Clos du Val Wine Company

Clos Du Val is a family-owned wine estate in Napa Valley, California. Located in the Stags Leap District AVA, it specializes in Cabernet Sauvignon, a favorite of the region. Clos du Val also has vineyards in Yountville and Caneros, the latter providing Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Owner John Goelet established Clos du Val in 1972, after looking for a site specifically suited to growing quality Cabernet Sauvignon. He bought vineyards in Stags Leap and made his first vintage in 1972, creating a wine that was pitted against some of France's finest in the 1976 Judgment of Paris tasting. Goelet also owns the Taltarni and Clover Hill wineries in Australia, and Domaine de Nizas in Languedoc, all under the Goelet Wine Estates title.

Cabernet Sauvignon occupies the vast majority of the Stags Leap site, but there are also small blocks of Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot. The Carneros vineyard was established as a site for the Burgundy varieties, and the State Lane Vineyard in Yountville was added and completely replanted with mostly Cabernet Sauvignon in 2002. None of Clos du Val's vineyards are tilled; instead permanent grass is planted in the mid-rows.

In 2012, Clos Du Val upgraded its winemaking facilities, while making changes to its viticulture and winemaking practices to make a more new world, fruit-forward style of wine. It began to harvest later in the season and reduced yields, and in the winery began to cold-soak the Cabernet grapes, added new filtration methods and increased the use of new oak. All of this was under the umbrella of shifting to using almost exclusively estate-grown fruit – a decision that reduced the production of Cabernet Sauvignon by almost 50 percent.