Far Niente Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 One of California’s oldest wineries, Far Niente was founded in 1885 by John Benson, a forty-niner of the California gold rush and uncle of the famous American impressionist painter, Winslow Homer. The winery flourished until Prohibition, at which time it was abandoned and fell into complete disrepair. The stately stone shell of a winery was purchased in 1979 by Gil Nickel, as part of his quest to create a world class wine estate in the Napa Valley. During restoration, the original name, Far Niente, romantically translated to “without a care,” was found carved in stone on the front of the building, where it remains…
-
-
Dominus Christian Moueix 2012 In the late 1960s, while attending the University of California at Davis, Christian Moueix fell in love with the Napa Valley and its wines. Son of Jean-Pierre Moueix, the famed wine merchant and producer from Libourne, France, Moueix returned home in 1970 to manage the family vineyards, including Chateaux Petrus, La Fleur-Petrus, Trotanoy in Pomerol and Magdelaine in Saint Emilion. His love of Napa Valley lingered and in 1981, he discovered the historic Napanook vineyard, a 124-acre site west of Yountville that had been the source of fruit for some of the finest Napa Valley wines of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1982, Moueix entered into…
-
Amici Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 In the 1990’s, a group of friends with a passion for good wine and fun times together crushed a few tons of grapes in the Napa Valley for their personal cellars. The resulting wine was so well-received that they started producing wine the very next year to share with the public. They chose to name the wine, appropriately, Amici (“friends” in Italian). Amici’s owners: John Harris, Bob and Celia Shepard, and Bart Woytowicz; are all great friends with a passion for making and enjoying great wine. I recently met Robert Emery, Amici’s General Manager and tasted a few of his wines, a wonderful Chardonnay from…
-
Fulcrum Brosseau Vineyard Chalone AVA Pinot Noir 2014 A Fulcrum is the point on which an object balances. This was the name winemaker David Rossi chose for his winery when he founded it in 2005 – years before the word balance became an essential element in any discussion about great New World Pinot Noir. For David, a Fulcrum represented the style of winemaking he spent years refining. It was also an ideal metaphor for his belief in leveraging the finest grapes to create balanced, complex and age-worthy Pinot Noirs. I recently went to a private tasting at one of my favorite wine shops, Stew Leonard’s Wines, in CT, where I…
-
Caymus 2012 40th Anniversary Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (Third Coravin Tasting) In 1971 Charlie Wagner and his wife Lorna Belle Glos Wagner asked their son Charles (Chuck) Wagner, who had just graduated from high school, if he would be interested in joining them in starting up a winery. If Chuck declined the offer, Charlie and Lorna were planning to sell out of their ranch in Napa Valley and move to Australia. Chuck accepted his parents’ offer to launch the winery, Caymus Vineyards. The Wagners produced their first vintage in 1972, consisting of 240 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon. Since then, Caymus has focused their efforts in the production of quality…
-
ZD Pinot Noir Carneros 2013 In 1969, aerospace engineers Norman DeLeuze and Gino Zepponi, along with their families, turned their entrepreneurial enthusiasm toward winemaking. These were the early days of California’s wine industry, and they were among Napa Valley’s adventurous winemaking pioneers. Their founding concept was to produce world class Chardonnay and Pinot Noir reminiscent of France’s renowned Burgundy wines. They achieved this endeavor by sourcing from the cool Carneros regions of Napa and Sonoma. The ZD Wines brand highlights the initials of the founding partners’ last names, but it also symbolizes the term Zero Defects, an acronym for the quality control program Norman and Gino worked under while designing rockets…
-
Emmolo 2013 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc Jenny Wagner has taken the reins of Emmolo (m–oh–low) Winery from her mother, Cheryl Emmolo, the owner and founder of this lovely Rutherford estate. Jenny’s great-grandfather, an Italian immigrant, Salvatore Emmolo, planted virgin soil to grapevines, such as Carignane and French Columbard in the 1920’s. After becoming an established grape grower, he started a grapevine rootstock nursery and opened up Palermo Winery in 1934, named after the city from which he immigrated. Throughout the years Jenny’s grandfather, Frank Emmolo, found out that Sauvignon Blanc was best suited to that soil. Today, her grandparents continue to enjoy life farming on this Rutherford property. A marriage…
-
St. Clement Oroppas 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon A Napa Valley landmark since 1878, St. Clement Vineyards produces small lots of luxury and single vineyard wines from exceptional Napa Valley vineyards. Hand-crafted from grapes grown in the Napa Valley, St. Clement wines reflect a deep respect for the land and an understanding of the valley’s unique geology, soil and climate. St. Clement’s portfolio of stunning Napa Valley wines is anchored by the flagship Oroppas Cabernet Sauvignon. The first vintage of Oroppas was made in 1991, and over the years, it has become a style icon for St. Clement. The key to Oroppas is having a palate of consistent flavor profiles and tannin…
-
Hall 2012 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Kathryn Walt Hall is the proprietor of Hall Wines and has been involved in the California wine industry since her family first purchased a vineyard thirty years ago. She has had a distinguished career as a successful businesswoman, community activist, and most recently as the United States Ambassador to Austria. Kathryn Hall and her family have been grape growers in Mendocino County since 1972. The Walt family owns 63 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc in the Redwood Valley and has sold their grapes to such wineries as Fetzer, Parducci and Beringer. Kathryn managed the family vineyard from 1982…
-
Stags’ Leap Winery 2014 Napa Chardonnay Stags’ Leap Winery, (note the placement of the apostrophe), produces the Chardonnay I will discuss today. The use of “Stags Leap” may be confusing. Another nearby winery named, “Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars” produces excellent wines as well, also note the placement of that apostrophe. Lastly, there is the Stags Leap District, which is the name of the appellation where the two aforementioned wineries are located. The Stags Leap District (no apostrophe) is renowned for producing outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, is located between the Napa River and the Stags Leap Palisades. One of California’s earliest wine estates, a unique terroir and ideal microclimate support…