1998 Rudd Estate Jericho Canyon

Rudd Estate is a 46-acre estate in Oakville, Napa Valley. It was the Girard Winery until 1996, when Leslie Rudd, a liquor distributor from Wichita, Kansas, bought the property in order to produce his own premium wines. Leslie Rudd also is chairman of the board of Dean & DeLuca, the upscale gourmet grocery founded in New York City. He bought Dean & DeLuca a few years ago and also is an investor in several national restaurant chains. Reviewers have awarded Rudd’s wines with high praise and high scores, and Robert M. Parker Jr. notes that Rudd “produces an outstanding Cabernet Sauvignon…” as well as other wines, including Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay.

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,