(Decanter) - William Kelley is one of the first people to get a look inside Ulysses Estate, the new Napa Valley venture of Bordeaux veteran and Dominus owner Christian Moueix. See his report below.

It’s easy to forget just how long Christian Moueix has known the Napa Valley.

As a graduate student in viticulture and oenology at UC Davis, Moueix worked the 1968 harvest at Beaulieu Vineyards in Rutherford. Fourteen years later, he established Dominus Estate down the road in Yountville.

So Ulysses Estate, his new Napa Valley project which debuts in March, is only the latest chapter in a long story.

Moueix had always been intrigued by the potential of southern Oakville’s terroirs, so when the Schmidt Ranch came onto the market in 2008, he jumped at the chance to acquire it.

The property, renamed Ulysses Estate, sits on an alluvial fan, revealing similar soils to the better-drained western part of Dominus’ Napanook vineyard. But climactically the site is very different.

Here, the cooling influence of the San Pablo Bay is mitigated by the Yountville hills, so summer temperatures at Ulysses Estate can be as much as four degrees Fahrenheit warmer.