Leslie Rudd wasn’t just an entrepreneur; he was a creator. Originally from Wichita, Kansas, the son of a wine and spirits wholesaler, Leslie took the dramatic decision to move his family from Kansas to Napa Valley in the mid-1990s.

The Wizard of Napa

Like the Wizard descending on Oz, Rudd swiftly transformed the landscape of Napa, shaping some of the iconic landmarks that define Napa today: Dean & Deluca (now Gary’s Wine), The Oakville Grocery, Press Restaurant, and Rudd Estate in Oakville.

In 1996, Leslie Rudd purchased the well-placed Girard vineyard in the heart of Oakville, just off the Silverado Trail below Dalla Valle and neighboring Screaming Eagle. That year, the site was replanted to Bordeaux varieties, so the first vintage from Rudd Estate in Oakville was 2000. Currently, 48 acres are planted to vines here, although replanting occurred in 2018, and when I visited earlier this year, another section was being replanted.

Wanting a cooler area to produce white grapes, in 1999, Rudd purchased an 80-acre site on Mt. Veeder, which today not only makes an impressive Sauvignon Blanc/Sémillon blend but extraordinary reds.

Leslie Rudd sadly passed away in 2018, leaving the estate’s responsibility to his daughter Samantha. Samantha had spent a few years working at other estates, including Château Margaux in Bordeaux and Spottswoode in Napa Valley, before returning to Rudd Estate in 2015 to join her father. Since she has taken the reins, the changes have been subtle, such as embracing the estate’s organic and biodynamic viticultural practices more. In 2021, winemaker Frederick Ammons stepped aside to become a consultant for the estate, while Natalie Bath took over his position.

“We have a warm site,” Samantha mentioned during my visit in February. “And 2019 was a warm vintage, but we really wanted the site to tell the story. I didn’t want to highlight over-ripeness. In the 2019, I think you can really feel the shift that we know this land. Now it’s the tiny things we can concentrate on—the fine-tuning. I admire that my dad was in this for the long term, that he made a lot of changes and changed his mind a lot. He did this because he was looking to understand the land. Now, it’s so nice that it is the little things we can focus on because we know our land. My father was driven by constant improvement, almost to a fault. He was constantly challenging what was understood.”

I found Rudd Estate’s 2019 line-up bright, energetic, and nuanced. Simply delicious and with considerable aging potential, the 2019 Leslie’s Blend from the Mt. Veeder vineyard is a stand-out natural beauty. What I particularly love about this wine is its singularity, possessing a lot of muscle while revealing the earthier, more restrained side of Napa.

As for the 2020 vintage, Samantha said, “We will be blending and bottling some 2020 reds. We had product insurance, not crop, so we had to make the wine, and it turned out well for some of the barrels. Others were not used because of smoke taint.”