Hundred Acre
In a rare in-depth interview granted to Decanter, we meet the dauntless Jayson Woodbridge. The founder of Hundred Acre is a controversial figure in the Napa Valley, yet the wine community can’t ignore the fact that his wines are celebrated by pundits the world over
Arriving in Napa Valley with no winemaking experience in 1999, Jayson Woodbridge quickly showed his aptitude for learning from luminary winemakers – most notably St Helena-based Philippe Melka. Woodbridge’s ability to make fine wine and understand the importance of terroir – and the substantial fortune that he brought to the valley – enabled him to purchase vineyard land in good locations. He managed it very well and produced consistently high-quality grapes to make his Hundred Acre wines.
Woodbridge chose a slightly obscure name that no one understood at first. Writers have claimed, mistakenly, that ‘Hundred Acre’ is a reference to AA Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh. ‘Not so,’ says Woodbridge; it’s a Zen-like reminder of his youthful days as a long-distance runner speeding through the woods near his childhood home. ‘My own private forest of childhood memories.’
Woodbridge has astutely caught the attention of the media and consumers in a way that has placed Hundred Acre among the best-known wines in California. Though he built his empire on high-priced cult wines, he also created under-$20 wine brands Layer Cake, Cherry Pie and If You See Kay (all sold to Vintage Wine Estates in 2018). In the last five years, he established two entirely new wineries: Fortunate Son and Summer Dreams (see p59).
Along the way, his strong-willed personality has encountered and created some controversy, ranging from lawsuits over land use and permitrelated issues to personal disputes. His vineyard manager of 25 years, Jim Barbour, put it this way: ‘People can say what they want. He’s always been a great person to me, a really good friend, and lets me do what I do best.’
With a tall, grizzly bear-like stature, salt-andpepper hair, and a penetrating gaze, the mercurial Woodbridge is devilishly witty and disarmingly charming. He loves to grin and bear his teeth for debate. The creator of a world like Hundred Acre has to be a forceful character, and Woodbridge has left a mark based on not only the quality of his wine but the power of his personality.
JOURNEY TO NAPA VALLEY
Woodbridge was born in October 1963 in Toronto, Canada. His family was middle class; his mother Patricia worked in nursing, and his father John held a career in radio and television. He has one brother, Cameron, also a winemaker.
Wine found Woodbridge as an investment banker. While entertaining, he consumed ‘the world’s great wines’. As a young man, he began to sense a connection to wine that was not shared by his clients or colleagues. ‘I felt I was in a crowded room with people watching black and white television while I was watching high-def.’
He’d begun visiting vineyards in 1989 in Canada, Switzerland and France. By the late 1990s, armed with a small fortune, he decided Napa Valley was the place to make his move, and he worked quickly to establish Hundred Acre.
The brand’s original investors and partners have been bought out. Jayson and his wife Helen Mawson, a New Zealand native and US citizen, are the sole owners. ‘She is my rudder,’ says Woodbridge, ‘helping me keep the ship running.’
QUALITY REQUIRES HARMONY
Woodbridge believes that site – and the harmony you can bring to it – are key to making the world’s best wines. He talks of soils as ‘underground superstructures that have to be made powerful, diverse and disease resistant’. To do so, organic mushroom compost in heaping doses is spread in Woodbridge’s estate vineyards – if 20 tons per acre is recommended, he layers in 50 tons to create a ‘mycelium culture that feeds the vines’, which are culled to one cluster per shoot.
The signature Hundred Acre wines are its three organically farmed estate single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignons from Morgan’s Way, Ark and Few and Far Between (see tasting notes, p60). Morgan’s Way (formerly Kayli Morgan) was purchased in August 2000. Between St Helena ▶
‘Woodbridge has left a mark based on not only the quality of his wine but the power of his personality’
and Calistoga, just on the eastern side of
Silverado Trail close to Bale Lane, it was redesigned in 1996 for a former owner by
Barbour, who planted Cabernet Sauvignon clones 7 and 337. With the 2000 harvest approaching, Barbour suggested Woodbridge meet consultant winemaker Philippe Melka. The three men dug soil pits, and Melka thought the clay and sandy soils were reminiscent of the vineyards of Petrus and Ausone in Bordeaux. ‘You’re the guy,’ Woodbridge said to Melka that day.
