Saddleback Cellars

Saddleback Cellars is located off of the small residential & vineyard surrounded Money Road – about 1/2 way down the Oakville Cross Road. Astute followers of Orange County California trivia will note a similarity between this wineries’ name and two prominent mountain peaks in the Santa Ana range called Saddleback. In addition, there is a dip in the Vaca mountain range to the east of the winery resembling a horse’s saddle. Nils Venge, the winemaker and owner was born and raised in Orange County.

The Venge’s roots in the wine industry date back to the 1950s when Nil’s father established Vencom Imports in the City of Industry (Los Angeles County), a wine and spirits importing company which specialized in western European wines and spirits. Nils graduated from UC Davis with several classmates who eventually became accomplished winemakers including Justin Meyer (Silver Oak) and Ric Forman (Sterling Vineyards). Nil has been working in the Napa Valley since 1970 – his first job at that time was as a vineyard supervisor at Charles Krug Winery and then helping make wine at Sterling Vineyards for several years in the early 1970s.

Starting in 1975 at age 30 he was hired as general manager and winemaker by James and Anne McWilliams, the proprietor of Villa Mt. Eden in Oakville. This was the site of what is now Plumpjack Winery. A number of the wines Nils produced in those years were much more common than they are today in Napa Valley; they included Gewurztraminer, Chenin Blanc and ‘Napa Gamay’. After working at Villa Mt. Eden, he became a minority owner and founding winemaker at nearby Groth Winery (also in Oakville); Nils produced the first United States Cabernet Sauvignon to have been awarded 100 points by famed wine writer Robert Parker; for reference, this was the 1985 Groth Vineyards Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

Nils purchased the property for what would become Saddleback Cellars in 1976. The first vintage of Saddleback Cellars was in 1982, also the same year that the winery was built.

This is how many wineries in lesser-known wine regions are; small with a definite agricultural feel rather than the “polished with money” feel often found at select Napa wineries. When the weather permits tastings are located mere feet from the grape vines on one of four picnic tables – the front four rows next to the road are used for their Pinot Grigio. It is rare in Napa Valley when you can have a wine tasting this close to the actual grape vines.

Vencom Labels, author’s private collection

This is the heart of Oakville – Cabernet Sauvignon country if you will and finding Pinot Gris planted here is a rarity. Pinot Gris is mutant variety of Pinot Noir – visitors who are here when the grapes have gone through veraison should look closely at these grapes. “Gris” means grey in French and the grapes show a noticeable grey skin color and an almost brownish pink tone to the skins. A row of this variety is planted right next to Money Road next to walnut trees where one can park their vehicle – just before reaching the actual winery.

Saddleback owns 17 acres of property of which about 15 acres are planted to vines. While the majority of the property is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon smaller plantings are of Chardonnay, Merlot, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Zinfandel. Their plantings of Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Zinfandel are extremely rare in the Oakville appellation. Nearby winery neighbors including Villa Ragazzi, Silver Oak and Groth.

This is definitely not a “big” bold flashy Napa Valley winery. Often visitors will spot Nils here – he tends to spend a lot of his time riding a tractor. Although these days he does spend a fair amount of time in Oklahoma. Music is a part of the experience – it is not rock and roll or soothing classical sounds, or contemporary pop crap but rather is dominated by old country songs (legends such as Conway Twitty, Earl Thomas Conley, Johnny Cash and others are the mainstay sound). And if you need to use the bathroom, you should refer to it as the “John Wayne John” – photos of John Wayne adorn this tiny room along with bleach white skeletons of various dead animal skulls and a special type of repellent from Colonel Bob. Not sure if it is actually repellent – we’ve never been brave enough to try some.

Tastings are personalized and are by appointment as drop ins are strongly discouraged especially when the tastings are outside, as often each group will have their own host and walk ins may disrupt the individual tastings. When the weather is good you rarely find a more personalized tasting at a winery in Napa Valley.

The host sits down with visitors on the picnic tables for at least part of the tasting and provides information about the wines and answers questions. And be sure if they don’t offer, to ask for the ‘jelly belly’ tasting experience. When the weather is bad, tastings occur inside the actual winery building which is surrounded by wine barrels and photos on the table of the Nil’s dogs. Note the friendly writings that people have left in their guestbook on the counter.

