Chappellet Masterclass: The Soul of Pritchard Hill
Bordeaux Index
21 March 2025
Last week we hosted a masterclass with one of the original Napa wineries, Chappellet. While not widely-known over here in Europe, Chappellet is one of the most iconic names in the USA; in fact, its fame in the states is the reason we get so little over here. For nearly 60 years, Chappellet have made incredible Cabernet Sauvignon from a small area known as Pritchard Hill.
These wines blew us away at the tasting: their Signature Cabernet is an earthy, savoury wine made for lovers of Bordeaux, and arguably the best value wine in Napa Valley; their prestige bottling Pritchard Hill Cabernet is up there with the most expensive cult wines you can find, a true Napa powerhouse. We’ve developed a strong relationship with the winery, and we’re happy to offer a mini-vertical of their two Cabernets, all offered at the best price in the market.
“Soil-toned reds that can, at their peak, remind me of the greatest of all Bordeaux, the château where for 15 years I was a director, Château Latour.” Hugh Johnson OBE
A Historic Winery
After a life-changing experience with a bottle of Château Latour in France, he had given up a successful industry career and started looking for a place to make wine. Led by André Tchelistcheff, widely considered the most influential winemaker in Napa Valley history, in the 1960s the Chappellet family found their new home on Pritchard Hill, an extinct volcano looming over Napa valley to the East of Rutherford. Here, they established the second post-Prohibition winery in Napa, following Robert Mondavi. Their first winemakers were the now-legendary Philip Togni followed by Cathy Corison, and their debut 1969 vintage is one of the most significant wines in the history of Californian viticulture: Robert Parker put it in the top five wines tasted over his whole career, while Antonio Galloni has said it is his favourite wine of all time, with both critics awarding it a total of nine perfect 100-point scores. Today the wines are made by Phillip Corallo-Titus, who trained under Corison and has been guiding the Chappellet wines through the cellar for the last three decades.
The Founders of Pritchard Hill
Chappellet was the first winery on Pritchard Hill, which is now one of the most sought-after locations for Cabernet Sauvignon in the entire state, boasting wineries such as Colgin, Continuum, Realm, and Ovid, alongside the founders Chappellet. Over 2,000 feet above sea level on rocky volcanic soils, the wines here are incredibly intense, with a firm tannic structure, luxurious body, and lingering freshness that Hugh Johnson OBE has explicitly compared to Château Latour. We thought the style was closer to Pomerol: there’s a supreme decadence to this wine, with the density and power recalling the great wines of the Right Bank – despite the different grape variety. This area, however, is tiny: the whole mountain holds under 430 acres of vineyards. In contrast, Latour alone covers 200. Pomerol as a whole covers nearly 2,000!
The Wines
"Heavenly Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon" Jeb Dunnuck
Signature Cabernet Sauvignon, Chappellet
A blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon with Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Petit Verdot, the Signature is the foundational wine of Chappellet. This is the wine that Don Chappellet aimed to sit alongside the great wines of Bordeaux. There is a clear old-world influence in this bottle, with a focus on earthy minerality and a slightly wild ferrous character intense, with the ripe blackcurrant and blueberry fruit wrapped around an intense savoury core. The price is quite remarkable – you won’t get more for your money anywhere else in Napa Valley.
96pts Jonathan Cristaldi, Decanter | “So youthful, with heady violets, pure blue fruit complemented by kirsch, and creme de cassis on the nose, and a balanced freshness nuanced by alluring toasty oak, espresso bean and vanillin. Full-bodied with blackberry, black cherry, spiced plums and plenty of fragrant, classic Pritchard Hill garrigue laced with a kind of cast iron pan minerality. Chocolatey tannins are velvety with a buoyancy and are nicely integrated. 3% Merlot rounds out the blend. It's worth having several bottles to experience now and over the next few decades.”
2019 | GBP 335 per 6x75cl
96pts Jonathan Cristaldi, Decanter | “It is a marvellously compact and coiled-up wine with a towering structure. Very beautifully fragrant dried purple flowers and herbs. Full-bodied with loads of succulent ripe blackberry, creme de cassis, graphite, and loamy earth. Very firm, tight-grained tannins form the base note of this wine, and the finish is long and rich in wild herbs and spices. Cellar worthy.”
95pts Jonathan Cristaldi, Decanter | “For the first few years it was incredibly floral with the brightest of violets, blackberry fruits, and blueberry nuanced by graphite, mineral, herbs, cacao powder and satiny tannins. But tasting it in December of 2023, secondary notes were just beginning to show. Gone were those bright, youthful violets, replaced by loamy earth, tobacco and sandalwood and that youthful blue fruit was now all blackcurrants. Medium to full bodied with a building richness on the palate. The tannins are feather-soft and very present and build along with the richness of the fruit on the palate, along with expressive minerality and a beautiful warming earthy quality balanced by freshness and lifted acidity. The long finish reveals more savoury nuances of unsmoked tobacco bacon fat, and white pepper. A real tour de force.”
Pritchard Hill Cabernet Sauvignon, Chappellet
First introduced in 1997, The Pritchard Hill Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the finest handful of blocks at the very upper edges of the Chappellet property. This is the platonic ideal of Napa Cab, with mind-boggling concentration and intensity that unfurls over hours in the glass. This wine brims with ripe damson, blueberry, and cassis, udnerpinned by a leathery, meaty savoury character, and older vintages developing inky iodine note. A good vintage of this wine will essentially live forever.
99pts Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent | “It leaps with vibrant scents of blackcurrant cordial, juicy black plums, and pencil lead giving way to hints of violets, charcoal, and iron ore. The full-bodied palate shimmers with vivacious black fruit flavors sparked by mineral and floral notes, supported by wonderfully velvety tannins and well-knit freshness, finishing with epic length and depth. This is stunning!”
99pts Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate | “The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Pritchard Hill is another wonderfully evocative triumph from this family-owned Pitchard Hill pioneer. Deep garnet-purple colored, it storms out of the glass with profound scents of crème de cassis, blackberry preserves, licorice and mulberries, plus hints of unsmoked cigars, wild sage and tar. The medium to full-bodied palate delivers fantastic intensity and great poise, offering fine-grained, ripe tannins and bold freshness, finishing long and mineral laced.”
99pts Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Wine Advocate | “The deep garnet-purple colored 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Pritchard Hill gives gregarious crème de cassis, baked blackberries, black cherry compote and mocha notes with touches of camphor, star anise, violets and oolong tea. Full-bodied and packing a rock-solid frame of grainy tannins, with great freshness supporting the powerful, muscular fruit, it finishes very, very long. This should live forever.”
Offered subject to remaining unsold. E & OE.
Estimated delivery 6-8 weeks.