LAUNCHING HUNDRED ACRE
Melka crafted the first Hundred Acre bottling, the 2000 Kayli Morgan Cabernet, at nearby Rombauer winery. In 2001, production moved to Quintessa. In 2002, Woodbridge himself assumed the role of winemaker. ‘I was there to guide and ensure that he kept the foundation of winemaking,’ says Melka, ‘but the success of Hundred Acre is all him.’
Meanwhile, development of the Ark vineyard below Glass Mountain in St Helena began in 1999, when it was acquired. Cabernet Sauvignon vines planted on steep south-facing slopes form a 180° arc in the sun, half with eastern exposures, half western. The ground is a vertical layer-cake of ancient beach fronts of red soil, black obsidian rock and volcanic pebbles. ‘It’s a hundred million years of time sequences,’ says Woodbridge. The first Ark wine was made in 2005.
Later, in 2008, Woodbridge acquired a 46.5ha property that included Pickett Road vineyard, Calistoga. Renamed Few and Far Between, the
site surrounds the Woodbridge home and shares a fence line with Eisele Vineyard. Cabernet Sauvignon clones 4, 7 and 337 are rooted in a mix of rocky, alluvial and clay loam soils. A small ‘Home Block’ contains Cabernet Franc. All situated in a canyon, they are hot during the day, but coastal breezes from the Chalk Hill gap to the west bring a cool, dramatic diurnal shift at night. The first bottling of Few and Far Between debuted with the 2008 release.
THE INNER RING
Since 2005, all Hundred Acre wines have been made at the underground Ring winery beneath Ark vineyard, whose shape holds symbolic meaning. On each Hundred Acre bottle is a 24-carat gold ring fired into the glass rim. ‘It is my vow never to compromise. Death before dishonour,’ says Woodbridge.
The air inside the caves is pristine and fresh because a highly effective atmosphere treatment system (designed for NASA and used on the International Space Station, Woodbridge states) employs ‘a matrix of ultra-high intensity ultraviolet bulbs’ that destroys volatile organic compounds and scrambles the DNA of any virus, mould, fungus or spore, rendering them inert. Ozone gas and ozonated water are also used to clean all surfaces and sub-surface drains.
Touring the cave, we pass wine ageing in T5 Taransaud and Demptos barrels with mediumplus and high toasts, among others. Once bungs are sealed, no wine is removed for 30 months. We circle past unusual upright elliptical oak tanks, which Woodbridge had custom-designed to help ‘spread the heat signature’ during fermentation. Ageing is done in 225-litre barriques, 500-litre puncheons and 400-litre hogsheads. ‘Wine in different barrels moves in different times. I’m creating wines with time layered in, to slow time down for us.’
ONLY THE BEST
The single-vineyard Cabernets are distinct and elaborately constructed, forming full-flavoured elixirs, hypnotic and haunting. They pull at your senses, drawing you in, then dance on the palate with grace and elegance – like a cut gem that shines within itself. The alcohol levels are high – often between 15% and 16% – but the wines remain remarkably balanced.
Woodbridge crafts the final cuvées in his mind. He blends the wines rapidly and rarely makes adjustments. Any wine that doesn’t make the cut is destroyed. The only non-estate grapes are used in blends for the Fortunate Son and Summer Dreams labels (right).
The Ring winery is not open to the public, but Fortunate Son and Summer Dreams will offer appointments. One third of production is reserved for restaurant clients such as the Jean-Georges group, The h.wood Group, Hakkasan and Zuma London, to name a few.
SHROUD OF SECRECY
Woodbridge can be cryptic and jocular, alluding to himself, more than once, as immortal; however, having turned 60, he and an entourage of close friends, associates and players in the Hundred Acre Wine Group are working to ensure the brand’s longevity long after its founder has shuffled off this mortal coil.
The wines are exceptional, and the only obstacle may be the mystique of Hundred Acre itself. Woodbridge has amassed a loyal following, including celebrities such as actor Mark Wahlberg, who told me that ‘some of the most memorable times in my life’ had been spent at the Woodbridge home.
My efforts to pry further into Woodbridge’s past are met with little response, if any. ‘We can’t allow indiscretion. The slightest change of course can change the wine fundamentally,’ he says, drumming forcefully on the table before adding with a relaxed smile: ‘I’m talking too much. I only care that the truth is told about what we’re trying to do here.’ ▶