Canadian ex-investment banker Jayson Woodbridge’s excellent California wine adventure began in 2000 with his purchase of a ten-acre clay dome along the Silverado Trail between St. Helena and Calistoga. Woodbridge had been seeking a prime site in Napa Valley for several years when vineyard manager Jim Barbour recommended a parcel of land he thought was ideal for Cabernet Sauvignon. Woodbridge brought in consulting winemaker Philippe Melka, who told him that the soil resembled that of Château Pétrus on the Pomerol plateau. Jayson owns three prime Cabernet vineyards, the Ark Vineyard, located about 500 feet off the valley floor on Glass Mountain above St. Helena on highly complex volcanic soils, producing his first vintage from this site in 2005; his Few and Far Between vineyard, the first release from which was the 2008, is essentially the upslope of the Eisele vineyard, which now belongs to the owner of Château Latour; Finally Kayli Morgan Cabernet, which he named after his daughter Morgan and his earliest business partner’s daughter Kayli, that established Woodbridge’s reputation. He has become known for relentless attention to detail and a spare-no-expenses approach to growing and harvesting his Napa Valley Cabernet fruit. It is common for them to make multiple passes through the vineyard, picking different clusters from the same vines as they reach perfect maturity. This attention to detail is critical to making a wine the calibre of Hundred Acre.
