Hard times have hit the wine industry, and sadly Robledo is one of the latest names to go into Chapter 11. 💔 And while that’s more a restructuring than a complete erasure of their existence, it still stings, because Robledo isn’t just a winery. They’re a true family-run “American Dream” winery started in the 1940s, and a pillar of California’s winemaking history. Part of that history is even sitting in the Smithsonian right now.

Today we have their Reserve as the feature, plus two more in the store.

So, when Robledo wines appeared on our radar, this one - Reynaldo Robledo’s 50th Harvest Napa Valley Reserve was an easy yes. $100 SRP. $30 here. That’s $70 OFF a Napa Valley Reserve Cabernet? Total no brainer. 💰

2018 marked harvest number FIFTY, and the family bottled this Reserve in his honor. Of all the years to hit that milestone, 2018 was a banner Napa vintage. One Wine Spectator rated 99 points.

There are fewer than a handful of Sonoma wineries we’d buy on name alone, and Robledo has always been on that very short list. Not just because the wines are really good, but because we know the Family traditions and experience of Robledo wines always delivers!

Reynaldo was 16 when he arrived from Michoacán, Mexico, 🇲🇽 in 1968, and the very next day he was working the vines at Christian Brothers in Napa. His father had already worked on American farms as a bracero.

Reynaldo stayed, learned the vineyard inside and out, and became one of wine country’s most respected vine grafters. ✂️ In 1982 he even traveled to Nice to teach his grafting techniques. Yes. In France. 🇫🇷

He bought his first 13 acres in Carneros in 1984. Then he and his family opened the first tasting room founded by former vineyard workers on their own land.

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has a permanent exhibition called FOOD: Transforming the American Table. Its wine section tells the story of how America became a wine nation. 🇺🇸

In that section you’ll find a winery notebook and tools from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars. You’ll also find a chair, a budding box, a budding knife and a black cowboy hat from the Robledo family. The hat is Reynaldo’s. 🤠

Why is it there? The museum’s curators set out to document the Mexican and Mexican American workers who planted, tended and harvested the grapes behind California wine. Their goal was also to show how some of those families went from working the fields to owning the winery. When the exhibition opened, the museum noted Robledo was one of only a handful of Mexican or Latino owned wineries in the state.

Spy Intel: 🕵️ The museum’s wine history project was launched by Warren and Barbara Winiarski from Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars whose Cab beat the French at the 1976 Judgment of Paris. In 2017 that same project brought the Robledos to Washington to share their story at its annual Winemakers Dinner.

Our take on this incredible wine… black currant everywhere! 🍷 The nose is concentrated and generous, with deep black currant and ripe dark plum and a little graphite running underneath. On the palate there’s plenty of fruit, held together by really good structure. Round, snappy tannins carry into a long finish. It’s drinking beautifully right now, and the 2018 vintage gives it the backbone to keep it going. It’s a great wine!

$100 SRP. $30 here 70% OFF Fifty harvests in one bottle. Raise a glass to Reynaldo, Ops. 🥂