The Eisele Vineyard is one of the Napa Valley’s greatest treasures, with connections to some of the biggest names not just in California but in the whole world of wine. This 38-acre plot is located right up in the northern section of the Napa Valley where the valley floor is less than 2km wide and the Palisades Mountains provide welcome shelter and a vast range of complex soil types. The vineyard is believed to date to the late 1800s and gained its name from former owners Milton and Barbara Eisele who owned the property from 1969 to 1990. The subsequent owners, Bart and Daphne Araujo, bottled the wines under their own name (along with the vineyard name) and during both these ownership periods the vineyard produced fruit for such legendary names as Joseph Phelps, Conn Creek and Ridge. In 2013 the estate was bought by none other than François Pinault, the French entrepreneur who is best known in the wine world as the proprietor of Bordeaux’s Chateau Latour as well as several other leading French estates. It’s clear that the Eisele Vineyard was to be Pinault’s Dominus or Opus One – a considerable level of reassurance for buyers.