External search
Google (images)
Wine Advocate
Wine Spectator
Burghound
Wine-Searcher
Vintages
2016
2013
From this producer
Show all wines
All tasting notes
|
| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: not specified |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 89 pts. and median of 89 pts. in 2 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by kkdlam on 12/22/2015: No fruit left in this bottle. Still has high acid but the fruit is gone. Best drink the rest of the bottle. (737 views) |
| W.H. Smith Producer website
We’ve gone or come a long way!
Bill purchased the old ghost winery, La Jota Vineyard Co. in 1974 and here we are 39 years later…
Bill and Joan look back and wonder where did the years go, so many wonderful experiences and so much has changed in the wine business. In 1974 the Napa Valley had few wineries and there was no traffic to contend with! The winery owners and winemakers knew one another, there weren’t many to know.
The Smith’s resurrected the La Jota winery and planted Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Zinfandel. The first vintage was 1982, and the price was $14 a bottle and that was expensive! The production grew to 4000 cases and the winery sold in 2001 to Markham Vineyards and it is now owned by Kendall Jackson.
Bill and Joan moved down the road and began a new winery. An underground cave of 4,500 square feet. They have 7 acres planted in the Bordeaux varietals from which they produce 700 to 1000 cases of two different Cabernets. The Purple Label is their top tier Cabernet. Both the Bronze and Purple have richness and depth. Both wines are made the same except the Purple gets new French oak.
Pinot Noir is a favorite varietal and Bill looks to cool growing vineyards in the Sonoma Coast appellation when selecting fruit. They produce 4 to 5 Pinot Noirs and each are distinct.
The goal of the Smith’s is to produce wines that are less tannic and drinkable earlier.
Sauvignon Blanc Varietal CharacterUSAAmerican wine has been produced since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84% of all U.S. wine. The continent of North America is home to several native species of grape, including Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpina, but the wine-making industry is based almost entirely on the cultivation of the European Vitis vinifera, which was introduced by European settlers. With more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine, the United States is the fourth-largest wine producing country in the world, after Italy, Spain, and France.California2021 vintage: "Unlike almost all other areas of the state, the Russian River Valley had higher than normal crops in 2021, which has made for a wine of greater generosity and fruit forwardness than some of its stablemates." - Morgan Twain-Peterson Napa Valley Napa Valley Wineries and Wine (Napa Valley Vintners)Napa ValleySt. Helena |
|
