Vergari Wines - News & Events

Josh Raynolds on Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar reviewed four of my wines:

2007 Vergari Wines Pinot Noir Marin County
Vivid red. Fresh red berries, cherry and spicecake on the nose, with a smoky mineral undertone. Fresh, focused, gently sweet raspberry on entry, giving way to deeper bitter cherry with air. Silky tannins add focus to the long, sappy, increasingly spicy finish. This is balanced to age but there'd be no crime in drinking it now. 90 points

2007 Vergari Wines Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard Sonoma Coast
Bright ruby. Cinnamon, black raspberry and smoky herbs on the nose, with a suave, slow-building florality. Sappy, penetrating red and dark berry flavors are lifted by tangy minerality and pick up an exotic rose pastille quality with aeration. Puts on weight in the glass and finishes with excellent clarity and lingering spiciness. Give this one a couple more years of aging or decant it. 91 points

2007 Vergari Wines Pinot Noir Van der Kamp Vineyard Sonoma Mountain
Saturated red. Smoky blackberry and cherry preserve scents are complicated by musky herb and licorice qualities. Smooth, expansive dark fruit flavors are given a firm edge by a touch of cherry skin and become spicier on the back half. Opens slowly to offer sweeter, livelier red fruit character and finishes with gentle tannic grip and an echo of candied licorice. This deserves a little more patience, or serve it with a rich red meat dish. 90 points

2006 Vergari Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Opaque ruby. Musky aromas of cherry, sassafras, licorice, smoky Indian spices and roasted herbs. Sweet, round and supple, with flavors of red- and blackcurrant and candied flowers framed by pepper and spice notes and dusty tannins. Sweeter on the finish, leaving behind sexy cola and vanilla notes. The fruit is covering the structure now, making this wine drinkable today.

International Wine Cellar

2007 Pinot Noir, Sangiacomo Vineyard, Sonoma Coast
A bright streak of raspberry flavor punches through the initial reduction, shifting the pungent blackness toward tangy coastal scents of fresh berries and salt air. Decant this for pan-roasted black cod. 91 points.

Vergari Wines 2006 Pinot Noir, Marin County
Medium-light color, with very pretty and well-defined floral cherry/berry and spice aromas. This had a beautifully silky texture on the palate, good balance and long, clean finish, very nice.
Comments: My first experience with this producer, and this was one of the best wines of the day for me.

Allen Meadows, in the Q4 edition of Burghound, listed the 2006 Van der Kamp Pinot Noir in his California Pinot Noir Selections list:

A ripe, layered and impressively broad nose that captures notes of red and blue fruit, briar, underbrush and herb, all of which can also be found on the pure, clean, detailed and delicious medium-bodied flavors that possess a dusty and mildly austere finish where the supporting structural elements are firmly in evidence.
Like the 2005 version, this will require a few years of cellar time first. 91 points

The Pinot Report reviewed four Vergari Pinot Noir wines, and rated each a Smart Buy!

2006 Vergari Wines Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard, Sonoma Coast
Medium ruby color; deep black cherry and earthy aromas; rich, full and deep with earthy black cherry fruit, herbs and mineral notes; rich texture, sweet oak; good structure and balance; long finish. Full, rich Pinot packed with flavor. Lots of layers here that really cry out for a mushroom pasta dish. 94 points

2006 Vergari Wines Pinot Noir Marin County
Medium ruby color; spicy cherry aromas with some herbal notes; lush, deep red cherry and spice flavors; elegant, silky texture; good structure and balance; long finish. An elegant, silky Pinot that is really drinking well now. 92 points

2006 Vergari Wines Pinot Noir Van der Kamp Vineyard, Sonoma Mountain
Medium ruby color; deep, red cherry aromas with herbal and gamey notes; deep red cherry flavors; earthy, gamey notes, sweet oak, good structure and balance; long finish. This Pinot is truly distinctive in that it is truly representative of one of the most distinctive vineyards in California. Earthy, game flavors are a signature of the Van der Kamp Vineyard. 92 points

2007 Vergari Wines Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
Medium ruby color; rich, red cherry and smoky aromas; ripe, rich bright red cherry flavors with spicy notes and a bit of smoky oak; good structure and balance; long finish. Bright and spicy, this Pinot is all about Russian River red cherry! 91 points

The Prince of Pinot recently sampled three Vergari Pinot Noir wines:

I have met David Vergari on several occasions and I am always impressed by his philosophy. He says, “Wine is dynamic, going down many paths on its way to becoming something unique. Often times I help it along. Sometimes the best choice is to do nothing and let the wine find its voice over time.”

