The Art of Exclusivity
Wine is a unique product because everyone comes with the best expectations. And I couldn’t agree more. These are some of the first words shared with me by Lawrence Fairchild, the founder and proprietor of Fairchild Wines in Napa Valley. When Fairchild decided to make wine in Napa Valley, he knew that he wanted not only to meet those ”best expectations” but to exceed and elevate them, both with the quality of the wine in the bottle but also with the packaging of the bottle itself.
Fairchild began his quest for the “unique” in Napa Valley in the mid ’90s while taking a wine course at University of California Davis “as a hobby.” He bought his first vineyard in 1999 just above lake Hennessey and made a total of 50 cases. Today, he owns approximately 18 acres of some of finest vineyards in all the valley. His vineyards include one in Oakville which shares a fence line with Screaming Eagle Vineyard and is also one of the single most rocky vineyards in all of Napa. This is the source for his Stones 3 Cabernet. He also has two vineyards on Pritchard Hill at about 1,100 feet elevation that he sources for Stones 1 from the low vigor clone 6 of Cabernet Sauvignon. Stones 2 comes from a vineyard also on Pritchard Hill just a hundred yards away. The Cabernet Franc comes from two blocks at 900 feet elevation between Pritchard Hill and Rutherford. Each vineyard has something unique to say through the wines.
With several 100-point wines in his stable, expectations when tasting Fairchild wines are always high. The 2019 Stones 2 is an amazing blend of black and blue fruits with laser focus and intensity. Minerals and a hint of dark chocolate come through on the palate carried on by a gorgeously voluptuous mouthfeel. I was also treated to the 2016 Stones 2 which is now eight years young and still feels like a baby. It is opulent but focused with even more blue fruit. The palate is more open and really playing the chocolate card well, laced with vanilla and just the slightest touch of baking spice-gorgeous!
One of my favorites of the tasting is the 2019 Longitude-Latitude which is a Cabernet Franc based blend. Much like a Chateau Cheval Blanc, this wine has a savory character unlike its 100% Cabernet siblings; with floral components and an unending finish which leads me to believe this will age for decades. Last and certainly not least, Fairchild produces a one-of-a-kind Chardonnay from a single plot high above the Russian River Valley on a limestone hillside home to 45-year-old vines. The Stones Chardonnay is ringer for White Burgundy of the highest quality; packed with sweet fruit and wet stone, it is both refreshing and hedonistic pleasure inducing.
But producing great wine was not enough for Fairchild. He wanted to “create something that wasn’t seen yet in the wine business.” As an art lover and collector, his inspiration comes from modern artists like Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Basquiat, Kaws and Wosene. He wanted to create “the Hermès or Cartier of wine” — something with meticulous design and handcrafted.
With this in mind, each of the Stones bottles comes with a handmade, hand-stamped, hand-applied zinc-pewter label from Bordeaux. It is both handsome and striking. The Longitude-Latitude bottle is even more shapely also with a hand made medallion which includes the coordinates of the vineyard as well as proportions of the wine that make up the blend — a truly unique and ingenious distinction for any label. The Chardonnay bottle may be the most beautiful bottle design. It is in blue glass and is shaped as a tear drop decanter which can stand up right as well as lay on the table at an angle. Once you see these bottles, you will never forget them, nor will you jettison them when emptied.
Fairchild recently also created, just this year, a more accessible wine called Tickets which is a blend of the wines from his own vineyards. Even as a “second” wine, Tickets is a topflight Cabernet replete with scintillating amounts of fruit, sleek and velvety structure and a mouthfeel that would make hot cocoa blush. But the artistic appeal to Tickets is that each case of six has six different labels. Each one a unique and memorable experience in history.
With the 2021 vintage the labels include the following Tickets: Elvis’ last concert, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Hamilton the Musical, the first showing of the Wizard of Oz, the first moving picture screening in New York City Music Hall in 1896 and a replica ticket to the Titanic. Did I mention that the bottles are also shaped like olive oil bottles? These will be collector items one day.
And if all that is not enough, Fairchild has created the House of Perrarus. Perrarus means “rare” in Latin and with this project he ratchets up the exclusivity and artistic value. Each year since 2018, he has created a limited run (approximately 250 bottles) of only magnums and jeroboams of Perrarus crafted and inspired by a special artist. Each bottle is a one-of-a-kind piece of art and runs between $5,500 and $12,500 per bottle. One year, it was a bottle in the design of an amphora from 300 B.C. Another year each amphora was mouth-blown glass in the style of Chihuli. Yet another will encapsulate a time piece as the label. As far as creativity, I have never seen such distinctive or more stunning wine packaging.
Fairchild’s vision and commitment speak through every bottle he produces. The last thing he shared with me was that his overarching philosophy behind this project is “perfection.” From blending trials to vineyard management. Nothing is left to chance or fortune. “We make each wine ‘perfect’ every year.”