Adding to a stellar lineup of red wines, Terlato Wines and golf legend Jack Nicklaus and his family have proudly introduced the first white wine in the Jack Nicklaus Wines portfolio, the 2011 Nicklaus Private Reserve White Napa Valley.
The handcrafted white from California’s famed Napa Valley, made from a base of Sauvignon Blanc, arrives two years after the first Nicklaus wines burst on the scene in 2010. The limited production new white wine will initially be distributed in selected markets and nationally in 2013. Nicklaus said the white was a natural outgrowth of the successful introduction of the Nicklaus reds, a Cabernet Sauvignon and Private Reserve Bordeaux-style blend, both also from Napa.
“It’s something we’ve wanted to do and it complements the brand we’re building with the Terlatos, with the focus on giving people beautifully crafted, delicious wines,” Nicklaus said.
The vineyards for the 2011 Nicklaus Private Reserve Napa Valley white are hand-harvested at cool daybreak temperatures and whole-cluster pressed, helping to preserve aromatics of citrus, stone fruit and green apple. Using an innovative method, the wine is barrel fermented with a portion of the wine in French oak, and the balance fermented in stainless steel barriques. The wine undergoes six months of sur lies aging and several weeks of batonnage to build body.
The result is a wine that walks a delicate line between finesse and complexity, with lush fruit at the front palate followed by a rich and textured mid-palate and a long finish.
“We’re thrilled to add this wine to the Nicklaus portfolio,” Terlato Wines CEO William A. Terlato said. “It’s a wine that will appeal to our Nicklaus consumers, distributors and restaurateurs. After tasting the wine we know it will be every bit as well received as the reds.”
The success of Jack Nicklaus Wines was hardly a surprise given his family’s and the Terlato family’s shared lifelong pursuit of excellence and achievement in their respective fields. Development of the Jack Nicklaus Wines brand went forward in 2010 after Nicklaus and his sons, Jack II and Gary, visited the Terlato-owned vineyards in California to meet with TWI Chairman and Founder Anthony Terlato and his sons, Bill and John. They toured the Terlato-owned Chimney Rock and Rutherford Hill wineries. Building on their friendship, two highly praised wines emerged from the two days spent together in Napa Valley.
