Napa County has more Cabernet Sauvignon than ever, but it still is a little less than half of the grapes planted, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Currently, Napa County has about 20,000 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, 7000 acres of Chardonnay, 5000 acres of Merlot, 3000 acres each of Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc, 1500 acres of Zinfandel and 1000 acres of Cabernet Franc.
Those numbers include Carneros, so it makes sense that they include a decent amount of Chardonnay/Pinot Noir/etc. Given that, there’s a limit to how high the Cab Sauv % can (or should) go.
And somebody, maybe not the producer, is printing money out there. $7000 per ton???
It’s standard talking points from everybody to n Napa. We don’t really make money doing this. Amazingly enough, these same people are pretty wealthy anyways.
it took me longer to understand this than it probably should’ve, but I’m on the same page as you about this – though it says more about how scarce good napa cabs are, than it does about how many bad burgs there are!
Using the old guideline for price per ton vs. bottle price(move decimal left 2 spaces), at $11,000 per ton thats a $110/bottle wine. Thats one hell of a Cab Franc!