Keith Bentz: As a Stanford undergraduate, I spent my sophomore year in France at the university’s campus in Tours, in the Loire Valley, where some of France’s most celebrated white wines are produced. There, I fell in love with the Sauvignon Blancs that are the Loire Valley’s signature variety. For years, I dreamed of having my own vineyard and growing my own Sauvignon Blanc—but it always seemed out of reach.
But then, unexpectedly, the opportunity came to buy 40 acres of the historic Hardin Ranch in the eastern part of the Valley. So I jumped at the chance—because it was what I had always dreamed of: a wild steep forested hillside, a flat 13-acre field ideal for planting a vineyard, and a permit for building a reservoir for irrigation and frost protection.
With the land prepared, I had to make a critical decision: which variety of grapes to plant? Cabernet Sauvignon, like 60 percent of the growers in the Valley—or Sauvignon Blanc, as I had dreamed of for years? My friend Ron Sculatti, 4th generation Napa Valley resident, had a solution: let’s ask John Caldwell—the pioneering winemaker who first smuggled rootstock and clones from Bordeaux into California in 1982. Caldwell’s answer was undeniable. “With the microclimate at your vineyard,” he said, “you can grow a pretty good Cabernet Sauvignon. But you can grow a great—and I mean really great—Sauvignon Blanc.”
So we planted three clones of Sauvignon Blanc—and for years sold grapes to many of the best-known wineries in the Napa Valley, getting consistently rave reviews for the quality of our fruit.
Then, in 2020, Ron’s son Mario Sculatti, owner of Roam Wines and a highly skilled winemaker in his own right, came to me with a proposition: let’s create a premium Sauvignon Blanc of our own, sourced exclusively from grapes from your vineyard. So together with my son Adam, we created AURELIA, one of the only single vineyard Sauvignon Blancs from the Napa Valley—and we believe one of the finest expressions of the variety you’ll ever taste.
