We scored every vineyard block in Napa Valley on what it is made of and how it sits: rock, slope, height, sun, water. No prices, no points, no names. The picture that comes back is not the one the labels tell.
Each block carries one score out of 10 for the place itself; the vintage is added when you name a year. Nothing you can buy moves a score: not a price, not a critic, not an owner.
The 6 hillside districts take the first 6 places, every one of them between 6.53 and 6.73. The famous floor appellations sit between 5.52 and 5.65. Howell Mountain's middle block scores 6.77; across 2,708 blocks in the celebrated floor districts, none gets there.
Calistoga runs from 4.11 to 7.10; Oakville from 3.89 to 6.66. The best block in a floor district outscores the mountain average. The worst sits below anything on a hillside. The name on the label narrows it less than you would think.
That is why a bottle gets scored on its block when we can place it there, and only falls back to the district when we cannot.
Most of Napa's vines, 6,038 blocks, stand on the gravels and silts the rivers left on the floor; they average 5.51. Blocks on the old volcanic rock average 6.40. Height tells the same story: the floor averages 5.52, the blocks above 600 m average 6.81.
Place is eight-tenths of a wine's score; the year is the last two. The twelve most recent vintages, 2024 back to 2013.
The score, the ground it stands on, the year, and what else on the shelf stands on better ground for less. Free, no account. Merchants: put it on your list and every guest gets the same answer.
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