Our Story
Producing a Most Personal Wine
This venture began with our passion for this place. We did not start the process the same way many wineries have. We lived here for several years before planting a single vine so that we might understand the particular dynamics of growing at this location.
We brought the property back to life from a neglected state. Pruning the overgrown 40-year-old table grape vineyard while renovating the fruit orchard. We would recover more than 50 fruit trees.
To test our own commitment to the craft of winemaking, and to learn the process, we began buying small lots of grapes to make home wine. Our first Cabernet began as a winning bid at the Howell Mountain Elementary School benefit auction. We assisted an experienced winemaker in making the wine from that lot of grapes. The next year, with the help of friends, we bought more grapes and made the wine in our garage. We have fond memories of standing in the cold, tasting from the barrel, then going inside for dinner to critique the developing wine.
From that first vintage, we fell in love with the challenges of winemaking, and committed to its pursuit through uncountable hours of research and viticulture and enology classes at Napa College. In that spirit we have gone on to produce a richly complex 2000 Howell Mountain Zinfandel, a classic Bordeaux style 2001 Howell Mountain Cabernet, a dense, full bodied 2002 Rutherford Merlot, and most recently a spicy fruit forward 2003 Howell Mountain Zinfandel. We will continue to make single barrel vintages of wine to learn and enjoy with family and friends.
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