Tending toward lime and lemongrass notes, along with lemon pith and orange shortbread, this wine has a pleasant mid palate, and an overall sunny disposition, again with that line of minerality and saline- this one more from the proximity to the bay than the soil.
The Albariño was hand-picked on September 17th, whole-cluster pressed and fermented with native yeast, and allowed to complete secondary fermentation. The wine then aged on its lees for six months in neutral oak before bottling.
54 cases produced.
2019 Etxea Napa Albariño
$30.00
The first commercial Albariño planted in the United States, this planting was a collaboration between the Stewart Family and Michael Havens. There were likely experimental blocks somewhere, and Davis would have had to cultivate it first, but the fact that as recently as 1997 we didn’t have Albariño in this country just blows my mind. According the California grape report, in 2020 there were about 560 acres around the state. Albariño is finding homes in climates ranging from cool and coastal to high and dry, and seems to thrive in all of them, leading me to suspect we are just seeing the beginning of the potential of this awesome wine in California.
This vineyard is on the corner of 29 as you come into Napa Valley from the south. If you are familiar with the area, it is across the highway from the Oreo Cows. It is the lowest lying vineyard in Napa, at just 6 feet (the high tide line clocks in at 8 feet). These three acres of Albariño are surrounded on three sides by a wildlife estuary and the Napa River on the fourth side.