The estate founder Dr. Titus and his family came to California from Minnesota during the Great Depression. After graduating from Fresno State and serving in World War II, Lee attended medical school and became a radiologist. Meanwhile, Ruth Traverso was growing up in San Francisco's North Beach, where her parents, immigrants from the Piemonte region of Italy, were involved in the family's bakery business. During family vacations in Calistoga, Ruth helped friends harvest their grapes, giving her a love for Napa Valley and rekindling her kinship with grape farming.
Years later, having fallen in love, married and settled in the town of Sonoma with their four sons, Lee and Ruth acquired fifty acres in three separate parcels just north of St. Helena in Napa Valley on the valley floor. Life in 1960's Napa Valley was much simpler than it is today. California's wine industry had yet to achieve its enormous potential, and the land was still affordable for the right purchaser. The vineyard Lee and Ruth Titus acquired in 1968 were originally planted to long-forgotten varietals like Mondeuse, Burger, and Golden Chasselas; alongside were well-known varietals like Pinot Noir, which was poorly suited to the warm, up-valley microclimate. The vineyard needed a major renovation.
In 1972 the Titus family was able to acquire another small, 10-acre vineyard on Ehlers Lane just a half-mile north of their Ranch vineyard. Replanted to Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot on dense, rocky volcanic soils, the vines of the Ehlers Estate Vineyard yield a different expression of Cabernet fruit. Eventually, the brothers were able to produce two distinctly different Cabernets from their Ranch and Ehlers Estate vineyards.
It would be more than twenty years before their sons crushed fruit for the production of the first Titus Vineyards wines in 1990. Although they hoped to one day build a family operated winery, Lee and Ruth spent those interim years raising their sons and growing grapes for other wineries, including Charles Krug, Beaulieu Vineyards, Cuvaison, Quail Ridge, and Pine Ridge. Ultimately, they left the creation of Titus Vineyards wines up to their sons: Phillip now works as Director of Winemaking for Titus Vineyards, while Eric manages the winery and vineyards.
Phillip Corallo-Titus is also the longtime winemaker for the renowned Chappellet Vineyards and the more recent Atlas Peak-focused Acumen label. He should rightly be considered in any discussion of the premier winemakers in Napa Valley based on the wines he makes at Chappellet in the esteemed Pritchard Hill region of Napa Valley.
Titus 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley ($65) Brambly and intense, this black-fruited cab is supple in mid-palate, but definitely has good acidity and a bit of grippy tension on the finish and could use a few more years in the cellar, but it does seem dominated by fleshy valley floor fruit. It has fresh, deep blackberry, dill, blackcurrant, plum, espresso and toast notes that linger through a long finish. At $65 a bottle, it rates as a pretty good value from Napa Valley these days. (93 Points)
Titus 2019 Cabernet Franc Napa Valley ($62) I adore everything about this wine. It's a TEXTBOOK example of Napa Valley Cabernet Franc, and really of Cabernet Franc in general. It has deep black fruit and penetrating sage and tobacco notes on both the nose and the palate. It isn't overoaked at all, but there are some mild coffee and vanilla notes. The acidity is really nice and keeps the wine balanced on its toes. This is very special. (96 Points)
Titus 2019 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley ($99) Nice violet rim, fresh violet, madrone scrub, and blueberry nose, but clearly extremely concentrated from the get-go with extremely dark purple color, tons of density and amplitude. There's cassis and red currant fruit, subtle dill notes, massive mouthfeel, a hint of mocha and coffee, pretty well-integrated oak, and a generally well-integrated finish. Not a small wine by any stretch, and probably exactly what Napa buyers are looking for. (94 Points)
Titus 2021 Sauvignon Blanc Napa Valley ($36) This is a very mellow, creamy Sauvignon Blanc with melon, nectarine, honeysuckle, and grass notes. Sometimes you want a bit of an angular, biting, crisp character out of Sauvignon Blanc, and I feel like all of the corners of this wine are so polished down that it just seems soft all over. This is a good, well-made wine, but it lacks acid, precision, and focus, and it lacks a sense of place. I just wish it were more vibrant and energetic. (87 Points)
- Tim Teichgraeber
