The reasons for this are quite simple. Compared to Screaming
Eagle or Harlan Estate, Bryant Family Vineyard is a rather discreet venture. Hailing from Pritchard Hill, this single-vineyard wine is not known to the
public as much as the aforementioned ones. Unlike Opus One for instance, it
doesn't have the fancy place that explains the bottle price. However, there is a little piece of paper on the office door, which says it all: "Its all about the wine" is written on it.
Like every wine of this quality, Bryant Family is so good for very precise reasons. First of all there is the place. The vineyard sits on
the slopes of Pritchard Hill, that famous old Volcano that also is home to
Colgin, Ovid and Quintessa among others. However, even in this very fortunate
location, the Bryant Family Vineyard is special, because it faces Lake Hennessy
and thus gets a bit of a fresh breeze from it. The second factor that makes the
wines from this vineyard so unique is without doubt
one of Napa's most interesting winemakers: Helen Keplinger. Having just taken
up the job here, she has quite a bit to live up to, but simply does not
disappoint.
An American icon
Because once you taste the wine from this mythical winery one thing is clear. There is a reason that it is regarded so highly among the amateurs. It is a wine that is so beautiful, powerful at times, then showing floral notes, and remaining nuanced and complex throughout. It is the kind of wine that draws you back to the glass countless times, to sniff it, again and again. Of course there's a lot of fruit, you're on Pritchard Hill after all, but there's also some underlying minerality that brings it back in balance. It is this constant change between fruit and more mineral elements that make it such a captivating wine to have in the glass.
Being in the hands of Helen Keplinger, Bryant Family Vineyard will continue to produce wines that are more than just very good. The slopes of Pritchard Hill, in combination with extremely precise wine-making yield a true American legend. In the best possible way of understanding this expression.
