2012 Signorello Padrone

Signorello Estate is on the Silverado Trail in Napa. It was founded by Ray Signorello Sr. in the 1970s as a vineyard. Signorello was a businessman based in San Francisco and Vancouver, B.C., but he bought the 100-acre estate with the idea of growing quality grapes to source to local producers. A bountiful harvest in 1985 prompted the family to try their own custom crush, and from then on they made and sold their own wines. Today the estate is still run by the family, now headed by Ray Signorello Jr. The estate’s 40-acre vineyard is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Viognier, Chardonnay, Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc. The Cabernet Sauvignon blend Padrone is the flagship wine and it typically earns ratings in the low to mid-90s from wine reviewers.

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,