Rewa Vineyards. Originally called Blue Oak Hill, named from the numerous old oak trees that grow on site, this coveted knoll and surrounding property was acquired by Gajendra Singh Sareen (GS for short) in 2012. The site is Coombsville, just east of downtown Napa.
GS was born in Madhya Pradesh, India. In the 1990s he become involved in the tire business and in 2000 launched mindtrac.com (focusing on tire and battery sales) but eventually moved to Singapore (his current home base) where in 2003, he founded Omni International, a now sizable tire manufacturer and distributor.
A long-time collector of primarily Bordeaux and Burgundian wines, GS would often visit ‘wine country’ during his various business trips. During one such trip, he met up with one of his friends (also a collector) who lives in the Napa Valley. They began to discuss purchasing vineyard or winery properties in France but realized as someone who comes from outside the business, it made more sense to purchase land in the Napa Valley.
His property in Coombsville was the first parcel that his real estate agent showed him – he was immediately moved by the gorgeous views from the property – it is easy to see why with memorable vistas from the top of the knoll (about 400 feet in elevation) overlooking 360 degrees of gentle rolling vineyard covered hills. And on a clear day one can easily see the San Pablo Bay to the south and all the way up to Mt. St. Helena, anchoring the northern part of the Napa Valley. He named the vineyard and the wines after his wife, Rewa.
The site is special with its rich geological history and diversity of exposures. Coombsville used to be part of a volcano’s caldera (at one point, a crater lake covered what is now the Rewa property). Soils include volcanic tuff and ancient river washed and rounded cobble. The vineyards take advantage of the cooling marine breezes blowing in from the south and the accompanying fog in the mornings – usually burning off by late morning during the growing season.
The property had already been planted to vines previously, but no wine was made by the prior owner rather the grapes were sold to several Napa Valley based producers. Of the 43 total acres, about 30 acres are planted to vines with two distinctive parts of the property – vines on the eastern side of the knoll and vines on the western side. The Cabernet Sauvignon planted on the east facing side (a cooler part of the property) is sold to several producers; this section is also planted to a small block of Sauvignon Blanc. All the Cabernet Sauvignon for the Rewa wines comes exclusively from the western side of the property where Merlot and Malbec also grow. And another several acre parcel, with volcanic soils similar to those found on Pritchard Hill, and according to Estate Director Anthony Washington – are among the best soils on the property. This block may be partially planted someday.
From a vineyard perspective, this is a valuable part of Coombsville; nearby neighbors include Meteor Vineyard, Sodaro Estate and a very short distance down the road, Farella Vineyard. A part of their viticulture and winemaking A Team for many years was viticulturist, Michael Wolf. He was already family with this vineyard prior to GS purchasing the property – and has overseen the next-door vineyards for Meteor since their inception.
The property is currently managed by Mike Wolf Vineyard Management Company; Mike Wolf has since retired and sold his business to Domenick Bianco, former head viticulturist for Joseph Phelps’ properties in both Napa Valley and Sonoma County.
Michael was born in New York City and grew up just outside of the city. Viticulture was not a part of his formative years – he graduated with a history degree at Alfred University. He first moved to California in 1972 – to Mendocino County as a farm worker helping manage pears, prunes and grapes. Eventually he oversaw vineyard operations at Juliana Ranch in Pope Valley (one of Napa’s larger vineyard sites) and in 1994 took a job managing 500 acres for Beckstoffer Vineyards. He branched out on his own in 1997 and formed Michael Wolf Vineyard Services. One of his early clients was Vine Hill Ranch.
Today Mike oversees approximately 500 acres in the Napa Valley and has managed or is managing vineyards for BOND (Vecina), Lewis Cellars, Meteor Vineyards, Scarecrow, and Vineyard 29. And he has also worked with some of the top winemakers in the valley including Celia Welch, Philippe Melka, Bob Levy and Andy Erickson.
In 2015, Mike was awarded Grower of the Year by the Napa Grape Growers Association.
