2014 Grace Family Cabernet Sauvignon, 3-bottle Lot, Wood Case

Like other family-founded wineries in Napa Valley, Grace Family Vineyards started small, more a dream than a business. It was 1976 and San Francisco stockbroker Richard Grace and his wife bought an old home in St. Helena to raise their family in the country. The couple planted a one-acre vineyard and two years later harvested their first real crop, which they sold to Caymus Vineyard. The Grace family’s grapes were used by Caymus until 1983, when the Grace Family started making their own wine. These days the Graces cultivate a number of vineyards, though production remains highly limited. Only Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are grown, and Grace Family wines are 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines are prized for their opulence and rich flavors. They are generally available only through a mailing list. Annual production is 200 cases.

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,

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.