Gamble Family Vineyards / Photo by Sarah Risk
When Mary Ann McGuire landed in Napa Valley as a 20-year-old in 1960, she felt a special connection to the area.
“We saw it as a bountiful garden,” she says. “I felt this sense of power that came from the land…For me, it carried a spiritual imprint that a mother feels towards a child that you want to protect.”
For her first few years in the Valley, McGuire, who had moved to the region with her new husband, cattle rancher George Gamble, saw no reason to act on that protective instinct.
But in the mid-60s, California entered an era of development. And as more agricultural acreage gave way to subdivisions and shopping centers, the grape growers, farmers, ranchers and residents of Napa County began to feel the pressure of what that development might mean for the region.
Decanter Rare Lafite and Napa wines sold from Joseph Phelps private cellar
A bottle of Lafite from 1865 and a series of rare gems from 1970s California have fetched high prices in an auction of wines owned by the late Napa Valley pioneer Joseph Phelps.
It said 501 lots from the ‘personal estate of Joseph Phelps’ fetched $2.2m (£1.64m) in total, versus a pre-sale high estimate of $1.374m.
An auction list showed how Phelps,
who died in 2015, had collected great wines from around the world for his private cellar, alongside his pioneering role in elevating the winemaking and reputation of Napa Valley.