PlumpJack Winery is a boutique

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the cultivation and production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feat ...

in Oakville, California, specializing in premium

Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Sauvignon () is one of the world's most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in nearly every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Australia and British Columbia, Canada to Lebano ...

wines. PlumpJack was the first winery in

Napa Valley Napa Valley is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in Napa County, California. The area was established by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on February 27, 1981, after a 1978 petition submitted by the Napa Valley Vin ...

to use screwcaps as a

wine closure Closure is a term used in the wine industry to refer to a stopper, an object used to seal a bottle and avoid harmful contact between the wine and oxygen.winepros.com.au. They include: * Traditional natural cork closures (' corks') * Alterna ...

on fine wines.Foderaro, T.J. (2008).
Screw caps pass test as cork alternative
', NJ.com, 22 January 2008. The winery is one of several businesses operated by the PlumpJack Collection of Wineries. The name of the company is inspired by "the roguish spirit of Shakespeare's Sir John Falstaff ('' Henry IV''), dubbed Plump Jack by Queen Elizabeth."PlumpJack Group (2005).
"The History of PlumpJack"
PlumpJack Group official web site. Retrieved Oct. 26, 2007.

History

The PlumpJack Collection was founded in 1992 by

Gavin Newsom Gavin Christopher Newsom ( ; born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 201 ...

, a

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

entrepreneur and future

governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The Governor (United States), governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constit ...

, and

Gordon Getty Gordon Peter Getty (born December 20, 1933) is an American businessman and classical music composer, the fourth child of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. His mother, Ann Rork Light, Ann Rork, was his father's fourth wife. When his father died in 1976, G ...

, a San Francisco

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

. They opened a

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

store called PlumpJack Wines in the Fillmore neighborhood of San Francisco. Over the next five years, the business expanded to include a boutique

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

and three

restaurant A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and Delivery (commerce), food delivery services. Restaurants ...

s. PlumpJack Winery was founded in 1997 when the PlumpJack Group acquired a century-old vineyard in Napa Valley on Oakville Cross Road. The winery facility and

tasting room A tasting room is a part of a winery or brewery, typically located on the premises of the winery or brewery's production facilities, at which guests may sample the winery or brewery's products. Originally an informal public relations outreach ef ...

were designed by Leavitt-Weaver, the same design firm that the PlumpJack Group used for the designs of its restaurants and hotels. PlumpJack Winery was the first Napa Valley winery to use the Stelvin screwcap closure on its most expensive bottling. John Conover, general manager of the winery, announced at the Napa Valley Wine Auction that half (150 cases) of PlumpJack's 1997 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon would be available upon release with a screwcap, and that those bottles would cost $10

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

more than those in the cases closed with cork.Ross, Jordan P. (2002).
"Natural Cork, Corkiness, Synthetics & Screw Caps"
''Enology International''. Retrieved Oct. 26, 2007. At $135 per bottle, many in the wine industry were skeptical of the decision.Carson, Pierce L. (2007)
"PlumpJack's noble experiment"
''The Napa Valley Register''. Oct. 12, 2007. As part of the screwcap program at PlumpJack, bottles with the screwcap closure from each vintage since 1997 have been analyzed by researchers in the Department of

Viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

and Enology at the University of California at Davis. PlumpJack was a client of Silicon Valley Bank.

Wines

PlumpJack Winery produces Cabernet Sauvignon and

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, ; ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new a ...

varietal A varietal wine is a wine made primarily from a single named grape variety, and which typically displays the name of that variety on the wine label.The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000.winepros.com.au. ...

wines from Napa Valley

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began approximately 8,0 ...

s, with smaller amounts of

Merlot Merlot ( ) is a dark-blue-colored wine grape variety that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name ''Merlot'' is thought to be a diminutive of , the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to the color ...

Syrah Syrah (), also known as Shiraz, is a dark-skinned grape variety grown throughout the world and used primarily to produce red wine. In 1999, Syrah was found to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France, Dureza and Mondeuse ...

Sauvignon blanc Sauvignon blanc () is a green-skinned grape variety that originates from the city of Bordeaux in France. The grape most likely gets its name from the French words ''sauvage'' ("wild") and ''blanc'' ("white") due to its early origins as an ind ...

, and

Sangiovese Sangiovese is a red Italian wine grape variety that derives its name from the Latin , "blood of Jove, Jupiter". Sangiovese Grosso, used for traditionally powerful and slow maturing red wines, is primarily grown in the central regions of Italy ...

. The 2001 PlumpJack Cabernet Sauvignon was named 2004 Wine of the Year by '' Wine Enthusiast'' magazine.Rauber, Chris (2004).
"Newsom's wine wins top honor"
''San Francisco Business Times''. Dec. 21, 2004. The 2002 and 2004 vintages of the PlumpJack Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve both received "Extraordinary"

wine ratings A wine rating is a score assigned by one or more wine critics to a wine tasted as a summary of that critic's evaluation of that wine. A wine rating is therefore a subjective quality score, typically of a numerical nature, given to a specific bott ...

of 96-100 points from wine critic Robert Parker."Search Term(s): 'plumpjack'"
''eRobertParker.com: The Independent Consumer's Guide to Fine Wine''. Retrieved Oct. 26, 2007. Winemaker Aaron Miller has been the head winemaker for PlumpJack since 2012.Under Miller's tenure, PlumpJack's flagship Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon wines have received multiple 100- and 99-point scores from ''Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.''

References

External links

PlumpJack Winery
official web site {{coord, 38.4579, N, 122.3658, W, region:US-CA_type:landmark, display=title Wineries in Napa Valley Companies based in Napa County, California Gavin Newsom