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Portal:Wine/Selected winery/1Mas de Daumas Gassac is aFrenchwinery located in the wine regionLanguedoc in the southeast of France, in the commune ofAniane. The wine produced here is classified asVin de Pays de l'Hérault due to its use ofgrape varieties outside specifications of itsAOC. Despite its modest designation and location, the vineyard has received widespread acknowledgement, described by theThe Times to taste like a “Latour” and by the French magazineGault-Milau as the "Lafite Rothschild of theLanguedoc-Roussillon", it is frequently referred to as theGrand Cru of the Languedoc.
On land sold by the Daumas family to a former glove manufacturer Aimé Guibert, wines were first planted at this vineyard in 1974. Following the recommendation ofHenri Enjalbert, a professor ofGeography at theUniversity of Bordeaux, whose assessment of theterroir determined themicroclimate to be uncharacteristically favourable for cultivation of wine in such a warm region, the first vintage was produced in 1978 with the assistance of theoenologistÉmile Peynaud. Aimé Guibert has since featured in the documentary filmMondovino, stating that "wine is dead".(Full article...)
Portal:Wine/Selected winery/3Château Musar is the name of aLebanesewinery inGhazir,Lebanon, 15 miles north of the capitalBeirut. Musar grapes grow in theBeqaa Valley, a fertile sunny valley at an altitude of ca. 1,000 metres (3,300 ft), situated 25 miles east of Beirut. The winery was established by Gaston Hochar in 1930. The current proprietors are the sons, Ronald andSerge Hochar, the latter managing the estate since 1959, with Ronald Hochar assuming marketing and finance department responsibilities since 1962. The international discovery of Musar took place at the Bristol Wine Fair of 1979 when auctioneer and tasterMichael Broadbent and journalist Roger Voss selected Musar 1967 as the "discovery of the Fair".(Full article...)
Portal:Wine/Selected winery/4Bodegas Vega Sicilia is a Spanish winery located in theRibera del DueroDenominación de Origen in the north ofSpain. In 1848 aBasque landowner, Don Toribio Lecanda, met the bankrupt Marques de Valbuena and bought from him a 2,000 hectare estate, thePago de la Vega Santa Cecilia y Carrascal, in the western part of what now is the Ribera del Duero wine region. At some stage that was shortened to Vega Sicilia.
For the first 16 years, the land was used for agriculture, until Don Lecanda's son, Don Eloy Lecanda y Chaves, founded the winery in 1864. From one Monsieur Beguerié in Bordeaux he bought 18,000 young vines ofCabernet Sauvignon,Carménère,Malbec,Merlot andPinot noir. They may have made some wine at that stage, but most of the production went intobrandy andratafia. In due course Don Lecanda y Chaves went bust and the estate passed over to the Herrero family, and another Basque, Domingo Garramiola Txomin, who had trained as a winemaker at the Haro Oenological Centre. At first most of the wine was sold in bulk and – presumably – passed off asRioja. When the Rioja vineyards had recovered fromphylloxera in 1915, Garramiola turned to making estate-bottled wine. Initially this wasn't a commercial venture, but was given away to aristocratic friends and acquaintances of the Herrero family. The quality of these wines was obviously not an issue: the 1917 and 1918 wines won prizes at the1929 Barcelona International Exposition, an achievement still celebrated on the labels of all Vega Sicilia's Unico today.(Full article...)
Portal:Wine/Selected winery/5Château Cantemerle is awinery in theHaut-Médocappellation of theBordeaux wine region ofFrance, in the commune ofMacau. The wine produced here was the final estate to be classified as one of eighteenCinquièmes Crus (Fifth Growths) in theBordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855. Its absence from the classification map featured at the1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris created some controversy, even though it has been listed on all maps published after 1856. Some sources will include anasterisk next to Château Cantemerle listing in reference to this controversy. The estate has a long history in the Haut-Médoc with records detailing its existence since at least the 12th century andwine production since at least the 14th century. In the 19th century, the estate was hard hit by thephylloxera epidemic as well as grapevine attacks ofdowny mildew, after which production dropped nearly 50%. Towards the end of the 20th century, the estate was sold to French insurance groupLes Mutuelles d'Assurance du Bâtiment et des Travaux Public who have contributed significant investment in the estate's vineyards and winemaking facilities.
The status of Château Cantemerle as an original 1855 classification wine may be questioned as it was not included in the first publication of the classification, nor was it shown on the map that was displayed at the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris. Ithas been included on all listings dated 1856 and later. This was the result of an intense lobbying effort by Caroline de Villeneuve-Durfort who had supplied documentation to the brokers originally responsible for the price-based 1855 classification. Hence, its entry in the classification today is often accompanied by an asterisk denoting the only change in the classification that had occurred in more than 110 years.(Full article...)
Tenuta Dell'Ornellaia was established by Marchese Lodovico Antinori of theAntoniori family, behind one of Italy's most historic negociant firms, with the help of winemaker Tibor Gál. The property is adjacent to Tenuta San Guido. producer ofSassicaia and considered the seminal Super Tuscan, and Ornellaia was suggested to be Lodovico Antinori’s competitive answer to his cousin Nicolò Incisa’s Sassicaia and his older brother Piero Antinori’sSolaia. The vineyards of the Ornellaia estate were planted in 1981, producing the first vintage in 1985. A modern winery was built in 1987, and a second 56 hectare property was later added, Bellaria, situated north of Bolgheri.(Full article...)
Portal:Wine/Selected winery/7Dominus Estate, formerlyNapanook Vineyards, is aCalifornia wine estate producingBordeaux style blends, owned byChristian Moueix. Thewinery is located inYountville within theNapa Valley AVA.George C. Yount, the founder of Yountville, planted in 1836 the first vines of the valley on the location of Napanook vineyard. In 1850 the property was bought by Charles Hopper, and owners since include Hugh La Rue, a pioneer in the use ofrootstock and John Daniel Jr., the owner ofInglenook Winery who bought the estate in 1946.
Following Daniel's death in 1970, Napanook passed to his daughters Robin Lail and Marcia Smith who in 1982 began a partnership with Christian Moueix, acting on a recommendation byRobert Mondavi to establish production in Napa Valley. Moueix, also in charge of production atChâteau Pétrus and president ofÉtablissements Jean-Pierre Moueix, became the sole owner of Dominus Estate when Lail and Smith sold their shares in 1995. Napanook, the estate'ssecond wine, was first released in 1996.(Full article...)
Portal:Wine/Selected winery/8Alban Vineyards is aCalifornia wine estate producing variousRhône style blends andvarietal wine. Thewinery is located inEdna Valley, nearArroyo Grande in the southern corner ofSan Luis Obispo County.
Starting in 1985, John Alban planted grapes for other people until he bought an estate in 1989. With a focus on creating wines made from Rhône Valley varietals, Alban came to be a pioneer of theRhone Rangers movement, and is considered one of the most influential American Rhone producers.(Full article...)
Under the Torres brand name they trade wine based on a range of different labels, as well as brandies. Some of these are Viña Sol, Sangre de Toro, De Casta, Coronas, Atrium and Viña Esmeralda, with their best known brandies being Torres 5 and Torres 10. Many Torres wines are produced from international rather than traditional Spanish grape varieties and arevarietally labelled. The company is currently managed by the fourth generation of the Torres family.(Full article...)
Portal:Wine/Selected winery/10The Eyrie Vineyards is anAmerican winery inOregon that consists of 49 acres (20 ha) in several different vineyards in theWillamette Valley. The vineyards and winery were established by owner and winemakerDavid Lett, who produced the firstPinot gris in the United States. Against the advice of viticultural professors at theUniversity of California, Davis, Lett and his wife, Diana, moved to Oregon to plantPinot noir in 1965. They founded Eyrie Vineyards in 1966, and their first vintage was 1970.
The 1975 Eyrie Vineyards Reserve Pinot Noir won tenth place among Pinot noirs in blind tasting at theWine Olympics in 1979. Burgundy winemaker Robert Drouhin organized a re-match atMaison Joseph Drouhin inFrance. The 1975 Eyrie Vineyards Reserve won second place, losing to Drouhin's 1959Chambolle-Musigny by only two tenths of a point. Drouhin later purchased land in Oregon and builtDomaine Drouhin Oregon.
