Changes afoot at Bennett Valley winery as it seeks to upgrade for better merlot

Matanzas Creek Winery, founded in 1977, has a long history with successful winemakers such as Merry Edwards, David Ramey and Bordeaux-trained Francois Cordesse. The three helped set the winery on its present-day course, charting an enviable reputation for significantly elegant sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and merlot.

Along the way the beautifully situated, 81-acre Bennett Valley spot has also drawn legions of visitors, eager to enjoy its fine wines, shady picnic grounds and extensive lavender fields.

But even a mature, self-possessed grown-up must change and evolve. And so Matanzas Creek is in transition. Its owners, Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke of Jackson Family Wines, have decided to temporarily move production to a sister winery, Stonestreet Alexander Mountain Estate. Why? To make better wines.

"Matanzas hasn't been upgraded since the mid 1980s," said associate winemaker Alex Reble, who has been tapped to take the reins at Matanzas from his former boss, Cordesse, who was let go as part of the transition.

"What's great about moving to Stonestreet is the building is more recent and it's very efficient," he continued. "We are very lucky to be able to benefit from that setup with temperature control, basket presses, all those elements that Matanzas needed to go to a higher level."

While production is moving, nothing else has changed. The tasting room and lavender fields remain open as always to visitors, and there's a new self-guided vineyard tour. The winery's popular annual "Days of Wine and Lavender" Festival is planned for late June.

In addition, the vineyard sources, many of them estate-owned, will remain the same, including longtime sauvignon blanc and cabernet sauvignon plots in Knights and Alexander valleys. Within Bennett Valley itself, Matanzas farms some 300 acres — 120 acres of merlot, 119 acres chardonnay, 42 acres of pinot noir, 18 acres syrah and two acres malbec.

Reble has been at Matanzas Creek since 2001. Born and raised in France, he spent his early winemaking years in and around Bordeaux, learning the terroir of Pomerol, Graves, St. Emilion and the Medoc region.

He first came to the United States for a winery internship in Oregon's Willamette Valley, to learn more about chardonnay and pinot noir. That was followed by stints in the Napa Valley at Newton Vineyard and Flora Springs Winery.

Reble will now be working closely alongside Stonestreet winemaster Graham Weerts, no stranger to small-lot production, and consultant Pierre Seillan, the winemaster at fellow Jackson Family brand Verite Wines, who has been involved with Matanzas Creek since 2005.

Together the three are charged with taking advantage of Stonestreet's boutique-minded facilities to better focus on Matanzas Creek's increasing bounty of premier wines, including its signature high-end line, Journey, Jackson Park Merlot and a new Sauternes-style dessert wine called Denouement.

Weerts and Seillan were working together when the Jackson Park Vineyard was first developed in 1999 by Jackson and Banke, only a few miles across Bennett Valley Road from Matanzas Creek, which they subsequently acquired from original founder Sandra McIver in 2000.

"What I see (at Jackson Park vineyard) is potential for some seriously intense, not quite cool climate, really well-defined merlot," noted Weerts. "You can get intensity with voluptuousness; it's pretty exciting. Plus you've got the diversity of blocks here so you can almost get anything you want. The roots are down now, that makes a big difference."

Jackson Park vineyard has indeed become the winery's finest source of merlot — 90 acres planted on meandering slopes just under 1,401-foot-high Mount Taylor. The vines are clones from Bordeaux's famed Chateau Petrus winery, where Reble himself once worked. Thirty-four different blocks allow the winemakers plenty of room to play.

"Terroir is everything," said Reble. "It's like a puzzle — you have several pieces of a lot of things that you need to consider. Jackson Park is a wonderful site that was found and now the focus for us is the merlot, because after 10 years to be able to get the fruit complexity, it's very interesting. It's the jewel of what we have at Matanzas."

The vineyard's cooler climate allows more time for the fruit to mature, lending riper tannins to the resulting wines. There's plenty of black cherry and earth comingled with a high acidity and supporting minerality.

"You start to have rounder wine. It's more complex," added Reble. "It's exciting to have this site, being able to have riper tannins without having 15 percent alcohol wine. That's really the goal for us."

Virginie Boone is a freelance wine writer based in Sonoma County. She can be reached at virginieboone@yahoo.com or visit http://wineabout.blogs.winetravel.com.