Crocker & Starr is a boutique winery with vineyards located on a historic 122 acre property (about 115 acres to vines) in the southern part of the town of St. Helena and was founded in 1997. This winery is a partnership between Charlie Crocker, and Pam Starr, Napa vintner extraordinaire. Crocker owns the land (Crocker Estate), and Starr helps with the vineyard management and of course is the winemaker.
After years of making their wines at Napa Wine Co, Crocker & Starr opened their own winery in 2016 (within a very short of walk of the tasting room).
Crocker Ranch
The Crocker & Starr property is very historic having been established in 1870 as Dowdell & Sons Winery. This land was originally owned by James Dowdell, an Irishman who first planted grapes on site in the early 1870’s; the property has grown crops continuously since then although it has not always been planted to wine grapes. A section of the vineyard just east of the winery is planted to old heritage clones. James learned winemaking at Edge Hill Winery, one of the Napa Valley’s oldest and most historic wineries – later he was superintendent for the construction of the massive stone winery building, Greystone Cellars, located just north of St. Helena (and made some of his own wine here). And of course, Dowdell Lane takes its name from James’ last name.
Dowdell Lane extends fairly far east across the valley; the eastern border of the Crocker Ranch is the Napa River (fairly close to the Silverado Trail). One of the few remaining walnut orchards on the valley floor still stands towards the back end of their property – a reminder of the valley’s historical varied agricultural crops. The original winery building and brandy facility (not used in these regards today) are still standing and have been completely restored (and is where we first visited Crocker & Starr many years ago).
The property also features a number of stately old oak trees including the largest oak we have seen anywhere in the Napa Valley. Before agriculture transformed the valley, there were numerous oaks growing on the valley floor. The presence of large oak trees indicates the soils are deep and rich to support trees of this size for such a long time; they are a prime indicator species of fertile soils.
And the property houses a family chapel dating from 1910 (originally was located on Nob Hill in San Francisco).
The Crockers
The Crockers have a long history in northern California; there are not many other families who have played such an influential role in San Francisco’s history and culture as the Crockers. Charles Crocker (Charlie’s great grandfather) was part of an entrepreneurial group instrumental in the building of the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1860’s with service through the Sierra Nevada mountains. This group is generally referred to as the Big Four which also includes well-known names such as Stanford, Hopkins and Huntington. Charles served as the president of Wells Fargo Bank in 1869. The family used to own an impressive mansion on the top of Nob Hill – but it was destroyed by the San Francisco earthquake – part of this land is now where Grace Cathedral is located.
Charlie is a very successful entrepreneur who founded BEI Technologies which focuses on electronic sensors including electronic stability control which is built into every car manufactured in the USA. And also, BEI Medical Systems – continuing his sensor-based technology, this time applying it towards woman’s health care. Charlie took both companies public and eventually sold them. He also oversees Crocker Capital, a private investment firm.
In 1971 Charlie and his wife Lucinda (died 2019) purchased their current estate property on Dowdell Lane – a number of greenhouses came with the property. In a brilliant move at the time in the early 1970’s (timing was everything) they converted the greenhouses to grow bench-grafts (to supply local vineyards). With Charlie’s funding a new company was started called Vineyard Technical Services.
Incidentally, Charlie also played an early instrumental role in Duckhorn Vineyards – founder Dan Duckhorn used to work for Charlie at Crocker Associates – and was personally involved in overseeing Vineyard Technical Services. Charlie also was involved in helping Dan acquire the first Duckhorn property off of Lodi Lane in St. Helena.
Starr’s meeting with Charlie was originally in regard to a misunderstanding about purchasing fruit. Pam had visited his vineyards previously while working for Spottswoode; Charlie heard about this and invited her down to his office in San Francisco under the impression that she wanted to purchase grapes from his property. The result of their 3-hour meeting was that they were going to jointly start a winery with the Crocker Ranch providing the grapes.
The property is 100 acres total of which about 85 are planted to vines. Production hovers around merely 2500 cases – as they only use a small portion of grapes from the property for the Crocker & Starr wines. The majority of fruit is sold to other premium Napa Valley wineries.
One Post Street San Francisco (where Charlie and Pam first met)
Crocker Mausoleum, Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland
Charles F. Crocker Mausoleum, Cypress Lawn Cemetery, Colma
Crocker Art Gallery, Sacramento
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Pam has a long history in the winemaking industry (despite originally studying to become a dentist) having made wine for Adastra Winery for a number of years (still is their winemaker) as well as being a former winemaker at one of our favorite Napa Cabernet producers, Spottswoode Winery. Her primary focus is on the vineyards and during a recent visit her passion and unbridled enthusiasm for terroir was clearly evident.
When she entered the partnership with Crocker, she immediately started working towards converting the estate vineyard to becoming organic and farming it as sustainably as possible. The true essence of sustainable farming is that what you take out of the land, you put back into it. A holistic way of thinking if you will.
