California cult

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

California cult, wines, a phrase coined in the 1990s to encompass wines made in the State of California, typically but not exclusively Napa Valley Cabernets, for which collectors, and possibly a few investors, would pay prices higher than those of Bordeaux’s first growths. They include such names as Araujo, Bryant Family, Colgin, Dalla Valle Maya, Grace Family, Harlan Estate, Moraga (bought by media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 2013), Screaming Eagle, Sine Qua Non, and Vineyard 29. What many of these names have in common is that they are made in extremely limited quantity, by talented winemaker consultant oenologists (often female) currently favoured by fashion.