Chateau Woltner, formerly Nouveau Medoc Vineyard, was a California wine

California wine

California wine has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. states, up to 90% of American wine is produced in the state...

 estate located near Angwin, California

Angwin, California

Angwin is a census-designated place in Napa County, United States. California. It is part of the northern San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 3,051 at the 2010 census. Its area code is 707. Its two zip codes are 94508 and 94576. It is in the Pacific time zone.The town was named in 1874 for...

 in the Howell Mountain AVA

Howell Mountain AVA

The Howell Mountain AVA is an American Viticultural Area located within Napa Valley AVA. Howell Mountain is located in the Vaca Mountains on the northeast side of Napa Valley around the town of Angwin, and overlooks the town of St. Helena, California....

 within Napa Valley

Napa Valley AVA

Napa Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Napa County, California, United States. Napa Valley is considered one of the top wine regions in the United States...

, which in the modern era was operational between 1980 and 2000 before its sale and merge into Ladera Vineyards.

History

The estate was established in 1877 by two Frenchmen, Jean Brun and W.J. Chaix who were among the first to plant vineyards up on Howell Mountain instead of on the Napa Valley floor and were California's thirteenth registered winery, who labeled the wines as Nouveau Medoc Vineyard. The stone winery was built in 1886.

The estate was bought in 1980 by Francis and Françoise DeWavrin. Françoise DeWavrin née

Married and maiden names

A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

Woltner is the granddaughter of Fréderic Otto Woltner whose Château La Mission Haut-Brion

Château La Mission Haut-Brion

Château la Mission Haut-Brion is a Bordeaux wine from the Pessac-Léognan appellation, classed among the Grand Crus in the Graves classification of 1953...

 rose in reputation under his and the management of his innovative sons Fernand and Henri. The DeWavrins ran La Mission for a number of years after the death of the Woltner brothers in 1974 until the estate was sold in 1983, and the DeWavrins concentrated on the estate renamed Chateau Woltner, producing their first vintage in 1985.

Sale

Upon the decision of Francis and Françoise DeWavrin-Woltner to retire, Chateau Woltner was sold to Pat and Anne Stotesbery, owners of Ladera Vineyards, in August 2000. The new owners declared plans to refurbish the winery and replace the Chardonnay vines with red Bordeaux grape varieties.

Production

From an estate of 181 acres (73.2 ha), the vineyard area were dedicated to 53 acres (21.4 ha) planted with Chardonnay

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine. It is originated from the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand...

 and 15 acres (6.1 ha) of Cabernet Sauvignon

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 Canada's Okanagan Valley to Lebanon's Beqaa Valley...

.

The production included three vineyard designated

Vineyard designated wine

A vineyard designated wine is a wine produced from the product of a single vineyard with that vineyard's name appearing on the wine label. Throughout the history of winemaking and viticulture, the differences in quality between one plot of land and another have been observed with the boundaries of...

 Chardonnays named Titus, Frederique and St. Thomas that were produced in a non-malolactic

Malolactic fermentation

Malolactic fermentation is a process in winemaking where tart-tasting malic acid, naturally present in grape must, is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid. Malolactic fermentation tends to create a rounder, fuller mouthfeel. It has been said that malic acid tastes of green apples...

style, with the excess fruit made into a Howell Mountain Chardonnay. In 1995 the estate produced its first Cabernet-based red wine, the Private Reserve Red Howell Mountain.

The estate had an annual production of 10000 winecase per year.