Dominus Estate
Napanook
Napa Valley
2019

The producer

Christian Moueix is a winemaker and president of the Bordeaux negociant house Etablissements Jean-Pierre Moueix. During travels in California in 1981, he discovered the Napanook vineyard, which is nestled in a natural amphitheatre at the foothills of the Mayacamas Mountains on the western side of Napa Valley. Napanook is thought to be where Napa’s first vines were planted. Soon after Dominus Estate was born and the first vintage produced was 1983.

The Estate consists of 40 hectares planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot in gravelly clay loam soils. The vineyard is organically and sustainably farmed, and the farm is planted throughout with indigenous plant species and wildflowers to provide refuge for local wildlife. Today the vines are dry-farmed, which means they rely only on the water naturally present in the soil, without any irrigation.

The wine

Napanook is a blend of Bordeaux varietals carefully chosen from the historic Napanook vineyard for their early drinking appeal. While crafted for immediate enjoyment, it also boasts a cellaring potential of at least 10 years. Napanook showcases vibrant fruit aromas, smooth and silky tannins, and a complex, harmonious finish. The 2019 Napanook reveals a bouquet of lavender, cedar, ripe plum, and savory earthiness, underpinned by a structure of bright, lively tannins.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.