2016 Wheeler Farms Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley 750 ml

If You Love Duckhorn or Groth Sauvignon Blanc You’ll Love This

In 2012, Bart and Daphne Araujo sold Araujo Estate Wines and their coveted Eisele Vineyard to the owner of Château Latour, closing a chapter in one of the greatest success stories in Napa Valley history. Calling it “a formidably run winery dedicated to producing exceptionally high quality wines,” Robert Parker advised in one of his six 98-99 point reviews: “Readers should try and get on the mailing list, or at least on the waiting list for the mailing list!”

With their new project, Wheeler Farms—home to a custom-crush facility used by elite partners like TOR—the Araujos are hearkening to the Napa wines of the 1960s and 70s that originally inspired them. Exhibit A is this stunning debut 2016 Wheeler Farms Sauvignon Blanc, which is mouthwateringly crisp, and packed with refreshing grapefruit flavors, touched with lychee—“an excellent choice for drinking now and over the next few years,” says Antonio Galloni. If you like Duckhorn, Groth, and Spottswoode Sauvignon Blanc, you'll adore this. Just $26.99 on cases.

The plan was not to start a new winery. Over the years, Bart and Daphne Araujo had plenty of suitors calling, offering ever-greater sums of money for their legendary vineyard and Calistoga estate, which earned a place in Robert Parker’s book, The World’s Greatest Wine Estates. Wine Spectator’s James Laube named them the maker of one of the top nine cult wines in the Napa Valley. But when an offer came in from Francois Pinaut, the billionaire owner of Bordeaux First-Growth Château Latour, they knew they had finally found the right team to take that project to the next stage.

After selling, Bart and Daphne planned to make wine, but not to create a new winery. What else was there to accomplish? But then they heard about a property for sale, the beloved old Wheeler Farms Winery, which dated back to 1880 and already had all the right permits. Seeing new potential, the couple did an about-face and embarked on building a spectacular state-of-the-art facility that reflected every lesson learned and wish fulfilled from their 20 years at Araujo. When they thought about the kind of wines they wanted to make, they recalled the great Inglenooks and Mondavi Reserves of the early 1970s. Bart and Daphne had produced some of California’s most stunning single-vineyard releases off their Eisele Vineyard, often likened to a Napa Grand Cru. Now, like those early inspirations, they wanted to focus on the art of sourcing fruit from a range of excellent sites.

The fruit for this Sauvignon Blanc hails from some of the Araujos’ favorite plots throughout Rutherford. They chose a brilliant year to debut their Sauvignon Blanc as critics added 2016 to the list of the region’s truly exceptional recent vintages. Fruit throughout Napa was clean and immaculate, looking throughout a hot summer to promise a historically early harvest until a cool, moist August slowed things down, extending hangtime as rich exotic fruit concentration gathered in the tiny, dense berries. The result is a wine as crisp as a Sancerre but infused with opulent New World stone fruit and guava. For an under-$30 wine from Napa’s cult winemaking duo, this has must-buy written all over it.