St. Supéry Meritage Mania

By Kathy Ward

Tasting Card • Meritage • Ten Mercer • Peter Knox • Michael Scholz

St. Supéry is celebrating Meritage Mania at a Seattle Enological Society program with featured speaker CEO Michaela Rodeno presenting some superb wines.

This Napa Valley winery carries the name of French winemaker Edward St. Supéry who lived in the Atkinson House built on the Rutherford site in 1882. Today this Victorian landmark on the National Register of Historic Places houses a Wine Discovery Center with a living museum of a late 1800 vintner's life, and soil-to-bottle winemaking exhibits.

The legacy continued when third generation French winemaker Robert Skalli - a pioneer in modernizing the wine industry in the Languedoc region of France - followed an inspiration to start a new Napa Valley winery. He purchased vineyard land in 1982, and four years later acquired the estate that now houses his St. Supéry.

Her fluency in French helped Michaela launch a career in the wine industry, first with Domaine Chandon at startup in 1973. Then, with a U.C. Berkeley MBA, she joined St. Supéry in 1988, the year of their first crush.

Michaela is also president of the Meritage Association. With St. Supéry's selections as examples, we will learn firsthand about this Bordeaux blending style. "The notion of Meritage is to make a better wine than you can with a single variety," she explains. Come taste the difference.

St. Supéry Red and White Meritage wines are blends of classic Bordeaux grape varieties, crafted from estate-grown fruit by winemaker Michael Scholz and Bordeaux consultant Michel Rolland. They also source from their two additional Napa Valley vineyards for other wines.

The 1999 White Meritage on our tasting card won a Gold at the San Francisco Fair, and California Grapevine gave it a score of 92. The San Francisco International Wine Competition awarded a Gold for the 1996 Red Meritage, Epicurean gave it a 93, and Restaurant Wine deemed it a 4-Star. Wine Spectator, Epicurean and Wine Access all scored the 1997 Red Meritage at 91.

Virtual Tasting

Born and raised in the Barossa Valley north of Adelaide in Australia, Michael Scholz first made wine from his family's vineyard. His father and four generations of paternal lineage were physicians, but he decided to follow vintages instead of medicine.

With a degree in Oenology from Roseworthy Agricultural College, Michael worked for a decade with Australian and South African wineries and in California as winemaker at Iron Horse. He joined St. Supéry in 1996 and has transformed the winery's style from subtlety to complexity.

You can "meet" Michael and compare your impressions and descriptions of St. Supéry wines to his. Just click on www.stsupery.com, find the Virtual Tasting page, turn up the audio, and enlarge the window for full video. While you're cruising, also take a virtual tour of the winery.

Sample locally, then seek globally and you are apt to find St. Supéry on your overseas travels. They're in top restaurants from Tokyo to London and even in France. And speaking of dinner, St. Supéry's Chef Sunny Cristadoro has some yummy recipes on the Web site. Click on your wine choice and find several dishes you can whip up to complement. And for dessert, the Moscato is a lean, clean white Muscat choice.

The St. Supéry tasting is September 12 at the St. Demetrios Cultural Center in Seattle. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the program begins promptly at 7:30. Reservations are not necessary. Cost is $12 for members, $17 for guests.

New members who join the Enological Society for the first time the night of the program get a free wineglass. Others should bring their own glass - better yet, two for comparative tasting. Plastic cups are provided. Society logo glasses can be purchased at the meeting.

K&L's Peter Knox Subs for Guest Speaker

Filling in superbly as a last-minute guest speaker for the St. Supéry program was Peter Knox, Fine Wine Manager for K&L Classic Wine Company. The scheduled speaker, St. Supéry CEO Michaela Rodeno, was diverted to Canada on a transatlantic flight during the attack on America crisis and did not arrive in Seattle in time for the program. We hope to have her as a guest at a future Society event. Cheers to Peter, who conducted the tasting with wit, charm and great expertise about the wine.

Click here to see a list of past Seattle Programs