Napa Valley visionary Robert Mondavi’s many accomplishments include founding the region’s first new winery after Prohibition, being named the American Wine Society’s Winemaker of the Year in 1982, and being inducted into the California Hall of Fame. In 1996, he even carried the Olympic torch through the streets of Napa in the run-up to the […]
At the 2000 Auction Napa Valley, a 6-liter Imperial bottle of 1992 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon sold for $500,000. And that’s not the most remarkable thing about the sale. Normally, when wines fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction, they’re European, ultra-rare, and extremely old. That this deep-pocketed bidder was willing to spend half […]
High in the Mayacamas Mountains that divide Napa and Sonoma, somewhere close to the summit of Mount Veeder, sits one Napa’s oldest and most prestigious wineries, Mayacamas Vineyards. Constructed in 1889 by German immigrant John Henry Fisher, who built the property using stones gathered around the estate, grapes have grown continuously at Mayacamas since the […]
Often referred to as Napa’s “first growth” vineyard, To-Kalon is the region’s — and arguably California’s — most important grape-growing real estate. Planted on well-draining, gravelly soils in the Oakville AVA, vines must search deep underground for water, creating stress ideal for grapes to ripen. To-Kalon provides optimal growing conditions for Cabernet Sauvignon, which is […]
With skyrocketing sales and tireless marketing, rosé is a 21st-century American success story. Previous generations of star-spangled wine consumers dismissed it as too French, too gendered, or too reminiscent of black-sheep White Zinfandel. Of course that’s all grainy, black-and-white history now. In our rosy-hued present, pink wines have come to symbolize “all that is good about […]
Among a pantheon of seemingly overnight, 21st-century sensations (Cardi B, Instant Pot) lies Meiomi, a 12-year-old California label with $315 million in the bank. Boosted by chart-topping national appetites for Pinot Noir, Meiomi is now a wildly popular label with its fair share of detractors. Love it or hate it, you should know about it. Here […]
Love doesn’t come in a bottle. Luckily, wine does. For the couple whose favorite pastime is sipping and sampling together, it makes perfect sense to get married at a winery. Not only is the scenery gorgeous, it’s near-impossible to run out of varieties to taste, pairings to create, and bottles to uncork. These eight wineries […]
The sky is a murky navy, outlined only by the jagged edges of California’s Mayacama and Vaca Mountains, as I head out to Stagecoach Vineyard on a chilly morning. There’s a surprising amount of traffic on Highway 29 at 5:00 a.m., which means one thing: It’s harvest. On the valley floor lies a sleeping giant […]
There are more than 70 countries worldwide producing wine. Historically, 90 percent of the world’s wine came from 15 countries, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. To understand the global spectrum, we analyzed data from Wine-Searcher.com and compiled the most expensive wine from every country. From the Old World usual suspects, to […]
