Claudio Family Cellars is an homage to culture, history, heritage and family. This Napa Valley based wine brand was founded in 2021 by winemaker Chris Jones. The name Claudio was his mother’s maiden name. Chris was born and raised in Binghamton, New York, a short drive from Endicott, the birthplace of IBM. Like his father, Chris also worked for IBM, as a software engineer.
His grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Abruzzo, Italy in the 1920s to Ellis Island. Chris remembers they only spoke Italian. His first introduction to wine was as a youth centered around family and food. His father would grab a bottle of old ‘chianti’ held within a wicker basket and pour a small amount into the children’s ginger ale. Chris began making home-wine while still working at IBM. He learned the craft from family; his Italian roots are from his mother’s side of the family. His grandfather Rocco Pompeii was considered the best winemaker among all the Italians who made home-wine in his neighborhood in Binghamton. Rocco’s son, Chris’s uncle, Phil Pompeii, learned from his father. And Chris learned from his first cousin, Sammy Russo, the son of his aunt Theresa.
The family used to obtain grapes from California; they were shipped in unrefrigerated rail cars to New York City and then trucked several hours to Binghamton. The varieties available were highly limiting; if you wanted to make white wine it was from Muscat and red was produced from Alicante Bouschet. Families lived in ethnic enclaves in New York including French and Italian neighborhoods; Rocco’s wine was considered the best wine in his neighborhood. While quality was lacking based on the grapes at hand, cleanliness and rudimentary equipment, quality of wine wasn’t always the highest concern; the most important thing was for the Italian families to have enough wine to last them until the next grapes arrived from California in late summer. The worst question an Italian family could be asked would be something like, “what, you got no wine?”
Sammy made his wine in carboys and then bottled straight from the same carboys. Chris started learning from Sammy in 1994, traveling in the fall from Rochester, MN to Sammy’s home in Binghamton. He would bring wine back to Rochester in glass carboys after finishing primary fermentation and then would age them for a year before bottling. His reward came one year after bottling his first wines; he tasted Sammy on the wine and Sammy’s first comment was, “it tastes finished”.
In 2018 Chris moved from Rochester to Minnetonka and simultaneously built a home on the shores of Lake Vermilion; he was his own general contractor. In doing so, he built a temperature controlled room in the basement specifically for winemaking with AC units keeping the temperature at a constant 57 degrees Fahrenheit; he added radiant heat in the floor and an air exchanger, especially useful during fermentation. And he added nine windows overlooking the lake. He still had old equipment from when he started his journey into home winemaking including an old Italian ratchet style basket press; with the move he upgraded his winemaking equipment. Securing grapes through brokers while making home wine in Minnesota was a challenge; the grapes often arrived in bad shape with mildew, were under ripe or were raisined.
In 2020 he began looking for grape sources in Napa Valley and discovered the Napa Valley Grapegrowers, Napa Valley Winegrape Market, an online marketplace connecting grape sellers with grape buyers. Those he reached out to often asked him the location of his 507 area code; they weren’t ready to sell their grapes to a home winemaker living and making home-wine in Minnesota. After a number of calls, the first person who agreed to sell him grapes was Michael Yates, proprietor of Yates Family Vineyard on Mt. Veeder. Chris rented a 16 foot refrigerated truck from Ryder from their Benicia location and drove to two locations in Napa Valley to load grapes into the truck having purchased 1 ton of Merlot from Yates Family Vineyard on Mt. Veeder and 1.2 tons of Cabernet Sauvignon from the Ferrogiaro Vineyard in Coombsville.
He then drove the grapes to Union City where he met with a driver of another refrigerated truck. The grapes were transferred; the driver left on a Thursday and arrived in a suburb of Minneapolis by that Sunday. Chris then trucked the grapes the remaining 250 miles north to his home. He made two blends that year including a 70% Merlot and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and a 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot. It was a learning process; the Mount Veeder Merlot dominated the wine and did not complement the Cabernet Sauvignon, a confused blend as Chris calls it. He remembers bringing one of his blends to a harvest party in Napa Valley with the label simply a felt pen on blue painters tape. Others brought finished wines. One of the interns attending the party approached Chris the next day and informed him the wine that everyone was impressed with was what they referred to as, “the painters tape red”.
