Heritance 2013 Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley California

After decades of winemaking, Heritance’s Bernard Portet is an icon around Napa. And for good reasons, too. The 9th generation of a family of winemakers, dating back to 1668, Bernard has a reputation for combining Old World wisdom, New World technique, and his own ingenious methods to create elegant, delightful wines.

This Sauvignon Blanc perfectly demonstrates Portet’s skill. Most winemakers prefer to work with grapes from only a few different areas. Differences in climate, soil, and irrigation have a noticeable affect on the grapes, and, for that reason, blending Sauvignon Blanc grapes from one region with Sauvignon Blanc grapes from another can be tricky in terms of building flavor. Portet, however, sourced the grapes from a number of different vineyards throughout the Napa Valley, using his deep knowledge of viticulture to understand how the varied conditions would affect the fruit. Then, he slow fermented the grapes in stainless steel to soften the relatively high acidity of Sauvignon Blanc and allow the flavors to meld together. The result is a wine of rich, subtle complexity that is greater than the sum of its parts.

In the nose, aromas of lemon, pineapple, and tropical fruits dominate, rounded out by playful hints of orange blossom. In the mouth, good acidity and crispness are instantly evident with fresh flavors of melon and Asian pear and round out the wine with a smooth, lingering finish.