Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: The Best Wineries
If you are a wine connoisseur, you know that Napa Valley is known for producing beautiful Cabernet Sauvignon wines. With over 400 vineyards, there is no short supply of choices for where to find the Cabernet Sauvignon that your palate appreciates. If you don’t know a Cabernet from a Merlot, Napa is the premier place for wineries and wine tasting in America. The Cabernet Sauvignon is the most popular wine for American wine drinkers.
Cabernet Sauvignon History
The history of the Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is an interesting one,The Cabernet Sauvignon grape was a happy accident in southwestern France in the seventeenth century. Why a happy accident? The Cabernet Sauvignon is the product of unintentional breeding between a red Cabernet Franc grape and a white Sauvignon Blanc grape. The pairing resulted in the red grape with thick, durable skin known as Cabernet Sauvignon.
Winemakers looking for plants with durability and healthy tannin levels soon began to adopt the Cabernet Sauvignon grape for their winemaking efforts. The grape proved to be relatively easy to grow, and the region of Bordeaux began to champion the use of the grape for its ability to continue evolving once it’s bottled into wine. Those same Bordeaux winemakers also realized that the Cabernet Sauvignon grape responds well to time in oak, bringing out the full-bodied flavor and a medium acidity level. These properties make Cabernet Sauvignon an excellent wine to pair with food.
The Cabernet Sauvignon is one-half of the blend that has become known as the most famous wine blend the world over, the Bordeaux. As Bordeaux became more popular, the Cabernet Sauvignon grape became the most widely planted grape worldwide. In Napa Valley, vintners appreciate the Cabernet Sauvignon for the dark, full-bodied, dry wine that it produces.
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Wineries
Napa Valley Wineries are famous for their Cabernet Sauvignon. Like any wine-growing region, Napa has good and bad years for wine production. Some years, the vintners are simply at the mercy of Mother Nature, and others, they utilize all the skills they have developed to create products that are near perfection.
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars is a well-known winery in Napa Valley founded in 1970. In 1976, the winery leaped to international renown when its Cabernet Sauvignon beat French wineries in a blind taste test. To this day, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars is lauded for its Cabernet offerings.
If you’re looking for one of the oldest family-owned estates in Napa Valley, you’ll find that at Larkmead estate, founded in 1895. Cam and Kate Solari Baker purchased the property in 1992 and have since transformed the estate into a winery with impressive, elegant cabernets.
These are only two of the more than 400 vineyards in the Napa Valley. Many wineries offer tastings of their products, and that is the best way to determine which winery produces the Cabernet Sauvignon best suited to your palette.
The Takeaway
Napa Valley is home to more than 400 vineyards. The Valley is famous for producing the best Cabernet Sauvignon wines worldwide. One of the best family-owned wineries in Napa is ELLMAN wine. The ELLMAN family has worked with winemaker Andy Erickson for years, perfecting one of the more pristine Napa Valley Cabernets. As one of the most beautiful wineries in Napa, the ELLMAN Family Vineyard is a must-visit. With Downtown Napa tasting rooms to try the wine for yourself, ELLMAN does it all. You can become a member on this page to Ellevate Your Cellar, or you can learn more about us here to get started.