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! 

91
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