Making wine from Napa Valley in 2020 made Chris realize he was finished with tech, “No more ‘tech neck” as he calls it. He left his job at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and moved to Santa Rosa. In 2021 through a contact through IBM he was connected with Mark Pisoni who introduced him to his brother Jeff Pisoni. Chris worked as a cellar worker at the Pisoni owned Gravity Wine House in Santa Rosa. He made three wines that year for Claudio Family Cellars including a Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. The next year he interned at Soujourn Cellars. Both experiences gave him significant perspective in working with Pinot Noir. He soon realized the quality of grapes was significantly higher than grapes he had been purchasing from brokers for his home-wine; he learned to take a hands-off approach with his winemaking, showcasing both the variety, the vineyard and the efforts of those managing the vines. He also remembers spending time with vineyard workers and their families; their time together reminded him of the same warmth and importance of family he associated with his own Italian heritage.
Select Wines
Whites
The 2023 Claudio Family Cellars Chardonnay, Los Carneros Sonoma County was fermented in stainless steel and aged for two years in neutral French oak barrels. Malolactic fermentation was inhibited. This wine is medium gold in color; the bouquet is brightly lit, higher toned and minerally its aromatics include citrus blossom, honeydew melon, green apples and pear blossom. Equally as minerally and bright on the palate, this wine is singing at this age; its flavors include white nectarine, a soft citrus character, kiwi, Sierra Nevada mountain gooseberry, pepino melon and apple. We love the texture; standing alone without acidity it might be perceived as heavy or viscous, but with the lively acidity supporting it, the mouth feel is rounded and glides across the palate as smoothly as Peggy Fleming ice skating in her prime. Balanced. Beautiful. Expressive. Lingers fresh and mouth watering and retains its vibrancy even as the wine warms to room temperature. This wine was made from the Wente clone from the Harff Vineyard, a small side and back yard vineyard located slightly east of the town of Sonoma.
The 2024 Claudio Family Cellars Sauvignon Blanc Rutherford; this wine is medium straw in color. The bouquet initially is floral and slightly tangy. None of the aromas dominate; but are harmoniously intertwined with scents of honeysuckle, honeycomb, white nectarine, pineapple guava and layers of chamomile, thyme and a very subtle note of pina colada deeper in the bouquet. Fully ripe, the herbal characteristics that this variety is known are pushed far to the background. This wine tastes like orchard fruits, I.E. apricot and white nectarine along with comise pear, pineapple, pineapple guava and apple. Both sweet and tangy, the finish lingers lively with a balanced but not overly bright acidity and a light note of lime leaf. Its texture is rounded and supple.
The 2024 Claudio Family Cellars Viognier, Calistoga is 100% varietal. This wine is medium gold in color. The generous, ripe, sweetly fruited and open-knitted aromatics include orchard fruits, I.E. apricot, yellow nectarine, yellow peach, honeyed characteristics, ripe pineapple, mango and papaya. This is full-on expression of the variety both on the bouquet and the palate. As generous and ripe on the palate as the bouquet, it tastes like yellow nectarines, peach, pineapple, apricot and Alphonso mango. The finish lingers with a noticeable spicy character which persists beyond the fruit. Its texture is creamy, supple, rounded and soft. The finish is extended and rich. Fun, fruity and flirty, this wine is clearly a crowd pleaser.
Pinot Noir
The 2023 Claudio Family Cellars Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast is 89% clone 667 from Taylor’s Crown Vineyard in Sonoma County and 11% clone 115 from Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County. Chris noticed in 2023 that blocks were expressing uneven ripening; however, one of the blocks facing southwest produced much higher quality grapes. This wine was made from that block. Chris loves the aromatics and bright fruit contributed from clone 115 with the savory contributions coming from the clone 667. This wine is pale to medium ruby in color; spicy and savory, the bouquet smells like white pepper, old cedar box, smoked cedar, dried herbs including white sage, old baseball mitt leather being used on a warm day, red plum, raspberry and a light note of root beer. There are lots of aromatic characters at play here. Balanced and bright, the palate offers flavors of red plum, cherry cola, cranberry, currant, red licorice, sage and a subtle note of bay leaf. Its texture is supple with rounded and seamlessly integrated tannins. Finishes bright and loaded with flavor. Medium acidity.
