2017 Boich Family Cellar NVS Cabernet Sauvignon

Boich Family Cellar is a new Napa Valley venture started by John Boich. The estate makes single vineyard wines with grapes sourced from some of Napa’s most prestigious vineyards, including Howell Mountain Vineyard, Wall Road Vineyard, and Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard. Jeff Ames, one of the valley’s most sought after winemakers, is winemaker for Boich. Ames is a former assistant to star winemaker Thomas Brown, and Ames also has made wine for Schrader and Tor Kenward, among others. The 2014 vintages are in the debut releases, and Boich Family production is limited to about 900 cases. The wine is generally available only through a mailing list. Robert M. Parker Jr. called the 2014 Boich Family Beckstoffer Georges III Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon a “magnificent Cabernet Sauvignon from a first-growth vineyard that once was the backbone for many of the famous BV Private Reserves of the 1950s and 60s.”

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.