I think if I could have any superpower it would be the ability to predict the future. First of all, I would have sold all of my stock at the top of the market last year, and then I would have more money to spend on the second thing I would do with my powers: Buy today what I know would mature into beautiful wines far into the future. Unfortunately, I do not have that power. Fortunately, thanks to Clos Du Val, I do not need it.

The future for Clos Du Val began back in 1970 when American businessman John Goelet sent French-born winemaker Bernard Portet off to find a place in the “new world” to produce first-rate wines. Portet eventually ended up in Napa Valley where, following a drive through the area with his arm out the car window, he decided that the diurnal swings and unique terroir of the Stags Leap District had the potential he was looking for. So in 1972, Goelet acquired 150 acres of land and founded Clos Du Val, literally “small estate of a small valley.” A short time later, he purchased an additional 180 acres of hillside land in the then-fledgling Carneros region for their chardonnay and pinot noir program.