John Lockwood of Enfield Wine Company is one of those dedicated few, finding ways to make a small amount of captivating wine in the Napa Valley area without much money and with no vineyard holdings. 

Eric Asimov, NY Times

This week’s Wine of the Week is a cellar selection from Enfield Wine Co; the 2017 Haynes Vineyard Old Vine Chardonnay.

The Napa Valley isn’t top of mind for me when it comes to California Chardonnay because so many of Napa’s multitude of microclimates are considered to be “warm” or perhaps ” moderately warm”.

But there are cool to moderate areas in the Napa I look for when it comes to Chardonnay. Those include Coombsville, Wild Horse Valley and Los Carneros sub-AVA

Fruit for the 2017 Enfield Wine Co. Haynes Vineyard Old Vine Chardonnay was sourced from the Haynes Vineyard in the Coombsville AVA.

Planted in 1967, it is home to the Napa Valley’s old Chardonnay vines.  On cool mornings the marine level sinks down into the Coombsville Bowl and doesn’t break up until the afternoon, creating the mildest growing season in the Napa Valley The vines are planted in deep, alluvial, cobblestone soil ideal for root penetration. Below the topsoil a layer of powdery, white volcanic ash stores tiny amounts of moisture allowing the fruit to maintain tremendous acidity explains Enfield Wine Co’s website.

Tasting Note: Pale lemon color with pear drop, jasmine, brioche, wet stone, vanilla, and lemon zest aromas. On the palate, it medium-bodied with lively acidity and pear drop, white peach, lemon zest, wet stone, oak spice flavors with a very appealing dollop of saline minerality and a lengthy finish. 13.3% abv 2 Puncheons produced. SRP for the 2020 is $45, which represent wonderful value for a wine of this quality.

Enfield Wine Co.

Enfield Wine Company  is Napa-based the family project of John Lockwood and Amy Seese.

John got his start in the California wine industry in 2004 working up at Heron Lake vineyard with David Mahaffey. He went on to work harvests with Ted Lemon at Littorai, Bodega Melipal in Argentina, and Failla Wines with Ehren Jordan where he worked for 5 years farming and managing the Sonoma Coast and Russian River estate vineyards. He started Enfield Wine Co. in 2010 as small side-project while still working at Failla, and in 2013 took the plunge with Enfield as a full time project according to their website.

I was introduced to their wine when I attended the 2018 Napa Valley Wine Writers Education Tour. During one of our sessions that was focused on the Wild Horse Canyon AVA, I tasted a captivating Heron Lake Vineyard Pinot Noir that remains one of my favorites from the Napa Valley to this day.

Based on that tasting I joined their mailing list and occasionally purchases wine. All the wines I’ve tried have overdelivered for the price.

And what wine lover, doesn’t love that!