Appellation · United States
Oakville
The Napa AVA with the highest concentration of famous Cabernet vineyards, immediately south of Rutherford.
Full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon with cassis, black cherry and mocha, ripe supple tannin and high alcohol. Among the most expensive wine in the United States.
About Oakville
Oakville sits between Rutherford and Yountville, and contains a remarkable density of celebrated vineyards — To Kalon, Martha’s Vineyard and Screaming Eagle among them.
The valley narrows here and the fog reaches further up in the mornings, so Oakville is marginally cooler than Rutherford, with a slightly longer ripening period.
The Robert Mondavi Winery, founded in 1966, was the first significant new Napa winery after Prohibition and did more than any other to establish the valley commercially.
What the name means
- Legal name
- Oakville AVA
- Type
- American Viticultural Area (AVA)
- Set by
- Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB)
- Recognised
- 1993
- Regulates
- Origin only. It sets no rules about varieties, yields, ageing or winemaking.
Only where the grapes were grown, plus the percentage that must come from the named area. An AVA sets no varietal, yield, ageing or winemaking rules whatsoever — the single most commonly misunderstood fact about US wine labels.
Grapes
Wines from here
What to eat, and how to serve it
Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.
Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Serve at 16–18°C (cool room temperature).
Try with steak, ribeye steak or roast chicken.
Where to go next
Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.
- Rutherford — The mid-valley bench that produced Napa’s most celebrated Cabernet Sauvignon, and the source of the phrase "Rutherford dust".
- Stags Leap District — A small AVA under a line of volcanic palisades, whose Cabernet beat the Médoc first growths at the 1976 Judgement of Paris.
- Mount Veeder — Steep, cool, sedimentary slopes on Napa’s western ridge, and the coolest of the valley’s mountain AVAs.
Sources
Sources consulted
- American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) — Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), US Department of the Treasury
- Napa Valley Vintners — Napa Valley Vintners