The Clos Du Val winery is located between Napa and St Helena on the Silverado Trail wine route in California's Napa Valley. It was founded in 1972 by the entrepreneurial couple John and Henrietta Goelet. They had commissioned Bernard Portet (son of the former managing director of Château Lafite-Rothschild), a native of the Médoc, to search the entire world outside France for a suitable location for a winery. He literally travelled the world, searching in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile (where he met his wife), Argentina and the western United States. Finally, after two years in California, he found what he was looking for in the then still relatively unknown Napa Valley.
As a young winemaker at the time, Portet's aim was to make a velvety, fruity red wine from Cabernet Sauvignon in the Bordeaux style, which would be deliberately different from the Californian wines of the time, which had a strong emphasis on oak. At the legendary Paris Wine Tasting in 1976, the first vintage "Cabernet Sauvignon 1972" took eighth place. At a repeat of the competition in 1986, it even took first place and fifth place at the anniversary competition in 2006.
The vineyards cover 90 hectares of vines in the Napa Valley AVA areas of Stags Leap District (including the 48-hectare founding vineyard), Yountville and Los Carneros. They are planted with the red wine varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Petit Verdot, Malbec (Cot), Sangiovese and Zinfandel, as well as the white wine varieties Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon. The wines are produced in the four lines Classic, Estate, Reserve and Library. The family also owns the Australian winery Taltarni. The business is now run by the six grandchildren of John and Henrietta Goelet, including Olav Goelet. Carmel Greenberg is responsible as winemaker.
Building: by Jim G - Flickr: Clos du Val Winery, Napa Valley, California, USA, CC BY 2.0, Link
Logo: Clos du Val Winery
