Wine: An Eminent New Leader for a Cult Cabernet

(WSJ) - THE NAPA WINE community has been speculating for months about the intentions of Frédéric Engerer, the peripatetic CEO of Château Latour, who has been spotted prowling the valley with an acquisitive gleam in his eyes. I'd played the guessing game myself, and tried to get the debonair Mr. Engerer to drop a few hints when I dined with him in June at Harry's Bar in downtown New York, but all he would say was that the object of his affections was represented on Harry's voluminous wine list, which hardly narrowed the field. A month later, the announcement that François Pinault, the owner of Latour and Mr. Engerer's boss, had purchased Araujo Estate came as something of a surprise, since few had guessed it was for sale.

Latour is arguably Bordeaux's most illustrious wine, and Napa Valley winemakers have always had a bit of an Oedipus complex with regard to the motherland of Cabernet Sauvignon. Bart and Daphne Araujo's wine is often identified as one of the "cult" Cabernets—a group of boutique wineries that came to prominence in the 1990s with rich, ripe and supple Cabernets. But the Araujo Cabs were always a little more Old-World in style than their peers. While the others staked out new terrain on the hillsides above the valley, the Araujos took possession of the historic Eisele Vineyard.

First planted in 1886 and located on an alluvial fan in the northeastern corner of the valley, the vineyard was already celebrated for the quality of wines made from its grapes when the Araujos bought it in 1990. The Araujos have produced many sensational wines since, the 1994, 1995, 2001 and 2002 among my personal favorites. "We felt we were stewards of this amazing piece of land," Mr. Araujo told me after the sale. "And Château Latour was always the benchmark for us, even before we started making wine." This sentiment might seem like convenient hindsight, if not for Château Latour's unassailable eminence.