Martha's Vineyard is nestled in the western foothills distantly overlooking historic To-Kalon Vineyard and

Beaulieu Vineyard #2, while just across the valley at the other end of the Oakville Cross Road, the famed Backus Vineyard climbs up a terraced hillside along the Silverado Trail.

The district is rich not only in wine, but also in wine lore and history. Hamilton Walker Crabb is recognized as the man who established Oakville as a premium winegrowing area. In 1868, he purchased a 240-acre parcel near the town of Oakville, and by 1877, could boast of 130 acres planted to the best vines available, which produced some 50,000 gallons of wine. He called his vineyard To-Kalon, Greek for "highest good" or "highest beauty." Today, that vineyard is the heart of the Oakville estate holdings of the Robert Mondavi Winery.

By 1880, once sleepy Oakville along the railroad tracks was bustling with activity as the center of a dynamic, new wine industry. There were 430 acres of wine grapes in the area, along with other pioneers. At the base of Oakville's western foothills, John Benson planted an 84-acre vineyard on his 400-acre estate called Far Niente, from the Italian phrase Dolce Far Niente ("How sweet it is to do nothing").

At the end of the wine boom in the early 1890s, the Oakville area was firmly established as one of California's superior wine districts. H.W. Crabb was being hailed by the Chicago Herald as the "Wine King of the Pacific Slope," and at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, his wines won eight awards, including one for his To-Kalon Hermitage, made from true French syrah.

All of this growth came crashing to a halt in 1920 with the advent of Prohibition, which killed the wine industry and reduced the vineyards to producing rustic, thick-skinned grapes that could withstand the rigors of shipment to home winemakers all across the country. It was not until the mid-1960s that the situation began to change for the better, primarily due to the efforts of Robert Mondavi in establishing his vineyards and winery just north of the Oakville Cross Road. By 1975, the Oakville area was largely planted again to premium varieties, chiefly cabernet sauvignon. Today, there are 5,000 acres under vine, representing about 14 percent of Napa Valley's total plantings.

For all its history, Oakville as an officially recognized appellation or viticultural area is a fairly recent development, following by about ten years the establishment of the Napa Valley appellation in 1983. The decision to grant official appellation status is made by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), the branch of the Treasury Department with jurisdiction over wine. Data supporting a proposed American Viticultural Area (AVA) is submitted by growers and vintners in a petition to the BATF, which then holds hearings and evaluates written and oral arguments pro and con to determine whether the proposed appellation designation should be granted. The petitioners must propose a name for the AVA and make a case showing that the area deserves separate status because it is locally or nationally known and possesses distinctive soil, climate, temperature, elevation and rainfall features.

The AVA creation process of the 1990s reflects a "small-is-beautiful" attitude of Napa Valley wineries as they seek to establish market position in the fast-approaching 21st Century. Not too long ago, the most important element on a Cabernet Sauvignon label, after the name of the producer and the varietal, was the designation "Napa Valley." With that cachet, regardless of whether the producer was well-known, the wine would enjoy a privileged market position as a product of California's best cabernet-producing area. Now, there is an effort by many wineries to carve out identities based on enclaves within the Napa Valley appellation, much as the French did with their Bordeaux appellation contrôlée system beginning in the mid-1930s.

Unlike the French system, however, the AVA system does not embrace the notions of the wine's level of quality or the varieties used in its vinification. Under guidelines issued in the late 1970s by the BATF, an appellation could be as basic as the political boundaries of the state or county where the wine grapes were grown or, if it could be shown that a particular area possessed growing conditions that distinguished it from surrounding areas, the appellation could be more precise and thus entitled to be designated as an AVA.

With that caveat firmly in mind, the wine drinker can nevertheless benefit to some degree from the AVA designations appearing on wine labels because they provide at least a shorthand sense of place, evoking memories of wines bearing the same geographical designation and reaffirming preferences for certain characteristics found in those wines.

To date, the Napa Valley floor, from just north of Yountville to just south of Calistoga, has been carved into four AVAs, each anchored to a town. The Oakville and Rutherford AVAs were officially recognized after considerable squabbling in 1993, the same year that Spring Mountain was granted its own AVA; the St. Helena AVA came into existence in 1995. These are the latest BATF-sanctioned Napa Valley appellations, coming on the heels of four others sanctioned since the Napa Valley AVA was recognized in 1983 (Carneros, 1983; Howell Mountain, 1984; Stags Leap District, 1989; Mount Veeder, 1990). It's quite likely that AVA status will eventually be bestowed on the Calistoga area, Diamond Mountain and the Yountville-Oak Knoll area, among others.