Crocker & Starr used to focus their winemaking efforts just several wines, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon but today they produce additional wines.
Select Wines
Whites
Sauvignon Blanc
Starr’s philosophy with their Sauvignon Blanc is to truly respect the variety and showcase this as a wine that is completely driven by its terroir. As Pam says, this wine is “vineyards to glass”, essentially capturing “the essence of what we do best in Napa”. Some of the grapes for their Sauvignon Blanc comes from their only non-estate source. In this case, Pam planted the vines in the well-regarded Hyde Vineyard in the Carneros region southwest of the town of Napa. Both the estate and the Hyde vineyard are planted to the same clone (Sauvignon Musqué), but different soils and climatic regions produce drastically different characteristics. Carneros is in a cooler part of Napa Valley; their estate vineyard in St. Helena is located in a warmer growing region.
The 2024 Crocker & Starr Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley is pale to medium gold in color; the bouquet smells bright and lifted with scents of honeydew melon, golden kiwi, golden delicious apple, comise pear, beeswax and a lingering but light note of vanilla. This is not an herbal expression of the variety, and not overly tropical, either, but comfortably seated somewhere in between. The palate offers flavors of golden apples, ripe pear, guava, white grapefruit, kiwi and pineapple guava. Shining with a bright light, this wine is anchored by a vibrant and lively acidity. Finishes fresh, with both fruit and acidity parallel in each other on the persistent and intense finish. The mouthfeel is lightly creamy but is lifted high by the energetic acidity. And there is a light drying character which outpaces fruit and acidity on the finish. Share this with something from the sea; our recommendation is shellfish, perhaps lightly seared scallops.
The 2022 Crocker & Starr A.V.A. Napa Valley, White Blend of Sauvignon Blanc is medium yellow in color; the bouquet is a riper but not overripe expression of this variety with just enough citrusy notes to keep it from being linear. It offers scents of honeysuckle, citrus blossom, pineapple, yellow nectarine, apricot, vanilla, corn tassel, snap peas, passion fruit and lemon zest. Rich and intensely flavored across the palate, this wine delivers notes of pineapple, pear, yellow peach, apricot, pineapple guava, lime and a lingering almost briny note. Also a hint of tarragon deep in the finish. Its texture is supple and rounded and lingers with layers of fruit and bright but not bracing acidity. We could see pairing this with scallops where the texture and flavor of these bivalve mollusks are a cozy companion with the flavors, acidity and texture of this wine. Or more immediate, the recently picked fava beans cooking right now with their delicious smells wafting up stairs.
The 2021 Crocker & Starr A.V.A. Napa Valley, White Blend of Sauvignon Blanc (100% varietal) is deep straw in color; the bouquet offers aromas of dried haystack, citrus blossom, honeysuckle, lemon verbena, cut grass and lychee. While working walnut harvests every summer as a child on our grandparent’s ranch in Red Bluff, CA – by the end of summer our hands would be completely black from handling the green husks; this wine also shows light aromatic hints of walnut husks and immediately brought us back to our childhood. This bottling offers an ethereal texture across the palate including a light creaminess complemented by a refreshing acidity and flavors of lemon and lime. This wine was fermented and aged for 9 months in a variety of containers including stainless-steel barrels, cement eggs and French oak. This is a very balanced bottling.
The 2007 Crocker & Starr Sauvignon Blanc opens with expressive, glass-filling aromatics that lean tropical, led by guava, pineapple, and hints of ripe citrus. On the palate, the wine is beautifully rounded and layered, showing additional tropical notes alongside bright flavors of tangerine, lime, and a touch of melon. There’s a soft richness to the texture, balanced by lively acidity that keeps the wine fresh and focused through a long, subtly creamy finish. Without heavy oak influence, the wine remains clean, vibrant, and exceptionally food-friendly — the kind of Sauvignon Blanc that complements a meal rather than overpowering it. As Pam likes to say, the wine received only a “kiss of oak,” allowing the fruit and texture to remain at the forefront. The fruit was entirely whole-cluster pressed and aged primarily in stainless steel on the lees, resulting in a wine with both purity and depth. Best of all, it delivers remarkable quality at a very approachable price point.
The 2004 Crocker & Starr Sauvignon Blanc was the 12th highest rated Sauvignon Blanc in the world by Wine Spectator. Their wines are always very highly rated and regarded but this rating was something special. We suspect that as a result of this very high rating, demand significantly increased which explained why this particular wine was not available during a trade tasting we attended.