The 2023 Claudio Family Cellars Pinot Noir, Santa Lucia Highland is a combination of 80% Pommard clone and 20% 115 clone. The vineyard is hand-farmed with leaf thinning occurring twice during the growing season – once following bloom to let sun hit clusters during ripening early on to produce thicker skins. And then later in the season to introduce a more dappled canopy. This vineyard is in a windy location; mildew pressure is low. Regardless of vintage, the site always produces clean fruit. This wine is medium ruby in color; savory, spicy and showcasing plenty of ‘Pinot sweat’ including mushroom, damp potting soil, a forest floor/rustic character and white pepper. But the fruit is here and becomes more expressive as the wine evolves including cherry cola, raspberry, currant and cranberry. On the palate there are flavors of pomegranate, raspberry, cherry, currant and red licorice. Loaded with flavor from the entry through to the finish, the focus here is clearly on the variety. Its texture features lightly grainy tannins and a light dusty character which lingers on the finish. Brightly lit. This is an energetic wine in its youth with plenty of age worthy characteristics with the proper cellaring. And Chris mentioned the French word Sousbois, which in English means, ‘undergrowth’ to describe the character of this wine.
And prior to working with the Pommard clone of Pinot Noir, Chris purchased several bottlings from Burgundy made from this clone. He noticed the exact same characteristics consistently expressed between each of those wines. Or as he says, “The clone travels”. 2023 was his inaugural vintage of Pinot Noir.
Merlot
The 2022 Merlot Mt. Veeder Napa Valley (Yates Vineyard) is 100% varietal and was aged for 22 months in 25% new French oak with the remainder of the barrels neutral. The block he sourced from for this wine receives strong morning sun but then by the afternoon is starting to become shaded. This Merlot often is picked after the Cabernet Sauvignon on the property and does particularly well in warmer years. The bouquet is not representative of this exceptionally warm vintage; it is savory, floral and red fruited – and it falls far from being overripe. Its scents include a red chili spice, lavender, smoked sage, incense, old cedar box, red raspberry, cherry and currant. The palate is bright, savory and dark fruited including flavors of plum, red cherry, currant and red licorice. Its tannins are grainy and lightly gritty at this age, thee years post vintage. Lingers red fruited and savory. In terms of pairing, this wine has BBQ written all over it.
Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2022 Claudio Family Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Mt. Veeder is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Malbec and 5% Cabernet Franc. In addition to barrels he bottled for this wine, he used three barrels in a Napa Valley Red Blend. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; this wine does not lack in terms of its color. The elegant bouquet smells like red cherry, dark raspberry, Santa Rosa plum and old cedar box. Its scents are fully ripe but never cross into the territory of being overripe, an issue common to grapes picked later in the year during 2022. This wine is a bright and lively expression, considering the challenges associated with the rapid increases in brix levels during the heat spike centered around Labor Day in 2022. This wine tastes like cherry, raspberry, plum, boysenberry, and Persian mulberry. The tannins offer a moderate grip and linger with a gravelly and dusty texture, pacing the fruit on the finish for some time. Medium + acidity.
Cabernet Franc
The 2022 Claudio Family Cellars Cabernet Franc, Diamond Mountain (Diamond Ranch) is 100% varietal; this wine is deep ruby and opaque. The nose is immediately floral including aromas of violets, lilacs, rose petals and lavender accompanied by a dark and savory character including assorted dried herbs (sage), dark olive, a light note of pepper, spicy plum skin and old cedar box. And a layer first described to us by Michael Silacci, winemaker at Opus One as rose stems. This is a refreshing, bright and energetic showing of the variety sans any overt herbal characteristics. Juicy and crunchy, the acidity makes this wine sing soprano. It tastes like tart cherry, currant, cranberry, raspberry and red plum. The tannins are well integrated already at this age (3 years post vintage) and linger with a light gravelly and grainy texture. Finishes unmistakably bright and mouth watering. Age worthy. No question. Lets revisit this in 10-15 years. Of all the Bordeaux red varieties, Chris considers Cabernet Franc when made correctly, the most distinctive.