While the AVAs are still quite young and far from perfect, they are backed by regulations that specify minimum requirements for the contents of a bottle labeled as the product of a specific AVA. Thus, at least 85 percent of the grapes for an AVA-designated wine must come from the AVA, and if a vineyard is designated, 95 percent of the grapes must come from that vineyard. If it's labeled as a varietal, no less than 75 percent of the named varietal must come from the AVA. If the wine is labeled as "estate bottled," both the winery and its vineyard source must be in the specified AVA, and the winery must own or control the vineyard.

Most visitors to the Napa Valley come by car. Eventually, Oakville Winegrowers' road signs will inform travelers of the location of the district's boundaries when they cross the two main north-south arteries, the St. Helena Highway (Hwy. 29) on the west side of Napa Valley, and the Silverado Trail on the east side. Until then, here's what to look for: On Hwy. 29, traveling north, about one mile past Yountville on the right (east), Brix Restaurant to the left (west) is the first major landmark in the Oakville District, followed soon on the same side of the road by Mustard's Grill. The vineyards and wineries one sees on either side of Hwy. 29 for the next couple of miles are all within the district, the last one being Turnbull Wine Cellars on the right. The Rutherford District begins at nearby Cakebread Cellars on the right.

On the Silverado Trail, traveling south to north, the Yountville Cross Road roughly marks the southern boundary of the Oakville District.

The northern boundary is about three-and-a-half miles farther along the Silverado Trail at Skellenger Lane.

The wine lover is pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the Oakville District when traveling on the Oakville Cross Road, an east-west lane that intersects with Hwy. 29 at the landmark Oakville Grocery.

Climate

The Oakville District's climate is differentiated from other Napa Valley regions primarily because of its mid-valley location – it is southerly enough to be cooled by morning fog from San Pablo Bay to its south, but northerly enough to enjoy warm afternoon sunshine.

As one travels north in this coastal valley, the summer temperatures and total precipitation increase. Fog is produced by a combination of the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean and the warm, rising air of inland valleys. Cool, moist air that sweeps through the Golden Gate into San Francisco Bay continues north into San Pablo Bay and then moves inland to displace the rising warm air of the valley. Consequently, Oakville is, on average, one degree cooler than Rutherford, three degrees cooler than St. Helena and eight degrees cooler than Calistoga.

Soils & Geology

The Napa Valley appellation is unique for the diversity of soils found in such a small geographic area. Soils of volcanic, maritime and alluvial origin exist, each created by geological events that have occurred over a 60-million-year period. The valley

was formed by massive earthquakes that ripped and twisted the land, and by long-vanished volcanoes that spewed lava over land newly emerged from the ocean. Throughout this evolution, storms washed rocky debris down from the mountains in alluvial flows.

Alluvial activity and differences in the kinds of soil on either side of the Napa River, which bisects the Oakville District, account for the district's particular soil profile. Over time, water has flowed from the Mayacamas and Vaca mountain ranges to form alluvial fan deposits in Oakville. These gravelly, stratified soils extend from the mountain-valley break to the valley floor in a gentle, two-degree slope. At the Napa River, the fans merge with the river's own flood deposits. The sediments, which compose the fans, vary from fine clays and silts derived from the sedimentary parent bedrock, to cobble-size fragments.

Marine sedimentary rocks dominate the central Mayacamas Mountains on the west side of the valley, where small streams flow out from Mount St. John across Oakville's benchland, carrying bale loam and clay loam soils toward the Napa River. The soils of the east side of the district are chiefly volcanic in origin, often iron-enriched, which is evident from the reddish hue of the vineyards viewed from the Oakville Cross Road as it approaches the Silverado Trail.

"Most of Oakville's viticultural landscape is comprised of relatively well-drained, porous soils where cabernet sauvignon loves to grow," says Dennis Groth, president of Groth Vineyards & Winery. This combination of good drainage and gravelly soil allows rooting to depths of more than 100 feet, and is considered ideal for growing ultra-premium wine grapes. Indeed, "Oakville is the ideal area for the production of fine wines," says Dr. Deborah Elliott-Fisk, professor of enology at UC-Davis.

