John Williams

Winemaker and Owner
Frog’s Leap Winery
8815 Conn Creek Road Rutherford
frogsleap.com
60,000 case production

Interview by Diana H. Stockton

When Frog’s Leap Winery began to buy grapes from the Rossi family in St. Helena many years ago, among their blocks were two of old vine Valdiguié (once known as Napa Gamay), planted in 1949 and 1955. In the course of his winemaking career, John Williams, Frog’s Leap Winery founder, owner and winemaker, spent some time touring in the south of France and a visit to Domaines Ott, known for its rosés, had stuck in his mind. When John saw the veteran headtrained vines of Valdiguié in the Rossi Vineyard, he immediately thought: rosé, and a rosé made intentionally rather than as an afterthought derived from the making of some other wine.

Frog’s Leap thus initiated its rosé, choosing a name and label design to acknowledge John’s inspiration for the style of the wine, and a program to fit the vines. “La Grenouille Rougante,” the blushing frog, also known as “Pink,” is pale salmon in color, low in alcohol, and meant to be enjoyed on a warm summer day. “How delicious,” reflects John on the glowering March morning of the interview. He says a great deal of Napa rosé is made saignée: a portion of new wine is drawn off fermenting red grapes that is probably 14 to 14.5 percent alcohol in Napa Valley. Such a profile doesn’t fit John’s idea of rosé. The old Valdiguié vines struggle to ripen and are usually picked at 21 to 22° Brix to keep acidity, fermented to dry at 12 percent alcohol in stainless fermenters, with an addition of a little Zinfandel but no additional yeast, filtered and bottled with a polymer cork. John says Pink has a little petulance, a bit of sparkle. 400 to 500 cases are made each year.

After Louise Rossi died in 2007 (her family’s onsite winery was bonded in 1907; its last vintage was 1949), John bought the Rossi Vineyard, and, in John’s words, “its absolutely beautiful vines,” from Louise’s estate. In addition to its active blocks of Cabernet, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc as well as Valdiguié, a large block that once had been in Riesling was idle. John somewhat mournfully recalls that Frog’s Leap had made a Riesling, “Leapfrögmilch” with beautiful acidity, just 11 percent alcohol. But the variety’s popularity waned and there were no other buyers for the fruit, so now that Riesling block lay fallow. A smaller one of just a couple of acres planted in 1978 was not going to produce enough for a table wine, but John thought it might make a dessert wine. Riesling is John’s favorite white variety, and the small block near the highway ripens late. It was harvested when fully botrytised with sugar in the high 30°’s, low 40°’s B, direct pressed (not destemmed), inoculated with special German yeast and fermented in little stainless barrels. John says it is tricky to keep the wine cool yet fermentation going, and stopping fermentation is an art. Frog’s Leap “Frogenbeerenauslese” has proven a great success and production from the small vineyard block has grown from 80 to 200 cases of 375ml bottles.

How did Riesling come to be John’s favorite white variety? John was able to graduate from Cornell University thanks to a workstudy program in which he alternated semesters at Cornell with Taylor Wine Company. John grew up on a dairy farm in Upstate New York. His first sip of wine was at Taylor, where he worked in every department and fell in love with wine. Spring Break of 1975, John took a bus to Napa Valley for the wine scene. Bothe State Park was too expensive, so John camped out nearby in what he took to be an abandoned farmhouse and hopped a park fence to shower. The owner of the house turned out to be a long, tall (and compassionate) guy who had just bought the farm from

W.W. Lyman. Part of the property had been used for a commercial frog farm and the guy was Dr. Larry Turley. Larry was most supportive of John’s intent and lent him a truck to check out UC Davis. John took a bus back to finish Cornell, then hitchhiked out to go to Davis, was introduced by Larry to Warren Winiarski at a Napa Valley Wine Library tasting at Charles Krug in 1975, and worked the bottling line at Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars bottling, as it turns out, its 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon that won the Paris Tasting.

That fall, John and Larry managed to make three gallons of Frog Farm Chardonnay from Stags Leap fruit described as “three bins we snuck out.” Chardonnay gave way to Zinfandel, which led to Cabernet as John finished his master’s degree at Davis, and then became the first winemaker for Glenora Wine Cellars in Finger Lakes, New York, where he learned to make Riesling. But California lured him back, and John became head winemaker at Spring Mountain Winery for Mike Robbins in 1980, while he and Larry made more wine. Soon blown away by their success, the pair sold their motorcycles to found Frog’s Leap Winery in 1981. They fixed up an old barn on Larry’s property, installed tanks in 1984 and by 1994 were producing 30,000 cases of wine with visitors trooping by Larry’s front door. It was time to change things around. Larry founded Turley Wine Cellars and John took Frog’s Leap to Rutherford.

