Wine region
Napa Valley
Napa Valley in California: Cabernet Sauvignon from Oakville and Rutherford, the AVA system and the win at the 1976 Judgement of Paris.
- Vineyard area
- about 18,000 to 19,000 hectares, more than all Swiss vineyards together
- Main grapes
- Cabernet Sauvignon (by far), Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc
- Climate
- Mediterranean: hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters; fog from San Pablo Bay cools the south
- Signature wines
- Cabernet Sauvignon and Bordeaux blends from Oakville, Rutherford and Stags Leap District; Chardonnay
- Milestone
- Judgement of Paris on 24 May 1976; AVA status since 1981
Napa Valley is a narrow valley north of San Francisco Bay: about 50 kilometres long and only a few kilometres wide at its widest, between the Mayacamas Mountains to the west and the Vaca Mountains to the east. Some 18,000 to 19,000 hectares of vines stand here, more than all Swiss vineyards together (about 14,500 hectares), but only about a sixth of the vineyard area of Bordeaux. The climate is Mediterranean: hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. From the south, where San Pablo Bay reaches inland, fog and cool air move in, so the south is clearly cooler than the sheltered north near Calistoga. The soils change too: sediments from the bay in the south, volcanic ash and lava in the north.
Napa Valley is also a textbook case of the American system of origin. An AVA, American Viticultural Area, is an area drawn on the map with its own geographical features; it says nothing about quality and prescribes neither varieties nor yields, unlike the European appellations. Under federal law at least 85 per cent of the grapes must come from the AVA named, and a grape name requires at least 75 per cent of that variety. Napa Valley has been an AVA since 1981 and today contains more than a dozen smaller AVAs, among them Oakville, Rutherford and Stags Leap District.
Cabernet Sauvignon is by far the main variety, complemented by Merlot and Cabernet Franc for blends in the Bordeaux manner. The heart lies in the middle of the valley, on the valley floor around Oakville and Rutherford, two neighbouring AVAs that were both recognised in 1993. The soils there are alluvial gravels and loams with good drainage, the wines dense, powerful and deeply coloured, often with 14 per cent alcohol or more. In Rutherford, connoisseurs speak of “Rutherford dust”, a note of fine, powdery tannin; Oakville holds, among others, the To Kalon vineyard, whose beginnings go back to the late 1860s.
The valley became world-famous through the Judgement of Paris. On 24 May 1976 the British wine merchant Steven Spurrier had French tasters assess Californian and French wines blind in Paris. Among the reds the 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars won, among the whites the 1973 Chardonnay from Château Montelena, both from Napa Valley, ahead of famous wines from Bordeaux and Burgundy. The event is regarded as the moment California was recognised as a wine country of world rank.
What to drink: Cabernet Sauvignon with steak, grilled lamb and mature hard cheese; a Chardonnay from the cooler south with poultry and fish in cream sauce. Napa wines are often fuller and fruitier in style than a Bordeaux.