Chateau Montelena Enters the 50 Best Vineyards Extended List at No. 59, With Robert Mondavi at No. 88
The 51 to 100 ranking for 2026, published Monday ahead of the Nov. 18 awards ceremony in Santiago, puts two Napa Valley estates on the extended list. Montelena is a new entry, and Mondavi, No. 39 on the 2025 list, returns at No. 88.
NAPA: Two Napa Valley wineries appear on the extended 51 to 100 list of The 50 Best Vineyards for 2026, which the ranking's organizer published on Monday, Nov. 9. Chateau Montelena in Calistoga is a new entry at No. 59, and Robert Mondavi Winery in Oakville is No. 88.
The extended list arrives ahead of the awards ceremony in Santiago, Chile, on Nov. 18, where the ranking of vineyards No. 1 to No. 50 for 2026 will be revealed. The 51 to 100 places were voted on by The 50 Best Vineyards Academy, which the organizer describes as a global panel of more than 700 wine and travel experts.
The vineyards featured in this year's 51-100 list show that world-class wine tourism can be found in every corner of the globe.Rikki Tidball, managing director of awards and rankings for The 50 Best Vineyards, in the Nov. 9 announcement
A new entry from Calistoga
Chateau Montelena, at 1429 Tubbs Lane in Calistoga, enters the ranking for the first time at No. 59. The organizer's profile of the estate describes an ivy-covered stone chateau dating to the 19th century, set by Jade Lake and its gardens, and names the Estate Cabernet Sauvignon as the winery's flagship wine, poured for visitors inside the chateau.
Two Napa Valley estates on the extended list, one of them new.
The Calistoga estate is the winery whose 1973 Chardonnay triumphed at the Judgment of Paris in 1976, the blind tasting in which Californian wines were judged against French wines. The winery's own account of the tasting, published on its site, says the 1973 Chardonnay prevailed and that the outcome altered the course of fine wine history. The new entry lands in the fiftieth year since that tasting.
Mondavi at No. 88
Robert Mondavi Winery, at 7801 St. Helena Highway in Oakville, is No. 88 on the extended list. The organizer's profile records that the winery ranked No. 39 on The World's 50 Best Vineyards list for 2025, so this year's published place sits outside the top 50, in the extended ranking published before the ceremony.
The winery was founded in 1966, when Robert Mondavi opened the first major winery in Napa since Prohibition, according to the winery's own history, and it made the To Kalon Vineyard in Oakville the heart of the estate. The organizer's profile notes that visitors to the recently renovated estate are offered tours, tastings and culinary pairings, with the Robert Mondavi To Kalon Vineyard Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon and the Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc named as its signature wines.
Four United States vineyards, a record showing
The organizer says the United States records its strongest ever showing on the extended list, with four vineyards featured. Alongside the two Napa Valley estates, Brooks Wine in Oregon's Willamette Valley is No. 56 and Ridge Vineyards, listed for its Monte Bello site in Santa Clara, is No. 67. Canada's Mission Hill Family Estate, in the Okanagan Valley, is No. 69, completing five North American places.
In all, the 51 to 100 list spans 36 wine regions across six continents, with 34 of the vineyards in Europe, five in South America, four in Oceania, and one each in Africa and Asia, according to the announcement. It counts 17 new entries and 12 vineyards returning as re-entries. The full 2026 ranking, from No. 50 to No. 1, is to be announced in Santiago on Wednesday, Nov. 18.
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