Over lunch we drank a 1986 Zinfandel, a ’92 Merlot and a ’95 Cabernet alongside the recent releases. ‘He’s involved in the texture of wine.’Īnd when all’s said and done, only the wine matters. ‘He’s only interested in the vineyard,’ Williams Sr maintains.
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He has his own label, Calder, and now has full responsibility for winemaking and viticulture at Frog’s Leap. And it looks like his son Rory, who’s 37 and joined the winery in 2012, will be just as uncompromising. He won’t accept that Napa has finally moved on from the excess of the ’90s, for example: ‘Balance can only be restored to the wine by the growing process and that’s where I think we are still a little behind.’ He talks darkly of the widespread use of mechanical means to reduce alcohol. Sure he’s laid-back, but I don’t think he’s ever lost the cantankerousness of the dedicated pioneer. I called Williams ‘hippyish’, but maybe that’s a misnomer. He’s now ‘blown away’ by the possibilities of concrete, and is maturing Zinfandel in tanks that he has specially commissioned (‘We’re the first to do this’). He was burying manure-filled cow horns in 1988, long before biodynamics were fashionable (he’s not a Rudolf Steiner follower any more, he says) he’s been true to his ideas of balance, restraint and the primacy of terroir, and reiterated his belief in dry farming, throughout Napa’s years of excess. He’s proud of the fact that he marches to a different beat. The anecdote captures something of Williams’ slightly combative character. But I don’t need the pressure.” I’m the same.’ I had a plateful and it’s very, very good, and I ask the owner, what’s the world’s best mac and cheese? And he says, “Quite frankly, I don’t think there’s anything better. ‘Up in Seattle there’s a store that sells great cheese, and there’s a sign in the window that says “World’s second-best macaroni and cheese”. By way of answer, Williams tells a story.
But while Frog’s Leap is known and respected, it’s certainly not a household name in the UK, its biggest export market and where it’s been continuously sold since 1988.