Frank Altamura
Altamura Vineyards and Winery

Finding the Peak

FRANK ALTAMURA:
We started with very small amounts of wine, four or five hundred cases. It did real well and then we just gradually built up, but we're still not very big. We're doing only about 3,000 cases of Cabernet and about 1,500 cases of Sangiovese.

WSS:
Would you like to get bigger?

FRANK ALTAMURA:
No, not really. We may increase it slightly because we have new vineyards coming in, but I don't want to fall into a marketing problem and start having to go out on the road 'cause I really love farming. I really want to be out in the vineyard and then in the cellar making wine.

WSS:
What is your year like?

FRANK ALTAMURA:
In January, we start pruning in the vineyard. I've got a crew of two or three other guys that help us and we'll prune all winter long, up 'til about March.

Then we can actually start tractor work. We'll get on the tractors and start disking, spraying, cleaning up the vineyards and getting the young vines up the stakes, getting them all out on the wires.

We'll do this through summer, up until crush, and then we go into a picking mode and start the winemaking process.

It's fairly steady year after year. Our quiet period is probably after November, 'til maybe December. We usually get through the holidays and everybody has a good time. Some of our guys go back to Mexico to their families and then come back and we start all over again.

WSS:
Why Cabernet and Sangiovese?

FRANK ALTAMURA:
We're in a little area called Wooden Valley, which is up in the foothills on the southeast corner of Napa Valley, towards the end of the Atlas Peak ridge. Our winery and vineyard sit at the 1,000- to 1,200-foot elevation.

The soils are very rocky and we have a real diverse site as far as vineyard directions, wind directions and soil types. We're able to grow really good Cabernet, and Sangiovese and we have a little bit of Nebbiolo.

With all these different lots and soil conditions, we can end up with probably 12 to 13 different lots of Cabernet that we can blend and it just makes a better wine.

WSS:
Could you describe your wines?

FRANK ALTAMURA:
Our wines are blended so they're accessible early on. We have a lot of restaurant exposure, so we try to make wine that's forward with a lot of fruit. It's very supple in the mouth and has real soft long tannins. A person can enjoy it six months after they've picked it up and still enjoy it probably 15 or 18 years down the road because it ages very well.

I've always felt it's very important for wines to be balanced in the beginning and not just have real big structure and tannin. We do have some hillside fruit that makes very, very big wines, but I think those type of wines are more for talking about and just seeing how big you can make something.

The Cabernet is a little more intense, of course, but it has a lot of the forward fruit that's characteristic of our vineyards. It also has some cocoa flavors, a little bit of tobacco, and just more of a rounded out feeling in your mouth. So it's more of a wine that can last but does have a lot of sumptuous and juicy fruits.

WSS:
Is, is there something that people should know?

FRANK ALTAMURA:
If anyone has the chance, try the wines, but also if they wanted to visit us, we're about 15 minutes east of the town of Napa. And we're in an area that really reminds me of the way Napa used to be when I was a kid probably 30 years ago. There's still a lot of cattle and pears and prunes. The prune dryer is still very active there.

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