Are Appellations Valid?

Appellation validity was probed in-depth by winery principals and guest speakers in a lively seminar presented for the press and trade last October at Opus One. The event preceded the second annual "Oakville in October" tasting, at which growers and vintners of the Oakville Winegrowers presented barrel samples and current releases. A few months later, the Robert Mondavi Winery hosted a related, but broader program for the press and trade moderated by renowned British wine writer Hugh Johnson. Five veteran winemakers analyzed several of Napa Valley's existing and potential AVAs in an effort to substantiate the notion that appellation designation is valid and necessary.

Winemaker Tim Mondavi set the tone for both programs in recognizing in the Oakville seminar that while "terroir is fundamentally important, an appellation is a statement of origin and not a guarantee of quality." Groth's Winemaker Michael Weis also focused on the matter of quality, asserting that "the soul of the appellation is human talent," and that "the people of the Oakville appellation have an uncompromising passion for quality." Finally, after all of the soul-searching and sometimes tortured logic, Chateau Montelena Winemaker Bo Barrett seemed to distill the essence of the discussion when he observed that "appellation is at best a generalization – something that encourages a sense of expectations."

There are at least 20 wineries with vineyards physically located in the Oakville AVA, and most make a Cabernet Sauvignon or grow cabernet for a Bordeaux-style or other red blend. Some of these Cabs are pure Oakville fruit, while others incorporate fruit from other areas. A few wineries situated in the Oakville AVA rely entirely on fruit from other areas.

A number of wineries located outside the AVA have vineyards in Oakville or access to Oakville fruit for their Cab production.

Obviously, things are not as tidy here as in Bordeaux where, for example, all the wineries in the Pauillac appellation produce cabernet-based blends from their own grapes grown entirely within that appellation. It would be unthinkable for Pauillac's Château Lynch-Bages to use grapes from a vineyard in Margaux for its estate wine.

In trying to make sense of the Oakville appellation by examining the varietal that best represents the district, the focus here will be on Cabernet Sauvignon made entirely from Oakville fruit, or at least enough to qualify for the AVA designation. The wineries are grouped into three categories based on vineyard location within the district: valley-floor producers, benchland and those with hillside vineyards.

Across the board, these are wonderfully proportioned wines with bright, succulent fruit marked in most cases by an appealing minty or herbaceous character. Descriptors most commonly associated with Oakville District Cabs include muscular, substantial fruit reminiscent of black currants, blackberries and plum; masculine strength, as distinguished from the soft voluptuousness of Stags Leap District or the austerity of Howell Mountain; depth of power; leather; dried herbs (sage, thyme); green olive; bell pepper; eucalyptus; mint; evolved tannins.

Valley-Floor Producers

Most of the Oakville District's wineries are located in the appellation's valley-floor portion, which is essentially the area between Hwy. 29 and the Silverado Trail, although some may claim that the not-officially recognized "Oakville Bench" includes the acreage between Hwy. 29 east to the Napa River.

At the center of the Napa Valley, just east of the Napa River, Franciscan's Oakville Estate is at the core of the Oakville District.

Consisting of 240 acres, the vineyard is planted to cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc in deep, well-drained gravelly loam and clayish loam soils. A wonderful bargain at under $20, the Franciscan Oakville Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is characterized as a wine ready to drink on release, but with some aging potential. It is sometimes blended with cab franc and/or merlot, and displays a rich, velvety texture atop a frame of tannin and acidity that highlights rather than overwhelms. The flavors and aromas focus on ripe black cherry-currant fruit often accented by a dusty green olive note. This herbaceous character, sometimes forward, sometimes shy, is a fingerprint of Cabs from this part of the Oakville AVA.

