The Chalone Wine Group Introduces First Single Bottling of Historic Hewitt Vineyard.Lifestyle Editors/Business Editors RUTHERFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 2004 While first planted to winegrapes more than 120 years ago, what is now Hewitt Vineyard, located on the famed Rutherford Bench, has never had its own bottling -- until today's inaugural release of the Hewitt Vineyard 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Cab·er·net Sauvignon n. 1. A variety of black grape used to make red wine, notably in Bordeaux and the Napa Valley. 2. A dry red wine made from this grape. [French. Rutherford. This vineyard is closely tied to the history of Napa Valley Napa Valley, Calif.: see under Napa. Napa Valley greatest wine-producing region of the United States. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 2990] See : Wine and the emergence of the Rutherford appellation ap·pel·la·tion n. 1. A name, title, or designation. 2. A protected name under which a wine may be sold, indicating that the grapes used are of a specific kind from a specific district. 3. The act of naming. as California's preeminent site for Cabernet Sauvignon. Hewitt was first planted in 1880, when Dennis Hanrahan planted the parcel bordering Gustave Niebaum's Inglenook (now Niebaum-Coppola's estate vineyard). William A. Hewitt -- who headed the John Deere company from 1955 to 1982 -- bought the vineyard in 1962 and enlisted the assistance of Beaulieu Vineyard's (BV) famed winemaster Andre Tchelistcheff in replanting the site. Chalone chalone /chal·one/ (kal´on) a group of tissue-specific water-soluble substances that are produced within a tissue and that inhibit mitosis of cells of that tissue and whose action is reversible. Wine Group President Tom Selfridge began his career at BV and was mentored by Tchelistcheff. Between 1973 and 1990, Selfridge worked his way up at BV from cellarworker to winemaker and then president. During his tenure he used the grapes from Hewitt Vineyard to produce BV's top-of-the-line wine, Georges de Latour Private Reserve. In 2000, almost thirty years after he first walked Hewitt Vineyard, Selfridge jumped at the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to add this treasure to the Chalone Wine Group. Case production of the Hewitt Vineyard 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon Rutherford is 1,400. Suggested retail price for a 750 mL bottle is $75. Selfridge comments, "When I joined Chalone Wine Group in 1998, one of the holes in our portfolio was a world-class Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa. I started searching for just the right site and couldn't believe my good fortune to be reunited with this vineyard, where I started my career. I truly believe this is one of the finest pieces of Cabernet Sauvignon ground in the world." The Hewitt Vineyard sits on the legendary Rutherford Bench on the west slope of the Napa Valley. The Bale clay loam loam, soil composed of sand, silt, clay, and organic matter in evenly mixed particles of various sizes. More fertile than sandy soils, loam is not stiff and tenacious like clay soils. Its porosity allows high moisture retention and air circulation. soil there has a high percentage of gravel, providing excellent drainage and root development. Although only 58 acres, the vineyard is multidimensional and multifaceted. In 1992, in response to the threat of phylloxera phylloxera (fĭlŏk`sĭrə), small, sap-eating, greenish insect of the genus Phylloxera, closely related to the aphid. Phylloxeras feed on leaves and roots, and many species produce galls on deciduous trees. , Bill Hewitt
Tom Rinaldi Tom Rinaldi is a reporter for ESPN based in New York. He has contributed to "Sportscenter," "Outside the Lines," "College Gameday," "Sunday NFL Countdown," and is also a fill in host on "Cold Pizza. is founding winemaker for Hewitt Vineyard. For 22 vintages he consistently made award-wining Bordeaux-style wines at Duckhorn Wine Company. He is also founding winemaker of Hewitt's sister winery in Rutherford, Provenance Vineyards. "Hewitt Vineyard is a great example of what I call the renaissance of Rutherford," says Rinaldi. "In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many Rutherford vineyards were planted with the wrong clones and farmed with the wrong methods and wine writers and consumers lost interest in Cabernet Sauvignon from here. After phylloxera and fan leaf virus forced a major replanting in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Rutherford vineyards are reaching an even higher level of quality. I'm very excited to be the custodian of this historic vineyard and to be working with such great fruit." For more information about Hewitt Vineyard, visit www.HewittVineyard.com Editor's note Editor's Note (foaled in 1993 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred Stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1992 U.S. Champion 2 YO Colt Forty Niner, who in turn was a son of Champion sire Mr. Prospector and out of the mare, Beware Of The Cat. Trained by D. : digital images of the label and the bottle are available. Hewitt Vineyard(TM) is part of the Chalone Wine Group, Ltd., a Napa-based company specializing in premium red and white varietal wines. In California, in addition to Hewitt Vineyard, the Company owns and operates Acacia(R) Vineyard in the Carneros area of Napa County, and Provenance(R) Vineyards and Jade Mountain(R) in Napa County; Chalone Vineyard Chalone Vineyard is located in the Chalone AVA south of San Francisco, California, United States, on an unusual geological formation called the Gavilan benchland. The soil is rich in limestone and calcium carbonate and also contains a significant amount of decomposed granite. (R) in Monterey County; Moon Mountain(R) Vineyard in the Sonoma Valley; Orogeny orogeny Mountain-building event, generally one that occurs in a geosyncline. Orogeny tends to occur during a relatively short geologic time frame. It is usually accompanied by folding and faulting of strata and by the deposition of sediments in areas adjacent to the orogenic (TM) Vineyards in Russian River Valley's Green Valley; Dynamite(R) Vineyards in Lake County and Echelon Vineyards in San Miguel. In conjunction with its 50-percent joint-venture partner, Paragon Vineyard Co., the Company also owns and operates Edna Valley Vineyard(R) in San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (săn l  `ĭs ōbĭs`pō), city (1990 pop. 41,958), seat of San Luis Obispo co., S Calif., near San Luis Obispo Bay; inc. 1856. County. In Washington State, the Company owns and operates Sagelands(R) Vineyard and Canoe Ridge(R) Vineyard. In the Bordeaux region of France, the Company owns 23.5 percent of the Fourth-Growth estate of Chateau Duhart-Milon, in partnership with Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), which owns the other 76.5 percent. For more information about Chalone Wine Group, visit www.ChaloneWineGroup.com |
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