Oakham Estate is one of Napa Valley’s most distinctive family-owned properties, combining historic vineyards, regenerative farming, hospitality, art, and innovative visitor experiences on a meticulously restored estate in St. Helena. This property was originally founded as Shadow Brook in 1984 (the first harvest) by restauranteur Emil Hoffman who purchased a house on Zinfandel Lane in 1972. He named the winery Shadow Brook in honor of a small creek that flows near the redwood trees on property.
Rawson (Rory), died in 2011, and Susanna Kelham purchased the property in 1997; today Susanna is the sole owner of the land. Rawson used to own Kelham Construction. He was the son of Bruce Kelham, architect and rancher who owned Bear Valley Ranch, several thousand-acres in western Marin County. Bruce had the buildings removed in the 1950s; the original building site is still accessed via a hiking trail where an old eucalyptus marks its spot. And nearby Kelham Beach is named after the family.
Bruce Kelham eventually sold his property as part of efforts by the government to create what is now the Point Reyes National Seashore. With part of the proceeds from that sale, Bruce began to look at the Napa Valley because of its existing diversity in agriculture, considering two sites – one on the valley floor in Rutherford and one in Oakville. Ultimately, he fell in love with a section of Oakville where the Mayacamas mountains and the varied terrain of where these mountains meet the valley floor.
He purchased over 1,000 acres in the late 1950s, the original footprint of Vine Hill Ranch. He later sold a portion of Vine Hill Ranch, called Vineyard X at that time, to raise funds to replant vineyards due to Phylloxera. Grower Andy Beckstoffer purchased that property in the 1990s and renamed the parcel to Missouri Hopper Vineyard in homage to the youngest daughter of Charles Hopper, a Napa Valley pioneer who purchased land from George Yount. And Susanna still owns nearly 80 acres of this original ranch in Oakville, called Kelham Vineyards. Incidentally Rawson’s sister Alexandra married Robert Philipps, the same family that presently owns Vine Hill Ranch.
The first Kelham Wines were produced from the 1998 vintage, a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Merlot. At the time there were no vineyards planted on their Zinfandel Lane property; they planted vineyards and for many years employed their own vineyard management team. Today Neal Vineyard Management oversees viticulture for both their St. Helena and Oakville vineyards. This property is planted to just under 11 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and is located in the southernmost section of the St. Helena sub appellation. The Rutherford sub appellation borders Zinfandel Lane directly to the south.
The name Oakham is an homage to Susanna’s father, Theodoric Bland Rogers; he was from Petersburg, Virginia, where his family had a homestead on the James River known as Oakham Estate. At the very end of the Civil War, Union troops burned the estate to the ground, leaving only the smokehouse and the detached kitchen that stood away from the main house. The family later rebuilt the home, led by Hamilton Rogers—her father’s favorite uncle, affectionately called Uncle Hammy—and his wife, Daisy. He constructed mills on the James River, became very wealthy in the post‑war years, and, as the family says, “brought Oakham back from the ashes.” The property still exists today, and her father remembers going to Oakham and spending time there as a child.
Susanna’s son Hamilton Nicholson is the winemaker for Oakham Estate. He studied at Colorado State in restaurant and resort management, then attended the Hotel Institute of Lausanne in Switzerland. He cooked all over Europe—including at a castle, small pensions in Italy, and at the historic L’Escargot in Paris. After graduation, he worked as Michael Chiarello’s assistant and later ran the wine program and the grill at the Bohemian Club.
His first full vintage as a winemaker was in 2000, a true trial‑by‑fire experience where he learned by doing. When he needed help or a second opinion, he leaned on a circle of winemakers he could call, including Ashley Hepworth, Kirk Venge, Sam Baxter, and Bob Egelhoff. And he credits learning how to make Chardonnay from former Stony Hill winemaker Mike Chelini and also Ric Forman of Forman Vineyards.
The family’s Kelham Vineyards in Oakville borders what is arguably Napa valley’s second most famous vineyard after To Kalon, Martha’s Vineyard. This vineyard is over 80 acres and is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Merlot. And more recently the vineyard was planted to several unique varieties for Napa Valley including Albariño, Chenin Blanc and Fiano. And an extremely rare planting of Pinot Noir in Oakville. Plans call for producing a white wine created from a blend of both Albariño and Fiano.
Both vineyards are certified organic and the estate expects to complete regenerative farming certification later in 2026. They are certified Napa Valley Fish Friendly through the Fish Friendly Farming (FFF) Environmental certification program and are also Napa Green certified.
