2018 Arnot-Roberts Vare Vineyard Ribolla Gialla Napa Valley 750 ml

Ribolla Gialla might be Friuli’s flagship grape, but this sensational Napa Valley version from Arnot-Roberts plants a flag all its own, giving even its most hallowed Italian cousins a run for their euros. As zippy and light as a ballerina, and with all the same electrifying poise, this 2018 Vare Vineyard Ribolla Gialla makes it easy to see why Arnot-Roberts is the ultimate embodiment of California cool.  

Arnot-Roberts has earned innumerable plaudits for revolutionizing what’s possible with California terroir. The New York Times has recommended the label’s “superb wines of balance and restraint” on numerous occasions, the Wall Street Journal has hailed its winemakers as “Napa's Retro Dudes,” while the San Francisco Chronicle crowned them “Winemakers of the Year,” for redefining California's new era of wine.

They were the first to make a varietally labeled Ribolla Gialla in the US, and their command over the grape remains as impressive as ever with this 2018:

It immediately seduces with aromas of jasmine and chamomile while stone fruit and citrus notes carry through all the way to the palate. Lively and bright, there is still an intellectual seriousness that adds gravitas to its juicy acidity. Fresh cut nectarine feels intensified by hints of Buddha's hand citrus and layers of mineral components that impart a thrilling zing with every sip. 

Fermented in stainless steel and aged for ten months in neutral French oak, this 2018 Ribolla Gialla is as expressive and zesty now as it is built for the cellar where it will continue to evolve beautifully for years to come. 

Such a vibrant, unforgettable wine could only come from a vineyard as iconic as the one George Vare planted in the gravelly clay-loam soils at the eastern base of the Mayacamas Range in 2001, with suitcase cuttings he smuggled from Friuli’s legendary Josko Gravner—the vintner who famously put Ribolla Gialla on the map after his wines “reached epic cult status among wine intelligentsia,” according to the Wine Advocate. The site benefits from early afternoon shading, while daytime temperatures are moderated by proximity to the adjacent redwood forested slopes of Mount Veeder.

2001 was the same year as Arnot-Roberts’ founding in northern Sonoma by childhood friends Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Lee Roberts, whose similar burly builds and closely shaved heads make them hard to tell apart for the uninitiated. Their single-vineyard bottlings, on the other hand, are unmistakably distinct, and have become iconic symbols of the next generation of California wine. Duncan and Nathan’s focus on site transparency and low intervention winemaking is the reason wines like this Ribolla Gialla are able to shine with such purity.

Designed by Roberts’ late grandmother Margrit Mondavi (Robert Mondavi's widow) Arnot-Roberts has one of those unmistakable, minimalist labels that immediately puts us at ease when we walk into a new bistro. Our entire wine team agrees that seeing it on the shelf has become a kind of bellwether for great taste—having Arnot-Roberts on the menu has become almost like an unwritten litmus test for any hot new wine bar or restaurant expecting to make the “it” list. 

If that iconic label is in sight at least we know we’re in good hands. And with this extremely limited, hard-to-find 2018 Ribolla Gialla, you can have the same confidence that you’ll never be without a showstopping white wine that will continue to impress for years to come.