Far Niente

Far Niente takes its name from the Italian phrase dolce far niente, how sweet it is to do nothing. Founded in 1885, it flourished until Prohibition and was then abandoned for over sixty years before Gil Nickel bought it in 1979 and began a long restoration.

Prohibition is the great rupture in American wine. Between 1920 and 1933 commercial winemaking was effectively illegal, hundreds of wineries closed and vineyards were pulled up or replanted to thick-skinned grapes that could survive shipment for home winemaking. California took half a century to recover, and estates like this one, resurrected from ruins, are a large part of how it did.

The estate now farms 80 hectares across three Napa sites and makes only Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon under its own name, alongside Dolce, a botrytised sweet wine from Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc that is among the very few American wines made in the manner of Sauternes.