Dan Berger:
Since I have been buying Napa wines since about 1970, I know Napa can do a lot more than big, chewy reds.
So I was one of the few people on earth who cheered in 2004 when the U.S. government finally approved the Oak Knoll District (OKD) application for appellation (AVA) status. It’s one of the valley’s most distinctive regions, which I validated again last week when I met with key members of the OKD board and tried more than a dozen wines.
But so little did the government know about OKD that its application for AVA status took 11 years before approval.
At a tasting of the wines the other day, cabernet rarely came up.
Oak Knoll is a smallish area between the city of Napa and Yountville with 4,158 acres of grapes planted to 15 different varietal grapes.