Foxy

An odd descriptive term (having nothing to do with foxes, or sex appeal, for that matter) for the wild, candylike aroma and flavor associated with wines that come from native American grapes of the Vitis labrusca species, such as Concord. The flavor is derived from an ester, methyl anthranilate.

The Academy Award-winning film, The Revenant (2015) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, about a frontiersman on a fur trapping expedition is partially based on:

A. Writings by an early Napa Valley pioneer

B. The life of an early winemaker in the Pacific Northwest

C. A myth of revenge from the Piedmont region of Italy

D. A California miner who became famous during the Gold Rush and eventually became a judge

Napa Valley’s first non-Native American settler, George Calvert Yount was a fur trapper and a friend of fellow fur trapper Hugh Glass, the subject of the film The Revenant and the book of the same name. Some of Yount’s writings helped inform the true story of Glass and fur traders in the West. Yount settled in the Napa Valley in 1838 and his first production of “wine” was allegedly fermented in cowhides hung from trees. In 1860, Yount hired a young Prussian immigrant named Charles Krug to help him make better quality wines. Krug went on to found his own winery, Charles Krug, in 1861. After Yount’s death in 1865, the United States Postal Service renamed the town where he lived “Yountville” in his honor.

“I’m playing the best basketball of my life, and I’m drinking some wine pretty much every day.”

–LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers, speaking to NBC Sports, California. On a recent trip to Napa Valley to taste wines, James practiced at the St. Helena High School gym.

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