is a one acre hillside vineyard located off of the northern part of the Silverado Trail. They do not source any other grapes for this wine and as a result they are definitely among the smaller of the producers in the Napa valley. This winery is owned by Nino and Barbara Cefalu. They planted all 1200 vines themselves and provided the vineyard management until recently. Nino has a successful third generation accounting firm in the Bay Area and has been a collector and wine enthusiast for many years. His fascination with wine all started when his firm started handling the accounting for a large liquor store.
Their small hillside vineyard has beautiful views overlooking the Napa Valley and the Mayacamas mountains to the west. This winery produced merely 3 vintages during their short commercial offering from 2003 through 2005. As of press time they had just released their 2005 and final vintage. Not to worry, if you have been lucky to try one of their vintages, the grapes for their wine are being sold to another local winery. Their small vineyard is planted entirely to clone 337 Cabernet Sauvignon and due the small size of their vineyard and low yields on the vines, the typical production is usually around 200 cases annually.
All the wine was made by well-known local winemaker Bill Ballentine at a nearby small production focused winery. With a high end meticulously managed hillside vineyard source such as this one and the expertise of Bill, this is a wine that meets the expectations created by these two combinations. Each vintage is named Michael Anthony after the owner’s son and the logo on the label is their family crest. We had a chance to recently try their just released 2005 vintage. This is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and is dark ruby in color. This is decidedly a Bordeaux styled wine that is soft, smooth and elegant. It is definitely very food friendly. Mineralities touch the bouquet which dissipates after the wine has time to breath turning into elegant aromas of blackberry and cherry with just hints of toasted oak. The body is perfectly balanced with delicious varietal flavors as well as red cherry, red licorice and even subtle nuances of cranberry. This is one of those wines that has a super long finish and the tannins are very well balanced and do not dominate.
You can find their wine locally at Enoteca Wine Shop in Calistoga and at V Wine Cellar in Yountville as well as at select restaurants in the Napa Valley. Since 2005 is their final vintage they don’t have a lot of distribution so they best way to order this wine is through their website. Visit: www.cefalufamilyvineyards.com
NOTE: This review has been archived.
REASON: Stopped producing wine commercially
Where can I purchase a Cefalu wine?