Groth Vineyards & Winery is located on the Oakville Cross Road in a stunning, pink-hued, California mission-style production facility and visitor center that is enveloped by the 120-acre estate Oakcross Vineyard, of which 100 acres are planted to cabernet sauvignon, merlot and chardonnay. Groth also owns the 40-acre Hillview Vineyard located south of Yountville, which produces some of the merlot that goes into the estate Cabernet Sauvignons. Both a regular ($27) and a reserve bottling ($70) are produced, and can be characterized as exhibiting full, rich aromas and flavors redolent of ripe stone fruits and dark berries. The reserve, which is not made every year, comes from vineyard blocks where the grapes are allowed longer ripening time in order to intensify the rich, plummy, cherry-berry character. In most vintages, Groth Cabs exhibit a prominent herbaceous note of green olive, bell pepper or eucalyptus, which brings to mind great Médoc first growths, particularly Château Latour. This is the case with Groth's 1994 Cab Reserve, a wine from a cool vintage with long "hang time," which offers a very fragrant nose of minty herbaceousness atop cassis and black cherry fruit. In the mouth, the wine is round and luscious with generous, succulent black fruit accented by mild herbs, vanilla and cedar – a distinctive and impressive wine.

Groth's Oakcross Vineyard is an excellent example of the soil diversity that is a distinguishing characteristic of the AVA. The western portion of the vineyard, which contains the reserve cabernet block, consists of well-drained pebbly-rocky soil of the Clear Lake sandy loam variety, while the eastern portion, which contains a block of cabernet sauvignon that produces consistently high-quality fruit, is Clear Lake clay.

Oakville Bench Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon is a "boutique" wine made at a custom-crush winery by grower Robb Rossell from grapes grown on his 27-acre vineyard on the east side of Hwy. 29 near the Robert Pepi Winery. Priced at about $15 per bottle, the 500-case production is marketed only in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Europe, and is released only after several years of bottle aging. The current release, from the 1991 vintage, offers deep, floral aromas of cassis and violets without any hint of mint or herbaceousness, and flavors of cassis, spice and shy tobacco. The sturdy tannins argue for more cellaring. (The 1992 release will soon find its way to the shelves of the North Berkeley Wine Co., 800-266-6585.)

Located on the east side of Hwy. 29 just north of the Oakville Cross Road, Opus One, a joint venture between Robert Mondavi and Baroness Philippine de Rothschild of Château Mouton-Rothschild, occupies a spectacular, colonnaded masterpiece of a building that appears to grow out of the earth because of its berm construction. The winery edifice blends in with its landscape in such a way that it is difficult to discern from the surrounding 100-acre vineyard.

A combination of the style and philosophy of the two great winegrowing families, Opus One is marketed as a Bordeaux blend, rather than as Cabernet Sauvignon, but it always contains more than enough of the variety to qualify as Cabernet. For example, the 1994 Opus One ($90) – undoubtedly the best since the first vintage of 1979, having benefited considerably from the longest, coolest growing season recorded in the Napa Valley in the last decade – is composed of 93 percent cabernet sauvignon, 4 percent cabernet franc, 2 percent merlot and 1 percent malbec. It offers a glorious nose of cassis and black cherry fruit, tobacco leaf and mildly minty herbaceousness, shy black pepper, anise and cinnamon-clove spice, accented by subtle notes of warm earth and leather. Smooth and supple in the mouth with ripe, velvety tannins, the vibrant, well-integrated flavors focus on black fruits, green olive, tobacco leaf and vanillin oak. While it is distinctly Oakville in character, the French streak in this wine is a mile wide.

PlumpJack Winery is located just east of the Groth winery on the Oakville Cross Road in what used to be the winemaking facilities of Villa Mt. Eden Winery. (Mt. Eden has relocated to larger premises at Conn Creek.) The venture of an investment group that includes San Franciscans Gavin Newsom, Gordon Getty and his son, Bill, the extensively renovated winery opened late last year, and is committed to the production of ultra-premium estate Cabernet Sauvignon. Veteran Oakville Winemaker Nils Venge is the steadying pillar of tradition among the "twentysomethings" at the winery and is right at home here. He was the winemaker for Villa Mt. Eden in the mid-1970s, and then went on to open Groth with Dennis Groth in 1982, leaving in 1994 to devote more time to his own brands – Saddleback Cellars and Venge Vineyards – and to consult as winemaker for a number of wineries, including PlumpJack, Del Dotto, Moss Creek and the Robert Keenan Winery.

PlumpJack is surrounded by more than 50 acres of some of Oakville's finest cabernet vineyards in the eastern portion of the AVA where the soils are primarily red clay and rich in minerals, especially iron, with a significant amount of riverbed gravel in the mix. "This promotes good drainage and allows the vines to produce fruit with an ideal skin-to-pulp ratio," says General Manager Robin Hart.