Reds
Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2022 Crocker & Star Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley is from a To Kalon selection, planted at the Crocker & Star Vineyard in 2006. This wine is 100% varietal. The bouquet is deep ruby and nearly opaque; the bouquet smells ripe, representative of the vintage in Napa Valley, but never crosses into the territory of being overripe. Its scents include chewy pie, boysenberry spread, ripe blackberry, dark mulberry, and dark raspberry. And there are supporting layers influences from its time in oak, including cinnamon stick, chocolate and dark cocoa powder. As ripe on the palate, as on the bouquet, this wine tastes like blackberry, dark raspberry, mulberry, cherry pie, plum compote and dark licorice. Its ripeness is balanced nicely by a vein of balanced acidity which keeps this wine in the lifted territory. The tannins are gravelly textured- persistent with a lightly grainy and dusty character in tandem with the fruit on the finish. The bottling shows plenty of character and freshness for an exceptionally warm and hot vintage in Napa Valley.
The 2005 “Stoneplace” Crocker & Starr Cabernet Sauvignon — named for the old stone ghost winery that still stands on the estate — is a beautifully crafted and deeply expressive wine. Bottled unfined and unfiltered to preserve maximum flavor and texture, it was aged in approximately 70% new French oak, lending both structure and elegance without overshadowing the fruit. Dark, dense, and exceptionally concentrated, the wine opens with layered aromas of blackberry, blueberry, cocoa powder, and a touch of earthy minerality. As it evolves in the glass, subtle notes of cedar, espresso, and warm spice begin to emerge, adding further complexity. The palate is rich and polished, beginning with a soft, lush entry before building into waves of layered black fruit across the mid-palate and through the long, lingering finish. The finish carries hints of smoke, exotic spice, and finely integrated tannins that give the wine both depth and refinement. Powerful yet balanced, this is an inspired Cabernet Sauvignon that reflects both the character of the vintage and the historic estate from which it takes its name.
Red Blend
The 2018 Crocker & Starr Red Blend is 70% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Malbec and 10% Petite Verdot. While this wine is not 75% varietal Cabernet Franc (so it cannot be labeled as such), the wording on the label is cleverly listed as, “Red Blend of Cabernet Franc”. It is dark ruby in color with ripe fruit dominating the bouquet including aromas of blackberry and boysenberry and deeper into the aromatics are notes of hints of clove, old cedar box and a nuance of dried tobacco leaf. This wine features medium acidity, a pleasing texture with well-integrated tannins and a slight savory feel on the finish including of spicy plum skin, dark spices and crushed peppercorn.
Cabernet Franc
The 2016 Crocker & Stark Cabernet Franc, St. Helena Napa Valley is 100% varietal. The grapes for this wine were grown in loamy soils. This wine is deep ruby and nearly opaque in color; at 10 years post vintage it is showing some bottle bouquet, sweetly fruited it smells like dark raspberry, fully ripe Santa Rosa, plum, red cherry, boysenberry, and dark mulberry. Additional notes include chocolate, vanilla and dark cocoa powder. Still very much fresh and primary at this age, the palate tastes like red cherry, boysenberry, cranberry, currant, red cherry, Persian mulberry and dried herbs. Like on the bouquet, on the palate, the oak is a very much a complementary and supporting influence and never dominates. Finishes lively with loads of energy from its bright acidity. While the bouquet shows some age, the palate is probably still as fresh as when it was bottled. The tannins are firmly, gripping with a grainy and gritty, persistent dusty texture, which outpaces the fruit by far on the finish. Their texture features a broadly coating presence. Savory.
The 2006 Crocker & Starr Cabernet Franc is one of the nicest Cabernet Francs we have tried coming out of Napa Valley. This particular vintage is slightly blended with Petit Verdot (the blending variety tends to vary depending on the vintage). It is hard to tell how rich in flavor this wine is from the deceivingly elegant nose; exotic spice driven aromas, floral nuances and a touch of smoky tobacco round off the bouquet. The palate is full of complex layered ripe rich flavors including juicy blackberry with just a touch of tobacco on the finish. There is a core of fruit that continues from the entry all the way to the finish and then some. As with all Crocker & Starr’s wines, this one is in perfect harmony and totally in balance including the delicate tannins that anchor the finish.
Hospitality
The cute 1918 restored farmhouse is located a minute from the nearby and almost always backed up with traffic Highway 29. But despite this close proximity, arriving at the property feels worlds away. Visitors are greeted on the porch by one of their hosts and depending on the experience reserved, will be led into their nearby vineyard for a quick educational stop.
Guests will also visit the modern and very clean winery. Crocker & Star has several places to host tastings – weather permitting outside under their arbor is beautiful space. Or the inside of the stone house directly next to the farmhouse is often used.
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Crocker & Starr is involved in several charity organizations including previously the Napa Valley Auction where in 2008 their donated barrel was the eighth highest grossing wine of the event. While the majority of their wines are sold direct to club members, one can sometimes find their wines locally at ACME Fine Wine Shop in St. Helena.
For more information, to request an appointment for a tasting, or to become a Casali (meaning farmhouse in Italian) member, visit: www.crockerstarr.com
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