History
John and Maggy Kongsgaard planted the vineyard in 1975 on the family's Stonecrest property, rocky hilltop ground that had been in their hands since the 1920s, and named it for John's father Thomas Kongsgaard, a long-serving Napa Valley Superior Court judge. Andre Tchelistcheff suggested the planting, and the wood is the Old Wente Chardonnay selection John took as cuttings from Stony Hill in the 1970s. They founded their own label in 1996. The vineyard is now owned by their son Alex Kongsgaard.
The Site
Around six acres planted out of a twenty-acre family property just northeast of the city of Napa, in the low foothills near the Coombsville line and distinct from the later Kongsgaard property on Atlas Peak Road. The vineyard sits on a weathered extinct lava flow terrace, and the volcanic topsoil is never more than three feet deep before it meets solid rock. Nothing blocks the line south to San Pablo Bay, so cold marine air runs into the rows every afternoon.
Vines and Blocks
Old Wente selection Chardonnay, low-yielding to the point that the trunks rarely exceed two inches across and the vineyard averages about a ton per acre.
The Wines
The Judge is made in the house manner: nearly two years in barrel, no added yeast, no added sulphur during elevage, no temperature control. The result is textural rather than fruity, with tangerine oil, wet stone, marzipan and a long saline finish. The Kongsgaards also farm a mountain block of Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon at 2,000 feet on Atlas Peak, where their cave is cut into the basalt.