Vintner’s Select
The 2022 Claudio Family Cellars Vintner’s Select includes the five primary Bordeaux varieties including 50% Merlot, 20% Malbec and the remainder 10% split between Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc. The Cabernet Franc is from Diamond Mountain and the Malbec from Oakville. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; its not lacking in color. Fruity, yet also simultaneously restrained, its aromas include red cherry, currant, raspberries, red chili spice, old cedar, dust and pipe tobacco. On the palate there are flavor of red cherry, red plum, currant, cranberry and not fully ripe boysenberry. The texture is grainy and gravelly and outlasts the fruit on the extended finish with a dusty character. Vibrant, fresh and exciting, this wine has loads of life ahead of it.
Hayley McAfee, the Creative Director at 4Parts Design designed the labels.
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Chris equates acid in wine to salt in food. Be sure it is there in the beginning so that it integrates properly. If you make guacamole and don’t put in any salt, it will taste flat. But put in some salt and lemon juice and all of the sudden it ‘pops’ in terms of flavor.
Early in his professional career he used to work out with a colleague at IBM who used to ski race; his colleague would stand up at the top of the hill and visually analyze and memorize the course. Before starting the race, his mental preparation focused on how best to harness the most energy he could from the course. I.E. minimizing curves, focusing on the pitch of his skis, etc. Chris thinks of winemaking in the same way – how he can harness the ‘best’ from the variety in the most natural way while taking into account vintage variation.
Chris’s favorite time at the winery is when the wine is being pressed, referencing the youthful aromatics and freshness, comparing the wine at this time to triple extra virgin olive oil. And appreciates the differences between the free run, first press and subsequent pressed cuts. People may favor stylistic differences, but the best compliment he receives is when someone simply tells him, “this is a well made wine”. Fortunately he has never received the “what happened?” question. He compares his time in Napa and Sonoma to being part of a rolling university, where one is surrounded by expertise, perspective and deep wine making knowledge.
Chris asks the question, “why aren’t younger people drinking more wine”. He has come to realize that winemaking styles and prices need to adapt to the times, to people’s age and their generational desires. He uses his three children as a ‘test the market’ for his wines. Their feedback is focused and direct; they tell him they do not like high alcohol, highly concentrated or wines that are over oaked. Those wines simply aren’t interesting to them. Rather they must have fruit and vibrancy. And that ties in well with Chris’s own style of winemaking, preferring to showcase fruit over oak, balanced acidities and approachable texture. As he says, “Too much oak crushes the varietal character”. He often explains his wines in terms of what they do not have.
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In 2023 Chris began producing wines at the winery located at 1001 Silverado Trail, currently home of Bougetz Cellars. In 2025, he remodeled a special tasting room for the custom crush clients making their wines here. He hosts all tastings, spending quality time with guests; conversation flows freely and easily. As a side, we were the first ever visitor to do a tasting here on May 21, 2025.
The wines are available locally including at Napa Valley Bistro in the city of Napa, The Saint in St. Helena, Wine Country Connection in Yountville and the Depot Wine Train Collective in Calistoga. For more information, to schedule a tasting with Chris, or to join the 4 or 6 bottles twice a year wine club, visit: www.claudiofamilycellars.com www.claudiofamilycellars.com
Depot Wine Train Collective, Calistoga
Claudio Family Cellars is part of a several brands showcased in one of the two front train cars at the Calistoga Depot in Calistoga. Wines in this space were first showcased in December 2024 as part of a popup by Langtry Vineyards in Lake County. The Claudio Family Cellars wines are available here in flights, by samples from the Wine Tech Wine Dispenser stations, by the glass or by the bottle.
This is a cozy space to enjoy affordably priced well-made wines, learn something about the small brands housed here and participate in friendly banter with the wine educator. A more private room is located at one end of the train car with views overlooking Lincoln Avenue. Weather permitting tastings are also hosted outside at a high-top table in between the rail cars. And on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays the Calistoga Depot features live music.
The Calistoga Depot is located directly next to the start of the Napa Valley Vine Trail, a walking and bicycle path that when completed will connect Calistoga to the city of Napa.
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