Angelo Owens Wines was founded by Jeff and Valerie Owens with their inaugural vintage produced in 2021; Jeff’s father is also a partner in the brand. Jeff and Valerie met at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo; like many students enrolled here, are equally split between northern California and Southern. She was from Orange County and he from Sacramento. Jeff began classes with the intent to major in horticulture and build and design golf courses. But plans changed. His interest in wine was sparked because his roommates at the time were majoring in viticulture. Jeff admits he had no idea at the time that one could pursue a major leading to a career managing and growing grapes.
Valerie was journalism major; during one of her classes she met a student sitting behind her. She remembers mentioning that Jeff really wanted to get into the new Wine and Viticulture program. Fortuitously the other student worked for this department and offered to show Jeff’s resume to the department head. Jeff was accepted into the department and ultimately was part of the first graduating class; there were only 3 students in the enology concentration of out 20 students total.
While in college, they had already begun discussing the possibility of starting their own wine brand someday. Tastings were generally still free at wineries on the central coast in the early 2000s, appealing to college students on limited budgets. They took full advantage of this and would visit and taste at wineries on the weekends ranging from Edna Valley to Paso Robles.
Valerie wanted to go to Spain after graduation but plans changed when Cakebread offered Jeff a cellar intern position. Commuting from Walnut Creek got old and they eventually moved to Napa Valley. Jeff spent 17 years working for the PlumpJack Group, first at PlumpJack, then Cade and finally at Odette Estate. In addition to crafting the Angelo Owens wines, he currently consults for several brands or wineries in Napa Valley. Valerie previously worked in the wine industry including at Anaba Wines and Blackbird where she oversaw their DTC program, wine club management and private client sales. And she put her journalism degree to use locally by authoring pieces for Napa Valley Life and Napa Valley Register. Today she focuses on sales and customer relationships for Angelo Owens Wines and also writes all their marketing and website collateral.
Their plans are to keep the brand small; it is a passion project focusing on relationships with not only the growers of their vineyard sources but also their customers. And produce wines that they both enjoy drinking. In terms of a visual, they wanted something that spoke to their story, history and the importance of family ties. As a result of an article Valerie was writing, she interviewed vintner Suzanne Phifer Pavitt. Suzanne recommended the talented graphic artist, Carrie Nelle Burgin. In conjunction with Burgin, Jeff and Valerie decided to use an image of a knot on their wines. Burgin hand drew all the knots; the signature knot represents their entire family and the figure 8 knot is in homage to their two sons.
The brand has also been a vehicle for showcasing their wines at private events around the country, focusing on wine dinners at customer’s homes and or country clubs.
Select Wines
Sauvignon Blanc
The inception of the Angelo Owens Sauvignon Blanc came about for two reasons: Valerie enjoys drinking wines from this variety and it is always nice for a producer focusing on red wines to have a companion white to show, especially at events. Several years ago when Sauvignon Blanc was in high demand, the per ton prices were inflated even for inferior vineyards in Napa Valley. So Jeff began looking outside of the county for premium Sauvignon Blanc and located a vineyard in the Russian River Valley. The Angelo Owens Sauvignon Blanc is always fermented and aged in stainless steel with a small amount of battonage. It does not go through malolactic fermentation.
The 2022 Angelo Owens Sauvignon Blanc, Russian River; this wine is medium gold in color. Bright, energetic and lifted, its floral attributes include star jasmine, orange blossom, lemon juice, lime zest and white nectarine. As the bouquet opens, it exposes some herbal layers including kaffir lime, lemongrass and grapefruit. Minerally, lively and savory. It flavors include not fully ripe pineapple, gooseberry, pomelo, white peach and white nectarine. The texture is lightly rounded which is balanced perfectly by its bright but not bracing acidity. Beautifully poised, it offers a light herbal and persistent character on the finish, but is in no way green. This wine drink nicely by itself, but would also be highly expressive paired with a variety of seafood dishes.
Cabernet Sauvignon
Through relationships Jeff has nurtured during his 2+ decades making wine in Napa Valley, he has access to some of Napa Valley’s most premium vineyards. And these are vineyards that are extremely well managed; for example during the extended heat spike centered around Labor Day weekend in 2022, their source vineyards used both shade cloths and misters to mitigate the extreme temperatures.
The 2022 Angelo Owens Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley is 100% varietal with vineyard sources comprising Mt. Veeder, Rutherford and Pritchard Hill. This wine was aged in 75% new French oak barrels and 25% used for 20 months; it was racked twice prior to bottling. Deep ruby in color, the attractive bouquet offers a union of both dark fruit and barrel scents. These include dark chocolate, tobacco spice including dried tobacco leaf, dark raspberry, blackberry and clove. On the palate there are flavors of dark cherry, blackberry, and boysenberry with lingering layers of dried tobacco leaf and smoked sage. The tannins are resolved and highly polished at this age, a textural reflection of both 2022 being a warm year in Napa Valley and as well as a consistent character for their Napa Valley bottling, regardless of vintage. The wine finishes with a very subtle dusty character; it is highly approachable right out of the gate.
