Ballentine Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

Tarragon, Black Currant, Maduro Cigar Wrapper, Green Cardamom, Milk Chocolate

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"Driving north out of the town of St. Helena, you will pass Beringer and Greystone on the left, then quickly see Markham on the right. If you do not blink, you will see the sign for their neighbor Ballentine. To emphasize how small they are, if you are driving south from Calistoga you will miss them because there is no sign. While their production is small by estate-grown Napa standards (only about 5000 cases per year), the Ballentine family is one of the oldest in the valley, a fourth generation operation growing grapes consistently for over 100 years.

The origin of this winery begins with Libero Pocai, who purchased the original sixty acres in 1906. Pocai was an immigrant from Lucca, Italy, in the heart of Tuscany, so grape growing was in his blood. He built his winery in 1913 and immediately began producing wine under the label L. Pocai and Sons. Wine was produced under this label until well into the 1940s. Almost simultaneously, John Ballentine came to America from County Tyrone, Ireland, landing in San Francisco in 1910. After the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1912, he and his wife began looking for a safer place to raise their family. In 1922 he purchased 160 acres of land in Napa Valley, replete with vineyards and a winery on the west hillside of Howell Mountain. This was the original Sutter Home Winery. He called it Ballentine’s Deer Park, after his farm in Ireland. Eventually the area would take the name Deer Park, which is also the name of the current fire raging around St. Helena and Calistoga. In 1953 two of the founders’ grandchildren, Van Ballentine and Betty Pocai, were married, uniting two of the most prominent grape growing families in the valley.

To say that winegrowing is in their DNA is something of an understatement. Both grew up in Napa Valley, Betty in Calistoga and Van in St. Helena. They were childhood friends and reunited after Betty attended school in San Francisco and Van served four years in the Navy. At the time Betty was working at Charles Krug winery as Robert Mondavi’s accountant, and Van worked as vineyard manager for the Christian Brothers estate. They have two boys: Frank, who today runs Ballentine, and Bill, who owns William Cole winery. Throughout most of their history they were growers, selling grapes to Caymus, Rombauer and Mondavi. However, in 1992, they decided to begin their own production. Eventually they grew to almost 50,000 cases, but have since shrunk production to only a tenth of that. Today, they continue to sell fruit to many of the top names in Napa, but retain what they feel are the best grapes for their own production.

Their 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon is built from grapes grown at two of their three estate vineyards: Pocai and Fig Tree. Pocai is located off Maple Lane, next to the Three Palms vineyard, and is planted on Bale soils. This alluvial soil is only found in Napa Valley, and is primarily made up of small gravel fragments. It is a low vigor site that produces grapes with great power and structure. Fig Tree vineyard lies at the northeast corner of the St. Helena AVA, on soils that are a mix of loam and gravel. Fruit from this site adds depth, complexity and texture to the final blend.

To make the 2017 vintage, longtime Ballentine winemaker Bruce Devlin uses a blend of 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Lagrein, 5% Petit Verdot, 1.5% Malbec, and 0.5% Cabernet Franc. It is aged in a combination of 60% new French barrels and 40% neutral for 18th months." - Tim Varan