The regular ($30) and reserve ($65) PlumpJack Cabernet Sauvignons from the 1995 vintage are truly exciting and impressive, although in tight supply. Both are intensely concentrated with moderate tannins and display distinct terroir characteristics. The more available regular bottling (1,000 cases) is a single-lot 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon from select vines that was aged in new French oak for 18 months. There is a hint of green olive in the nose, which also offers peppery spice and ripe cassis. The flavors are complex and rich, with the green olive coming through the ripe cassis fruit. The reserve (500 cases), also a single lot, 100 percent Cab, was aged 22 months in new French oak, and is unbelievably twice the wine of the regular: enormous, extracted and intense with a bright core of blueberry showing through the green olive and cassis elements.

Saddleback Cellars is located just west of Groth, off the Oakville Cross Road on Money Road. Here, Nils Venge has 15 acres of estate grapes, 7.5 of which are cabernet. Up through the sold out 1994 vintage, Saddleback Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon was reminiscent of the style Venge produced for Groth, but with less evident herbaceousness and chewier textures. The vineyard is currently undergoing a replanting program, and should come back on line in the next couple of years.

Screaming Eagle, bonded in 1988, is already a legendary Cabernet, all but impossible for the average mortal to acquire. The beautiful boutique winery consists of a small stone building on owner Jean Phillips' 73-acre, valley-floor ranch located near the Oakville Cross Road on the east side of the Oakville AVA. One very special, extremely rocky acre of the vineyard is the source of Screaming Eagle, which Phillips makes with the wise counsel of consulting enologist Heidi Peterson Barrett. The 1994 vintage ($75; 225 cases) was released in October 1997, and has long since been snapped up. It offers an exotic nose of sandalwood and cedar mingled with vanilla and cassis. Luscious, smooth and silky, this is a Cab of incredible depth and finesse. There will be 500 cases of the 1995.

At the northern edge of the Oakville AVA, just north of Opus One on Hwy. 29, Turnbull Wine Cellars (formerly Johnson-Turnbull) is a dynamic, high-quality property that is verging on superstar status under new ownership and with a new winemaker. With 145 acres of estate vineyards in four separate locations completely within the Oakville appellation, Winemaker Jon Engelskirger has a broad spectrum of terroir from which to produce his Cab – from sun-drenched valley floor to rugged and rocky hillsides. This diversity of vineyard sources has dimmed the overtly minty character of past bottlings that had led to Johnson-Turnbull's sobriquet "poor man's Martha's Vineyard."

The 1995 Turnbull Cabernet ($22) is blended with 8 percent cab franc and 2 percent merlot from four estate vineyards and offers a fruity nose of cassis and black cherry with an intriguing hint of dried herbs. Rich, plump, juicy and luscious in the mouth, the generous flavors replicate the nose, finishing with a mild, dried-herb note. The sold out 1994 displays lots of toasty oak, cinnamon-clove spice and some blueberry along with black fruits on the palate. Turnbull Wine Cellars is a winery to watch.

Both Flora Springs and Rudd Estate (formerly Girard Winery) have valley-floor vineyards in Oakville, but, because of replanting, will not offer a district-designated Cab until after the turn of the century. Steve Girard, who remains active in the Rudd operation, considers Oakville's eastern vineyard area along the Silverado Trail the "tenderloin between the top of the hill and the valley floor."

Here, because of the brick-red, iron-rich soils, "mint gives way to a blueberry characteristic in the Cabs," he observes.

Benchland Producers

The initial 1989 petition to the BATF proposed both an Oakville AVA and an Oakville Bench AVA, the latter to consist of the western part of the district from the Napa River to the Mayacamas foothills, which is home to Oakville's most famous vineyards – Martha's and To-Kalon. Fierce opposition from powerful Oakville growers and vintners whose properties would be excluded from the "bench" threatened to scuttle the entire project. In the end, the bench AVA proposal was withdrawn in return for support for the district as a whole.

