Kapcsándy Family Winery

Lou Kapscándy is a man driven by one goal: to make California’s best Cabernet, a true American “first growth” wine. Lou’s successful construction business in Seattle afforded him the ability to assemble one of the best wine collections on the west coast. He also established a distribution company specializing in Bordeaux and Hungarian wines and in 2000 purchased the State Lane Vineyard in Yountville. This vineyard had provided the backbone for the great Beringer Private Reserves of the 1980s and 1990s. Unfortunately, phylloxera destroyed the vineyard in 1999.
Lou hired Marcassin’s John Wetlaufer and Helen Turley to consult on the replanting which focused on microclimates within the vineyard and how best to make use of clonal selection and planting density. A 14,000 square foot state-of-the-art production facility followed. Helen made the first two vintages, 2003 and 2004. She recommended that Rob Lawson, the winemaker at Napa Wine Company, where many of Napa’s top “cult” wines are produced, take over. Lou also hired Denis Malbec, Chateau Latour’s winemaker since 1992. Denis has winemaking in his bones. Denis’ grandfather was vineyard manager there for 27 years and his father was cellar master for 25 consecutive vintages. Denis is the sole winemaking consultant since the 2007 vintage, working in concert with Lou’s son Louis Jr.
In time, Kapcsándy will be recognized globally as one of the world’s top wines. The 2007 and 2008 Grand Vins received back-to-back 100-point scores from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.