Samuel Charles North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon has been “leaping off retail shelves in California and a few other western states,” according to Dennis Kreps, who owns the brand along with his father, Stephen D. Kreps. The Kreps are perhaps best known as the owners of Quintessential Wines.
Now Samuel Charles is going national with the introduction of a single-vineyard Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and a Sauvignon Blanc from California’s High Valley appellation.
The first release of the label, a California Cabernet of intense North Coast mountain fruit, with complex notes of dark chocolate and blackberry, caught on so quickly that the demand
outstripped supply, limiting the wine’s release.
Renowned Napa Valley winemaker Robert Pepi is making the two wines, as he does for the Two Angels brand, also owned by the Kreps family.
“We’re sourcing the grapes for the Oak Knoll Cab from a vineyard located on the benchlands of the Mayacamas Mountain Range, where some of the region’s finest terroir is found,” he said. “The resulting wine is already showing the vineyard’s typicity, with complex aromas of blackberries, dark fruit and a hint of black pepper among other spices. I let it age for ten months in French oak, 30% of them new barrels, that I believe has helped knit together the wine’s abundant fruit flavors.”
The Sauvignon Blanc grapes come from the High Valley. At nearly 2,000 feet these are some of the highest, and Pepi believes, the best vineyards for Sauvignon Blanc in California.
“The label is named for my two sons, which expresses my great pride in them, and in these wines,” says Dennis Kreps.
Samuel Charles Oak Knoll Cabernet Sauvignon will have a suggested retail price of $79.99, with the High Valley Sauvignon Blanc retailing for $24.99.