David Pearson on Making Great Napa Wines at Joseph Phelps

Joseph Phelps has an exciting new head – Napa Valley veteran David Pearson – whose passion for the winemaker’s legacy and thoughts on regenerative winemaking sees the LVMH-owned brand heading towards a strong future.

There are a great many Napa wineries – but the name Joseph Phelps rings with a particular resonance. Established in 1973 and standing today alongside an unrivalled collection of estate vineyards including St Helena, Rutherford, Oakville, Stags Leap District, Joseph Phelps is – in the words of current CEO David Pearson, “One of the founding fathers” and an integral, unmissable, formidable part of Napa’s winemaking culture and charm.

Pearson’s own name is a revered one in the industry, having made his mark at Napa’s Opus One as CEO from 2004 to 2020, then heading Meadowood for a few years before joining Joseph Phelps. He knew Joseph Phelps as “comPetitors” in his earlier years, but today, he speaks highly of both – of their many similarities as well as many differences.

Joseph Phelps came from humble beginnings, a Businessman whose passion for wine brought him to Napa, where he purchased a 600-acre former cattle ranch near St Helena with the commitment to craft world-class, estate-based wines that showcased the excellent terroir in the Napa Valley and Sonoma Coast. Phelps also had a penchant for Bordeaux and a passion for blends – which is why when the brand’s flagship Insignia was introduced to the world in 1978, the Bordeaux-style blend quickly became the defining wine of the region and an all-time bestseller.

Today, the winery owns and farms 525 acres of vines across 11 estate vineyards, with each plot acquired through deliberate strategic moves to show off the different microclimates and the terroir in the region.

Joseph Phelps had the highest regard for the environment. The land gave them grapes to make wine, and its winemakers championed sustainable practices to nurture its soil. But more than just sustainability – which is deemed not enough – the keyword today is regenerative. It’s one of the things that Pearson thinks is the most exciting in viticulture and agriculture, and a new approach to farming that brings us back to how things were done in the past.

“Regenerative farming,” says Pearson. “And more and more people are starting to talk about it and it’s something that I personally have been studying for the last two years. Moet Hennessy has an incredible focus on living soils and the approach to agroecology is one that starts initially focusing on the Health of the soil first. If we have Healthy soils, then the plants in those soils are also Healthier.”

The way to make soil Healthier is to bring back biodiversity to the land. The world at large had farmed in enormous parcels of monoculture for hundreds of years, operating as though we could control nature by pruning the lands of diversity, adding fertiliser and keeping insects out. But nature eventually finds its way back in.

“We’re bringing back fungal diversity,” Pearson continues. “Mushrooms are so fascinating, under the mushroom in the soil is a fibrous network called mycelium that stretches for miles. And it allows other plants like trees to communicate. When we care for the Health of our soil, the vines are Healthier and we end up with plants that live longer, are less sensitive to viral attacks and are better at managing moisture.”

At Joseph Phelps, Pearson is overseeing how to implement it across all its vines. “There are some wineries like Cheval Blanc who has been doing this for 10 years. There are more and more wineries saying this is the way to protect our vineyards and our eco-system and also make really good grapes for very good wine.”

Californian wines have found a natural affinity to Hong Kong, a city whose penchant for Bordeaux is not an understatement. There are beautiful American wines that “reflect a traditional balance and complexity and style of life that mirrors what you find in Bordeaux, but also has a modern freshness that traditional wine lovers don’t expect,” says Pearson.

“Insignia has this personality profile that’s a complex one and it has a good tannin structure that allows the wine to age for a long time. But the tannins are soft and very silky. Sometimes, in other markets, young wines can have tannins that are more aggressive and people say, ‘Ok, it’s a young wine, if we wait 10 years then those tannins will soften.’ But if you can have a wine that’s really good and enjoyable to drink when it’s young and has the potential to age another 20 years that’s even better. And a lot of wines coming up in Napa Valley are having this characteristic now.”

No longer is the image of Californian wines of a character that’s overly robust and overripe. There used to be a lot of muscular and big wines, and some people like these wines and that’s fine,” says Pearson. “But more and more wines coming out of Napa have restraint and elegance.”

How would Pearson describe Joseph Phelps’s wine in a couple of words? “It’s a friendly wine with a fascinating personality,” he answers.

“I was asked the other night whether I thought wine was a living thing, and I said yes,” Pearson adds. “I don’t think it’s alive like an animal – but the characteristics of the way wines are born, the way they evolve and eventually move on mirrors a life of humans. When wines are young, they make a lot of noise like a baby, and as the wine ages like people do, they become quieter and develop their own personality. They go through a time when they’re self-aware and they close down, but then they open back up again like we do in our early 20s and we become strong and vibrant. Then, as wines get older, they get less strong. But then perhaps, they also get more interesting. And at the end, it’s like an old lady in a rocking chair – the wine has little energy but they have great stories to tell.”