Dinner at Ovid Vineyards

I’d had wonderful tastes of Ovid wines a number of times, and general manager Janet Pagano, a familiar figure in Napa Valley, has been encouraging me to visit. Finally, they created an event and that got me up there.

Ovid is on the hill/mountain above Miner Family and Oakville Ranch, but you can’t get there that way until you climb. Cars have to sneak up the back way, going way past to Sage Canyon Road, then winding around Lake Hennessy and heading up a long but interesting private road.

Eventually, you reach the relatively small but impressive winery. It’s not far from Stagecoach Vineyard in Foss Valley (Atlas Peak AVA) but you can’t get there, either, as a deep canyon blocks the way.

The views from the winery are most impressive, and you can see a huge swath of the valley, though it’s surprising where you’ve ended up.

Ovid is owned by couple Dana Johnson and Mark Nelson, who worked together at a startup software company called Ovid Technologies founded by Nelson. They sold it in 1998 and moved here.

Ovid is named after the Roman poet Ovid, who wrote Metamorphosis about transformation, an appropriate name for a winery that transforms grapes into wine.

The winery is dramatic and made from recycled materials. It’s cleverly throughout, and grapes can be dumped directly into open-topped fermenters in the cellar.

The fermenters are a surprise: most are 850-1,700-gallon concrete-stone tanks built in, and some are large oak vats. They contain chilling coils.

The oak barrels used for storage are on rollers, and can be rotated regularly; the wine is racked back into the same barrel using gas pressure.

The winemaker is Austin Peterson, with Andy Ericson acting as winemaking consultant. David Abreu tends the 15-acre vineyard, which was thick with rocks and boulders before preparation.

What’s important, however, is the wine. The winery only makes one wine – sort of. The wine is called Ovid, and it’s impressive. Not over the top, but rich, balanced and powerful, it’s drinkable young but ages well. We tried the 2007 and 2008, which I suspect will have long lives ahead. The retail prices ranges above $200, and it’s not easy to find. Too bad so few people will get a chance to enjoy it.

We also tried barrel samples of 2010, but I’ve concluded that I’m not interested in barrel samples. They’re too young and not the final blend in most cases, so note representative of the wine. I’d rather than finished wined for sale now; that’s what most people get.

Nevertheless, winemakers love to offer visitors barrel samples, sometimes dozens of them – fortunately not here.

The winery makes a few experiments, too, generally of the components they use for the final blend, such as E0.4, from the young vines in 2004 and K1.5, Cabernet Franc from 2005 with some Petite Verdot blended in.

I might mention that Morgan Robinson of Smoke Open Fire caterer prepared the meal, which consisted on antinpasti, a magnificent squash blossom risotto and steak Florentine prepared perfectly, which is rare and rarely done right, plus chocolate pot de crème. Quite a feast – and the calories are why I tend to skip these dinners!

Ovid doesn’t accept visitors (except in the trade or its known buyers), but you can find more information at www.ovidvineyards.com.