A dry and elegant pinot noir with ripe yet delicate cherry aromas and a very elegant balance of fruit, fine tannins and acidity that makes it glide into the distance. Producer Information Calling Chris Dearden a winemaker is certainly very true – and he has left his mark making wine for a number of notable producers in this valley over the past 35 years, but just referring to him as a winemaker is is not entirely accurate as he is a man of many talents and has made valuable contributions in a number of ways to the Napa Valley wine industry and beyond. Chris is the 3rd generation of his family to be raised in California; originally from Porterville in the San Joaquin Valley, he went to the University of California Davis and studied viticulture and enology, in the process creating his own major, Winery Operations and Management, an extremely important decision that would serve him well in his career. Upon graduating he moved to the Napa Valley; as he says, “I never left”. His first full time winemaking job was at Madonna Estate in Carneros where he helped produce a wide diversity of wines. He has held several winemaking positions over the years including for Hublein (Beaulieu Vineyard/Inglenook/Christian Brothers) where he was privileged to know and work with both André Tchelistcheff and his son Dimitri. He told us that he considers his time working for Seguin Moreau Cooperage in the early 1990s (right around the time that Sequin Moreau built their cooperage south of the city of Napa) an integral part of his winemaking education. He traveled to Europe where he visited numerous well-respected wineries and met with a number of vintners. But Chris admits, he missed making wine during this period; he eventually took a job at Benessere where he produced wine for 14 years working with a number of Italian varieties (Benessere’s focus). And over the years he has been a consulting winemaker for several small premium Napa Valley based wineries or brands.
