Tasting Notes: Black Stallion Estate Winery Chardonnay opens with overflowing aromas of melon, white peaches, lemon and vanilla, followed by lush flavors of yellow apple, pear and coconut. Rich and full on the palate, bright fruit and creamy notes lead into a lingering finish.

Food Suggestions: Enjoy with a variety of foods,such as sauteed shrimp and roast chicken. Mild and creamy cheeses, including brie, triple cream and Monterey Jack. Pasta with pesto or cheese-based sauces, pasta with brown butter sauces.

The Estate: The original riding area now houses prized wines, instead of prize-winning horses. However Black Stallion Estate Winery carries its heritage forward. The estate’s legacy honors the world-class terroir of Napa Valley, the pioneering spirit of the Silverado Trail, and the Indelicato family’s warm hospitality and generations of wine expertise.

Equestrian Roots ~ The Silverado Trail: From the late 1800s to the early 1900s, The Silverado Trail was home to cattle and horse ranching. In the 1950s, Richard Tam and Ben Hardister built the Silverado Horseman’s Center covering 32 acres along the southern end of Silverado Trail. The original facility featured an equestrian center with an indoor riding track, 36 horse stalls, and a grandstand for indoor riding events. The property also included an outdoor arena with a grandstand that sat 3,000 people, a half mile race track, recreation buildings, private paddock, riding trails and a stallion breeding center. The center thrived until the 1990s.

The first permanent road referred to as “the old back road” was built from Napa to Calistoga in 1952.  Around 1858, silver mining became popular in the hills at the northern end of the Valley.  Mr. Patchett, a local landowner, saw an opportunity to sell wine to the miners flocking to the area and began producing wine with the help of a cider press.  By 1872, elder miners moved to the southeastern corner of Mt. St. Helena creating Silverado City.  Several businesses and a hotel grew up around the claim and the population swelled to 1,500.  The silver vein had played-out by 1875 ending the short lived silver rush, and the miners moved on. 

While on his honeymoon, Robert L. Stevenson found an abandoned shack in Silverado City in 1880, by then a ghost town.  Short on cash, he and his bride stayed for 3 weeks.  In 1883, he published Silverado Squatters, memoirs of his stay in Silverado City where he calls the old back road The Silverado Trail.  In 1921, the old back road was officially named the Silverado Trail. The Silverado Trail runs parallel to California State Route 29, the main traffic artery through the Napa Valley, offering glimpses of the nation’s foremost wine region. Black Stallion wines showcase the best of Napa Valley’s diverse wine growing regions by carefully selecting grapes from an array of vineyards that reflect different Napa Valley terroirs. In some instances, it’s a single vineyard block or a single row within a block. We blend the best lots to craft world-class wines, brimming with rich flavors and gracious, mouth filling textures.

More than a century ago, Gaspare and Caterina Indelicato immigrated from Sicily to the United States. Twelve years after arriving in America, with little to draw on but a long family history of grape-growing and an entrepreneur’s gift for seizing opportunity, Gaspare entered the wine trade. In 1924, he planted a vineyard in Manteca, California, where the climate reminded the couple of their homeland. With it, he planted the foundation of his eventual success in the California wine industry. Since that first vineyard flourished, Gaspare’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have honored his legacy through dedication to his steadfast values of family, hard work and integrity.

Site Specific Winemaking: To make great wine, a winemaker must have a deep familiarity with each lot of freshly pressed juice. At Black Stallion, the search for greatness means boots in the vineyard, checking on vine growth and grape development all year long. It means tasting grapes rather than looking at lab reports to determine the perfect moment to pick. It means harvesting and sorting fruit by hand. Black Stallion Winery’s small scale means that each lot of grapes that arrives at harvest is treated individually, and receives a unique upbringing to bring out its full potential for excellence. The goal is always the same: To create a seamless, harmonious wine that captures the varietal’s best expression of that vintage in Napa Valley.

Remember We Taste The Bad Ones So you don’t have to! CHEERS!!!