Over the years, David Lett (known locally as "Papa Pinot") maintained a light-handed style of Pinot noir that did not follow the trend toward greater flavor, tannin, and color extraction, believing color not to be an indicator of quality in Pinot Noir. This put him at odds with some of the wine critics.(Full article...)
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Inniskillin was founded by Donald Ziraldo and Karl Kaiser and saw its beginnings in 1974. Before embarking on the Innskillin project, Ziraldo was running a grapevinenursery and Karl Kaiser, a trained chemist, was a home wine maker. The first vines were planted in 1974, and since the duo had the ambition to make better-quality wines, their vineyard was planted with traditional European grape varieties, of theVitis vinifera species, chosen from those cultivated in colder European regions. Their first vineyard, of 32 acres (13 ha) was planted withRiesling,Chardonnay andGamay.(Full article...)
Portal:Wine/Selected winery/12Champagne Salon is a small producer ofChampagne made in theblanc de blancs style, and therefore made from 100%Chardonnay. Salon, along withDelamotte, is part of the Laurent-Perrier group. It is regarded as one of the most expensive Champagnes on the market.
Champagne Salon was founded by Eugène Aimé Salon in the early 20th century. Salon was convinced that the Chardonnay grapes from theLe Mesnil-sur-Oger vineyards could produce wine with favorable levels of finesse and elegance without the need to addPinot noir orPinot Meunier. Around the turn of the 20th century, Salon began producing a Chardonnay-onlycuvée that he shared privately with friends. Following Eugène Aimé Salon's death in 1943, his niece inherited the company which was eventually sold to Laurent-Perrier.(Full article...)
Portal:Wine/Selected winery/13Screaming Eagle Winery and Vineyards is aCalifornia wine estate producing limited amounts ofvarietal wine. Thewinery is located inOakville, California, north of the town ofNapa in theNapa Valley, and their product has risen to the status of "cult wine".
Jean Phillips, a former real estate agent, bought the 57 acres (23 ha) vineyard in 1986 which was planted to produce a mix of varieties, most of which Phillips sold to various Napa wineries. With all white varieties but for 1-acre (0.40 ha), approximately 80 vines ofCabernet Sauvignon, Philips sought the opinions ofRobert Mondavi Winery staffmembers on the commercial potential of her wine before hiring Richard Peterson as a consultant, and subsequently met Peterson's daughter,Heidi Peterson Barrett, who became her winemaker.(Full article...)
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The estate also produces asecond wine named Pavillon Rouge du Château Margaux, as well as a dry white wine named Pavillon Blanc du Château Margaux which does not conform to the Margaux appellation directives.
The estate has been occupied since at least the 12th century, with the site occupied by a fortified castle known as Lamothe or La Mothe (frommotte, a small rise in the land), and wine under names such as "Margou" and "Margous" was known in the 15th century.(Full article...)
Portal:Wine/Selected winery/15Sine Qua Non (also known asSQN) is aCaliforniacult winery known for itsRhône style blends, a tendency to avoid repetition, and a very limited production of wine that is highly difficulty to obtain. The winery is located inVentura County, within theCentral Coast AVA.
Founded in 1994 by Manfred Krankl and his wife Elaine to supply the restaurant Campanile, the wines have been titled with names such as Queen of Spades, Twisted & Bent, Imposter McCoy, The Bride, Poker Face and Red Handed, and the bottles come uncommonly shaped with distinctive labels featuring own artwork.(Full article...)
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Records date the estate's origins to the 18th century, and connect them to Jean Saint-Marc du Latourblanche, treasurer-general toLouis XIV. Following theFrench Revolution, the estate was owned by Pierre Pécherie, but a later owner, the German Frederic Focke raised the reputation of the winery, and was for a period credited with bringing the tradition of sweet white wine to Sauternes from his Rhine origins. After the rewarding outcome of the 1855 Classification and Focke's death, the estate was eventually acquired by Daniel "Osiris" Iffla who among several patrotic acts, left in his testament La Tour Blanche to the State upon his death in 1907, on the condition it would become an agricultural college. From 1911, the La Tour Blanche School of Viticulture and Oenology has been responsible for education and training of wine industry professionals, as well as running La Tour Blanche as a classed winery.(Full article...)
