2001 Stewart Cabernet Sauvignon

Stewart Cellars was founded in 2000 by Michael Stewart, who built a career in technology in Texas before buying property in Napa Valley. Stewart runs the estate with his wife and adult children, and the consulting winemaker is Paul Hobbs, a much-admired winemaker who founded his own winery and consults throughout the world. Grapes are sourced from some of the area’s premium vineyards, including Las Piedras, Stagecoach and Ross Station, in the Russian River Valley. Stewart makes Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Robert M. Parker Jr. has called Stewart Cellars a “small, high quality boutique producer” making “Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from the Russian River area as well as some exceptionally fine Cabernet Sauvignon from various vineyards in Napa.” He has rated the wines in the low to mid-90s.

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.