This past Super Bowl Sunday, I opened a bottle of wine from a producer that has long been a favorite of mine. It was a Cuvaison chardonnay from the Los Carneros region of the Napa Valley.

On the label of the bottle, an embossed box read, "Estate Grown Est 1969," noting the original release of a wine under the Cuvaison name. That would be the year that Joe Namath led the New York Jets to a 16-7 win over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in the third Super Bowl. That's a long time ago.

Now, in its 56 year, Cuvaison remains one of the most relevant and admired wineries in the Napa Valley, annually producing exciting pinot noir, chardonnay, and sauvignon blanc wines under the tutelage of its longtime director of winemaking, Steve Rogstad, who has captained the ship for 20-plus years now.

"Great wineries remain relevant because they evolve and innovate," said Rogstad in a recent release. "The secret is to try new things and to stay curious and inspired."

Cuvaison's first vintage in '69 was the product of a collaboration between two Silicon Valley engineers, Thomas Parkhill and Thomas Cottrell, who had been bitten by the wine bug and began to make wine on a property on the hillsides above Calistoga. Instead of naming the winery after themselves or a place on a map, they selected Cuvaison, which is a French word that describes the maceration process in winemaking, where the wine rests in contact with the grape skins during fermentation, acquiring color, tannins, and flavor.

The pair built a winery in Calistoga before selling the company just five years after its founding, but a legacy had been established. Cottrell went on to have a long career in the wine industry, including a stint as the founding winemaker at Stags Leap's Pine Ridge Winery in 1978.

In 1979, a Swiss winemaking family, the Schmidheinys, who had been making wines for four generations, purchased Cuvaison and, to this day, remain stewards of the wines. That same year, knowing that they wanted to focus on the production of pinot noir and chardonnay, Cuvaison acquired 400 acres of prime vineyard land just north of the San Pablo Bay. The location was perfect for cool climate wines with a steady influence of fog and breezes off the bay just to the south.

Four years later, in 1983, the region was designated as the Los Carneros AVA (American Viticulture Area) and today is well known as one of the premier locations on the planet for growing and making pinot noir and chardonnay.

There is an Aspen connection to this story, as well. From 2002 to 2016, Jay Schuppert was the president and CEO of Cuvaison. If the name sounds familiar, it is because Schuppert spent a significant portion of his professional formative years working here in Aspen at many of our most beloved institutions from days gone by. In a 2010 WineInk column, written after he poured Cuvaison wines at the annual Food & Wine Classic, Schuppert recalled working for Mead Metcalf at the Crystal Palace and how he lived at, and managed, Ruthies at the top of Lift 1A on Aspen Mountain.

"I took my first wine course from Gary Plumley of Grape and Grain," he noted at the time.

It provided the roots for a long and successful life in wine.

Schuppert retired in 2016 after a career that saw him oversee the construction of Cuvaison's modern winery, built to the specifications of winemaker Steve Rogstad in 2009, as well as the founding of Brandlin Estate, Cuvaison's cabernet sauvignon project in the Mt. Veeder appellation. He was succeeded by Dan Zepponi, who, today, is the president and CEO of the Two Estates Wine Collective, which encompasses both wineries.

Cuvaison continues to innovate. This past year, they expanded their extraordinarily popular, modern, sun-splashed tasting salon in Los Carneros by adding a pair of open-air "boathouse pavilions" that overlook the vineyards and a pond on the property. And they have never stopped the consistent evolution and replanting of their acclaimed Tai Vineyard, home of the estate's esteemed "Small Lot" wines.

Recently, I tasted the 2022 releases of Cuvaison's "small lot" Coeurtina Chardonnay and "micro lot" 90.1 Pinot Noir. These are limited edition wines sourced from specific parcels of the estate vineyards that were established in the last decade to showcase different clones, wine styles, and techniques.

The Coeurtina comes from one of the coolest sections of the Tai Vineyard, which is marked by the gravelly soils of an ancient stream bed. This chardonnay, the product of a Burgundian clone, has the smooth texture of velvet on the palate and offers aromas of peach and hints of orange and vanilla on the nose. Complex and concentrated, it is a sipping chard that invites attention.

The 90.1 Pinot Noir, named for the clone from the Chambertin vineyard in France that the wine is made from, was originally intended by the winemaker to be a wine for blending with other pinot noir on the property. But it became a star on its own.

"There are so many things to love about Clone 90.1" said Rogstad about the current release. "While it is not the biggest pinot we produce, it is a pure, plush, and beautifully elegant wine."

Agreed.

For over a half century, Cuvaison has been turning out classic wines from the Los Carneros region. And that's a Super Bowl-worthy accomplishment.