Select Wines
Whites
Saddleback makes a large number of wines for a fairly small winery (some relatively obscure for the Napa Valley). Visitors to the property can expect a tasting flight to include several wines usually starting with the lighter white wines, a taste of their current release rosé and then finishing with the reds.

Vermentino
The 2024 Saddleback Cellars Vermentino, Carneros Napa Valley (Mahoney Ranch) is medium straw in color; highly aromatic this bouquet is an interplay between floral, orchard and tropical fruits and citrus. These scents include citrus blossom, honeysuckle, not fully ripe pineapple, apricot, Golden delicious apples, white peach, white nectarine, papaya, lemongrass, lemon verbena, pineapple guava, starfruit, loquat, kumquat and thyme. This wine is loaded with an impressive amount of aromatic layering. Bright, balanced and minerally this wine tastes like pineapple, apricot, papaya, yellow mango, honeydew melon, kaffir lime, pomelo and white grapefruit including a light pithy/bitter character on the finish that this variety is known for. Its texture is rounded and supple, lifted by the accompanying lively acidity. Lingers mouth watering and refreshing with some herbal notes including of thyme and fennel. This bottling is fully ripe at a refreshing 13.0% listed ABV. Perhaps enjoy this with the Crab Louie Salad at Brix Restaurant in Oakville while hanging out at their bar, making new friends.

Vermentino is commonly grown in Provence in the south of France where it is known as Rolle. There is very little of this variety planted in Napa Valley; we are aware of only a handful of vineyards in Napa Valley including two on the Napa Valley side of Carneros (Mahoney) and Steve Matthiasson’s Cressida Vineyard, two in Rutherford including the Rutherford Dust owned by Neal Family and AJT Vineyard owned by the Terlato family (Rutherford Hill Winery) and at Benessere Vineyard in St. Helena. The very few Napa Valley producers that make wines from Vermentino often source grapes from outside of the county. According to the 2022 California State Grape Acreage Report in 2021 there were 4 bearing acres of Vermentino growing in Napa Valley.

Chardonnay
The 2023 Saddleback Cellars Chardonnay, Napa Valley. About 50% of the grapes for this wine are from the property and the remainder from other vineyards around the valley. This wine is medium gold in color; on the bouquet there is a union of both floral and sweet ripe stone and tropical fruits. It smells like honeycomb, ripe apricot, melting butter, baked pineapple, butterscotch, peaches in light syrup and caramelized sugars including creme brule. Lighter bodied with a bright and balanced acidity, this wine tastes both stone fruited and tropical. Its flavors include pineapple, papaya, nectarine and apricot.
Its texture is creamy, a result from their battonage. Finishes with a light oak spice but it is not a dominating charachter. This wine is in distribution due to its higher production, usually 700-900 cases. This wine was aged in French oak barrels for 8 years of which 40% were new.

Pinot Grigio
The 2020 Saddleback Cellars Pinot Grigio is medium gold in color; offers aromas of ripe Golden Delicious apple, baked apples, honeysuckle, citrus blossom and mandarin. Simply put, this wine is aromatically generous. Shows a pleasing texture from start to finish – supple with some creamy like notes. Offers flavors of lemon/lime and ginger with some graphite like mineralities. Nicely balanced with a refreshing citrus-like brightness (but not tartness on the finish). Drinks very well by itself but we could also see ourselves pairing this with fresh halibut or scallops.

Pinot Blanc
The 2023 Saddleback Cellars Pinot Blanc is pale to medium gold in color; honeyed and sweetly fruited, this wine smells like nectarine, apricot, baked pineapple, honeycomb, butterscotch, vanilla. Loaded with layers of flavor, this wine tastes like white nectarines, pineapple guava, white peach, golden kiwi and carambola (star fruit). And some white florals including jasmine. Its texture is fleshy, but supported by a lively acidity which brings a lot of movement to the palate and lifts the phenolics high. Finishes lightly tangy, highly refreshing. This wine was fermented and aged in stainless steel.

