2008 Quixote Stags' Leap Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon (Screwcap)

Quixote Winery’s history is made for the movies, or at least a page turner of a novel. It was founded by Carl Doumani, a long time fixture in the Napa Valley wine industry. A one-time Los Angeles restaurateur who bought Napa Valley land in the early 1970s as a getaway spot for his family, he was introduced to the wine business in 1971 when Robert Mondavi offered to buy some of the grapes growing on Doumani’s property. Doumani went on to found Stags’ Leap Winery, which he sold to Beringer Wine Estates in 1997. Doumani’s Stags’ Leap Winery was of course not the Stag’s Leap Winery founded by Warren Winiarski, and two fought each other in court over the name for years. Named for the literary hero Don Quixote and his idealistic quests, Quixote Winery is a 27-acre Stags Leap district estate designed on the aesthetic principles of an environmentally-minded 20th century Viennese designer who preferred curves to straight lines. Though the building is eccentric Quixote’s wines earn praise, especially the Petite Sirah. The estate also makes Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec. Aaron Pott is consulting winemaker, and Damon Bailey is winemaker. In 2014 Doumani sold Quixote to the Yatai Group of China.

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.