Wine was made from the property in 2013 and 2014 but was never bottled under Rewa. In 2015 GS and Michael decided to produce wine commercially from the property – and with Michael’s suggestion, Celia Welch was hired as their winemaker. She specializes in consulting for ultra-premium wineries and is well known throughout the valley for her attention to detail and work with premium vineyard sites. She has been making wine in the valley for more than 30 years and has consulted for select clients over the years including Scarecrow.
Born and raised in Medford, Oregon – her introduction to wine came early through her fathers’ passion for wine. He was a home winemaker and collector, and she grew up helping him make wine. Her first introduction to the Napa Valley was in the 1960’s during trips with her family. She graduated from UC Davis in 1982 with a degree B.S. degree in Fermentation Science at a time when a number of now prominent women winemakers were enrolled including Pam Starr and Heidi Peterson Barrett and others who work in Napa and beyond.
Continuing her education after graduating, she embarked in extensive travels through a number of wine regions including domestically in the Pacific Northwest, the East Coast and then New Zealand – finally working in the Barossa Valley in Australia. She then moved to the Napa Valley and worked at a number of wineries including Silverado Vineyards in 1987, was assistant winemaker at Robert Pepi Winery (now the home of Cardinale) and began her consulting career in 1992 for Staglin Family Winery.
Her focus of consulting is generally for premium producers who own their own vineyards (rather than labels who source fruit) – often (but not always) from hillside locations in the valley. And her work has been highly recognized throughout the industry – in 2008 she was named Winemaker of the Year by Food and Wine Magazine and has been inducted into the Winemakers Hall of Fame through the organization, Women for Winesense.
Select Wines
Sauvignon Blanc
The 2023 Rewa Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc is medium straw in color; it’s aromatics are bright, refreshing and smell like spring florals. These include scents of citrus blossom, jasmine, kaffir lime zest, passion fruit, green apple, pomelo and grapefruit. As it evolves, additional aromatics are expressed, including of apricot, vanilla and honeysuckle. We love the fact its aromatics show the herbal typicity of the variety, but are not green or grassy. This wine tastes like white nectarine, pineapple guava, white peach, apricot, Asian pear, comise pear and apples. Richly flavored yet also balanced, the palate is held high by its refreshing acidity. This wine never crosses into the extreme territory often expressed by this variety, rather it is saddled somewhere right in the middle. Beautiful.
The 2019 Rewa Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc was fermented in both concrete vessels and stainless-steel tanks (about 50% of each) with aging in neutral oak (with battonage) and stainless steel. About 10% of the wine is Sauvignon Musqué. The musqué clone helps contribute the beautiful floral aromatics. Medium golden in the glass shows aromas of honeysuckle and citrus blossom. And as it continues to open further, it reveals additional nuances of honeycomb and more floral notes. Skillfully crafted, this wine’s balance is a noteworthy component. The palate offers some minerality nuances, flavors of mandarin and red apple. This wine is intensely flavored with a long finish.
And in 2019 a small part of their Sauvignon Blanc developed botrytis; these grapes were vinified separately to make the first ever Rewa late harvest Sauvignon Blanc.
Khanda
In 2018, an accompanying wine, Khanda was introduced to the Rewa portfolio.
The 2022 REWA Vineyards “Khanda” Red Wine is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Malbec. This wine is deep ruby and nearly opaque; elegant, its scents are a compelling union of floral and dark fruits. These include violets, lilac, lavender, dried sage, a brambly character, dark cherry, black plum, boysenberry, blackberry, Persian mulberry, coffee grinds, chocolate and an allspice. Filled to the brim with both spices and fruit, the palate tastes like dark plum, dark cherry, boysenberry, blackberry and plum. This wine is loaded with an uncharacteristic complexity uncommon to this particular vintage from Napa Valley. And this bottling is highly age worthy. Its texture features grainy and gritty tannins, which pace the fruit for quite some time on the extended finish. And plenty of persistent dryness. Big. Beautiful. And filled with energy.