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In the 1980s, Kendall-Jackson rejected theCalifornia wine industry's trend toward vineyard-specificwine labeling. It ignored the concept ofterroir in favor of blending wines from different regions to achieve desiredwine characteristics. Jackson Family Wines is now a large and growing wine empire that owns many successful brands.
Their investments in wine have reached beyond US borders, now owning wineries in Italy (Tenuta di Arceno), France (Château Lassègue), Australia (Yangarra Estate Vineyards), and Chile (Viña Calina).(Full article...)
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The winery was founded by Jeff and Mary Stai, and opened in 2001. The Stais hired Scott Klann, a native ofMurphys, who had over a decade of experience in the Calaveras County wine industry, as Twisted Oak's firstwinemaker. The original 10 acre (4 ha) vineyard on the 120 acre (48.5 ha) property was planted toTempranillo,Grenache, andGraciano, grape varieties native to the Mediterranean regions ofFrance,Spain andPortugal. The decision to plantIberian grape varieties, uncommon in California, was in part due to a dinner that Stai and Klann attended at aSpanish restaurant in which they tried manySpanish wines that impressed them.
The winery's first vintage was 2002, when they produced 10 different wines, all made from purchased grapes. The wines were produced in a customcrush facility at theOlde Lockeford Winery in the town ofLockeford, California. The first vintage began a tradition of naming wines with exclusively non-alphabetic symbols (in a style often used to replaceprofane words in writtenEnglish), such as the *%#&@!, a red blend ofMourvedre,Syrah, andGrenache grapes, and the %@#$!, a white wine made ofMarsanne andRoussanne grapes (introduced two years later). The unusual wine names were inspired from the owner and winemaker's frustration at being unable to come up with a good name for the red blend. The unique wine labels have been the subject ofdoctoralresearch incommunications.(Full article...)
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Penfold was a believer in the medicinal benefits of wine and before emigrating to Australia, obtained some vine cuttings fromFrance. Arriving in Australia, he set up in practice at Magill on the eastern outskirts ofAdelaide, South Australia and planted vines around his stone cottage which he called The Grange after his wife, Mary's, former home. Initially, Penfold produced fortified wines, for his patients in the style ofsherry andport. As demand for the wines increased the winery was expanded.
Mary Penfold assumed the running of the winery after the death of her husband in 1870. After Mary retired in 1884 her daughter Georgina and son-in-law Thomas Hyland took over the day to day running of the winery. The Penfold family continued to operate the business very successfully and although the company became public in 1962 the Penfold family remained in control until 1976.
During the 1940s and 1950s the company changed its focus to table wines to accommodate changing tastes. This led to experiments by Penfolds' chief winemaker,Max Schubert which would eventually lead to the production of Penfolds' and Australia's most famous wine,Grange Hermitage, later renamed simply Grange.
Control of Penfolds passed to Tooth & Co, abrewer based inNew South Wales in 1976, to the Adelaide Steamship Co in 1982 and then in 1990 to S.A.Brewing which became part of Southcorp, an Australian conglomerate. Since 2005, the Southcorp wine brands and wineries have been owned by theFoster's Group. Penfolds currently operates two wineries; atMagill, near Adelaide and atNuriootpa in theBarossa Valley.(Full article...)
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In 2002, Proprietors Evelyn & Chris Campbell bought the 2 year old 17-hectare Prpich Hills Winery on the road between Okanagan Falls and Penticton. The property once housed a wooden church. In 1929, the church was dismantled, via a controlleddynamite explosion which loosened the nails, and reassembled in the center of Okanagan Falls where it now stands. The transformation or Prpich Hills in Blasted Church started with creative label redesigns byVancouver designer Bernie Hadley-Beauregard of the design firm Brandever.
Blasted Church's first winemaker, Frank Supernak, died unexpectedly during the first harvest, prompting many other local vintners to assist the Campbell family in completing the production of finished wine. The images of these winemakers now adorn the bottle labels at Blasted Church. In 2004, Blasted Church became the first Okanagan vintners to produce all of their wines with screw-top bottle caps.(Full article...)
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Groot Constantia was established in1684 by theVOC Governor of the Cape of Good HopeSimon van der Stel, and was used to producewine as well as other fruit and vegetables and cattle farming. Following Van der Stel's death in 1712 the estate was broken up and sold in three parts.