In buying grapes all over Napa Valley, John had eyed an old red barn on Rutherford Cross Road that had been an active winery from 1884 to 1896, until Phylloxera hit and its acreage let go until a group of owners bought it in the late 1960’s. Chuck Carpy was on the board of the Wine Service Cooperative with John and was one of the Red Barn Farm owners. A deal was struck in 1994 and Frog’s Leap Winery in Rutherford made the first wine the red barn had made in 99 years: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, and Zinfandel, just as it does today. Production grew to 50,000 cases and Frog’s Leap really began cultivating its vineyards, paying attention to vine health, soil health and root depth.

Since 1988, all Frog’s Leap vineyards have been certified organically grown, a first for Napa Valley. Today, in addition to the 40 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Zinfandel surrounding the winery in the old Red Barn, Sauvignon Blanc and Petite Sirah are grown on 50 acres off Galleron Lane in Rutherford in addition to the 52acre Rossi Vineyard in St. Helena. John thinks the vineyard director for Frog’s Leap Winery, Frank Leeds, is probably the best grape grower in Napa Valley. The vineyards he manages are all dryfarmed, a practice that is at least 150 years old in Napa Valley, and involves more than just not adding water. As Frank describes it, cover crops are incorporated into the earth in the spring. The objective is to achieve and maintain a top layer of earth that is only earth—soft, moisture holding and insulating. In March, after pruning, canes are let fall where they may. “Cultivate, don’t irrigate,” says John. Cover crop and canes, all organic matter is turned back into the soil, and then a “dust mulch” rigorously maintained with “zero tolerance for weeds in the summer.”

Frank learned to farm from his uncle, Roy Chavez, in the family vineyard off Whitehall Lane in St. Helena. Frank, his brother and sister now own the 35acre Chavez Leeds Vineyard that has been in the family since 1926. John says dryfarming is a big commitment on the part of the winegrower (and requires a certain terrain, waterthrifty rootstock, and sufficient rainfall). But when vines are deeply connected to the soil, John elaborates, their roots explore and vines produce berries with deep flavor at low sugar levels. Since 70 percent of Frog’s Leap production is for restaurants, acidity rules all. A new planting of Charbono in Rossi Vineyard will be headtrained as well as dryfarmed. Frog’s Leap has made very few wines over 14 percent alcohol in 31 years, and never, ever 15 percent. John expostulates, “12 ½ percent used to be fullbodied! The wines at the Paris Tasting? All dryfarmed!”

Frog’s Leap Sauvignon Blanc is 12.5 percent: crisp and minerally, pale, and John says has never been considered to be anything else. Its Chardonnay fruit from Truchard Vineyards in Los Carneros is wholecluster pressed. Fermentation is started in stainless steel; must is then racked into oak or steel barrels, which allows the wine to ferment at different temperatures and the fevers of fermentation to develop different compounds and flavors. After sitting on its lees untouched until Easter (a critical period, John warns, that is otherwise much too tempting for the winemaker), the wine is filtered and bottled.

Unlike cooking, which John loves to do, in winemaking there is no cause to rush into action. If you take time to think about it in cooking, you burn it, John admits rather ruefully, whereas in winemaking, nonaction is better than action. He seeks to erase any signature of winemaking. “We spend so much time thinking about how we grow our grapes,” John reflects. “If I can focus on that rather than imputing a style of wine,” he feels successful.

The winery’s yearround crew not only works in the vineyards and winery but also in its orchards and gardens. John believes crosstraining nurtures proficiencies. The house for administration and hospitality was the first in California to be LEEDcertified (a green building certification system, LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The winery also takes advantage of geothermal and solar power and recycling. Using lightweight wine bottles saves on materials and shipping costs. Frog’s Leap travels to and sells wine in every state, as well as a few foreign countries. Because it is a relatively small operation, John says Frog’s Leap benefits from observing practices in other markets and countries, traveling and tasting.

When asked about the next generation, John describes his children as finding their own ways. The oldest, with a masters degree in enology from Cornell, has already started his own wine venture. In the fall, the middle child begins business school and the youngest, now with ACLU in Sacramento, starts law school. All three have grown up in the wine business—their mom also owns a winery (Tres Sabores), and John looks forward to their becoming owners of Frog’s Leap, to be part of taking a product all the way from the earth to a winemaker’s dinner in Boston and getting jazzed by the feed back. “It keeps energy up,” he says. “Wine is a pretty wonderful farm product.”