Emmolo Lake County Sauvignon Blanc California White Wine

At $17.99 to $22.99 across the stores we checked in September 2026, Emmolo puts a California white on the shelf made from Sauvignon Blanc, a grape our research describes as known for its clear aroma and refreshing acidity and usually made as a dry still wine. Official regional guides describe citrus and green herbs across Sauvignon Blanc, and note it can lean more tropical from warmer or riper fruit.

The name is a family one. Emmolo says winemaker Jenny Wagner released her first vintage under the Emmolo name in 2011, choosing the name for her mother Cheryl Emmolo's family, who have farmed in Napa Valley for generations. The fruit for this wine comes from California.

Emmolo's own materials fill in more of that family history and add sourcing detail the label does not carry. The Emmolo family immigrated from Sicily to Napa Valley in 1923 and later ran a grapevine rootstock nursery under Frank Emmolo that supplied many of the region's vintners; his daughter Cheryl Emmolo, who has no brothers, launched the Emmolo wine label in 1994 to keep the family name alive, and her daughter Jenny Wagner took over as winemaker before releasing her own first vintage in 2011. Wagner describes her approach in her own words: “I'm going after a subtle wine that is more minerality-driven than fruit-driven. In my view, with Sauvignon Blanc, less is more.” On sourcing, though, the producer's own tasting-note sheet and wine lineup page both describe this Sauvignon Blanc as a blend of three California regions, with more than half the fruit from Suisun Valley in Solano County and the rest split between Lake County and Napa Valley, not a Lake County wine alone, as this bottle's shelf name suggests.

Our call: this suits a shopper drawn to the Wagner family's story, since Emmolo's own account traces the wine through four generations, from Frank Emmolo's rootstock nursery to daughter Cheryl launching the label in 1994 and granddaughter Jenny Wagner taking over as winemaker in 2011. Pass if the shelf name is the reason you are reaching for it; the producer's own sourcing account puts most of the fruit in Suisun Valley, with Lake County only a minority contributor, a real gap between the label's name and the producer's own record.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.