New Releases from the Historic Ehlers Estate

Last spring I tasted the first vintage of Laura Díaz Muñoz's Sauvignon Blanc from Ehlers Estate. She joined Ehlers just before harvest in 2018, so I was very curious as to how a vintage fully under her watch might turn out. As I predicted, it's incredibly tasty!

Separately, I noticed as I was writing up these wines that this winery is working toward its 135th anniversary. I hadn't realized that it was such a historic Napa estate. Today's winery is housed in a barn built in 1886 by the Bernard Ehlers, who bought the original 10 acres of then-struggling vineyards. (Today, Ehlers is 42 acres strong.) Bernard was a grocer to gold miners before investing in the grape and olive growing businesses. It seems that his mind never strayed far from the table! 

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Ehlers Estate 2019 Sauvignon Blanc St. Helena, Napa Valley 13.2% $32
This wine tantalizes! It's dazzling yellow in color, and its aromatics are raring to go. The nose of tangerine and dried pineapple beckons. Then, ginger and Alphonso mango create a lush entry on the palate that segues - pleasantly and surprisingly - into a tight and slightly biting finish, even clipping short the medium finish. Showing lovely purity and resolutely dry from start to minerally finish, this medium-bodied and adroitly structured Sauvignon Blanc is highly sophisticated.
Drink: 2020-21

86
Ehlers Estate 2019 Sylviane Rosé St. Helena, Napa Valley 13.4% $32
I sensed at first glance that this bottle was going to be an experience. Indeed - it's a full-out flavor blast! This wine's dynamic, blood orange hue delivers a zingy, dry and fuller-bodied rosé composed of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Cabernet Franc. Intense and in-your-face, the flavors of grenadine and lingonberry gyrate on the palate. Yet while the flavor is dense, it's also straightforward and rather candied. The back-palate zip offers refreshment, but it feels a bit disassociated from the rest of this moderately viscous wine. Even as the wine warms up, there is an intensely leafy, cucumber-y tone on the nose that is unusual (even for Cabernet varieties, which often do have a capsicum, or green pepper, tendency), especially for a wine with Jolly Rancher notes. There's some pleasant tannin in the dry finish, so this should stand up to a wide array of foods, from burgers and tuna steaks to pad thai and barbecue.
Drink: 2020-21