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The story of Hunter Glenn Estate began over 75 years ago. The Shifflett family, led by Wade Sr. and Mimi Shifflett, first arrived in California's Napa Valley way back in 1942 after heading west from Iowa. They purchased a picturesque 120 acre ranch at the foot of the Mayacamas Mountains in what is now known as Napa Valley's Oak Knoll District. The property was used primarily for grazing and recreation for years, but in 1981 after seeing the wine industry boom around them the family took the plunge and planted wine grapes. Today the Shifflett Ranch is planted to 50 acres of Bordeaux and Rhone varieties and is utilized as a fruit source for many prestigious Napa producers.
The Shifflett family has taken their cracks at wine production over the years, but the fruit from their property has largely been sold for use by other wineries. Hunter Glenn, however, marks a divergence from that approach. Led by the fourth generation Napa team of brother and sister Jeffrey Jr. and Caroline Shifflett, Hunter Glenn Estate was founded with the goal of crafting world class wine using fruit from the Shifflett Ranch as well as a recently replanted 5 acre Hunter Glenn Estate property in Saint Helena. Generations of the Shifflett family's experience and expertise are finally converging under the Hunter Glenn Estate label to bring the world a taste of what this family and their beautiful properties are capable of.
We recently had the pleasure of meeting with Caroline Shifflett to tour both the Shiflett Ranch and Hunter Glenn Estate properties and to taste through Hunter Glenn's recently released wines. Our visit took us to the Shifflett Ranch property first on what turned out to be a gorgeous autumn day. We made our way up the long and winding driveway to the highest point on the estate to take in the scene. As advertised this charming property backs right up into the steep Mayacamas Mountains and contains some of the highest elevations and best views in Oak Knoll. We gazed out over endless rows of vines displaying brilliant orange, red, and yellow leaves. There is something so peaceful and serene about wine country in the fall - you can almost feel a sense of rest setting in now that the vines have shed their fruit and begun settling into dormancy. We spent a great deal of time traversing through the vines and taking in the scenery before making our way inside to taste through Hunter Glenn's wines.
Once inside we were guided by Caroline through a series of four wines: a Chardonnay, a Syrah, a Proprietary Red Blend, and a Cabernet Franc. These are among the very first releases under the Hunter Glenn label but thanks to the family's pedigree were already quite impressive. The Chardonnay was the only wine out of the bunch not sourced from a Shifflett-owned property, as fruit was brought in for this bottling from the Starscape Ranch Vineyard in Sonoma's Russian River Valley. Each wine in the profile was impressive, but the Cabernet Franc in particular stood out to us as a unique and captivating wine. It showed beautiful Napa ripeness while maintaining herbaceous Cab Franc typicity we've grown to love, and it was certainly one of the best California Cab Franc's we've experienced in recent memory.
Perhaps one of the most impressive items to note about the Hunter Glenn Estate lineup are the prices. Price tags on Napa wine seem to be rising every year, and most bottlings have now risen into a luxury price category reserved only for special occasions. In the Hunter Glenn lineup, however, bottles are priced primarily between $30-45. The only exception is their Cab Franc, with is listed at a still reasonable $80 per bottle. Affordable quality is a rarity in modern Napa and is possible here thanks to the Shifflett's longstanding presence in the area. We can see Hunter Glenn quickly making a name for themselves on the basis of the sheer value of their wine alone.
After tasting through Hunter Glenn's wines and trotting around the Shifflett Ranch property a bit more we moved over to visit the recently replanted Hunter Glenn Estate Vineyard. Although this young vineyard is currently waiting for its vines to mature and will not bear fruit for a few years the potential of the site is obvious. This valley floor vineyard is located near a number of highly sought after sites and will undoubtedly rise to cult-level quality as its vines take root. Thankfully for the Hunter Glenn team they have fruit from the wonderful Shifflett Ranch Vineyards to work with until their Saint Helena vineyard is fully ready.
At the conclusion of our visit we left extraordinarily impressed with the Shifflett family and with Hunter Glenn Estate. These guys and gals have worked tirelessly for years to grow high-quality fruit from some of Napa Valley's best vineyards and now are debuting their own remarkable wines. Not only is their quality on par with the best in the valley, but their price points are near-unbeatable. Pair competitively priced high quality wine with their gorgeously minimalistic labeling and these guys are destined for rapid success. Track down some Hunter Glenn Estate wine for yourself, or better yet pay them a visit on your next visit to Napa Valley. You'll be just as impressed as we were!
