...offering a touch more obvious oak as well as powerful notes of crème de cassis, crushed violets, blood orange, and spice. Concentrated, full-bodied, and powerful...
Becklyn Cellars was founded by Matt and Amber Denny, an Austin, Texas, couple who dreamed of making Napa Valley wine. Based in Calistoga and sourcing grapes from Rutherford and St. Helena, the couple’s first commercial releases were a 2012 Cabernet Sauvignon and a 2013 Sauvignon Blanc. Becklyn’s winemaker is Mike Smith, who worked under star winemaker Thomas Rivers Brown before focusing on his own celebrated career. Smith and Brown continue to collaborate on the production of several prestigious labels. Only 150 cases of Becklyn wine is made annually. Becklyn is named for the Texas farm owned by Matt Denny’s parents.
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,
One of the most widely grown grape varieties, it can be found in nearly every wine growing region. A cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. It’s a hardy vine that produces a full-bodied wine with high tannins and great aging potential.