Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1037369
92 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018 The Meaning of Orography Trickling out of the allegedly haunted speakeasy located in the manor's base- ment, the somms emerged onto a front lawn overlooking Stags' Leap Winery's vineyards. A breakfast and a slew of wines awaited them in advance of a seminar aptly titled "Drawing the Map—The Creation of the SLD AVA," led by a panel which included Ballance, Stags' Leap Win - ery Winemaker Christophe Paubert, and attorney and author Richard Mendelson. Before diving into the story behind the appellation's formation, Paubert had something to say about style. "I'm from Bordeaux and I make French-style wine in Napa, but that doesn't mean I'm making French copies—I'm just showing the fruit, the soil," he explained. "Yes, the approach is more restrained—less oak, less ripe—but my goal is to really show the beauty of the fruit that is growing here." After a review of the stunning Stags' Leap Winery lineup, Paubert passed the baton to Mendelson, the self-appointed "appellation junkie." The tale of the brave and desperate stag—which, according to Native Ameri - can legend, chose to leap into uncertainty over the Palisades rather than face a guar- anteed demise—presents a familiar and symbolic means to remember the region. "If you look at the maps on which the AVA boundaries are demarcated based on [United States Geological Survey] topographic maps, the term 'Stags Leap' appears on the Palisades behind us," Men - delson says of the name-selection process in the late 1980s. (As to how the Palisades came to be called Stags Leap beyond the fable of the titular animal, an early settler named William Staggs and the term "leap," which refers to a place name in American and British slang, could have played a role.) It seems the great effor t put into nam - ing the SLD AVA, ofcially established in 1989, was only rivaled by the signicant challenge of creating its boundaries. "I learned a new word in the eld of geo - morphology that I think perfectly cap- tures what happens in this area and what makes SLD so unique," said Mendelson. "The word is 'orography,' which refers to a series of hills and mountains that es - sentially, in this case, form a funnel which has immediate effects on the vinicultural characteristics of the area." Mendelson went on to mention other geologic characteristics like the warming Palisades and the diversity of the SLD soil prole, which both inuence the textural prole of the wines. He also gave some background on the friendly rivalry and "name battle" between Stags' Leap Winery and Stag's Leap Wine Cellars (note the particular placement of their apostrophes), but to gain a true grasp of the region, any somm would benet from reading Mendelson's book, Appellation Napa Valley: Building and Protecting an American Treasure. "What makes an AVA special and what makes the SLD is the people—the terroir, yes, but the people and the steps they take every day to make the best wines pos - sible," Mendelson said. Stags' Leap Winery hosted a breakfast, tasting, and seminar on the front lawn of its Manor House. Richard Mendelson displays the 1985 Accord produced by Stag's Leap Wine Cellars and Stags' Leap Winery, a symbolic bottling made to bury the hatchet in the companies' quarrel over naming rights.