Thorn Hill Vineyards

Thorn Hill Vineyards was founded with their first release in 2007 – this winery was started by the husband wife team of Amy and Jack Thorn. Today they operate three tasting rooms; one in Pennsylvania (where they live), one in Lower Lake in neighboring Lake County to the north of Napa and one opened in St. Helena in the late summer of 2014. Their wines are made at a winery in north Napa. While the Thorns call Pennsylvania home, they are in Napa from time to time and certainly during the harvest months.

All their wines are made in quantities of several hundred cases – not only do they focus on wines from the Napa Valley but they also have wines from Lake County’s Red Hill’s AVA. Aside from the several sparkling wines they produce, all their wines are 100% varietal.

What is valuable for the consumer, is they produce a wide variety of wines from both whites and reds to sparkling and several dessert wines. A visit to their St. Helena tasting room is a personalized one – you can either taste at the wine bar, sit down inside or if the weather permits a small outdoor shaded patio is available. Wine can be ordered by the glass or bottle – discounts are given for club members. This corner located tasting room (corner of Main and Hunt streets) is spacious with plenty of tables to sit down at should you prefer this rather than standing at the small wine bar.

Plans call for pairing the wines with a variety of Charcuterie and other small plates.

The 2010 barrel fermented Chardonnay underwent just a tiny percentage of malo lactic fermentation. This wine shows both tropical and citrus aromas on the bouquet along with notes of oak. The palate is soft and rounded, with decent weight – somewhat buttery but retains nice acidity which is especially noticeable on the finish. The finish is clean and lasts for some time. This is an easy drinking Chardonnay with a pleasing palate that is sure to appeal to a wide variety of taste preferences.

The 2010 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon was sourced from near St. Helena. This wine shows notes of cinnamon along with layers of red fruit on the bouquet including raspberry and lighter blackberry. The mouth feel is soft with well integrated tannins that linger delicately – more in the front of the palate rather than the back. This wine is balanced and has good acidity.

The 2008 Petite Sirah Port styled wine shows ripe aromas with notes of raisin and baked cherry pie. Desert in a glass. The wine is sweet but not viscous or syrupy at all (the ripeness of nose almost leads you to believe that the palate would taste just as ripe). The palate is clean with leaner mouth feel than often shows in Port styled wines. Both fruit and spice show on the palate (nutmeg, cocoa, cinnamon) – it is a delicious wine!

The 2010 Late Harvest “ice” wine is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillion made in a Sauterne style. And yes these grapes actually did freeze on the vine before they were harvested this particular year. The nose is decidedly floral, with plenty of apricot and honey aromas. The mouth feel shows good viscosity and is rounded. The finish is fairly clean but lingers with a touch of oak. The wine is slightly under 14% alcohol.

Thorn Hill is truly a family owned and run business. Amy is the winemaker, Jack is responsible for overseeing their sales and expansion – their son Jonathan runs their tasting room in Lake County and daughter Amy design labels under their ‘artist’ series of wines and runs their tasting room in Pennsylvania.

Over the years, several other vintners have been represented at the St. Helena tasting room and they continue to work with one or two select vintners (whose wines are also represented here).

Find yourself in Lake County to the north? The family operates the Thorn Hill Villa Suites near Mt. Konocti in the Red Hills appellation. Appropriately, each of their three suites has a name relating to wine including Champagne, Cabernet and Chardonnay.

For obvious reasons, based on tasting room locations and where the wines are made – they have good distribution in both Pennsylvania and California. For more information visit: www.thornhillwinesthelena.com