Covert Estate
A young, promising and exciting winery of Coombsville, in Napa Valley
Covert estate is a small Boutique Winery that opened its brand new winery recently, in 2016. With the help of Acclaimed Winemaker, Julien Fayard, this small estate of about 5 hectares on the rather steep hills of Coombsville, in Napa Valley is producing terroir-driven wines in an appellation that has yet to find its identity. The estate was purchased in 2012, just a few months after the appellation was formally recognized. Julien Fayard has worked in prestigious estates such as Lafite Rothschild and Smith Haut Laffite before coming to Napa. He’s now working both as a consultant winemaker for many estates and directing both Covert estate and Azur wines, his own projects, but always with the same dedication towards pure expressions of a location.
Let’s go to meet Julien Fayard, a great French winemaker in Napa.
Why do you make wines?
Julien Fayard: Because I’ve grown up in it, and it’s fun. I was sort of in a transit, at the end of my BAC, my cousin started his estate in Provence, we went to school together for wine and then I just stayed. I was 16 years old when I started training and we always had some sort of work in the vines or bottlings. I had my first official internship at the age of 18 in St. Tropez and then I just followed trough. I went on to complete technical school of Agriculture and Oenology. Then, gradually, one step at the time, by vertue of of working in the wine world, you start building a decent resume. You get better jobs, you may stop picking up stones in the vineyards and work becomes way more interesting. Twenty years later, you find yourself building cellars, developing vineyards, you do nice things. It was a long way to get to where I stand.
What is the Signature of Covert wine?
What makes it possible to recognize them in a blind tasting?
This is the hardest part because it’s a question of introspection. It’s something I’m personally battling because I don’t want to get into standards. That is to say, it’s a bit of a criticism of the generation and winemakers before me, when you’d often get house styles; and if the style of the house is that the wines are qualitative balanced, perfumed, typical of the terroirs, then, all’s good. I think it can be a good constant. If the style is based on extraction, texture, if we start to get too much consistency, this is where it may go wrong. I often speak of the “French restraint”, I mean an American wine seeking concentration, texture, with just a pull backwards to retain the minerality and get the aromatics. I believe the signature is in substance and reason.
If you had to describe what wine represents for you in a few words, what would you say?
It is a craft that brings joy to group of friends and families. So, there is craftsmanship side, we are creators, a little artistic side and also, I think, a social side. It’s a product that’s made for people.
Do you have a little anecdote about the property or your wines?
The fact that we are building a brand around Rosé, the Azur, a Provencal style of American rosé. As the relationship and meetings grew, we created a bond with a Japanese group in Tokyo where we built a restaurant called Azur. It’s a restaurant where the level of cuisine is outstanding. In fact, what is funny is that in the relationship, the Japanese are very specific in what they do especially at the level of aromatic patterns, aromatic styles. It is something that challenges me to stay at such a high level and to see how everyone can grow. We are a team and everyone pushes their limits to the same level. It truly keeps the relationship worthy and interesting.
What is your plan for Covert?
The project now is, at least I think, to develop the cellar. We have the cellar. We have the vineyards. Now we need to start working on the consistency through time, refine our work and become a reference as Coombsville is a fairly recent appellation. There’s not any long-time established estate, no cults or references, but the finesse of the wines, the balance of the wines makes them suited to last. They don’t achieve necessarily the power of Pritchard Hill, but we have wines with finesse and elegance. So, I’m waiting for the market to recognize that, and only time will tell. It will be necessary to stay constant.