Rosé
The 2006 Vine Haven Scarlett’s Rosé, named after a favorite pooch, is a rosé of Merlot. This delightful summer wine shows slight watermelon aromas on the nose. We’ve climbed and trekked all over the world and the aromas on this wine remind one of the “watermelon algae” found at high elevation living in residual snow or glaciers which gives off odors similar to fresh watermelon. Bet you won’t see that comparison in any other tasting notes. Think the Merlot rosé is nice? Try the actual Merlot. Their wines of this variety tend to show rich fruit dominated bouquets with a rounded mouth feel and hints of chipped chocolate and cherry followed by a note of black pepper towards the finish. The tannins are well structured. This wine hasn’t been produced in years.

Reds
Charbono
The 2021 Saddleback Cellars Frediani Vineyard Barrel Select Charbono, Calistoga Napa Napa Valley is deep ruby and nearly opaque in color; this vintage and bottling is a cleaner, less rustic and more fruit driven expression compared to the some of the previous Saddleback Cellars Charbono’s we have tried. There is an intensity of aromatics including blackberry, dark plum, red cherry, dark mulberry and dark cherry with a light layer of old cedar box and dark cocoa powder. The palate sports plenty of fruit, but accompanied with a freshness of lively acidity. Minerally, savory, and brightly lit, this wine tastes of both red and darker fruits including cherry, red plums, raspberry, boysenberry with finishing notes of dried sage, dried bay leaf and a chalky character. The tannins offer a medium grip that is persistent. We like the vibrancy on this bottling. And its ageworthy – lets try this again in the next 5 to 10 years.

The 2018 Saddleback Cellars Frediani Vineyard Barrel Select Charbono, Calistoga Napa Valley is medium to deep ruby in color; the bouquet is immediately stinky with notes of old baseball mitt leather being used on a hot summer day, mushrooms, with an animalistic vibe including of barnyard, damp potting soil, cured meats, pipe tobacco, crushed dark peppercorn and smoked herbs including sage. The dark fruit is here, but its hiding a bit behind all these other aromatics; it includes dark plum and black cherry. And as the wine evolves, the fruit becomes a bit more expressive and it also opens to several notes of darker dessert notes including espresso, cloves and dark chocolate. This wine is ripe across the palate, but with a supporting vibrant acidity that keeps its overall cadence fresh. Unlike on the bouquet, the palate is more fruited rather than non fruited and includes blackberry, red plum, Persian mulberry, not fully ripe boysenberry, currant and cranberry. Lingers with a light red-fruited tartness and plenty of texture. Savory. Bright. Inviting. The tannins are gravelly and still grainy; they fully coat the palate and persist with a dusty/dryness at 7 years post vintage. Bring us a warm summer afternoon, a well marbled cut of beef, a BBQ and this wine please!

Sangiovese
The 2023 Saddleback Cellars Sangiovese is 100% varietal from a house vineyard down the road from the winery, about 1/3 of an acre. This wine is medium ruby in color; the focus on the bouquet is ripe but bright fruit. Its time from its 18 months in barrel is a light influence, taking a back seat to the fruit. Its scents include red cherry, dark raspberry, mulberry and Santa Rosa plums. With light but supporting layers of baking spices including cinnamon stick and cloves. Bright with a balanced acidity, this wine tastes like raspberry, red plums, cherry, red licorice and red mulberries. Texturally, this is a soft expression of the variety, the tannins are rounded with a light but persistent dusty and drying texture.

The 2018 Saddleback Cellars Sangiovese, Penny Lane Vineyard Oakville is pale purple color in the glass; offers a distinctive bouquet including aromas of rhubarb, red cherry cola, cranberry, currant, stewed tomatoes and a strawberry leaf like stem note. These aromatics are complemented by notes of peppercorn and cedar (but the pepper characteristic that is so often inherent in this variety, does not dominate in this particular wine). A brightness persists along with a savory quality embracing both spices, cedar and darker, medium bodied tannins. This is mouthwatering deliciousness that goes well with a thin-crust Ducati Pizza from Tra Vigne in St. Helena!

