"When I purchased the St. Helena property that would become Marciano Estate there were twenty acres of vines planted here. It was 2006, and in that first year I tried to make the best wine that I could with the existing vineyard. It was a good wine, but it wasn’t an outstanding wine – it wasn’t the wine that I sought to make. I decided to pull out all the vines and replant with four different rootstocks better suited to the varied soil conditions of the property. I asked David Abreu to join me, to help with the replant and to manage the new vineyard. During that process I replanted only ten acres out of the twenty – on only the best soils of the vineyard. Our first great vintage was 2013 – a fine growing season in Napa Valley by all standards and the year our new vineyard came into maturity." Maurice Marciano
The name Terra Gratia meaning "land of gratitude" in Latin is a constant reminder of how special this property is and how grateful we are that these soils produce exceptional wines. The grapes for this wine are hand-picked at night to keep the fruit chilled, hand-sorted, fermented, barrel-aged and bottled all in accordance with the strictest Kosher standards. A resulting wine that is unfined and unfiltered.
In the glass, the wine has a dark Burgundy color, boasting fruit-driven aromas of BlackBerry, red cherries, flint, espresso, and black tea. Initially, the wine has a soft texture that slowly builds to a complex midpalate with long firm tannins, culminating in a pleasantly dry finish brimming with flavors of plum, asphalt, leather, cocoa, and cassis.
