2003 Amuse Bouche Premiere Napa Valley Auction 1X Lot No.020

Amuse Bouche was founded in 2002 when renowned Napa Valley winemaker Heidi Peterson Barrett and her friend John Schwartz decided to create a Pomerol-inspired Merlot from Napa Valley. Barrett grew up in the Napa Valley and has worked for numerous Napa Valley producers. She became a head winemaker at Buehler Vineyards at age 25, and went on to work in freelance winemaking. She was later hired as winemaker at Dalla Valle and consulted at many other wineries. In 1994 she started making La Sirena, a Sangiovese. Amuse Bouche is typically 96% Merlot and 4% Cabernet Franc. Barrett selects original artwork for each vintage’s distinctive label.

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,