Barrett & Barrett

Barrett & Barrett: A collaboration between two of the world’s most respected winemakers.

Heidi Barrett has made many of the Napa Valley’s most sought-after and cult classic wines. Known as the "First Lady of Wine", she was responsible for the creation of Screaming Eagle (from 1992 to 2006), Dalla Valle Maya, and the Dalla Valle Cabernets in the late 80s and early 90s. While she is best known for her perfectly balanced, elegant, and ageworthy Cabs, she has gained an international following for her winemaking skill and artistry across many different varietals. Among a lengthy list of past and present clients, her personal hall of fame includes her own La Sirena wines, Amuse Bouche, Au Sommet, Vin Perdu, Fantesca, Kenzo Estate, Showket, Paradigm, Lamborn, Jones, and Revana. Wine after wine, year after year, Heidi has established herself as a true artist of winemaking who excels in shaping her wines into something extraordinary.

Bo Barrett has had an outstanding record of excellence since taking over as winemaker at Chateau Montelena in 1982. Robert Parker has called him "the Cal Ripken" of winemakers, and Chateau Montelena holds a special place in wine history. Simply put by Parker : "a 30 year track record with NO DUDS!" Bo brings to Barrett & Barrett of the consistent excellence he has maintained in the vineyard and winery every year at Chateau Montelena. In Montelena’s reputation for classic European style and structured wines, Bo has created a legacy of classic Cabernets, Chardonnays, Zinfandel and Rieslings recognized worldwide as a First Growth of California. Bo’s expertise is in single appellation wines that highlight distinct vineyards. Capturing the light on a special piece of land, and making the wines from the first day the vineyard is planted is Bo’s specialty.

Married for over 30 years, Heidi and Bo have each well established their own individual winemaking track records. Heidi’s focus on perfect balance and Bo’s on classic styling are quite synergistic. Heidi & Bo say of the project: After working on numerous personal endeavors together, most notably 3 children, building a home, developing two different vineyards in Calistoga, we decided to create this special collaborative wine project. In addition to being winemakers, we also scuba dive, ski, and have our pilot's licenses. 'Land, Sea & Sky' is part of our overall approach to life, which we also strive to capture in our wine.

"When we started this project we thought of the design and imagery we wanted to on our label that expressed our philosophy, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. As winegrowers we work intimately with the the land, the sea and the sky. The land is the soils of our distinctive vineyards, the sea is the water that nurtures the vines, and the Sky is the weather that changes every year. We wanted to tie these elements; the physical and philosophical - land, sea and sky - together into one." 

Heidi has long used the symbol of the magical mermaid with her La Sirena, as it captures her personality and artistic creativity. Bo is absolutely defined by the description of his Chinese astrological sign the "Wood Horse". Look it up - if you've ever met him, you would agree. The challenge was deciding on how to take these different design concepts and brining them together into a symbol that captured the both of us.

Months into the myriad paths of wonderful images and information we explored, we began gravitating towards a design style also reflecting the antiquity of wine. The history of wine spans thousands of years and is closely intertwined with the history of agriculture, cuisine, civilization and humanity itself. The imagery found in antiquity is elegant, simple and expressive. So we had a distinctive style in mind, but what about the image? Further searching the art and images of antiquity led to ancient coins. Which led to a slight off target tangent; where were the first coins ever struck? These first coins were created in the Kingdom of Lydia, an ancient eastern Mediterranean culture located in what is now western Turkey. The Lydian coin images naturally led to that culture’s jewelry and other images. Suddenly there is was! A wonderful necklace pendant with a flying Hippocampus (sea-horse). We had found our image. The flying Hippocampus became the design image for Barrett & Barrett and "et voilà!" We have our own unique antiquarian coin! We later saw a similar actual Lydian coin in the Leopold Museum in Vienna.

The Barrett & Barrett logo is indeed a combination of magical sea creature & a horse - Land, sea and sky. Perfect.

Grown at our family Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards in the Calistoga AVA, we know these vineyards extremely well. Our first Barrett & Barrett vineyard Cab was planted in 1989 on the steep volcanic slopes at the base of Mt. St Helena, giving wines of tiny berries and very concentrated flavors. This vineyard is where we produced our initial vintages of 2008 to 2010. Our second Cab blocks are in a wonderful gravelly, cobbly alluvial soil at the confluence of Garnet and Jericho creeks. 

It is across a dirt road from a long-time Chateau Montelena farmed property, so Bo has great confidence in this piece of land, even more than when we first established the hillside volcanic blocks. It’s a piece of land we have had our eye on for years and we are excited for its potential. We have both developed new vineyards for terrific Cabernets that have had immediate success and our combined experience tells us this new vineyard follows our established history for “picking good dirt”! 

One of the key ingredients to great Cabernet is lots of sunlight and we have both determined we like “sun grown” red grapes, especially Cabernet, for our wines. The Barrett & Barrett vineyards all have excellent south-westerly exposure allowing the grapes to get nice and ripe every year.

Barrett & Barrett is a handcrafted, small production Napa Valley wine that reflects our two complementary winemaking styles. Bo’s expertise is in single appellation wines that highlight distinct vineyards, while Heidi excels at creating perfectly balanced, layered Cabs with an elegant, artistic style. 

WINEGROWING
We hand select small sections of the very best grapes from our Calistoga vineyards, vine by vine. With 20 years of experience growing Cab at this vineyard, we know the most unique and special areas, which have the lowest yields, tiny berries & stressed vines to create the super-selected wine we desire. Our winemaking in the vineyard comes down to our personal selection of each vine and is carried through to impeccable detail in the winemaking. 

Looking back on the 2018 vintage - it was a beautiful and even idyllic growing season, blessedly free of the challenges of some other recent years - we've heard it described as "drama-free", which seems apt. We had a cooler start to the growing season, leading into a nice warm summer and optimum growing weather. Even during the hotter spells, the cool nights allowed for great flavors and structure to develop. We had healthy, normal crop levels and a slightly later harvest date (late Sept into October). Harvest was slow and steady, with excellent ripening weather throughout. The more leisurely pace allowed for very selective and precise harvest decisions, resulting in a wine we are extremely proud of!