Neither Myth nor Metamorphoses, Ovid sits atop the World

And the Invocation of the Muse

I was invited to the Sui Generis (meaning “of its own kind”) party at the remarkable Ovid winery high up Pritchard Hill – a surprise honor I didn’t expect but was delighted to attend nonetheless. My muse, my wife of more than 20 years, was by my side as usual, but this muse doesn’t really care for California wine, and I mean none of it. It’s true – we tend to enjoy French and Italian wines, despite living here in the heart of Napa Valley, but I assured her that this is different – this would be indeed one of a kind. She found that out.

Up we drove, I’m guessing 1200 feet or so, over a 20-mile trip to what is arguably the most beautiful view in the middle valley. Greeted with an extremely decent rose Champagne and a fried chicken sandwich from Ad Hoc, this promised to be a great afternoon. The very fact that the Silver Oak family of wineries has allowed Ovid to operate independently and seemingly without interference is a great gift to the wine-drinking world. That winemaker, Austin Peterson, who continues to study and experiment, should be valued and appreciated by serious wine folk, because the results are simultaneously imperfect and perfect, unique. Nowhere is the passato prossimo more obvious than in the experimental wines:

2023 Experiment W10.3 California White Wine – look at the picture to see the grape varieties used here. This is a decidedly un-Napa-like white wine blend that is more reminiscent of an old-fashioned mixed varieties field blend, but instead it is an intentional cuvee of totally disparate grapes harmonizing like a street-corner doo-wop group, except for me, one voice was off, and I suspect it was the Picpoul, which stuck out like thorn on a stem. Nonetheless, the wine suggests a bookish, lemon-curd, white-flower scented bouquet, with lanolin, yuzu, light herb, and coquettish fruit. Like nothing else anywhere.

2022 Experiment C3.2 Napa Valley Red Wine – Decidedly upfront, acid-forward, and bright red cherries are in your face. Lots of other delightful red fruits like sour cherries, raspberries, spice, and black currants build a nervous energy here, but it's otherwise restrained and tight. Tannins are brisk, and the finish echoes that freshness and acidity.

2015 Experiment P5.5 Napa Valley Red Wine – Rounder, more classically proportioned, with a rich, more relaxed mouthfeel. The flavors are polished red and black fruits, grippy, full, with a long finish. Really nice wine.

I had no idea that Ovid produced a Syrah, and it is a delightful wine, to say the least. The 2022 Ovid Syrah is complete and structured. The nose is all grilled meats, grilled herbs, and concentrated raspberry, black fruits, bricks, blood, minerals, and notes of a light garrigue, chaparral, conifer, and wildflowers. It’s full in the mouth, with smoked meats, black and green peppercorns, and more black fruits. Superb finish.

We walked the path to the Vineyard House, where, despite there being nowhere to sit but on a stone fence (which worked just fine), we got to try the Cabernet Franc from this estate, called the Hexameter. In this case, the 2017 Hexameter is a wonderfully perfumed and gloriously complex wine with a nose of dried red fruits, earth, minerals, moss, light herbs, and long and very complex flavors of more dried fruits, red bricks, flowers, and spice. The 2022 Hexameter has a far bolder array of red and black fruits that are very fresh and lively, with dark chocolate notes, bright and racy acidity, and a zesty, aggressive finish. At this point, I’m thinking that Ovid is just showing off, given that all of these are the least celebrated vintages in recent memory. But we’re really just getting started with that.

Ellis was walking around with a double-magnum of 2010 Ovid OVID, their top Cabernet Sauvignon. It was to say the least, interesting. Not my favorite vintage, and yet, this wine was thick, rich, unfiltered looking, almost dirty, with gorgeous garrigue and dried fruits, complex secondary blackberry and plum, cassis and lead pencil notes. A point of privilege here – this reminds me, almost exactly of the 2010 Chateau Montrose which I had about a year ago, and remember fondly. I will say the Ovid is a bit more “advanced” than the Montrose, but similar nonetheless. That’s a compliment, no matter what.

Later, Ellis and his Kentucky Derby-ready suit (which I love) brought out the 2011 Ovid OVID, which continued the theme of “off-vintages,” demonstrating a remarkable attention to detail by this house. It was so much younger than the 10—youthful, expressive, with a nose of bright red cherries, dark cherries, and chocolate-covered strawberries. It was rich and super-expressive in the mouth, complex, and with a fabulous finish. How on earth could this be a 2011 Napa wine, I wondered.

Inside the tasting room, where a fellow wine-taster spilled his Ovid OVID on my leather shoes by accident, we tried the 2015 Ovid OVID, which to me was my wine of the day. (I actually wrote this note) A deep-seeker nose, red fruited, a fascinating intertwining of red and black exotic fruits, perfumed with crushed flowers, violets, teaberry, and ripe, round, generous full flavors, and gripping acidity. The tannins are present, but tame. The long finish lingers for a full minute.

Lastly, the celebrated 2021, and frankly, the only non-controversial vintage of the whole day, seemingly, was, in a word, spectacular. I had occasion to try Ovid’s Premier Napa Valley offering a few months ago, and although I didn’t write about it, it was to me, the best wine of the entire tasting. Why did I not write about that? Well, it was so far beyond many of the other offerings, I wondered if I was being too obvious – made for too short a story, actually. Today, the 2021 Ovid OVID is a dark chocolate, crème de cassis, violet, and wildflower scented masterpiece. Full of wild chaparral, conifer, light Luxardo cherry syrup, blackberry confit, blueberries, and deftly lifted acidity. There’s a touch of sweet vanilla, exotic floral notes, and solid, almost massive fruit, assembled carefully and thoughtfully arranged like an acoustically perfect Roman theatre. Cherry blossoms, orchids, fresh pressed bing cherries – so much I struggle to describe it. Flowers, minerals, cherry cream, blossoms, blackberries, earth and spice, and a cool redwood grove. Too young to drink now, but who cares?

What Ovid is doing is the same thing as most great Napa wineries. They are just doing it better. Through graceful hospitality, awe-inspiring vistas, mindful experimentation, and an unapologetic style that integrates red fruits with the black, acid with ripeness, balance above all, and rare levels of honest complexity, Ovid is, without a doubt, one of the three or four greatest wineries in this region, full stop. If they were a Bordeaux, we’d think them Ausone, Le Pin, or Leoville-Barton, or a Napa version thereof - I think Ausone.