards every morning. He prunes vines.
He samples soil. He blends wine.
Tchelistcheff taught Davis this do-it-all approach, too. When
the duo traveled through Italy, they walked the vineyards
and studied vines and soil and irrigation. When they visited
Burgundy, they chatted with farmers about technique. As Davis
remembers it, Tchelistcheff often mentioned four keys of good
winemaking: That the process was about matching the correct
cultivar with the correct climate on the right soil and caring for
it the right way.
"Put differently, the idea was that quality all comes from the
vineyard," Davis notes. "After André died [at age 94 in 1993], that
simple notion was something I embraced and championed for the
rest of my career." Another thing Davis learned from Tchelistcheff:
To put an imprint on the direction of the wine. For Davis, the
best ways to do that were to have a say in all farming for the 112
acres of vineyard land on the Jordan Estate, and to work more

10

directly with growers. To realize this goal, Davis has espoused
a hands-on philosophy with the farmers who grow his grapes-
about a dozen different farmers for Cabernet Sauvignon and a
half-dozen for Chardonnay.
Consider it high-touch winemaking, with a twist.
"Rob's talking to us about the grapes and walking in our
vineyard more than any other winemaker we work with," says
Bret Munselle, an Alexander Valley grape grower from whom
Davis buys fruit each year. "If a winemaker is going to have an
opinion about what we're doing, we prefer them to get the
knowledge first-hand. [Davis] has high expectations, but he has
high rewards and high praise."

SHARPENING THE CRAFT

All these years of winemaking and Rob Davis has managed to
retain his humility. Ask him about his "legacy" after 40 harvests,
and he defers to a matriarch we all know well.
"I always found it a paradox that nature is the one in charge," he
says. "Being a winemaker is the most humbling position anyone
can be in. We're all in control of what we make but nature
controls what we can and cannot do. It's up to us to react to that
and make wine accordingly."
Davis does this in a variety of ways. For starters, he keeps
journals on every harvest-handwritten notes and computerized
spreadsheets that go back all 40 years. Davis also prides himself
Jordan Estate Tales - Volume 11, 2016

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