Biodynamic Bordeaux Wine Family Buys Robin Williams' Napa Estate; Biodynamic Community in Napa Now 100% French

Many people know that Robin Williams' Napa estate recently sold, but few know who bought it: the Tesseron family, who own Chateau Pontet-Canet, the only Biodynamic estate in Bordeaux's prestigious Medoc Cru Classe. The price: $18 million (down from an initial asking price of $35 million).

The Mount Veeder estate is located high above Napa Valley in the Mayacamas. Musician Boz Scaggs, who has a small wine label, is the nearest neighbor.

The vineyard comprises 18 acres.

The Tesserons evaluated the potential for making great Cabernet from the estate with their technical director, Jean-Michel Comme, and decided it had the terroir they could work with. According to Bloomberg, they plan to bring Biodynamic practices to their Napa estate. (Learn more about their Biodynamic farming in Bordeaux in a Wall Street Journal article here.)

It's worth mentioning that French (or French influenced families) are responsible now for all of  Napa's Biodynamic estates, a list that includes:

• Adamvs (owned by the Adams family [Americans], who also own the organic Chateau Fonplegade estate in St. Emilion)

• Araujo (owned by the Pinault family, who also own organic estates throughout France, including Chateau Latour)

• Raymond (owned by the Boisset family, who own an organic estate in Burgundy)

Another Napa winery, Ehler's Estate, owned by a French foundation, was formerly Demeter certified Biodynamic.