Dominus Estate 2013

Christian Moueix, steward of Château Pétrus in Pomerol, arrived in Napa Valley in 1982 not to make a Napa wine but to make a Moueix wine — estate-bottled, single-vineyard, unirrigated — at a moment when the valley was racing toward extraction and heavy new oak. That philosophical transplant defines every bottle of Dominus. Napanook Vineyard spans 108 planted acres on an alluvial fan descending from the Mayacamas foothills in Yountville AVA; the upper blocks contributing Dominus fruit sit on the coolest, highest-elevation gravel soils with volcanic clay-loam beneath, delivering natural drainage and forcing root systems deep into fractured subsoil. The estate is entirely dry-farmed — virtually unheard of in Napa Valley — relying on underground springs and rainfall alone, producing small, phenolically concentrated berries. Vinification proceeds block by block, with hand-sorting augmented by optical berry selection, gentle pump-overs, and a low-pressure vertical press to preserve tannin finesse. Aging runs 15–18 months in 100% French oak barrels, with roughly one-third to 40% new wood depending on vintage — restrained by Napa standards. The 2013 vintage, not individually documented in producer materials, falls within the estate's signature graphite-and-dark-currant register, with the iron-spined structure and tobacco depth that routinely demands a decade of cellaring before full expression. Drink from 2025 through the late 2030s.