2018 Sinegal Estate Sauvignon Blanc

Sinegal Estate was founded by David Sinegal, who in 2013 purchased the historic Inglewood estate in St. Helena. Sinegal, a former retail executive at Costco, Starbucks and other companies, updated the 30- acre, 19th century estate and brought in respected Napa winemaker Tony Biagi. Veteran viticulturalist Jim Barbour was hired as vineyard manager. The first commercial releases were 2013 Cabernet Sauvignons. The Inglewood estate, not to be confused with Inglenook Estate in Rutherford, was planted with vineyards in 1881. Sinegal and his team refurbished the vineyards, which are at various elevations from the valley floor up to the lower levels of the Mayacamas Mountains. Like a growing number of other new, artisanal Napa wineries producing just a few luxury wines, Sinegal Estate’s wines are available generally by mailing list only. The estate’s Cabernet Sauvignons and Cabernet Francs have impressed reviewers in their debut vintages. Robert M. Parker rated them in the mid to high-90s and noted that “These are all super-impressive wines, so consumers should get on the Sinegal bandwagon before it becomes better known.”

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,

This crisp, dry white wine hails from France but is grown in wine regions around the world. In California, it is sometimes called Fume Blanc; while in Sauternes, it is a component of their famous dessert wines.