2013 Jones Family The Sisters

Jones Family Vineyards was started in 1996 when Sally and Rick Jones decided to make wine out of the grapes they were already growing near St. Helena, in Napa Valley. The couple had purchased a few acres of vineyards in 1992 as a retirement project, and were selling their grapes to Stags Leap. But the couple began producing their own wine and with the help of David Abreu, vineyard consultant, they had their first vintage in 1996. The estate is still run by Rick Jones and his daughters, and it produces Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. Thomas Rivers Brown is current winemaker. The boutique winery wins praise from reviewers, including Robert M. Parker Jr., who has written that Jones Family wines “have been consistently well made since the first vintage…”

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,

Bordeaux Style Blend