Team C&J
Curly St. James owner and winemaker Sam Smith may have only just launched his “Ostentatious Parlay” red wine blend in 2021, but he comes from a family with a rich winemaking history. Smith’s father, Stu, and his uncle, Charles, founded Smith-Madrone Vineyards & Winery in 1971 and were among the first to see the potential that the Mayacamas Mountains held for grape growing. The Smith-Madrone portfolio features a panoply of wines, including Napa Valley riesling, chardonnay, and, naturally, cabernet sauvignon.
Sam credits his father and uncle with inspiring him to develop his talent as a winemaker because it was at the family’s Napa Valley winery that he learned the ins and outs of the business and experienced the magic of the vineyards firsthand.
Curly St. James is one of the wine world’s more memorable names. It has a ring to it that brings to mind a great British pub or a famous 19th-century Irish boxer. There was, in fact, a someone named Curly, but he didn’t have two legs, he had four. You see, Curly was the Smith family’s Springer Spaniel. For Sam, the dog was a constant reminder to not take yourself too seriously, and to remember to laugh, even amid life’s challenges.
The second part of the winery’s name, St. James, comes from, you guessed it, St. James, the patron saint of patience and reason. These two ideas guided Sam at the beginning of his career and continue to guide him today.
Smith is a newer winemaker, and while he has one eye trained on the future, the other is firmly on the past. If you visit the Curly St. James’ website, Sam makes it clear that his “Ostentatious Parlay” red blend was crafted in the image of the great Napa Valley reds of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, the wines from Stag’s Leap, Robert Mondavi, and Cakebread, the heavy hitters that put the region on the map.
Hearing Sam tell the story of the name, “Ostentatious Parlay” gives you a better idea of the long view he has of the winemaking process.
When Sam was working as a sommelier in Tasmania, a table asked him how wine was made. The question has a straightforward answer, but it got him thinking. As he explained the nuances – and perhaps luck – involved in planting the right grapes in the right soil, waiting years for the vines to mature, picking the grapes at the right time, and then harvesting the grapes, crushing them, bottling the wine, waiting a few more years for the wine to age, and kind of hoping everything turns out the way the winemaker planned it, one of the guests said something to the effect of, “so it’s an ostentatious parlay”.
Sam couldn’t have summed up the incredible gamble that winemakers put into each vintage, and the words have stuck with him ever since.
The 2013 Curly St. James “Ostentatious Parlay” was close to ten years old when we opened it, so it’s got some age on it. This wine was made with the idea that it could age 25 to 35 years, but with just 100 cases made, or about 1,200 bottles per vintage, it’s a wine that’s in short supply, which makes cellaring it for another decade a challenging proposition
This wine is a 50/50 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc from 40+ year-old vines rooted in the Mayacama Mountains’ volcanic soil. Sam, like his father Stu, dry farms these grapes, which forces the vines to really work through the soil in order to reach a water source below the earth.
The age of these vines, and the way they’re farmed, means they yield a below-average amount of fruit, but the fruit they do produce is ripe with complexity, and the flavors are concentrated and unique. The nose on the wine has a hint of oak from the 24 months it was aged in new French oak, as well as dark fruits like raisins, black currant, and black cherry. Hints of herbal, vegetal bell pepper also came through as the wine opened up.
On the palate, we picked up smooth dark cherry and brighter red cherry notes, with secondary layers of graphite, white pepper, strawberry, and bell pepper.
All in all, we really like this wine. With a family full of winemakers, high-quality Mayacamas grapes, and a wine audience that’s thirsty for more, the Curly St. James Napa Valley red blend from Sam Smith just might be a cult cabernet in the making.
USA
Napa Valley
Red Blend
14.5
Sam Smith
62–68°F / 16–20°C
Large Bordeaux
60 to 90 Minutes
Now to 2040
Curly St. James
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