As a fifth generation Napa Valley winemaker, Joseph learned his way around a vineyard long before he was able to drink wine. By the time he was 19 he knew that he would continue his family’s winemaker legacy, working alongside his father at Caymus Vineyards. In 2001, he created Belle Glos, with a focus on vineyard-designated Pinot Noirs from California’s best coastal regions.
More recently, he has launched a number of new brands under Copper Cane Wines & Provisions. Joseph has a keen interest in contributing to the evolution of the wine industry, by discovering new winegrowing locations and experimenting in the cellar. He is thrilled to release BÖEN – an expression of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay made in his signature style of rich, ripe fruit flavors balanced with bright acidity and judicious hints of toasty oak.
Joseph has always focused on making wines that best represent the region in which the grapes are grown. In California, the abundance of sunshine and warm days over a long growing season contribute to wines that are rich, bold and robust – a style that he and his family have always loved.
To produce wines that are round, opulent and supple, Joseph studies the physiology of the vine throughout the growing season. When the green canes begin to lignify, or turn to wood, they take on a copper hue. This color shift signals that the green character and harsh tannins have been purged from the vine, and thus the resulting wines – the grapes are ready to be harvested. While other wine-growing regions of the world may struggle to get a fully ripened crop each vintage, it’s the norm in California to be able to achieve optimal ripeness. Joe strives for this each and every vintage.
No products found
The Grade Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Winfield Vineyard is made from Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
“This wine expresses a focused balancing act of dark, rich black fruit, and a fine tannin structure, illuminated through the core with a laser-like acidity. The wine displays a deep purple-red hue with a cranberry halo. Aromas of cassis, cinnamon, citrus oil, roasted meat, and lilac swell from the glass.
“The palate is marked by a wave of jet-black brambly fruit up front, followed by an exotic spice mid-palate and a long, complex finish that lasts and lasts expressing notes of flowering jasmine, and oolong tea. The silky tannins hold everything together and will certainly allow this wine to evolve in the cellar for at least 7-10 years.” - Thomas River Brown
Review:
The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Winfield Vineyard is a blend taken from three blocks in the vineyard. A potent, layered Cabernet, the Winfield is super-expressive today. Dark red cherry, licorice, incense and savory herbs all flesh out in a potent, resonant Calistoga Cabernet that hits all the right notes. This is impressive, to say the least.
-- Antonio Galloni 95 Points
Bastgen Berncastel-Cueser Weisenstein Riesling Spatlese Trocken is made from 100 percent Riesling.
Bright, clean, fresh and zesty. Grapefruit like flavors. Fruity aromas and a nice minerality, typical of the Riesling grape grown on blue slate soil. Round, rich and a very long finish. The grapes for this wine are vigorously selected. Botrytis is not tolerated. At harvest the grapes are fully ripened, have a golden color, and a soft tartness. After a long spontaneous fermentation in a traditional 1000L barrel, the wine just reaches the dry stage. This gives the wine a creamy structure that interplays with ripe yellow and exotic fruit aromas.
They meticulously tend 4.5 ha (11.11 acres) of which 80% is Riesling. The soil is made of slate. Their vineyards are located in Kesten and Brauneberg, on a steep terrace, and planted to 50-year old vines. Fortunately for Bastgen, they own part of the famous Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr. The vines produce very small, ripe berries that are very tasty.
Review:
"This dry Mosel riesling is GG in all but name! Complex nose of white peach and red-fleshed vineyard peach with herb garden notes. Very elegant and polished this glides over your palate, the precision of flavor on the medium-bodied palate is very impressive. Then comes the wet stone and red berry finish that doesn’t want to stop. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold."
- James Suckling (November 2023), 95 pts