For their white varieties and Pinot Noir, they utilize an unusual trellising system. In order to mitigate the effects of global warming for their white grapes, they trellis their red grapes in the same row as the white grapes but train the red grapes to grow higher than the white grapes. This effectively allows the canopy and fruit zone of the red grapes to shade the lower white grapes which are more susceptible to sunburn.
Total annual production is small but they have a permit to make significantly more wine as well as a 14,000 square foot physical winery that could support a much larger production if they wanted. The winery features a diversity of small lot stainless steel tanks and a separate room that can strictly be used for fermenting white wines. For many years they sold grapes from their Oakville vineyard to Beaulieu Vineyard; this ended around 2000. They continue to sell grapes to other area producers from both their St. Helena and Oakville vineyards.
The family’s talents are clearly evident; Susanna’s background includes interior design; she created an elegant standalone ‘artists’ salon and over the years has displayed with some of her own furnishings along with works from other artists including northern California based landscape artist Clark Mitchell. She also used to sell a number of prints by the French artist Gerard Purvis; she was the only distributor of his work in the USA. Gerard is an internationally renowned contemporary artist who is best known for producing original sculptures & prints made from wine bottle foils.
Today the salon displays the beautiful work of artist Brian Estudillo, founder and owner of Napa Valley based VINA ARTE. Estudillo creates artistic pieces out of old grapevines. His first works were from grapevines pulled out at Saintsbury Winery in 2023. In addition to Oakham Estate and Saintsbury, he has also worked with Stags Leap Wine Cellars, Honig Vineyard & Winery, Laird Family Estate, Lewis Cellars, Franciscan Vineyards, Hyde De Villaine and Grgich Hills.
Hospitality
The estate combines a harmonious balance between functionality, hospitality, elegance and nature. In terms of spaces on the property for hosting visitors, it is one of the more versatile Napa Valley wineries. Vineyards surround the winery and grounds. A special open space is surrounded by grape vines, allowing guests to literally eat and drink among the vineyards.
Tastings are hosted either indoors or outdoors under a shaded canopy. Guests facing north often enjoy attractive views of Mt. St. Helena in the distance which rises near the town of Calistoga; for reference, Mt. St. Helena is the tallest mountain near Napa Valley.
Food is an integral part of a visit; one of their experiences is a wood-fired rustic bread and charcuterie pairing. Breads are heated using their mobile pizza oven which is wheeled over to where guests are seated. And of note is that a family member generally serves guests when visiting, either Susanna or Hamilton.
Several restored ‘grounded’ ski gondolas used to be located on the property. Hamilton loves to ski and accompanies friends to the ski slopes. As often the case with work and play, he takes business calls when on the slopes and sometimes even while in the gondolas. His friends started referring to the gondolas as his new office. Hamilton started to think about the idea of turning a gondola into a real office. A gondola is not necessarily a common consumer purchase. He spent 5+ years searching for the right ones before locating several in Whitefish, Montana.
He shipped them back to St. Helena and had them restored. One used to sit on the wooden deck outside of their tasting salon and was been turned into a mini office. When he wanted to feel like being above the ski slopes, all he had to do was step inside the gondola and take a few phone calls. He is planning on turning one of the other gondolas into a mini sauna.
Ham & Al’s Adventure, Wine Through Time
One of Napa Valley’s most unusual wine experiences, Ham & Al’s Adventure: Wine Through Time combines storytelling, animation, education, food and wine into a theatrical presentation. This 60 minute animated presentation tells the story of wine grapes with an educational component woven into the story line. It tells how grapes came from China through Egypt into Europe before eventually making their way to California and Napa Valley. Segments of the story also include components of wine including aromatics, flavor and growing grapes. Ham is named for Susanna’s son Hamilton and Al was Hamilton’s former dog, Al Pastor (2010 – 2023). Susanna wrote the creative story script, and it is read by various actors.
The animation is presented through 12 ceiling mounted projects and is both expressed as 2-D utilizing two screens that run nearly the length of the space as well as also 3-D, projected directly onto the white table cloth. This experience is offered twice daily at 11am and 2pm from Thursday through Saturday only. Two weeks advance notice is needed for this experience. It seats up to 22. And during the showing, at ‘intermissions’ small cheese boards and wines are served.
