Our Wines

"Complexity is no accident"

Michael Havens coined this simple tenet to govern every detail in the making of his Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, and Albariño wines.

In a reverse, glass-to-dirt process, Michael’s direction starts with the wine on the table with food. In pairing fine wines with foods of not-so-subtle qualities - earth, spice, pungency, and texture - Michael strives for complexity and refined elegance in the glass. He then thinks backwards all the way to the dirt, from decisions on blending to harvest to ideal growing regions, to orchestrate a full nose-to-palate experience that can be enjoyed young or long-cellared, on its own or complimenting superb foods.

Michael achieves an uncommon complexity and age-worthiness for California Merlots, Syrahs, and Cabernet Franc wines. He points to elevage as the key difference. Elevage is a French term that refers to the practices employed in nurturing a wine along through aging in the cellar, selected to highlight its best. For wines beautifully crafted and aged with attention to elevage, Havens wines are known for being the most reasonably priced fine wines in their categories.

Havens Wine Cellars’ goal is to make wines that heighten the pleasure of food, not monsters to showcase for awards. Our ideal is balance in the wine to give drinking pleasure at the table.

Havens Wine Cellars Merlot, Syrah, Bourriquot and Albariño are available in the U.S., Japan, the UK and Europe at fine restaurants, wine shops, and specialty markets. The wines can be ordered online or by phone (707) 261-2000 and fax (707) 261-2043.

A Few Words about Reserves
People often ask what criteria we use to distinguish our Napa Valley wines from our Reserve bottlings. The answer is not that we save the "biggest" wines for the Reserve; each bottling has its own virtues, with the wine's intended style in mind.

For our Napa Valley Merlot and Syrah, we look for "fruit first," with the idea that we want these wines to offer delicious balance within a year of their bottling. The Reserves shows their best later in life and emphasizes the non-fruit complexity of the varieties.

More about our Merlot
Havens Merlot is an altogether adult wine, especially blended with Cabernet Franc that offers sweet fruit, extraordinary aroma, and a contrasting texture of fine marrow. Whereas the more common Cabernet Sauvignon blend can dominate a Merlot, Cabernet Franc, in the style of Pomerols and St. Emilions, fills out the middle palate of Merlot, which it does not achieve on its own, adding length and a spicy, red-fruit accent to the flavors. With age, our Merlot takes on a tobacco and forest floor complexity as sumptuous and refined as any wine in the world.