Ray Coursen, founder, owner and winemaker at Elyse Winery in the Napa Valley, started in the wine business with the 1983 harvest, working at Villa Mt. Eden. A stint with a vineyard management followed before he settled at Whitehall Lane, working with owner Art Finkelstein as assistant winemaker, then winemaker. Along the way – in 1987 to be exact - Ray and his wife Nancy created the Elyse label, making wine at other facilities and literally doing everything themselves. The name Elyse, by the way, is their daughter’s; a new label Jacob Franklin, has been introduced at the urging of their son, Jake. It is put on the winery’s Petite Sirahs and Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. Total production for both labels is around 8,000 cases a year.

A visit to Elyse is in many ways a trip back to when Coursen first came to the Napa Valley. The winery is a small building set back from a country road. It has been refurbished and polished up lately, but the cat still sleeps in one corner of the small tasting room, and the person wandering from the tasting bar back to the production area is as likely as not the owner.

For years if you mentioned Coursen’s name to wine lovers, Zinfandel was the first thing they would say. But now he has become equally famous for his Syrah and Petit Sirah. There is also a wine called “d l’Aventure” that tastes for all the world like the south of France, and a delightful Rosé that defines summer dining and picnics. All are hand crafted and a visit to the winery only reinforces the pleasure you receive from the wine, and on the drive from Napa to Yountville, the winery is only a minute or two off the beaten path, but is a step back in time.

Pacific Star Winery

A winery at the end of the world? Well, almost. If not the end of the world then certainly the end of the continental United States, Pacific Star juts out into the ocean. “Wine born and raised by the sea” they say, and they exaggerate not in the least. Nor do they when they call themselves America’s westernmost winery. Perched a few hundred feet above the crashing waves, it is an experience that touches all the senses.

If you wonder if perhaps the setting overshadows the winemaking that goes on there, you would be very wrong. All the wines at Pacific Star are fermented in open-top bins and punched down by hand twice a day. Wines are well aged on mostly neutral oak, and all are unfined and unfiltered. The style of wine they make is big, emphasizing the varietal fruit characteristics as well as the balance of oak and the beautifully smooth tannins. Because the wines are well barrel aged, they come across as food-friendly and approachable. This is serious winemaking here. Spotting gray whales as they migrate is just one of the many added bonuses you find when visiting the winery.

The setting does play other roles in the wine from Pacific Star, though. The waves that crash into the sea caves below the winery’s cellar, which naturally filter wine sediment is part of it, and salt from the sea air deposits on the French, American and Hungarian oak barrels accelerates osmosis, creating viscous and dense wines. The grapes are acquired from all around the Mendocino area, and many of the varietals may sound new to you, but all shine at the hands of experienced winemaker Sally Ottoson. But, like the setting itself, you need to experience the wines, just as you need to take in both the enormity and the intimacy of the setting, and for that you’ll simply have to head up the coast to this gem a dozen miles north of Fort Bragg.

On the drive on Route 29, from St. Helena to Calistoga, make a right turn on Ehlers Lane and after a half mile or so you will come to a stone barn and an old wine press or two. You have arrived at Leducq. This was the original Ehlers vineyard, planted in the latter part of the 19th century and a part of the Ehlers family holdings until the turn of the century. In the years since, it had suffered subdivision and neglect at various times, and was closed during Prohibition.

Last year, the winery now known as Leducq Vineyards, reunited the two front parcels of the original estate with the historic stone winery building that now serves as tasting and storage room. Leducq Vineyards will, as Bernard Ehlers did in 1886, focus on limited estate production. The stated purpose of the owner, noted French businessman Jean Leducq, is to produce estate wines that rival his favorite European wines. If there is any pretension in that desire it is not found at the winery, which is a refreshing bit of casual country at the northern end of the Napa Valley.

Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon bearing the Sylviane label show the varietal quality of the estate grown fruit, while the Le Ducq labeled wines are made in an unabashed Bordeaux style, thus they are made in the Meritage style, using only a blend of the classic Bordeaux varietals. If the quality of the wines are not enough to convince you that this is, indeed, a great winery find, the art on the labels could be the deciding factor. Or maybe it’s the vineyard dog wandering in and out of the huge wooden doors, or the old wine presses, or maybe the view. That is its beauty of it; you need to visit, and to decide for yourself.

RESOURCES
Note: These are not large facilities, and their hours may vary. We urge you to always call first, to confirm hours of operation and avoid disappointment.

Elyse Winery
2100 Hoffman Lane
Napa
(707) 944-2900

Leducq Vineyards
3222 Ehlers Lane
St. Helena
(707) 963-5972

Pacific Star Winery
33000 North Highway 1
Ukiah
(707) 964-1155