2016 Brand Napa Valley Proprietary Blend, 3-bottle Lot, Wood Case

Brand is a 110-acre estate above Lake Hennessey on Pritchard Hill. It is owned by Ed Fitts, an entrepreneur who retired from his role as founder of an environmentally-friendly packaging company in in 2004. Fitts hired renowned winemaker Philippe Melka and in 2012 began replanting a few acres of the vineyards he’d acquired, which are on a plateau at elevations from 1,200 to 1,500 feet above sea level. There are now 12 acres of vineyard planted to Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. Brand makes Cabernet Sauvignon and a Bordeaux-style blend. Brand wines have won ratings in the mid-90s from reviewers, and the wines are available primarily through the winery’s 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,