Established in the year 1973, Joseph Phelps is a family-owned wine estate that has its origins in the Napa Valley. Today, it has vineyards and estate across Napa Valley and Sonoma Coast as well. Joseph Phelps, who established this wine labels, set up the first vineyard in the 670-acre cattle ranch in Napa Valley, before going on to be recognised as one of the most reputed and known names in the wine industry of California.
Currently, the Joseph Phelps wine estate has 425 acres of vineyards in Napa Valley. All of these vineyards have been selected after careful analysis of the soils, climate and terroir of those regions. The 9 vineyards of Napa Valley are located in St. Helena, Rutherford, Oakville, Stags Leap District, Oak Knoll District, South Napa and Carneros. Apart from this, the Phelps family also owns 100 acres of vineyards located across two sites on the western Sonoma Coast.
Since the Napa Valley vineyards were just a cattle ranch, Joseph was ready to test many varietals to assess the land’s fertility. The first few varietals that he tried on this barren stretch of 600 acres were Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Johannisberg Riesling and Gewurztraminer. With a strong commitment to the land, Joseph and his team started making some of the finest wines in California from then on.
He is known for creating California’s first Bordeaux-style of red wine blend, Insignia. Insignia made the other countries look at Napa Valley with a great deal of respect. The Phelps family practices sustainable winemaking techniques in all the vineyards, to ensure that the vines represent the true nature & character of the soils. Some of these techniques include using harvested grape skins & stems as compost, using solar panels in the winery, providing housing for birds to get rid of pests and so on.
https://www.josephphelps.com
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