The 2019 Rewa Vineyards “Khanda” is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Malbec. Individual lots were harvested, fermented and aged separated in French oak barrels for about 10 months. At this point the final blend was created and the resulting wine was aged for another 12 months in barrel before being bottled. It is nearly opaque and deep ruby in color; the nose offers darkly fruited aromatics including of plum, blackberry and boysenberry. It offers a certain ripe character but stays on the side of being over ripe. Its scents are clearly focused on the fruit with some additional aromas found deeper in the bouquet including violets, dark chocolate, cardamom and a sweet note of ginger snaps. The dense feel of the tannins are one of this wine’s hallmarks; their grainy and pixelated texture anchors a deeply layered primarily red-fruited palate both in terms of flavor and structure. This age worthy showing lingers with long-lasting tannins and a dusty/dry finish. The name Khanda is a symbol of the Sikh faith.
Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2021 Rewa Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon (100% varietal) is deep ruby and opaque; the bouquet is focused on its core expression of fruit with its oak, aging a complementary and supporting character. Its aromatics include dark cherry, dark raspberry, freshly picked blackberry, boysenberry, cassis and mocha. The lively thread of acidity will provide the connection that keeps the Wine aging gracefully for years to come. Or maybe we should say, several decades. The palate is dark fruited, bright and especially savory with flavors of crushed pepper, smoked sage, dried bay leaf, smoked and or cured meats, a brambly character and dark plum. The tannins fully coat the palate with their firmly gripping and long, lasting dusty character. Impressive. A big boy. Bring on a thick and well marbled, medium rare, juicy tenderloin steak please.
The 2017 Rewa Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon )100% varietal) is deep ruby and opaque; the nose is showing a light bottle bouquet eight years post vintage, our most recent tasting of this wine. Both upon release and at our later tasting, it shows riper than the 2016 vintage. Its sweetly, fruited scents include dark raspberry, cherry, boysenberry, blackberry, Mulberry and old cedar box. In terms of its aromatics, this wine is still incredibly fresh and bright at this age. Still lively like an energetic teenager, the palate offers flavors of blackberry, dark cherry, boysenberry and dark plum. It is savory with notes of dried herbs, a red fruit tartness, smoked cedar, crushed black peppercorn and a meaty attribute. This wine is still a baby. The firmly gripping and gritty tannins are highly pixelated and linger for quite some time with their still edgy texture. When we first tasted this wine we called their texture ‘tightly knit’. A well marbled Wagyu steak would be ideal companion.
The 2016 Rewa Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon (100% varietal) is a beautiful composition of place; this terroir driven wine showcases both the particular site and the variety. Dark ruby in color; one can almost smell the soil in the bouquet with aromatics showing an earthiness, dried tobacco leaf, dried herbs along with blackberry and blueberry. A note of chocolate is revealed as the wine opens further. Offers a noticeable density on the palate but without being heavy – flavors of black cherry and hints of cedar linger on the finish. Well integrated slightly gravely in feel tannins anchor a mouthwatering finish. This wine has a lot of life ahead of it.
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The image on the label is intriguing – at an initial glance one might think it may have been part of a tapestry. But in actuality, it is a representation of a pattern from a hilt of a sword. When GS was a child, his parents would take him to the National Museum of New Delhi and point out a particular sword – telling him that ‘this is your sword’. And from a heritage perspective this made perfect sense – GS is related to one of the Sikh’s most venerable military commanders, Hari Singh Nalwa whose sword was displayed in the museum. Hari Singh also served as governor of Kashmir, Peshawar and Hazara.
Production remains small usually around 500 cases of the Cabernet Sauvignon and under 200 cases of the Sauvignon Blanc. The wines are primarily sold through their allocation list with some distribution going to preferred retail and restaurant partners across a limited number of states. Locally select vintages may be found at the French Laundry and Press Restaurant. They also maintain limited distribution in the United Kingdom. And with GS’s friends in the world of golf, sometimes Rewa Vineyards participates in select golf related events and experiences.
For more information or to join the allocation list, please visit: www.rewavineyards.com
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