Keenan Winery

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Wine Varietals at Keenan Winery

January 3, 2018

Keenan Winery produces Bordeaux style wines of the following varietals:

Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Sauvignon 

Chardonnay 

Merlot

Syrah

Zinfandel

Proprietary Blends 

Experimental Wines

All wines
Keenan Cabernet

The following provides a retrospective look at these wine varietals and how each has evolved throughout the history of winemaking at the Keenan Winery estate in the world-famous Napa Valley, California. And if you’d prefer to skip the history and go straight to our online wine store, that’s fine by us too!

cabernet franc

Cabernet Franc

Cabernet Franc is literally the ‘old man’ of Bordeaux, being the genetic father of both Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, the two current stars of Bordeaux. And, like all right-thinking parents, his dream was to see his children surpass him in status.

Cabernet Sauvignon

It took us 25 years to master our growing and vinification techniques for our estate Cabernet Sauvignons. After replanting all of our estate Cabernet Sauvignon in the late 1990s, we switched from maximizing vine stress to maximizing soil health.

Cabernet Sauvignon
Keenan Chardonnary

Chardonnay

Our Chardonnay is 100% estate grown, a single vineyard mountain Chardonnay. We make it in the ‘original’ Napa style. (Back in the 70s, when we started making Chardonnay, everybody was making it in the ‘Burgundian’ style.)

Merlot

Our Spring Mountain, high-elevation terroir brings out the best in Merlot. In addition to the dark-cherry fruit core and ever-present round, velvety pleasure-giving qualities of all great Merlots, the mountain setting adds great structure, tannins, minerality and spice notes, which make our Merlots some of the best in the New World.

2014 merlot
Syrah

Syrah

Syrah is an amazing varietal that, unfortunately, hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. Because of that, it is gradually disappearing from Napa, being replaced by the more economically successful Cabernet Sauvignon. Syrah is the one grape that we do not grow at the estate, as it is not well suited for Spring Mountain.

Zinfandel

Zinfandel was actually the most planted varietal in Napa and certainly on Spring Mountain at the turn of the 19th century. Planted by mostly Italian immigrants, these wines were more savory and herbaceous than most of the Zins made today, which tend to lean to the sweeter and higher alcohol side.

Keenan-Secret-Wine-_0000_Keenan-Secret-Wine-Zinfandel-min-scaled

Proprietary Blends

We regularly produce two proprietary blends: The Keenan Mernet and the Keenan Summer Blend. Both are exceptionally popular and quickly sell out. Our Mernet (MERlot + CaberNET = Mernet) is highly acclaimed and a must-have. Our Summer Blend is in such demand that it always sells out at our annual Keenan Open House and never makes it to our online store (don’t shoot the messenger!)

Experimental Wines

Experimental is probably not quite the right word. Perhaps Extraordinary would be better. As in, well beyond the ordinary. For the full story, you’ll have to ask Reilly Keenan. But, in the meantime, suffice to say, these wines are produced with unusual grape varieties we grow in tiny quantities and/or one-of-a-kind concepts. The one thing you can be sure of: they are always mouth-wateringly delicious.

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