Napanook Napa Valley 2014

Christian Moueix is president of JP Moueix holdings which owns various estates on the right bank of Bordeaux including Trotanoy, La Fleur-Pétrus and Magdelaine. Jean-Pierre Moueix, Christian’s father, was largely responsible for building up the reputations of Saint-Emilion and Pomerol in particular before his retirement in 1973.

Since 1991 Christian has been at the helm of the family company which also acts as a bulk buyer of grapes from other select right bank properties. Son Edouard Moueix is now increasingly involved with Christian spending more time at another important interest, Dominus in California’s Napa Valley.

Christian first visited what is now the Dominus estate in 1981 and admits that he fell in love with it, sold on the 'feeling' of the place. He was introduced by the Mondavi family and, from 1982, the estate was run as a 50:50 joint venture until Moueix bought out his partners in 1994 and built the stylish winery in 120 acres of the old Inglenook/Napanook vineyards. 1983 was the first vintage, with 1994 – elegant, and still with firm tannins when last tasted in 2006, clearly still with plenty of life ahead of it – the first under sole ownership.

The philosophy from the start has been ‘never go for power,’ and Dominus is quite different stylistically from the vast majority of today's California/Napa cabernets and blends, always poised, concentrated but with finesse, and with the balance to mature well in bottle. No corrective methods are used in the winery - no alcohol is removed, no volatile acidity is removed, no acidification is used, and the vines used for Dominus are not irrigated.