In1778 the portion of the estate surrounding Van der Stel's Cape Dutch-style manor house was sold to the Cloete family, who planted extensive vineyards and extended and improved the mansion by commissioning the architectThibault. The house remained in the possession of the Cloete family until 1885, during which period the estate became famous for its production ofConstantia dessert wine.
In1885 Groot Constantia was purchased by the government of theCape of Good Hope and was used as an experimental wine and agricultural estate. Following a disastrous fire in 1925 the house was extensively restored. In1969 the manor house became part of the South African Cultural History Museum, and in 1993 the estate passed into the ownership of the Groot Constantia Trust. The exhibition in the house is managed by Museums of Cape Town, and is particularly focused on ruralslavery and the life of slaves during the early Cape colonial period.(Full article...)
Portal:Wine/Selected winery/22Abreu Vineyards is acult winery inNapa Valley,California founded by well-knownviticulturist David Abreu.
David Abreu, a third-generationrancher fromSt. Helena, California and graduate of theViticulture and Enology program atUC Davis, founded Abreu Vineyards in1980 after working briefly at Caymus Vineyards. That year he formed David Abreu Vineyard Management, working with pioneeringwinemakerRichard Forman to manage ranching operations atInglenook Winery.
Abreu and Forman became friends and traveled frequently toBordeaux, where they observed French winemaking operations. They brought back Frenchrootstock,trellis designs, andBordelais planting andfarming techniques.
Abreu's fame spread as Other wineries hired Abreu's company to plant and manage ranching operations. By 1999 he was considered the premier viticulturist for premium grapes in Napa Valley. Abreu's company has raised grapes for some of the most respected wineries in Napa andSonoma Valleys, and in 2006 Abreu was hired to replant vineyards atScreaming Eagle Winery and Vineyards.
Wine criticRobert M. Parker, Jr. included Abreu in his 1998 list of the "most influential wine personalities of the last 20 years."(Full article...)
Portal:Wine/Selected winery/23Orlando Wines is a famousAustralianwinery located in the small township ofRowland Flat, betweenLyndoch andTanunda, inSouth Australia'sBarossa Valleywine-growing region. Orlando Wines was the valley's first commercial winery. It is currently part ofPernod Ricard Pacific, a wholly ownedsubsidiary ofPernod Ricard. It is best known as the producer ofJacob's Creek, Orlando's main wine brand, which was first released in 1976.
In 1847Bavarian immigrant Johann Gramp planted his first grape vines on the banks of the then recently namedJacob's Creek. The vines flourished and led to the production of their first vintage in 1850, making around 12 dozen bottles ofhock style white wine from one small octavebarrel.
The winery now produces some of Australia's most successful export wines, with some 80% of sales being made in 50+ export markets and having the leading brand in the UK, New Zealand and Asia. Orlando Wines was named Australian Exporter of the Year in 1993 and won the Maurice O'Shea Award in 1994.
A modern visitor's centre andwine tasting cellar, known as the Jacob's Creek Visitor's Centre, was opened in 2002, at which time atime capsule was buried to be opened in 2027.(Full article...)
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In 1882, entrepreneur Alfred Loving Tubbs bought 254 acres of land just north ofCalistoga at the foot ofMount Saint Helena. Tubbs had made a fortune from the rope business during the Gold Rush, and knew the area from visits to the White Sulphur Springs Resort nearby. He planted vines, and by 1896 Chateau Montelena was the seventh largest winery in the Napa Valley.
However, winemaking ceased at the Chateau with the onset ofProhibition in the United States and afterwards the Tubbs sold grapes but did not make wine.
In 1958 the Tubbs family sold the Chateau to Yort Wing Frank, aChineseelectrical engineer, and his wife Jeanie, who were looking for a retirement home. The Franks created a garden in the style of their homeland, and excavated Jade Lake.
In 1968, Lee and Helen Paschich bought the property, and brought in as partners lawyer James L. Barrett and property developer Earnest Hahn.Jim Barrett replanted thevineyard and installed winemaking equipment in the historic buildings and it began producing wines again in 1972.
Four years later, the Chateau Montelena Chardonnay 1973 won first place in theJudgment of Paris. A bottle of that vintage is in theSmithsonian National Museum of American History.(Full article...)