People:
Jeff Yates

Jeff Yates-Wine Country  Wine Merchant

Mr. Yates is a wine merchant in Wine Country and conducts private seminars and tastings for Symtrek Partner’s corporate clients.

“I love wine, I love to talk about wine and I love to sell wine to people intent on enjoying unique wines. I taste thousands of wines each year and feel that I can pick wines that people will enjoy. I love to get people out of their 'box' and have them try wines that they may not be familiar with.”

A question that has always intrigued me is; how can a retail wine merchant make a living selling wine in Wine Country, surrounded by so many wineries?  The short answer is; very well thank you.  Jeff sells about 6,000 bottles of wine annually to a customer mix of about 50% being customers outside of St. Helena.  “We make a living by knowing wines, knowing our customers and having an inventory of only quality wines that often aren’t sold outside of California,” said Jeff.  “Tasting 50-60 wines per day will net maybe 1 or 2 being placed in inventory.”

“We spend about 75% of our day doing wine research, tasting, canvassing other industry professionals and communicating with a very refined customer base,” says Jeff.  “It is not by accident we compete very well with the likes of Costco and Trader Joe’s.  We work very hard at our vocation.”
OK, what about that perfect “10” or in wine parlance, that perfect “100 points”.

I have explained why I think Napa/Sonoma is a great place for every conceivable corporate meeting.  But, indulge me for repeating myself—this place is unique because people here specialize in a product that is universally recognized; even non-oenophiles can appreciate people working throughout the year striving toward excellence.  Their accomplishments are often in spite of acts of God and pestilence.  As a result we all can relate to folks who lay it on the line year after year; not knowing what is coming next year.  So let me address the topic of Wine Country Excellence.

A corporate executive called me awhile ago asking me, “How many Napa/Sonoma wines have been rated 100 points in the last 10 years?”  I thought that would be easy to find out.  This led me from Wine Advocate to Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s to a premier wine shop owner in St. Helena-- Jeff Yates, one of Symtrek’s go-to people.  Defining the real 100 point wines is not an easy task for many reasons: personal opinions, 3 or 4 rating organizations, consciences, thousands of people participating in the rating (one of which is our friend James Laube), and time frames… just to name a few.

“There are no 100 point wines in the world,” says Jeff.  “100 points means that it is a perfect wine and there isn’t anything, in my opinion, manipulated by man that can be called perfect.”  Jeff allows that his perfect wine is 98 points.  But, if God gives the vineyards a perfect growing season and a gifted winemaker takes that perfect fruit and turns it into a spectacular wine it would be 99 points.  Now that is one man’s opinion who has been selling wine since 1983 in Napa.  Further, let me clarify that there have been no 100 point white wines from Napa or Sonoma.

Hang on; I am slowly making my way toward giving you a list of 100 point wines from Wine Country over the past decade.
But next what are some facts about 100 point wines.  One man’s 100 points is another man’s (or woman’s) 95 points.  So I have tried to settle on Robert Parker’s rating system and that is also Jeff’s benchmark.  In the past decade there has not been a 100 point white wine awarded.  That is probably a function of “varietal preferences”.  Napa County has produced the most 100 point rated wines. Lastly, wine tasting relative to a points rating system is very complex, subject to the vagaries of personal preferences and probably some politics (my opinion).  “Bottom-line, everyone needs to understand and accept their own tastes’ at a given point in time and get good advice from wine merchants and sommeliers.   They can interpret and recommend the wines best for your taste and budget; helped with some familiarity with the customer,” says Jeff.

Speaking of budgets.  Some of the 100 point wines from Napa over the past decade can be had for as little as $215, to a Paul Hobbs Cab for $400 and from there, a Bill Harlan bottle could fetch $900. But, there are a lot of 90 point wines in my price range for everyday consumption.  I would be embarrassed to tell you my price range so let’s move on.

Here are the 100 pointer’s from Napa/Sonoma: (not in any particular order)

Shafer 2002 Hillside Select
Sloan 2002 Red Wine (Cab Blend)
Screaming Eagle 1997 Cab
Bryant Family 1997 Cab
Abreu 2002 Thorevilos
Colgin 2002 Tychson Hill
Harlan Estate 2003 Proprietary Red
Paul Hobbs 2002 Beckstoffer to Kalon
Harlan Estate 2001 Proprietary Red
Harlan Estate 2002 Proprietary Red
Sine Qua Non 2002
Schrader Cellars 2006 CCS
Schrader Cellars 2006 Old Sparky

What makes excellence?  To hear it from people in Wine Country it is: the vine, vineyard (dirt), God, the oak, winemaker experience and the right blending.  This is just to name a few.