1998 Verite Red Table Wine

Verite, in Sonoma County, was started by Jess Jackson in 1998. Jackson, who died in 2010, was a legend in California winemaking, having started the Kendall-Jackson label in the 1980s. Kendall-Jackson’s Chardonnay became extremely successful during the 1980s, and Jackson went on to acquire or found numerous more wineries in California and France. With Verite, he wanted to make Bordeaux style reds and he brought in French winemaker Pierre Seillan to make his Verite wines. Today Verite produces three blends that each earn high praise from reviewers. Robert M. Parker Jr. has often awarded the wines 96 to 100 pts.

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,