Winemaker Notes
At the forefront of this wine, there is a distinctive note of wet stone, offering a pleasantly restrained reduction that sets the stage for a nuanced sensory journey. As the wine unfolds, it reveals a delicate bouquet of floral aromas, with hints of honeysuckle and gardenia imparting a graceful allure. Following suit are subtle yet enticing fruit notes, including the bright zest of lemon, the succulent sweetness of honeydew, and the luscious essence of yellow peach. Together, these layers create a beautifully orchestrated symphony of scents, delivering a well-balanced and intricate experience that captures the essence of both earth and blossom.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A refined and distinctive nose of ripe lemons, spiced apples, dried herbs, acacia, and light spies.. It’s medium-bodied with a well-rounded, fresh fruit profile on the palate. Green apple character with a lively finish. Wonderful complexity and freshness. 40% viognier, 37% marsanne, and 23% roussanne,
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Decanter
Lemon and lime zest, white peach, apricot, and jasmine, with white spring flowers on the palate. The wine is racy, offering generous textures of creamy orchard and stone fruits, yet never flabby, focused and delicate, with a prettiness that carries through to a chalky mineral finish. An exquisite white wine. Sourced from seven blocks around the Inglenook property in Rutherford and aged 8 months sur lies in stainless steel, new (28%) and neutral French oak and bottled in June of 2023.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2022 Blancaneaux is based on 42% Viognier, 33% Marsanne, and 25% Roussanne brought up in a mix of new and used barrels, as well as stainless steel. Ripe melon, lemon curd, and minty herbs all define the aromatics, and it brings a beautiful sense of richness, with solid concentration, integrated acidity, and outstanding length. It's going to shine over the coming 3-5 years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2022 Blancaneaux—a Rhône-inspired blend of Viognier, Marsanne and Roussanne—is made similarly to Inglenook's Sauvignon Blanc, with 60% made in stainless steel drums and the balance in oak puncheons. This vintage is less floral than usual, with more obvious oak. Scents of pear, marshmallow, melon and mocha all appear on the nose, while the medium-bodied palate is plump and appealing.
Full-bodied and flavorful, white Rhône blends originate from France’s Rhône Valley. Today these blends are also becoming popular in other regions. Typically some combination of Grenache Blanc, Marsanne, Roussanne and Viognier form the basis of a white Rhône blend with varying degrees of flexibility depending on the exact appellation. Somm Secret—In the Northern Rhône, blends of Marsanne and Roussanne are common but the south retains more variety. Marsanne, Roussanne as well as Bourboulenc, Clairette, Picpoul and Ugni Blanc are typical.
The Rutherford sub-region of Napa Valley centers on the town of Rutherford and covers some of Napa Valley’s finest vineyard real estate, spanning from the Mayacamas in the west, to the Vaca Mountains on the other side of the valley.
Inside of the Rutherford AVA, bordering the Mayacamas, is a stretch of uplands called the Rutherford Bench. (These bench lands technically run the length of Oakville as well). Mountain runoff creates deep, well-drained, alluvial soils on the bench, giving vine roots plenty of reason to permeate deep into the ground. The result is wine with great structure and complexity.
Rutherford Cabernet Sauvingons and Bordeaux Blends garner substantial attention for their enticing fragrances of dusty earth and dried herbs, broad and juicy mid-palates and lush and fine-grained tannins. The sub-appellation claims some of the valley’s most prized vineyards today, namely Caymus, Rubicon and Beckstoffer Georges III.
It is also home to Napa’s most influential and historic personalities. Thomas Rutherford, responsible for the appellation's name, made serious investments here in grape growing and wine production between the years of 1850 to 1880. Gustave Niebaum purchased a large swath of land and completed his winery in 1887, calling it “Inglenook.” Today this remains the oldest bonded winery in California. Georges Latour founded Beaulieu Vineyard in 1900, making it the oldest continuous winery in the state. Latour also hired the famous enologist, André Tchelistcheff, a man credited for single-handedly defining the modern Napa winemaking style.