The Dominus estate belongs to the class of Napa Valley cult classics who've built their reputation on showcasing their ability to take a page out of the Bordeaux winemaking book, execute it in the New World, and more often than is comfortable for the French, demonstrate that they can produce wines at least on par, or if not better than their Old world predecessors.

And yet at the same time Dominus can't be said to be completely devoid of an Old World connection, after all, it was raised within the highly esteemed Moueix stable - the same one of Petrus fame, as well as other veritable vineyards ranging from Pomerol to St. Emilion, France.

Napanook Is Pretty Much Synonymous With Napa Valley

But let's go back to the very beginning. Before taking on the very resolute-sounding name "Dominus", the estate was first known as the Napanook vineyard. The Napanook vineyard was very much inextricably linked to the history of California's Napa Valley. The area was first planted in the 1830's by a George C. Yount, the very person for whom the Yountville city was named after. Yount was a prolific businessman who had established ranches in the area, and was friendly with the Mexicans of the time, and as such acquired a substantial bit of property in Napa Valley.

The Napanook vineyard would over the years come under the charge of several owners, one such person being Hugh La Rue, who was pioneering in his use of resilient rootstocks for his vines, and another being John Daniel Jr, who had also owned another notable Californian vineyard, the Inglenook Winery (which would at one point be owned by the famed Godfather film director Francis Ford Coppola).

Christian Moueix.

Napanook Becomes Dominus, And Joins The Moueix Family

Nevertheless upon the death of Daniel in 1970, the Napanook vineyard would be passed on to his daughters Robin Lail and Marcia Smith. Now just a decade prior, Christian Moueix, the son of Jean-Pierre Moueix who had helped established Pomerol's Chateau Petrus, had been studying in California, and had grown to hold a great love for Napa Valley and its wines. Upon graduating, he had returned to France to help take over the family's vineyards, all the whilst with Napa Valley on his mind. He would encounter one of Napa Valley's legends, Robert Mondavi, and upon his encouragement to get more involved with the fast developing scene in California, would strike up a partnership with Robin and Marcia in 1982. He would eventually fully take over ownership of the Napanook vineyard by 1995.

Dominus Estate's winery.

Under Moueix, much of the winemaking expertise from the family's French vineyards would be exported to the newly renamed Dominus, and much investment was put into the Napa Valley winery to upgrade its facilities, most notably having built its current state of the art winery. The winery was uniquely constructed with stone filled cages that was specially devised to help protect the wines from the scorching daytime heat and just as well the freezing cold of the night.

A closer look.

Into The Vineyards And Cellars Of Dominus

Today the Dominus estate is 50 hectares wide, with 44 hectares of which planted with vines in 14 blocks. In its vineyards, interestingly, some of its vines are specially planted with Phylloxera-resistant St. George rootstock that came from Inglenook, and are spread across 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petit Verdot, and 5% Cabernet Franc - they average 15- 25 years of age. The estate's soils are characterised by a blend of 3 unique soil types - volcanic soil, clay and loam, on what is termed a rolling terroir. Dominus' wines' elegance is therefore often attributed to this unique mix of soil types.

Dominus shares much of its vineyard management practices with Moueix' French estates. Crop-thinning, green harvesting and canopy management are all applied across the Moueix properties. In the cellars, wines from Dominus are aged for 18 months in 50% new French oak barrels.

A Second Wine That's Really First

Today we'll be trying Dominus' second wine - Napanook. Interestingly the Napanook Proprietary Red second wine is made with the exact same vines as Dominus, except that it comes from a different facing side of the vines - which affects the amount of sunshine the fruit receives and therefore (phenolic) ripeness. More technically speaking, the vines that are oriented West to East, and therefore one side of the vines is exposed to bright morning sun, whereas the other side gets the hotter afternoon. Therefore unlike the traditional French Bordeaux practice of either bottling the fruit from younger vines or fruit that doesn't make the first passing for the Grand Vin (the First Wine) as the Second Wine, here you're getting fruit from the exact same vines!

The main difference in pricing then is that fruit that prioritises earlier drinkability, with a brighter fruit character and more supple tannins, is what goes into the Napanook (1/3 the price of Dominus), whereas fruit with more ageing potential is what goes into Dominus! 

Let's give it a try! 

Wine Review: 2019 Dominus Napanook, Napa Valley

Tasting Notes

Colour: Ruby 

Aroma: It opens up with earthy and raw notes of fresh soil, raspberries freshly crushed and in the form of jams. It's got great freshness and is very evocative, and at the same time rather reminiscent of its Bordeaux counterparts. The earthiness is rich and with depth, incredibly fragrant. With time, some red licorice candy emerges as well. A really vibrant and perfumed bouquet here.

Taste: Really lovely silkiness of the body, very elegant, with big florals of roses, as well as raspberry jams and red cherry jams. It's bountiful, energetic and very much as vibrant as it was on the nose. There's a more pronounced acidity here, giving the tartness and slight bitterness of cherry pits, which serves as a good balance against the otherwise seamless richness. It's concentrated and deeply aromatic, with tannins as fine as satin, over a medium body, yet feeling very much fuller and more forward.

Finish: Here there are some spiced qualities of cloves. The fresh earthiness of soil makes a comeback, with more of a chalkiness this time. The tartness is amped up here into the finish, with quite a prominent hit of acidity.

My Thoughts 

This was incredibly evocative! From start to finish, it's got great concentration of the fruit flavours, yet at the same time it's also just as vibrant with big perfumed notes of roses that abound. Along the way, it tends to be accompanied by all those fresh and raw earthiness of soil.

And amidst the richness, its body is held together by incredibly fine and silky tannins that are apparent yet almost satin-like, giving it a beautiful textural sensation to it as well, that is all ultimately balanced by some acidity and bitterness of cherry pits - which is perhaps my only counterpoint that at times this can get alittle zingy and tart just on the cusp of daunting.

Yet overall, this is absolutely lovely! What an incredibly powerful and elegant wine this Napanook is!

Kanpai!

@111hotpot