Martha's Vineyard is about 1.5 miles west of Oakville and consists of 40 acres originally planted between 1964 and the early 1970s. In 1966, Joe Heitz bottled the first Martha's Vineyard Cab and has had exclusive rights to the fruit ever since. Greatness is no defense against the phylloxera louse, however, and the vineyard had to be replanted in 1993, which took it out of production through 1995. There should be a 1996 Martha's, but it won't be released until 2001, after spending the usual 42 months in oak and aging one year in bottle. The characteristic mintiness should still be evident, but young vines can't produce wines of great concentration. I found the 1992 Heitz Martha's ($68), the last wine from the old vines, quite tannic and austere with iodine and printer's ink scents masking any mint in the nose. Other tasters have found the wine fragrant and supple. Perhaps bottle variation is the culprit.

The magnificently restored Far Niente Winery is situated about one mile west of Hwy. 29 off the Oakville Grade amid the superb, 100-acre Stelling Vineyard. The cab, merlot and cab franc planted in this estate vineyard benefit from an unusual combination of factors: excellent drainage of both water and air, a special microclimate at the interface of the Mayacamas Mountains and the valley, and excellent gravelly loam soil, resulting in a characteristically rich, concentrated, complex wine with a soft structure when young, which becomes silky with aging. The 1995 Far Niente Cabernet ($70) is blended with 14 percent cab franc and 5 percent merlot and offers very fragrant aromas of ripe blackberries and cassis, toasty oak and an intriguing, dusty-leathery component. On the palate, the wine is powerful and intense with medium-full tannins, exhibiting opulent cassis and blackberry fruit, along with a chocolaty note and mild herbaceousness.

The 550-acre To-Kalon Vineyard surrounding the Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville is the primary source for Mondavi's Reserve Cabernet, as well as the Oakville-designated Cab, both of which often exhibit the minty quality that is characteristic of much of the Oakville AVA. In some bottlings of the reserve, one can also often detect the same dusty-leathery scent that appears in the Far Niente Cab. The 1994 Mondavi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ($40) was blended with 4 percent each merlot and cabernet franc, and 63 percent of the grapes came from the Oakville District, more than half from To-Kalon. The wine offers deep, fragrant aromas of cassis with a hint of warm earth and leather. In the mouth, it is supple and succulent, with fine complexity and concentration, and flavors that replicate the nose. The 1994 Mondavi Oakville Cabernet ($28) is almost as rich as the more expensive reserve, offering violets and ripe berry fruit in the nose and luscious fruit on the palate.

The 55-acre Paradigm Vineyard lies about .5 miles west of Hwy. 29 off Dwyer Road. Winemaker Heidi Peterson Barrett has access to some wonderful fruit for the Paradigm Cabernet, which in style is somewhere between lush Far Niente and well-defined Mondavi Oakville Cab. The 1994 Paradigm Cabernet Sauvignon ($30) is an intense wine that offers fragrant aromas of sweet vanillin oak, cedar, berry-cassis and plum, accented by hints of chocolate. Spicy, vibrant black fruits on the palate are concentrated and rich, and the tannin structure promises good aging potential.

Hillside Producers

The wines from the hills framing the Oakville District on the east and west are clearly distinguishable from those made from valley-floor and benchland fruit. The minty, herbaceous character is not a major factor here, and the Cabs tend toward the big and brawny, rather than succulent and fruity. Nevertheless, their strength is analogous to a bodybuilder in a tuxedo, for there is suppleness here along with intensity.

While it is outside the scope of this survey because it ordinarily doesn't contain the minimum 75 percent cabernet sauvignon to be designated as a varietal Cab, the Harlan Estate red Bordeaux blend should not be overlooked by the Cab lover, as it is every bit as powerful and intense as wines made of 100 percent hillside cabernet fruit.

Oakford Vineyards is a tiny property consisting of eight acres of cabernet sauvignon in the western hills near Harlan Estate. Heidi Peterson Barrett also makes the wine here, some 1,000 cases of 100 percent cabernet sauvignon, which is one of the most rugged of the Oakville District's Cabs.

High up on the mountain slopes above the Silverado Trail east of Oakville, Dalla Valle Vineyards has 25 acres of vineyards planted to cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and sangiovese. The reddish-brown soil of the low-yielding vineyards is comprised of a high percentage of fractured rock of volcanic origin, and ground fractures are filled with clay loam and clay soil, providing a pathway for the vine roots. At an elevation of 400 feet above the valley floor, the vineyards get excellent solar exposure and are blessed with a cool breeze blowing north from San Francisco Bay, which helps reduce high summertime temperatures, especially at night.