2006 Vergari Van der Kamp Vineyard Sonoma Mountain Pinot Noir
Heritage clones and Dijon 777. Low yields. Dark reddish purple color. Beautiful aromatics that really draw you in. Deep, dark fruits including black raspberries and mu shu plum sauce. Full-bodied and mouth coating black fruits with an earthy underpinning. Velvety tannins frame the lush fruit perfectly and the dry finish lingers memorably. The pedigree of this vineyard shows through in this excellent wine.

Click here for the full review.

Josh Raynolds on Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar reviewed three more
of my wines:

2006 Vergari Wines Pinot Noir Marin County
Medium red with a bright rim. Sexy aromas of raspberry, potpourri, smoky minerals and rose oil, with a subtle undercurrent of blood orange. Fresh and nicely detailed, offering sweet red berry flavors and a silky texture. Fine-grained tannins add gentle grip to the long, sappy finish. This elegant pinot has a lively quality that will make it a good companion to lighter poultry preparations. 90 points

2006 Vergari Wines Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard Sonoma Coast
Saturated red. Powerfully scented bouquet of black raspberry, cherry compote, pipe tobacco and rose oil. Deep, round and fleshy, with sweet red and dark berry preserve flavors and good, smoky mineral bite. Rich but energetic, with excellent finishing clarity and spicy persistence. This is exotic and complex enough to drink right now. 91 points

2005 Vergari Wines Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Ruby-red. Deep cherry and candied plum aromas are complicated by smoky Indian spices, lavender and clove. Deep, palate-saturating dark fruit flavors are framed by dusty tannins and given a bitter edge by licorice and dark chocolate nuances. A serious style of cabernet that I'd resist opening for a few more years. 90 points

International Wine Cellar

Vergari Wines 2006 Pinot Noir, Marin
Bright and racy with lovely pure acidity and bright red cherry;
fresh, nervy and delicious with lively structure and finesse; balanced and charming. 91 points
Anthony Dias-Blue, Blue Lifestyle

Best 100 Wines of the Year

2005 Pinot Noir, Van der Kamp Vineyard 95 points
"An ambitious wine, this has the muscular structure of a grand cru from the northern Côte du Nuits It grows on rocky, volcanic soils 1200 feet up Sonoma Mountain, a blend of heritage clones and 777, fruit Vergari allows to ferment with native yeast. At first, the wine is mostly extract, with the scent of the charred edge of roast beef. Then, as the structure bears down with all its weight, the fruit begins to push up from beneath. It brings an opposing force of equal strength and makes this a dynamic wine to watch as it ages.

Winemakers Play With Fire... And Win
Tim Patterson talked with three winemaking colleagues and I about some slightly unorthodox winemaking techniques:

Vergari was a year behind La Follette at UC Davis, and part of a generation of students who paid attention to the science part but insisted on questioning it. Many held down internships in other countries, bringing back other viewpoints. Flirting with "heresy" and mastering microbiology went hand in hand. "The reason I went to Davis," he says, "was to understand why things happen.
If you don't, you will run into something you don't understand and probably make it worse."

Click here to read the full article.

Sebastopol's hilly new haven for Pinot Noir
John Winthrop Haeger, author of "North American Pinot Noir", included this review in his article on Sebastopol Hills:

2004 Vergari DuNah Vineyard Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
Almost opaque; rhubarb and caramel with hints of foresty underbrush on the nose; rustic and slightly grippy on the palate;
interesting flavors of root beer, cola and black olive tapenade; distinctive and engaging.
John Winthrop Haeger, author of "North American Pinot Noir"

Click here to read the full article.

Josh Raynolds on Stephen Tanzer's Wine Cellar reviewed one of my wines:

2005 Vergari Wines Pinot Noir Sangiacomo Vineyard Sonoma Coast
Vivid red. Intensely perfumed bouquet of fresh red and dark berries, incense, dried flowers and baking spices. Supple black raspberry, cherry-cola and musky herb flavors display good breadth and depth, picking up a candied anise quality on the back end. Finishes zesty and with very good lift, repeating the cherry-cola note. Pretty sexy stuff. 90

International Wine Cellar

The May edition of Pinot Report featured two of my wines:

"After years of experience working with wineries on three different continents, David Vergari started making wine on his own in 2003. He's working with very interesting and unique vineyards including DuNah in the newly added section of the Russian River Valley, Sangiacomo in the Sonoma Coast and Van der Kamp on the slopes of Sonoma Mountain. David's Pinots are focused, balanced wines that greatly reflect the vineyard. He's a producer to watch."

Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast Sangiacomo Vineyard 2005
Medium-deep ruby color; deep, spicy, black cherry and earthy aromas; rich and deep, earthy black cherry fruit, spice and forest floor notes, sweet oak; great structure and balance; long finish. Very deep and nuanced, this Pinot has many layers of flavor and a very silky texture. Score: 94

Pinot Noir Sonoma Mountain Van der Kamp 2005
Medium ruby color; earthy, red cherry aromas with gamey notes; deep red cherry flavors with earthy, game and mushroom notes, silky texture, sweet oak, good structure and balance; long finish. This Pinot shows some really unique and interesting earthy and gamey flavors that add complexity and make this a terrific match for grilled meats. Score: 95

Wow - what a great surprise I received the other day! Wine & Spirits magazine recently profiled their picks for the Top 108 Pinot Noir's of the year, and their list includes two Vergari wines! The editors blind tasted 628 wines, and then recommended 108 wines in their April issue. Their comments follow!

2005 Pinot Noir, Sangiocomo Vineyard 93 points
"Dark in tone, this wine's flavors of pomegranate and sour cherry yield a range of scents as complex as a forest floor. The savory notes of conifer and mushroom keep it baritone and gamey while higher notes of woodland flowers and wild cherry add dimension and harmony. This is focused and elegant , for braised duck."

Sometimes there are people you encounter in life who, the minute you meet them, you think "This guy has a story to tell and I bet he tells it well." David Vergari is that guy. He recently sat down with IntoWine to share with us his evolution as a winemaker and, most interestingly, the stories "behind the wine". Click here to read the interview.

"2006 Vergari Wines Corda Vineyard Marin County Pinot Noir Barrel Sample
Wine industry veteran David Vergari crafts Pinot Noirs from purchased grapes in Sonoma and Marin counties. He brings years of winemaking experience in both Europe and Australia as well as California to his label begun in 2003."

"This barrel sample is delicate with nicely spiced red Pinot fruits. The texture is quite silky and the finish, although a touch hot, is clean and satisfying."

"After a stumble with the wine service, we were quickly delivered the star wine of the night, the 2004 Vergari "DuNah Vineyards" Sonoma Coast Pinot. David Vergari makes this light but heavenly Pinot from grapes he somehow managed to talk Rick DuNah out of. Fans of DuNah's own wines would love this treatment as well. While lighter in body than most of the DuNah wines, it was in perfect form."

Click here to read the complete blog entry.

"David grew up in an Italian family where homemade wine was a way of life. It wasn’t until he attended college at U.C. Berkeley that he found out that white wine existed! He went on to get an MBA, but by the late 1980s decided he really wanted to pursue a career in winemaking. He attended U.C. Davis from 1989 to 1991 with many of his classmates who are distinguished winemakers today. After graduating, he headed to Australia to work under James Halliday at Coldstream Hills. I asked him how he happened to chose that course and he replied, “Anyone dumb enough to buy a ticket and work for peanuts could do it.” It turned out to be the foundation of his practical wine knowledge for he spent countless hours drinking wine from Halliday’s 30,000 bottle cellar. He went on to gain experience in Europe and then in California at Phelps where he worked for 4 years. Finally, in 2003 he decided to pursue the dream of most winemakers, his own label, and started Vergari Wines."

"David’s wines reflect their vineyard source and do not replicate a mirror-image style. Winemaking is essentially by hand, with minimal movement from crushing until bottling. A cold soak is followed by fermentation with native yeast for both primary and malolactic. The wines are barrel aged (1/3 each new, once-filled and neutral barrels) on fine lees for approximately 11 months."

Click here to read the complete article.

A modest man and good friend of Red Carpet Wine, David Vergari is as genuine as they come.
Vergari wines are elegant yet highly concentrated; accessible when young, yet structured for long life.
Red Carpet Wine - wine & spirits merchant