Anthem 7 Items

'Team Anthem' came together in early 2009 to produce small quantities of handcrafted wines from the most distinctive and promising mountainous vineyards in Napa Valley. The Valley is undergoing tremendous change as many of the families which have made Napa Valley wines world renowned are turning over their operations to others. This change has created opportunity and, in assembling its team, Anthem sought the very best of this next generation.

After considering over 100 applications from around the world, the proprietors selected Jeff Ames as Anthem's head winemaker. An explosive talent, Jeff has made some of California's most acclaimed wines over the last few years and has a long and brilliant career ahead of him.

In turning to John Truchard to manage the vineyards, Anthem got the rare combination of a skilled viticulturist, sound vineyard manager, successful winery owner and someone with firsthand knowledge of dozens of the area's top vineyards. John also knows Mt. Veeder -- a vastly rewarding, yet temperamental, AVA. Both Jeff and John are hardworking, no nonsense, low ego professionals -- the kind of guys you'd like to sit down with and have a glass of wine.

The winery's proprietors have consistently provided the team with very simple, yet important, guidance: let every decision made be solely guided by its impact on the quality of wine Anthem produces. Quality has trumped quantity at every turn, and the team has been free to produce without regard to cost, resources, marketing timetables or other extraneous factors. Anthem has left fruit from entire vineyard blocks on the vine, foregoing harvest completely because the grapes -- though serviceable -- did not develop to the winery's standards. The winery also has bulked off perfectly good wine to other producers simply because it was not great and may well do so again in the future.

This exacting focus on quality means that, for any given vintage, Anthem does not know how much wine it will actually release until several years after harvest. Those at Anthem do know that if the wine does find its way into bottle, and is passed from the team's hands to yours, it will be outstanding. A wine to be enjoyed with loved ones on special occasions.