Wine Advisor
Inglenook, Blancaneaux 2020
View analysis
Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Joe Czerwinski
The latest release of the white wine, the 2020 Blancaneaux boasts greater purity than the 2016, with gentle hints of crushed stone and pencil shavings accenting pear, melon and citrus on the nose. Slightly fuller-bodied as well, it's pleasantly silky in feel, finishing fine and long. The blend is a nearly equal 36% Viognier, 33% Marsanne and 31% Roussanne, also split between stainless steel and French oak, and aged eight months on the lees prior to bottling.
About the Producer
Inglenook's Chateau winery is completed. Conceived to be a state-of-the-art facility, the Chateau's design is based on gravity-flow, one of the first of its type in Napa Valley, and includes an early form of rebar—using cable from cable-cars in San Francisco—to stave off earthquake tremors and to help the building shift safely during the crush process. True to his fastidious nature in each step of the winemaking process, Niebaum devises California's first grape-sorting table and also installs the state's first bottling line to ensure the wines' provenance from growth to bottle, the latter always bearing the California Pure Wine Stamp and secured with an intricate wire maze to guarantee the wine's integrity.
