Brendel Young Leon Rose Sparking

Grignolino

Napa Valley, California

Brendel Wines produced their first vintage in 2019 and is part of Lawrence Wine Estates, a group of Napa Valley based wineries owned by proprietor Gaylon Lawrence including Burgess Cellars, Heitz Cellar, Ink Grade Estate, Stony Hill Vineyard and several other vineyard sites. Brendel’s namesake comes from Leon Brendel. Brendel was born in Alsace, France in 1884 into a family of winegrowers. In 1915 he moved to the state of Coahuila, in northern Mexico where he served as the wine chemist for the country’s president at the time, Francisco I. Madero (Madero Winery). Brendel founded his own wine brand bottled under the label Only One at what was Brendel Winery (site of the Heitz Cellar tasting salon across from Hall Winery). Old newspaper records indicated he also used the facilities at Freemark Abbey for crushing his own grapes but then used his winery for aging them. His wine brand was appropriately named because the only wine he produced was from Grignolino. In 1961 Brendel sold his property to Joe Heitz along Highway 29 just south of St. Helena, the location where Heitz Cellar was founded. Brendel passed in 1963 at age 79. But Heitz kept producing Grignolino.