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StateWays | www.stateways.com | July/August 2017 24 ESTATE WINES | CATEGORY UPDATE Chehalem's Peterson-Nedry acknowledged that some pro- ducers may have jumped the gun "years and years ago" in vineyard-designating their wines, particularly Pinot Noirs. But he said that as his area's vineyards have matured, they refl ect more "terroir nuances," which makes them more interesting to customers who care about those differences. And as wineries "seek to satisfy wine clubs, I think there's a willingness now to add some SKUs." Far Niente's sister Napa Valley winery, Nickel & Nickel, pro- duces all single-vineyard wines – 23 of them, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon. "There's this coolness and sense of discovery" when consumers taste a range of the wines, Maguire says. "Even a novice can tell them apart, and that excites them." The proliferation of U.S. single-vineyard wines isn't just a West Coast phenomenon. Fox Run in New York's Finger Lakes region vineyard-designates some of its Rieslings. The wines come from specifi c blocs with distinctive soil types in the win- ery's estate vineyard. Fox Run sales manager Dan Mitchell says the back labels explain the differences. "It helps write the story for the wines, and consumers like that," he says. Chateau Ste. Michelle has bottled single-vineyard wines since the early 1990s. To help establish the "pedigree" for one of them, Cold Creek Vineyard – one of the state's oldest vine- yards -- the winery sells some of the grapes to other prominent winemakers, who themselves vineyard-designate the wines. Ste. Michelle continues the single-vineyard theme at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars in the Napa Valley, which it owns with Tus- cany's Piero Antinori and which makes celebrated cabernets from the SLV and Fay vineyards, as well as with the recently acquired Patz & Hall, a Napa producer of a number of Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays. PRICED AT A PREMIUM Although it varies from winery to winery, estate and sin- gle-vineyard wines usually command higher prices. At Ste. Michelle, for example, the Columbia Valley wines retail for $12-$15, while the single-vineyard Cabernets are $30-$40. At Chehalem, the Three Vineyard Pinot Noir, which Peter- son-Nedry describes as the entry-level wine, is $30; the four single-vineyard Pinots are $50. Testarossa's single-vineyard wines also command a premium. Pinot Noirs with a broader appellation like Santa Lucia High- lands or Sta. Rita Hills, for example, are priced at $49; most of the single-vineyard Pinots are $65. Nearly all the single-vineyard wines are sold direct to consumers, mostly to the wine club. Since all the Nickel & Nickel wines are single-vineyard bot- tlings, there's no comparison to be made. But the Cabernets, for example, are $115 to $160; the price differences are based on a combination of production size and "a genuine follow- ing," Maguire said. A few of the really limited wines are sold direct to consumers. That direct-to-consumer aspect is common for single-vine- yard wines. That also makes them more attractive to the win- ery, which makes more money than it would with a wine that goes to distribution. It's harder to assess the price premium that an estate wine commands, especially when a winery's products are all es- tate-bottled. But Tablas Creek provides an illustration. The Pa- telin de Tablas wines are $25, while the estate wines are more expensive: The Cotes de Tablas red blend is $35, for example, while the fl agship Esprit de Tablas red is $60. Ultimately, Maguire says, pricing is really about the "strength of the winery brand – and your nerve." • A Northern California resident, LAURIE DANIEL has written about wine for more than 20 years. Her wine column appears in several California newspapers, and her articles have appeared in magazines such as Wines & Vines, Food & Wine, Wine Country Living, Drinks and the Wine Enthusiast.