One of the premier wineries in Napa Valley is Trefethen. Their exceptional Head Winemaker is Swiss-born Peter Luthi. He arrived at Trefethen 24 years ago and quickly became one of the leading men in the business of wine. Since Luthi became Trefethen’s Head Winemaker in 1985, he has perfected the sophisticated style and exceptional flavors of the Trefethen wines. His award-winning Cabernet has won mouths and hearts of wine tasters everywhere.
For the past 18 years, Luthi has been devoted to making the best possible Cabernet Sauvignon in California from Trefethen’s grapes, and wine enthusiasts have rewarded his efforts with several mentions of his wine in their magazine columns. One reviewer declared the wine one of the “Top 100 Wines,” and Wine and Spirits named Luthi’s 1997 HaLo Cabernet Sauvignon one of the “Top 10 Cabernets of the Year.” His HaLo Cabernet Sauvignon is now Trefethen’s signature wine. The winery could not have chosen a better calling card, or a better Head Winemaker. Talented winemakers in Napa Valley do not usually stay at one winery for any length of time, but Peter Luthi has been at Trefethen for 22 years. He has become a fixture of Trefethen, and he is not likely to leave Trefethen, which is one of the largest private wineries in the California wine country under singular ownership. In his years at the winery, Luthi has grown comfortable with the rhythms of the seasons, the landscape, and the soil of Oak Knoll District. He knows the grapes fully, and the terroir has become a part of him.
Oak Knoll is one of the few places in Napa Valley that can grow Luthi’s distinct Cabernet, Trefethen’s flagship wine, because of the reliable heat. The warm weather of the sub-region of Napa is a perfect climate for growing Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and also Pinot Noir, but Oak Knoll is also not too warm for the world's most popular white wine and one of Napa’s best sellers: Chardonnay. The spring marine breezes creates a cool spring for the area, but soil variations in the Oak Knoll, which heat faster than other soil types, allow early ripening for Cabernet and Merlot and, consequently, a full maturity of the grapes before the season’s end. The area’s relative closeness to the ocean creates mild and high humidity springs, a combination that is essential to the preservation of aromatics.
Trefethen currently produces 70 thousand cases of wine a year under Luthi’s direction, and the winery owes their greatest successes to Peter Luthi and his master winemaking skills, which have brought the company to the attention of wine drinkers around the world.
