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Stony Hill was Napa's first cult winery, with a history going deep in the modern roots of Napa wine making. Fred and Eleanor McCrea bought a 160-acre goat ranch on Spring Mountain in 1943, at an elevation between 400 and 800 feet above sea level. They began planting Chardonnay in 1947. "They wanted to plant only Chardonnay," Peter McCrea, their son and proprietor of the winery, said. "They loved white Burgundy and believed the site was perfect for it, but DC Davis advised them to plant other varieties, because at the time there were only 200 acres of Chardonnay planted in California."
Happily, the McCreas didn't follow that advice. They continued to plant mostly Chardonnay, but did add Riesling, Gewiirztraminer and Semillon. Today, there are 25 acres of Chardonnay, 10 acres of Riesling, 3 acres of Gewiirztraminer and 1 acre of Semillon. They buy a small amount of Tocai Friulano to make a dessert wine. All the rest of the wine is grown on the estate.
Stony Hill is a good example of a winery that started small with no intention of ever getting much bigger. For several years Fred McCrea, who worked in advertising in San Francisco, was a "weekend winemaker." With the winemaking and his unusual style of wine marketing-it started with letters to friends, which grew into a mailing list, which is how most of the wine is still sold-he hardly had time to think of growing.
McCrea also had good connections at DC Davis, and a series of future hall-of-fame winemakers, such as Jed Steele and John Kongsgaard, worked in an informal apprentice program at Stony Hill. Today's winemaker and vineyard manager, Michael Chelini, has been with the winery since 1972. He and Peter McCrea work closely together on the wine. (Peter's wife, Willinda, is the business manager and vice president.) Things haven't changed a great deal in the 30-plus years that Chelini has been there, as far as winemaking goes. Going into the winery is like stepping into a time warp. (It is also very familiar looking to anyone who has spent much time cellar-hopping in Burgundy.)
Chelini does keep careful watch over the wine, but he is clearly not into "over-produced" wines. He buys one or two new barrels a year, but the workhorse barrels are the older 130-gallon barrels that he uses for Chardonnay fermentation. He doesn't put the wine through malolactic and he doesn't stir lees. The wine is filtered before bottling.
At the time the McCreas began making wine, that was how most Chardonnay was made in California. New oak barrels were used sparingly, if at all. Producers like Wente and Louis M. Martini were familiar with the white Burgundies of France, and were aiming at that flavor, although the September heat in California often drove acid levels down.
Stony Hill has stuck to that style of wine over the years, as other producers have used more and more new oak, induced malolactic fermentation and other measures that, in the end, often mask the pure Chardonnay fruit. Now the trend seems to be moving back toward the Stony Hill style, an irony not lost on Peter McCrea.
Asked if his parents set the style or took what the vineyard gave them, McCrea and Chelini agreed that it was a mix, although the McCreas clearly respected the Burgundy model.
"I've often wondered what wines from our vineyards would taste like made in the oaky-malolactic style," Peter McCrea said, "but we wouldn't want to get malolactic in the winery."
There was something of a minor ensation in Napa when it was learned that McCrea had planted a few acres of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon. He said the Syrah was strictly an experiment, with only half an acre planted. "It will never be more than a house wine," he said.
The Cabernet planting is a commer cial operation. The 5-acre planting replaced Chardonnay vines that were infected with Pierce's disease, and McCrea thought it was a good spot for Cabernet. However, he plans to sell the grapes, and has no thoughts of making a commercial Cabernet in the foreseeable future.
That decision reflects his desire to follow the family line and remain small. "We couldn't make a red wine in our present winery," he said. "We would have to expand or make it somewhere else, and I'm not ready to take that on."
As to the future, McCrea said that would be up to his two children, who are not working in the winery at this time. "This is very much a one generation winery," he said, "and that is the way it will stay, small and personal. We want to keep our business at a human scale.".
WINES & VINES • JANUARY 2006147
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