About this winery
Founded by a successful Finnish sea Captain, Gustave Niebaum, in the 1880’s, Inglenook Estate in Rutherford California was once the most highly regarded of the earliest, great Napa Valley estate wineries. Over the years the estate passed through the hands of Niebaum’s descendants. Eventually the family started to sell off plots of the historic homestead. Even the proud name was put on the market in 1964 and sold to a corporation as merely a brand name. But in 1975, Francis Ford Coppola...
See the INGLENOOK detail page for more information on this brand
Product notes
Produced since 1999 as a partner to Rubicon, Inglenook’s premier red wine, Blancaneaux is a blend of three estate-grown white Rhône varieties. Marsanne and Roussanne contribute body and minerality, while Viognier adds intense aromas of tropical fruits. These varieties are grown in vineyard blocks that enjoy full morning sun but are in the cooling
shadow of Mount St. John by mid-afternoon.
Production notes
Inglenook has long embraced organic farming, and we were among the first Napa Valley wineries to have our vineyards certified organic more than 25 years ago. Our farming practices, combined with low temperatures during the winter before the 2020 growing season, made soil nutrients for good early spring growth available to all three of our white Rhône varieties. In turn, the leaf canopies developed early, and provided good protection from a heat spike we experienced just prior to harvest. The 2020 Blancaneaux harvest began with Viognier on August 20th and culminated with Marsanne and Roussanne on September
9th and 10th. The abundance of fruit was right on track, while quality was consistently excellent.
Tasting notes
Brilliant gold-yellow in color, the wine opens with inviting accents of Meyer lemon curd, honeysuckle, and white peach. Seamless and creamy on the palate, this is a nicely concentrated wine. It closes with lingering notes of chamomile and juicy Anjou pear and retains a vibrant tension throughout.