Rowland Cellars was founded by Gerald (Gerry) Rowland (who we met with for this review) and his wife Linda; his first vintage dates from 1991. Gerry doesn't own vineyards or a winery but oversees the wine from vineyard to bottle to consumer. Rather than just purchasing grapes from growers, he manages the vineyards he sources fruit from, makes the wine, as … [Read more...]

Uncorked at Oxbow is conveniently located in Napa's Oxbow district - a short ride or walk from downtown crossing over the Napa River. As the name indicates there is a geographical association with the Oxbow Market; Uncorked is located almost across the street from this market and just down the street from the former COPIA property - now owned and operated by … [Read more...]

Dancing Hares Vineyard During what was probably the best artisan tasting event of 2009 in the Napa Valley (Atelier tasting at ACME Wine Shop in St. Helena) - we were able to taste some of the top wines coming out of the valley with a number of the valley's most well regarded winemakers present. During this event while sampling the various wines, rather than … [Read more...]

York Creek Vineyards (named after the creek of the same name on the property) is owned by successful entrepreneur Fritz Maytag, whose family is synonymous with the Maytag home appliance corporation (no longer owners) and Maytag Dairy Farms. In addition their family developed and currently produces the famous Maytag Blue Cheese. York Creek Vineyards is one of … [Read more...]

Ardente Winery is located at 1500 feet on the rocky volcanic slopes of Atlas Peak. This winery is owned by Carlo Di Ruocco and his wife Marie Francoise. We recently met with Carlo during a very typical summer weather day at his winery. Atlas Peak is generally characterized as a rugged appellation (topography) that is located in the cooler part of the south … [Read more...]

Oakville East is an exciting project that originally was founded on one of our favorite hillside producing regions in the Napa Valley, a specific hillside region in eastern Oakville dubbed by some as "the magic hill" or "magic mountain". This small section of the appellation contains some of the most well-known high-end wineries in Napa including Screaming … [Read more...]

Egelhoff Wines was founded by long time Napa Valley vintner Bob Egelhoff with his first vintage of Egelhoff Wines dating from 1999. His background is both in viticulture and enology; he is a graduate of UC Davis. After managing vineyards for a brief period near Chico, California he moved to the Napa Valley - what better vineyard management company to start … [Read more...]