Incubo is the culmination of our dream of owning a small, nay microscopic vineyard in the Napa Valley.  After several years of making lovely wines from the fantastic Progeny Vineyard on Mt. Veeder, I started searching for something nearby.  Finally, I found a property of 76 acres with about 6 acres plantable in addition to a tiny amount of Cabernet Sauvignon already in the ground.  Mt. Veeder is a region in Napa Valley that makes my type of wines, those of restrained power, elegance, mad complexity and age-ability.

As with most all Napa Valley mountain properties, the weather is always cooler at altitude (the wizards of science say the temperature is 0.6°F less for each 100 feet you rise) during the day. This means that the grapes do not suffer the harsh effects of the sun and heat; they are better protected against dehydration and sunburn damage.  In California, these are the most important factors that separate a good vintage from a poor vintage.

During the evening, the hillsides experience a predictable temperature inversion that you can set your watch by.  This inversion brings the warm air from the valley floor up to the vineyards.  The science geeks say that this added warmth at night allows the vines to continue their maturation process at night by producing photosynthetic energy using what are called “dark reactions.”  This makes it possible for most hillside sites to produce riper fruit at lower sugar levels – thus we can have better balanced wines at lower alcohol levels.

We live near the top of the now dormant volcano of Mt. Veeder at about 1500 feet above sea level. It is a land of great redwood trees and wild cats, hawks and vultures.  There is very little flat ground on the mountain, thus the handful of vineyards are on extreme slopes.  The views are incredible and it seems in (Sarah Palin-esque hyperbole) that we can see half of Northern California from our living room.

Our own “petting” vineyard is tiny – only producing about 12 cases of precious wine per year!  It is hand-farmed and harvested by the entire family.  The vineyard lies directly under our house and is thus under my nose at all times.  My anal-retentive, obsessive-compulsive nature makes it impossible to ignore any vines that are not doing exactly what they should be doing.  We are constantly working and reworking every detail until it is perfect.

The grapes are microscopic, the clusters are tiny and the quantity of fruit per vine is limited to one kilo (this works out to be less than 2 tons per acre on our tight vine spacing), thus making wines of exceptional concentration and incredible depth of color.  The Incubo of Chateauneuf du Pott is on soils of sandstone and shale; these soils are thin and hold little water.

This year we will plant 6 more acres on our property and we hope to add two more wines, a Syrah and a Chardonnay, in years to come.  We will also be planting more Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and a small amount of Merlot.