Lail Vineyards

Lail Vineyards to Host Vintner Dinner at 2015 Boston Wine Festival January 19, 2015

Robin Daniel Lail will host a Dinner on Friday, March 13th as part of the 26th anniversary of the Boston Wine Festival this year.  Lail Vineyards will be joining an all-star lineup of intimate winemaker hosted dinners, seminars and receptions at the country’s oldest running Food and Wine Festival.  Join Robin for what promises to be an absolutely perfect evening of food and wine. Savor a curated selection of our wines, including the 2012 J. Daniel Cuvée Cabernet Sauvignon, which was selected by Robert Parker, Jr. one of the three “Best of 2014 Current Releases” and awarded a coveted 100 points.

Robin Daniel Lail’s heritage began in 1879 with the founding of Inglenook Vineyards by her great -granduncle, the iconic Captain Gustav Niebaum.  By the early 1890s, this brilliant man’s obsession for achieving the pinnacle of excellence earned Inglenook wines the status of being considered by many as the finest produced in the country.

The determination to achieve excellence was carried forward through the decades following Niebaum’s death in 1908, with a crescendo in the thirty years following the repeal of Prohibition under the meticulous, passionate stewardship of John Daniel, Jr., Robin’s father.  The collection of Cabernets coming from his years of ownership is still celebrated today as some of the finest red wines on earth.

Although Inglenook was sold in 1964, the passion for winemaking did not fade.  Robin inherited her father’s respect for tradition.  Today her family honors his legacy with their relentless pursuit to produce wines second to none.

Mole Hill

Mole Hill is our three-acre Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard with loam soil approximately two feet deep. Planted in 1993 and 1994, it is nestled beside a gorge on Howell Mountain at 1700 feet with a western exposure.

The gorge acts as an elevator shaft from the valley floor, creating a unique microclimate for the vineyard. Small rocks are prolific and rise to the surface like cream in coffee. In combination with soil depth, this creates a spartan home for the vines, generating a concentration of flavors in the grapes. Each year, we harvest Mole Hill multiple times to capture the unique flavors expressed in each part of the vineyard. The beautiful, lingering finishes of the Lail Vineyards J. Daniel Cuvee begin in this jewel box as well as the single vineyard, Mole Hill Cabernet Sauvignon.

Totem

Totem is part of the original Inglenook Vineyards and its soils carry the wisdom of six generations of family dedication.

The property covers two and a half acres and is located at the north end of Yountville. The name “Totem” celebrates the occasion when Gustav Niebaum, founder of the family legacy, donated a totem he brought from the Yukon territory to the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. In 2006 & 2007, Merlot vines originally planted in 1988 were t-budded to Sauvignon Blanc. The Lail Vineyards’ signature mouth-watering Georgia Sauvignon Blanc originates from the fruit at this location.

Robin Lail’s great-granduncle, Gustav Niebaum (originally Nybom), was born in Helsinki, Finland in August, 1842. The story of his early years is rich with fascination with the sea, Alaska and enterprise.

Starting with earning his Third Mate papers at 19, and culminating with the establishment of the Alaska Commercial Company in 1868, Niebaum’s endeavors were always coupled with a quest for perfection and extraordinary vision.

Niebaum had a dream to produce wines ranking among the finest of the world, and did not come to Napa Valley by chance. He knew of the 1841 Russian explorations there, and had visited valley friends after moving to San Francisco. He had made a study of the world’s great vineyards and knew exactly what he needed to pursue his dream. In 1879 he found Inglenook, set snug against Mt. St. John with rich alluvial soils. He was 37 years old.

Niebaum was at the forefront of the experimentation in California viticulture in the 1880s. He may have been the first viticulturist in California to fertilize his vineyard and maintained a mammoth compost pile. He reduced the planting space in the vineyard to meter by meter, and was far ahead of his contemporaries with the grapes he planted, importing cuttings from the finest vineyards in Europe. At harvest, grapes were carefully sorted before going to the crusher – a novelty in his time. He studied endlessly to construct the most modern winery of its time. He demanded scrupulous cleanliness at his winery and was a staunch follower of Louis Pasteur. Inglenook’s wines were the first in America to be bottled and sold in glass, instead of wood casks. Niebaum’s marketing program was the first of its kind, as he established a network of distributors across the entire United States and Europe.