2008 Ramey Claret

Ramey Wine Cellars is in Healdsburg, in California’s Sonoma County. It was founded in 1996 by David and Carla Ramey. David had spent two decades as a winemaker for such producers as Matanzas Creek, Chalk Hill, Dominus and Rudd before striking out on his own. Ramey sources grapes from Napa Valley, the Russian River Valley and the Sonoma coast. The estate makes Cabernet blends, Chardonnay and Syrah. Robert M. Parker Jr. has praised Ramey’s wines, writing that “David Ramey is one of the few California winemakers who thinks in terms of structure, not just flavor…All the wines I tasted at Ramey’s cellar just outside Healdsburg were terrific.”

Napa Valley AVA is the most famous winemaking region in the United States and one of the most prestigious in the world. With nearly 43,000 acres of vineyards and more than 300 wineries, it is the heart of fine wine production in the United States. Winemaking started in Napa in 1838 when George C. Yount planted grapes and began producing wine commercially. Other winemaking pioneers followed in the late 19th century, including the founders of Charles Krug, Schramsberg, Inglenook and Beaulieu Vineyards. An infestation of phylloxera, an insect that attacks vine roots, and the onset of Prohibition nearly wiped out the nascent Napa wine industry in the early 20th century. But by the late 1950s and early 1960s Robert Mondavi and other visionaries were producing quality wines easily distinguishable from the mass-produced jug wines made in California’s Central Valley. Napa Valley’s AVA was established in 1983, and today there are 16 sub-appellations within the Napa Valley AVA. Many grapes grow well in Napa’s Mediterranean climate, but the region is best known for Cabernet Sauvignon. Chardonnay is also very successfully cultivated, and about 30% of the AVA’s acreage is planted to white grapes, with the majority of those grapes being Chardonnay,