While Dalla Valle Maya ($80), a proprietary blend of 55 percent cabernet sauvignon and 45 percent cabernet franc is the winery's most sought-after wine, the Cabernet Sauvignon bottling is certainly worth seeking out for its vibrant varietal fruit. The 1994 Dalla Valle Cabernet Sauvignon ($40) offers forward, profoundly aromatic scents of cassis, cedar and anise, which are replicated on the palate, where the smooth, elegant texture and deeply concentrated fruit are most impressive.

Oakville Ranch Vineyards owns 334 acres some 1,200 feet above the Silverado Trail overlooking Dalla Valle. Fifty-six acres of rocky, volcanic soil are planted mostly to cabernet sauvignon, which talented Winemaker Joe Cafaro turns into intense, complex wine at the modern, state-of-the-art winery on the east side of the Silverado Trail midway between the Oakville Cross Road and Skellenger Lane. The 1995 Oakville Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon ($35) is a big, concentrated wine with medium-full tannins that offers rich blackberry, cherry and plum flavors laced with cedary oak. A couple years of aging are needed.

Joseph Phelps has been making Cabernet from the seven-acre, terraced Backus Vineyard since the 1970s, and last year purchased this remarkable property in the foothills of the arid Vaca Mountain Range. Always comparatively rough-hewn, these hillside Cabs are powerful and chunky, as illustrated by the 1994 Joseph Phelps Backus Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon ($70), a deeply fruited wine with gobs of black cherry and cassis balanced by chewy tannins, enhanced by vanilla and, atypically for this part of the district, a minty undertone.

Vine Cliff Winery is located on a rugged, 100-acre parcel in the eastern hills of the Oakville District that was part of the original George C. Yount estate and the site of a winery established in 1871 of the same name. Estate cabernet sauvignon is planted on 21 acres of terraced hillside vineyards, which are separated into eight different blocks based on soil type and solar exposure. The Cab style here is full and rich with lively fruit and relaxed tannins. The 1994 Vine Cliff Oakville Estate Cabernet Sauvignon ($36) offers ripe, luscious cassis, blackberry-black cherry fruit supported by medium-full tannins and accented by an appealing, warm earthiness.

While some may argue that the American appellation system is inferior to the French system because it doesn't necessarily guarantee quality and provides no restrictions on the varietals that may be planted, the picture painted by Oakville-AVA-designated Cabernet Sauvignons argues strongly that in a growing area as well defined historically and geographically as Oakville – or Rutherford or Stags Leap District, for that matter – these perceived deficiencies are of little or no consequence. Market forces will compel wineries with vineyard sources within the appellation to focus on the varietals that excel in the appellation and to turn that fruit into wine of the highest quality. And in Oakville, quality winemaking comes with the territory.

Oakville Winegrowers

Oakville Winery Members: Cosentino Winery, Dalla Valle Vineyards, Far Niente Winery, Flora Springs Wine Co., Franciscan Oakville Estate, Groth Vineyards & Winery, Harlan Estate, Joseph Phelps Vineyards, La Famiglia di Robert Mondavi, Martha's Vineyard, Napa Wine Co., Oakford Vineyards, Oakville Bench Cellars, Oakville Ranch Vineyards & Winery, Opus One, Paradigm, PlumpJack Winery, Robert Mondavi Winery, Rudd Estate, Screaming Eagle, Sterling Vineyards, Swanson Vineyards, Turnbull Wine Cellars, Vine Cliff Winery

Oakville Grower Members: D'Ambrosio Vineyards, Gargiulo Vineyard, Holmes Vineyard, Hoopes Ranch, Las Piedras Casanova, Lyon Vineyard, M.Bar Ranch Vineyards, Nickel & Nickel, O'Shaughnessy Vineyard, Pedregal Vineyards, Rodeno Vineyards, Saunders' Vineyards, Spencer Vineyards, Stanton Vineyards, Stelling Vineyards, Teaderman Vineyards, The Oliver Vineyard, Tierra Roja Vineyard, To-Kalon Vineyard, Traina Vineyards, Vine Hill Ranch, Vyborny Game Farm

Contributing Editor Steve Pitcher is a freelance wine writer whose "Vintner's Choice" column appears regularly on the Internet in "Sally's Place" (www.bpe.com). Based in San Francisco, he is vice president of the Vintners Club and president of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the German Wine Society.