2021 Boich Family Cellar Wall Road Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon

Boich Family Cellar is a new Napa Valley venture started by John Boich. The estate makes single vineyard wines with grapes sourced from some of Napa’s most prestigious vineyards, including Howell Mountain Vineyard, Wall Road Vineyard, and Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard. Jeff Ames, one of the valley’s most sought after winemakers, is winemaker for Boich. Ames is a former assistant to star winemaker Thomas Brown, and Ames also has made wine for Schrader and Tor Kenward, among others. The 2014 vintages are in the debut releases, and Boich Family production is limited to about 900 cases. The wine is generally available only through a mailing list. Robert M. Parker Jr. called the 2014 Boich Family Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon a “magnificent Cabernet Sauvignon from a first-growth vineyard that once was the backbone for many of the famous BV Private Reserves of the 1950s and 60s.”

Mount Veeder AVA was established in 1993, though its origins as a wine producing district date to the 19th century. A German Presbyterian pastor named Peter Veeder was one of the first landowners in the area, and by 1864 one of his neighbors, a German sea captain named Stelham Wing, was producing wine commercially. The area continued to attract German agricultural entrepreneurs, some of whom established the estate that would later become the Christian Brothers Mont La Salle winery. Today the AVA includes about 1,000 acres of vineyards, most of them at relatively high altitudes. The Mayacamas vineyard, for instance, is at 2,400 feet. Cabernet Sauvignon is the most frequently planted grape, followed by Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.

One of the most widely grown grape varieties, it can be found in nearly every wine growing region. A cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. It’s a hardy vine that produces a full-bodied wine with high tannins and great aging potential.