Given my distinctly favorable tasting in 2019 at Ehlers, a Saint Helena, Napa Valley winery, I was excited to sit down with their new-ish winemaker, Adam Casto. He brought me up to speed over a leisurely dinner and tasting of his wines, enabling me to do one of my favorite things in the wine world—connect the wine with the person. Shout out to Santa Monica’s Local Kitchen + Wine for keeping us ballasted with burrata, broccolini, mushroom risotto, cacio e pepe and water (!) as we made our way through the Ehlers landscape, wines, and what’s to come. I love to begin at the beginning, so here we go: Casto’s fascination with wine began on his 19th birthday when a family friend gave him two bottles of wine and two maps…one a Martini Monte Rosso, the other Pio Cesare Barolo. Not bad gateway wines! He was into collecting antique maps and enchanted with the idea of wine representing a very specific place, although really, he admitted, “I just wanted to buy more maps.” This makes sense to me. I mean, if you want a map of, say, the Meal lieux-dit of Hermitage, how can you justify putting that map on the wall if you haven’t sipped it? Half-joking, but maps are how many people, including yours truly, cement wine knowledge, so I get it. Not yet being of drinking age in this (barely) United States of America (DOES it make sense that you can vote before drinking? Discuss.), Casto secured wine by frequenting a store with an of-age adult friend who would acquire his chosen wine. He spent so much time there browsing that, eventually, he could go on his own. Upon turning 21, he filled out a job application, anddddd the shop owner realized he’d been selling to a minor, but he didn’t care at that point. And Casto didn’t say this, but perhaps the owner recognized a promising palate forming? Casto went on to college to study engineering but met George Pendry, who opened up the idea that you don’t have to be a wine nepo-baby to become a winemaker. Then, a Walla Walla winemaker took Casto on to work a harvest. From there, he was off to New Zealand for a spell, on to Tasmania, then southern France. He returned to the States in Napa, where he was advised to learn Spanish, so he bounced to Casablanca, Chile, to which I responded, “Very cool,” and he informed me it was beyond cool-- the coldest harvest of his life. He eventually returned to California, working with DANA and Gandona before landing at Ehlers, inheriting 500 barrels worth of wine former winemaker Laure Díaz Muñoz had fermented—not child’s play! Obviously, wine is not child’s play, but you get my drift. All wines called for tasting, knowing, blending, and giving them a place in the bottle. For Casto, it was a process of multiple rounds through the barrels until he knew the wines like people. Each barrel, each site, and each vineyard block has its own personality, providing guideposts to blending. Composing a wine from his friendly barrels was and is akin to figuring out who should sit with whom at the dinner table. What does his seating chart look like? It all starts with what he has to work with. Ehlers lies in the narrowest part of Napa Valley, with the Mayacamas to the west and Vacas to the east, sporting (soil-wise) Perkins Gravelly Loam of marine origin to the west, Bale Clay Loam in the middle, and Aikens Sandy Loam to the east (also found in Oakville Cross!). And I had to include those facts because, you know, I can’t live without my hyper-specific soil names. Roughly a quarter of the estate plantings are on Perkins (Cab Sauv), half of the plantings on Bale Clay (Merlot and Cab Franc), and the other quarter on Aikens Sandy (Cab Sauv), each soil lending their unique characteristics to the grapes. Ehlers’ renowned “Portrait” bottling historically aimed to be a legit portrait of the territory, a reflection of all the land has to offer. Accordingly, Casto respects the terroir and intends to showcase it, but in increasing detail. He loves the prospect of showing what the land is in a single bottle. Even more exciting to him is that crafting the ideal wine might eventually force his hand into creating a blend that is a proportional representation of what Ehlers grows. Casto’s 2022 Portrait is poised and Saint-Julien-esque, giving graphite and violets, ripe fruit verging on cordial without giving way to sweetness. At 65.85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16.24% Cabernet Franc, 16.39% Merlot and 1.35% Petit Verdot, it is comely and inviting. I also tasted his 2022 Cabernet Franc, which has just the right amount of pepperiness—enough to keep it from veering into Cab Sauvignon territory. Casto is over Cab Francs flying under the radar, and his Cab Franc accordingly shows pyrazines, just enough, brushing against a plush and silky but statured body. Gentle pump-overs and very gentle punch-downs create balance in the powerful wines that heavy soil can yield. Mid-dinner, Casto’s interns were messaging him with questions, which got us on the topic of who he likes to work with. He only hires people who got into wine as a secondary job, looking for diverse skillsets and “people who are interested in THINGS, curious people.” He shared his excitement that one of his interns is really starting to believe they could make a life for themselves in the wine world—in a wine world that can be an insider game, he is excited to welcome newcomers who care. Along the theme of looking towards the future, Ehlers is CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers), just to start. Casto aims to be proactive on climate change, which involves a lot of tweaking of pulse points. He is experimenting with a trellis system: a single high wire with unilateral cordon and box pruning---keeping the fruit away from the heat of the land and distributing dappled light throughout the day, distributing stress with less dehydration of the fruit. Also up and coming are significant changes to packaging to enhance their sustainability efforts. This is the tip of the iceberg (the environmentally healthy/not-melting-to-kill-polar-bears iceberg) of trials Casto is assaying, and he gathers data as he goes. I look forward to seeing what happens in the coming years. Casto is deeply interested in the world, sharing ideas, and the people he works with. And to put the cherry (grape?) on top, from what I tasted, he is also deeply interested in making very, very delicious wine. Want to read more from Ellen? Check out her recent articles: Wine Situation Final Five: Fahara Zamorano Wow Oak, Wowwww Old World vs. New: GSMs You can also listen to Ellen's podcast The Wine Situation here.