2017 Green & Red Sauvignon Blanc Catacula Vineyard Napa Valley

WS92 Striking, vibrant and expressive, offering a powerful mouthful of peach, mango and orange sherbet flavors that reveal a honeyed edge. Crisp, vibrant acidity and honeysuckle details show on the finish. Drink now. From California. 325 cases made 
Estate Notes: Two acres of our Catacula Vineyard are planted to Sauvignon Musqué. The terraced vines face north east at 1400 feet elevation.

History: PEACE, LOVE & ZINFANDEL SINCE 1977

Actually, maybe we need to go further back – to the 1960’s – where all things in the Green & Red story really began.  In 1967, founder Jay Heminway was living in Berkeley, teaching sculpture at U.C. Berkeley, and right in the eye of the 1960s storm — dead center in the summer of love, of the free speech movement, of anti war protests, psychedelia, and a reawakening of so many to the beautiful and complex world around them. 

There were so many things wafting through that fine California air, but one part of this Berkeley movement was a renewed appreciation, among a tight knit group of friends, for local, authentic, foods and wine.  Bob Wax, Patty Curtan, John Lilly, Alice Waters, and Jay Heminway were a part of this merry group of friends. 

 Provençal cuisine, with its emphasis on using the freshest local vegetables, herbs and ingredients, found its loadstar at Chez Panisse, later opened by Alice. Some of this band helped found Berkeley’s Cheese Board, and others went in different directions.

 While some went “up the country,” to find their path, founder Jay Heminway headed here, to Napa Valley.  Cruising up the Silverado Trail, towards Rutherford —where Beaulieu and Inglenook were crafting world class wines — Jay took a right turn on Route 128, drove past Lake Hennessy, and up into the hills of Chiles Valley. 

 What Heminway found there was nirvana — although it was a little hard to see it at first. When Jay purchased the hardscrabble property, in 1969, it included a cold-water hunting cabin, a burned-down barn, and an abandoned Fleetwood Cadillac.

On one of his rambles, Jay stumbled upon the remains of century-old vines from the old Rancho Catacula. Soon Jay was planting gorgeous Zinfandel and other varietals at his Vineyard, now named Green & Red after the local red chert based soils and oceanic green serpentine veins running through the property.  

 First planted was The Chiles Mill Vineyard, situated at 1,200-1,400 feet above sea level and named after the historic Chiles Grist Mill — the first flour mill in Northern California, which had been built by Joseph B. Chiles in 1845.  

 Green & Red’s first public vintage, from 1977, was made using a simple basket press and was bottled by hand, with Jay’s daughter, Tobin, on hand to help cork the bottles, one by one.

Next up, Green & Red added Catacula Vineyard, a nine-acre vineyard, sitting at 1200-1400ft, named after the original vineyards there from Rancho Catacula planted in the late 1800s.  Indeed, to this day, a single vine remains from that early vineyard, still producing grapes.

Finally, Jay reached high up into the sky and planted Tip Top Vineyard, sitting at 1400-1800ft, at the very top of this mountainside property, with views all around, into central Napa Valley, over to Saint Helena and Pritchard Hill, and with the Chiles Valley extending into the distance below.