This rectangular space, folds up and can be loaded onto the back of a semi-truck for transport to other locations. Plans include bringing this presentation to resorts, clubs or sporting events. For more information, visit: www.hamandalsadventures.com
Select Wines
Whites
Chardonnay
The 2025 Oakham Estate Winery Chardonnay; this wine is medium to deep gold in color and immediately expressive aromatically. It smells floral, tropical and stone fruited, expressing all the aromatics we love about Napa Valley wines from this variety. The nose notes, notes of honeysuckle and jasmine, with additional scents of baked pineapple, stone fruits including peach and nectarine. And non fruited and prominent layers of butterscotch, creme brule, caramel and vanilla. The mouth feel is fleshy but is never heavy, it broadly coats the palate with a gentle creamy feel. This wine tastes like ripe yellow pineapple, peach, apricot, and papaya with additional flavors of crème brûlée, butterscotch, lightly toasted caramel, popcorn butter and vanilla. This wine is ready to drink right out of the gate – a crowd friendly expression of the variety. Finishes balanced with neither texture, acidity or flavor dominating, but with a persistence of all three lingering. This wine was fermented in a concrete egg and later topped with about 17% Chardonnay from Star Vineyard, in Rutherford. A touch of oak chips were added during fermentation and then pulled out when fermentation completed. This wine did not go through malolactic fermentation.
Rosé/Reds
The 2025 Oakham Estate Winery Rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir (free run juice), St. Helena Napa Valley. This wine is deep salmon in color; be patient in its youth, the initially restrained aromatics need some time to fully open. Its aromatics include rose petals, a light orange zest, strawberry guavas, ruby grapefruit, dill, and a light vanilla sweetness which evolves as the wine opens. Prior to filtering and before bottling, Hamilton said the aromatics reminded him of walking up to the strawberry stand located north of the city of Napa on the Silverado Trail where fresh strawberries are picked daily during the season. Minerally, and sweetly fruited, this wine tastes like white strawberries, strawberry guava, Rainier cherries, nectarine, raspberries, a light but finishing note of orange zest. Its texture is a note worthy character, sporting a fleshy and creamy broadly distributed texture. It finishes fresh with a balanced acidity accompanying a persistence of flavor. At this age, soon after bottling there is a light bitterness felt on the finish from sulphur. But this mostly disappears on day two. This wine was barrel fermented in neutral oak. Hamilton used an osmotic filter to lower the alcohol about 1 percent. Its pH is 3.35 with its ABV listed as 13.0%
The 2025 Oakham Estate Winery, Pinot Noir St. Helena is medium ruby in color; immediately forward fruited and aromatically not shy in its infancy, the bouquet is up front with aromas of cherry cola, blueberries, boysenberry jam, root beer, sarsaparilla, cardamom and cinnamon stick. Additional notes of raspberry, strawberry and a subtle matchstick reduction emerge with air. This is a ripe and sweetly fruited aromatic expression of the variety. On the palate there are flavors of raspberry, red cherry, boysenberry, Persian mulberry, red licorice and blood orange. And finishes a bit savory and spicy with a plenty of present texture that we don’t always associate with Napa Valley Pinot Noir where texture is often non existent. This continues to persist well beyond the fruit with a gravelly, dusty, chalky and drying character. The sulphur is still very much present at this age and upon opening the bottle, especially noticeable on the palate and masks the fruit – however this dissipates considerably on day two. At this age the sweetness of oak shows more on the bouquet than the palate. Still a bit tight. The wine was fermented with a small percentage of oak chips and all punch downs were conducted by hand. Its élevage was in once-used barrels. Its ABV 14.68%.
Susanna also owns Ham & Al Wines, a brand including the labels Timeout! and Challenge!, focused on bringing back family, friends, and a real sense of community—both at home and in the Napa Valley. It’s designed for poolside and patio hangouts, backyard barbecues, and game day gatherings of all kinds. She is already working with five NFL teams, creating a way to celebrate that feels distinctly American.
The idea is to connect the energy of the NFL with the spirit of Napa Valley. It’s all about food, friends, family, and recapturing the essence of game day. Its built around fun events, where people see it as a chance to come together, share great food and wine, and simply enjoy themselves. The wine is sold as three packs in wooden boxes. Susanna describes the packaging as “parties in a box”, built specifically for game day—packed with joy and fun, down to the crinkles of shredded paper inside. She asked Hamilton what jersey number he would like to see printed on the labels; he chose 50, his age at the time, as a personal touch on the project.
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Oakham Estate represents an uncommon blend of Napa Valley history, family stewardship, agriculture, hospitality and creativity. Under the leadership of Susanna Kelham and winemaker Hamilton Nicholson, the estate continues to evolve while remaining deeply connected to both its agricultural roots and its commitment to welcoming guests.
For more information, to book an appointment for a tasting or to purchase current release wines, visit: www.oakhamestatewinery.com
Estate property
Kelham Vineyards, Oakville
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