2012 Three Sticks Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Three Sticks is named for the Roman numeral three, and it is a reference to the name of the founder, Bill Price III. Price had a career in private equity which eventually led him and business partners to invest in California wine estates. Price also started buying prime vineyards in the region and in 2007 left his career in investment to devote himself full time to wine ventures. Three Sticks was launched in 2002. Based in an historic, 19th-century adobe home in downtown Sonoma, Three Sticks owns vineyards in the Sonoma Coast, Sonoma Mountain, Sonoma Valley, Russian River Valley and Carneros appellations. Bob Cabral became Three Sticks winemaker in 2015 after a celebrated career making wines at numerous Sonoma County estates, including William Selyem. In 2011 Wine Enthusiast named him Winemaker of the Year after being awarded the journal’s first 100 pt North American Pinot Noir. Three Sticks produces Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

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.