Consistently, their Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is always a broader expression of the valley as a whole. The wine is made only from free run juice and never pressed cuts. The grapes were cold soaked for 4 days at 55 degrees Fahrenheit prior to inoculation. The tank slowly heats up during the first part of fermentation; towards the second half of fermentation pump overs are decreased and so is temperature. When the wine reaches a desired level of color and tannin extraction, Jeff will press off, sometimes still slightly sweet.
Jeff’s winemaking focus is true to the site while showcasing both a purity of variety but also a simultaneous freshness. Oak is always a complementing character and never a dominating one. Or as he refers to it, “The wine is the artwork and the oak is the frame. One never wants to stare at the frame.”
While tasting through the Angelo Owens wines, we found ourselves writing one word more than any other in our tasting notes: layered. This word appropriately describes the character and complexity of each of their wines.
The 2022 Angelo Owens Cabernet “Le Lien” Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley (meaning the link in French); this wine is the link or bond between the best barrels linking their single vineyard sites. This wine is deep ruby; a beautiful expression of the variety, its scents are focused on the fruit with the oak providing a lovely complementary layer. Its aromas include fully ripe Santa Rosa plum, dark cherry, dark raspberry and boysenberry with light secondary scents including a hint of graham cracker, pipe tobacco and dark cocoa powder. The palate is generous, fully ripe but with plenty of freshness, layers and offers loads of texture. This wine tastes like plum, red cherry, blackberry, dark currant and dark raspberry. This wine finishes bright; it is a big boy with plenty of ‘teen’ energy. The lightly pixelated and grainy tannins fully coat the palate lingering with a persistent drying character and a note of dried tobacco leaf. We love the integration of oak in this particular bottling. The primary barrels used for aging were Tarransaud and Sylvain; neither overpowers the fruit.
While crossing the Oakville Grade over the spine of the Mayacamas mountains between Napa Valley and Sonoma, Jeff would often notice a beautiful vineyard located near the county line just across the Napa County line. He had long wanted to produce wine from Mt. Veeder. A friend who know of his intention, called one day and mentioned grapes were for sale from a vineyard on Mt. Veeder he thought Jeff might be interested in looking at. It turns out the suggested vineyard was the one Jeff noticed every time he drove from Oakville to Sonoma Valley over Trinity Grade. This is the vineyard Angelo Owens now source grapes from for their Mt. Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon.
The 2022 Angelo Owens Wines Cabernet Sauvignon, Mt Veeder Napa Valley was aged in 80% new French oak barrels and 20% neutral barrels for 20 months. The source vineyard is from an elevation of around 1,450 feet. After harvest the grapes were sorted optically with only whole berries going through fermentation. This wine is deep ruby, opaque and has an amaranthine rim; the bouquet offers aromas of dark plum, dried figs, blackberry, boysenberry, Pakistani mulberry, dark chocolate and assorted baking spices. Densely packed with layers of dark fruited flavors, these include plum, dark cherry, blackberry, boysenberry and Persian mulberry. Fresh, bright, layered and well-textured. The tannins are gravelly, grainy and sport a moderate and long-lasting grip which outpaces the fruit on the extended finish. This wine is built to age and is one of the finer expressions of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon we have enjoyed from this vintage.
Cabernet Franc
The 2021 Angelo Owens Wines Cabernet Franc, Napa Valley was aged for 20 months in 75% new French oak barrels and 25% neutral. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; the bouquet is a ripe expression of the variety, perhaps indicative of its warmer eastern location on the slopes of the Vaca mountains. The bouquet reveals aromas of raspberry jam, blackberry, boysenberry, mocha, dark cocoa powder and dark chocolate. There are lots of layers here. The palate is much fresher than expected based on the riper aromas. Lifted by a bright acidity and primarily red fruits, the palate offers flavors of red cherry, currant, cranberry and raspberry. Lingers lively, juicy and bright. The tannins are gravelly, grainy and persist with a pronounced dusty character in tandem with fruit on the extended finish. There is nothing herbal in this bottling, but with that said, it showcases plenty of freshness. This vineyard is always impeccably managed resulting in a balance; that attribute shows in this bottling. This wine was aged in bottle for an extra year before being released.
In 2023 additional single vineyard designated wines were produced including from Sage Ridge, Sugarloaf and Upper Range. And in 2024 wine was produced from the Stags Leap District.
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Total annual production is only around several hundred cases. The wines are sold direct to consumer, but are also available locally at a limited number of restaurants including Cole’s Chophouse in the city of Napa, the French Laundry in Yountville and at Auberge du Soleil St. Helena. ACME Wines in St. Helena has also featured their wines to their own members. Members of their membership club called The Knot Society receive shipments twice a year, once in spring and once in fall. And sometimes wines are not quite ready to be released, so they will hold back the bottles for extra aging.
For more information, to purchase wines, or to signup for their mailing list, visit: www.angeloowenswines.com
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