in the vineyard
Mitsuko's Vineyard is 365 acres in the Los Carneros appellation within the Napa Valley. The rolling land of this vineyard has a broad range of soil types, elevations, slopes, and aspects, which create countless distinct microclimates. After careful study, eight different grape varieties were planted at this vineyard utilizing every bit of its diversity.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are commonly found in Los Carneros and are the keys to the region’s notoriety. In Mitsuko’s Vineyard these varieties have ideal cooling breezes blowing in from the San Pablo Bay, which create the slow, balanced growing season these varieties need to build complexity.
The vineyard takes its name from founder Jan Shrem’s late wife to whom he was truly devoted. Jan, owner of Napa Valley’s iconic winery Clos Pegase, gave Mitsuko the vineyard as a gift for Valentine's Day in the 1980s – one acre for every day of the year that he loved her.
the men of canaan
the symbol that marks every bottle of paula kornell sparkling wine – two men carrying an enormous grape cluster between them – is a nod to her father, hanns kornell. all hanns kornell “champagnes” carried the symbol of israelites carrying a grape cluster because for hanns, personally, california was his "promised land."
the story behind the symbol is a biblical tale from the book of numbers, verse 7 3. the israelites were searching for a new, promised land and longed for an end to their quest. the lord told moses that he should send men to search out the land of canaan, which he had given to the people of israel. so, moses organized a scouting party and as luck would have it, this was the time of year when grapes were beginning to ripen. two scouts, jehoshua and caleb, happened to wander into a beautiful valley and there by a brook they found an abundance of fruit and enormous grapevines bearing huge clusters of grapes. the pair cut a branch from a vine with a single cluster, which they slung on a pole between them and headed back for camp to show their people. one can only imagine the rejoicing when after having been gone 40 days jehoshua and caleb returned with reports from the land of milk and honey, and with a huge cluster of grapes to prove it. they named the valley eschol, which translates to "cluster," and it was decided that this was indeed the promised land.