2021 Eisele Vineyard Altagracia Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 750 ml

When talking about important Napa parcels, it’s wise to start with Eisele Vineyard. 

When it was first converted to agriculture in the 1840s, Eisele was mostly used for pasturing cattle and horses and growing wheat, complete with on-site gristmill. But in 1884 vines were planted here and the future—not just of this plot of land, but of Napa Valley—was altered.

Then came the modern era for the estate, with Milt & Barbara Eisele purchasing it in the ‘60s, giving it their name, and converting it to Cabernet Sauvignon. The Eisele name would start appearing on Ridge bottles shortly thereafter, when Paul Draper made it just the third vineyard-designated Cabernet bottled in Napa. Conn Creek and Joseph Phelps followed, until another couple bought the property and decided to estate-bottle.

Daphne and Bart Araujo made their name in the world of wine by the careful attention they gave to the farming here and to the wines they were able to make as a result. Tipped off about the estate by the founder of Screaming Eagle, it was the Araujos who converted the estate first to organic farming, then upped the ante again by integrating biodynamics. Today the Eisele Vineyard (as it is now called) is under the capable stewardship of Groupe Artémis, which also owns Château-Grillet, Clos de Tart, Domaine d’Eugénie, and Château Latour in France. Grands Crus all around, and Eisele Vineyard is right at home in the mix.

Altagracia, named after Bart Araujo’s grandmother, is produced primarily from the eastern blocks of the vineyard, complemented with fruit from long-standing contracts in Napa. It’s a spectacular bottle from one of the most revered sites in Napa Valley.