2019 G.B. Crane Disciples

The Crane Assembly is a partnership between four friends who bought the historic eight-acre George Beldon Crane Vineyard in south St. Helena in 2012. The owners have records indicating that G.B. Crane planted grapes on the site in 1885, planting a mix of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Carignan and others. Four vineyard acres are Crane’s original plantings, making the vines some of the oldest in region. Two of the owners are winemakers Dave Phinney and Kevin Fox. Phinney is the tradition-defying winemaker/entrepreneur behind Orin Swift Cellars and The Prisoner, and Fox worked as an assistant winemaker to Phinney. Today Fox makes the G.B. Crane wines, which are generally Cabernet Sauvignon blends or blends of Zinfandel, Charbono, Grenache and other deep red grapes. Such non-Cabernet based blends are referred to as “field blends” or “mixed blacks,” and they harken back to 19th California winemaking, when field blends were common. G.B. Crane wines have earned high compliments from reviewers and are generally available only through a mailing list.

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,

Bottled by Natural Selections.