2011 Bremer Family Claret

Bremer Family Winery is a historic Deer Park Road estate owned since 2002 by John and Laura Bremer. Some of the buildings on the estate date from the late 19th century, and the property was the original home of California wine pioneers John and Jacob Sutter. The Sutters built their first winery on the estate before moving in 1909 to their Highway 29 property. With careers spent in the wholesale nursery and earth moving businesses in Southern California, the Bremers also have long ties to Napa Valley as partners in Fume Restaurant near Napa. Bob Bolan is winemaker at Bremer and the estate owns 110 acres. Bremer produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay and blends.

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,