100% Sauvignon Blanc

Food pairings: Oysters and other shellfish, grilled fish, goat cheese, herbed quiche, a grilled asparagus and artichoke galette, roast chicken, and fresh, herb-driven salads; it is as ready for the back deck as for the dinner table.

Winemaking: Frog's Leap Sauvignon Blanc is made in a classic, completely dry style, picked to keep the alcohol low, the acidity high and the flavors crisp. The 2024 was fermented and aged in stainless steel, with no malolactic fermentation and no new oak. Rather than bottling right after harvest, as is common in Napa, the winery gives the wine a full seven months on its lees, which tames the "tutti-frutti" and cut-grass aromas of young Sauvignon Blanc and builds texture and savory depth. Ample winter rain and a mild summer made 2024 a beautifully "normal" vintage: harvest began on time in mid-August and moved at a steady pace, with plenty of morning fog to keep the fruit fresh and the acidity high, and crop levels returned to normal after four lean years.

Vineyards and terroir: The grapes come from certified organic, dry-farmed vineyards centered on the winery's home in Rutherford: the estate Galleron Vineyard, the keystone of the blend and source of its just-ripe peach and apricot notes, plus the Navone, Williams Rossi and Chavez-Leeds vineyards in Rutherford, Longwood Ranch in Napa and a few neighboring ranches. Soils are mostly the clay-heavy sloughs of the Maxwell series and the deep river clay-silt loams of Galleron and Longwood. Farming without irrigation encourages deep roots and modest vigor, so the vines reach full flavor at lower sugar levels, and careful hand pruning keeps Sauvignon Blanc's natural vigor in balance.

Family and history: Frog's Leap began with John Williams, a dairy farmer's son from western New York who discovered wine at Cornell, arrived in the Napa Valley in 1975 and joined Warren Winiarski's team at Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, helping to bottle the Cabernet that triumphed at the Paris Tasting. After a master's degree at UC Davis, he and Larry Turley planted Sauvignon Blanc at Turley's "Frog Farm", pressed their first harvest in 1981 and released the first Frog's Leap Sauvignon Blanc in 1982: still the winery's flagship white, made every year since. In 1989 Frog's Leap became the first Napa Valley winery to have its vineyards certified organic, and in 1994 it found its permanent home around an old Red Barn on the Rutherford Bench. Today the winery is still family owned and run: John works alongside his son Rory Williams, with production winemaker Pablo Polanco and vineyardist Frank Leeds.

In the pictures: Founder John Williams at the winery (photo courtesy of Frog's Leap); a winter cover crop between the dormant vines of a Frog's Leap vineyard, with one of the farm dogs (photo courtesy of Frog's Leap); and the gardens and buildings at the winery in Rutherford (photo: Clay Gilliland, 2006, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons).