2016 Mending Wall Cabernet Sauvignon

Mending Wall Winery is an artisanal winemaking venture based on the poetry of wine and named for some poetry by Robert Frost. Mending Wall, one of Frost’s most famous poems, is about two neighbors who meet once year to repair the wall that separates their property. The proprietors of Mending Wall winery say that their winemaking philosophy is “about coming together to explore and question the established boundaries in winemaking.” And they have the team to do it. Thomas Rivers Brown, one of Napa’s star winemakers, is winemaker and one of the proprietors. The other proprietors are Kathy and Frank Dotzler, owners of Outpost Winery, and Mark Pulido and Donna Walker, who founded a Napa Valley winery they named after themselves. Mending Wall is on the famed Silverado Trail and produces Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah and a white blend. The debut vintage was the 2013. The wines are generally available only through the estate mailing list.

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.