Fodor's Expert Review St. Supéry Estate Vineyards & Winery

The French fashion company Chanel purchased St. Supéry in 2015, adding further glamour to this winery whose Rutherford vineyards surround its immaculate hospitality center and production facility. St. Supéry makes two widely distributed wines, a Sauvignon Blanc and a Cabernet Sauvignon, but most tastings revolve around limited-production efforts from the Rutherford property and the 1,500-acre Dollarhide Ranch on Howell Mountain. Hosts tailor sessions to guests' preferences, pouring, for instance, all whites or all reds. One of the latter tastings explores valley-floor and mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, another that varietal and four other Bordeaux grapes, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. Among the specialized experiences at this enthusiastic proponent of wine education is Aromatherapy with a Corkscrew, which involves blind sniffing and tasting to learn how to identify citrus, tropical, and other aromas in wines.