Though, like a prayer, it’ll take you there. Had a nice telephone chat with Tadeo Borchardt, winemaker at Napa Valley’s St. Helena-based Neyers Vineyards winery. Tadeo took an unbelievable half-hour away from his Chardonnay bottling to talk with me.
Dude has paid his dues in New Zealand (at Hawkes Bay, no less), and ubër-cult Cali Copain. His first vintage at Neyers was 2004.
Winery owners Bruce and Barbara Neyers have had a cool, 10-year grape contract with Rich Pato since 1998. It’s recently expired, but Tadeo has hopes and plans for future bottlings using Oakley grapes, whether from the Pato plot or other local sources.
Now, for those of youse who have been following along with our posts, you know that Kathy and I don’t know a lot about our local vineyards (and even when we do glean some answers, it invariably raises more questions), but we DO know where grower Rich Pato tends his stuff. We have been drinking Rosenblum Pato Vineyard Zinfandel for a decade, and now we find that the Pato plot is a left turn, then another left, from our new house! As Mike says on HGTV's “Holmes on Homes,” ‘Un bee LEEVE able.”
A couple of the wines that Kath found include the 2006 Neyers Pato Vineyard Mourvedre, with an earthiness including dried cranberry and bacon fat; as well as a 2007 Neyers Pato Zin which was almost a meal in a glass, with its nose of jammy blueberry and mouthfeel of rich, super-long stone fruit.
According to Tadeo, he made a 2008 Pato Petite Sirah, too. We’re still trying to locate that one.
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