home, with the original winery retained as a visitor's centre. Heitz holds an exclusive agreement with Tom and Martha May, owners of the Martha's Vineyard in the Oakville AVA since the first purchase of fruit in 1965 which Heitz blended with other Cabernet, an act considered Heitz' great breakthrough. In recognizing the quality of the grapes, from the 1966 vintage Heitz first vinified the fruit separately and designated the vineyard on the label. Heitz is considered the first to champion the single vineyard designation in the U.S. Later, the 1968 vintage received attention for its quality, widely considered the greatest wine made in America up to that time. It had been American oak vats, transferred to Limousin barrels where it aged for further two years. Frank J. Prial contended the wine remained "the benchmark by which California cabernets were judged" for more than two decades. Since 1976, a similar exclusivity agreement has existed with Barney and Belle Rhodes, owners of the Bella Oaks Vineyard in the Rutherford AVA. Following a review by Robert Parker where he wrote about Martha's Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon that it "lacked aroma", Joe Heitz sent Parker a box of linen handkerchiefs, insinuating to the critic that he ought to clear his nose. Joe Heitz suffered a stroke in 1996 which left him frail though lucid. He died on December 16, 2000, aged 81. He was described by Warren Winiarski as the first of the Napa Valley artisans and the first to grasp the single vineyard concept. Modern era Born in 1950, David Heitz succeeded his father as winemaker in the late 1970s, having worked at the estate for many years. In 1984 the estate purchased the Trailside Vineyard in Rutherford, having previously purchased fruit from the site, introduced as a single vineyard bottling in 1989. During the late 1980s and early 90s there were reports of TCA taint, or in alternate claims Brettanomyces yeast infection, in the Heitz cellars that were eventually overcome, and Tom Stevenson has criticized American wine writers for not daring to "tell the late king he had no clothes on at the time". In the early 90s, the Bella Oaks Vineyard suffered from the disease eutypa and replanting became necessary. No 1991 and 1992 vintages were made of this cuvée. Also in the early 90s, phylloxera afflicted Martha's Vineyard, and no vintages were made in the mid-1990s. In 2018, Heitz was acquired