Chloe’s Blend
The 2022 Saddleback Cellars Chloe’s Blend, Napa Valley Red Wine; this wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; ripe and sweetly fruited – representative of the warm to hot vintage, this wine smells like raspberry jam, blackberry pie, boysenberry jam, chocolate and light note of old cedar. This is a plush expression of the variety, as ripe as the palate, this wine tastes like raspberry jam, blackberry, cherry pie, and ripe plums. Mature and ripe fruit. The tannins are grainy, and persist with a dusty and persistent grippy character. Their texture far outpaces the fruit at this age, four years post vintage.

The 2017 Saddleback Cellars Chloe’s Blend Napa Valley Red Wine (named after a winery dog of course who passed away in early 2026) is medium to dark ruby in color; features a lovely bouquet with an appealing diversity of aromatics including not only fruit but dessert spices. Shows dark cherry, mocha, a cedar/brown chocolate nuance and deep into the aromatics a kiss of dried tobacco leaf and dried herbs. Shows mouth filling opulence across the palate showing more dark fruits than red fruits – including boysenberry and blackberry. Lingers with dark and spicy medium bodied tannins – somewhat gravelly in their textural feel. Don’t need to really examine this wine; simply enjoy it for what it is – fun and easy drinking wine with some complexity. This is a blend of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon 6% Merlot, 6% Zinfandel and 3% Petite Sirah.

Syrah
The 2021 Saddleback Cellars Syrah, Frediani Vineyard is blended with skosh of Cabernet Sauvignon; this wine is deep ruby and nearly opaque. This is ripe expression of the variety with aromas of plum compote, blackberry pie, boysenberry jam, Himalayan purple mulberry, dark chocolate, mocha and assorted sweeter baking spices. As ripe on the palate as the bouquet, but with a minerally almost ferrous element, noticed especially on the finish. This wine tastes like dark plum, raspberry, boysenberry and dark cherry. Not overly spice as this variety sometimes expresses, but definitely savory with flavors of dried herbs, a hint of pepper, a dusty/earthy character. The tannins are broadly distributed, drying, dusty and far outlast the fruit on the finish.

Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2022 Saddleback Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville is blended with a skosh of Merlot. 60% new French oak, 10% new American and the remainder neutral French oak. This wine is deep ruby and nearly opaque; fully ripe, but not quite crossing into the territory of being jammy, this wine smells like, cherry pie, ripe blackberry harvested mid summer and dry cocoa powder. This wine tastes ripe and sweetly fruited, including of blackberry, boysenberry, dark cherry and plum. The fruit shows more mature for its age, at 4 years post vintage. Medium acidity. A robust wine in terms of texture, the grippy and drying tannins are broadly dispersed, persistent with a long-lasting drying grip. The host will tell you the finish reminds you of childhood disappointment, when your parents were gone and you opened the box of cocoa powder thinking you were going to be eating chocolate, big difference.

The 2016 Saddleback Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville is dark ruby in the glass; shows plenty of fruit on the bouquet including blackberry, boysenberry, dark chocolate, cedar, mushroom and leather. But the ripe fruit dominates the aromatics. The intensity of fruit on the nose continues on to the palate. Juicy, savory and mouthwatering, this wine over delivers for the price. The dry medium-bodied tannins persist for some time along with notes of dried tobacco leaf. Shows plenty of character on the finish and is a wine we want to either pair with a rib-eye steak or a Montecristo No. 2 Cuban Cigar … or both!

The 2021 Saddleback Cellars Malbec, Yountville Napa Valley. This wine is deep ruby and opaque; dark fruited, this wine smells like boysenberry, blackberry, dark raspberry, dark chocolate, a hint of sweet tobacco, and ripe Satsuma plum. A juicy expression of the variety, while fully ripe, the acidity plays well with the ripeness. This wine tastes like boysenberry, red plums, dark currant and a citrus, almost blood orange character. The tannins are dusty, and are broadly dispersed across the palate with a persistent drying character. The acidity shows plenty of movement and keeps this wine fresh. We would like to try this again in the next 5-10 years. Ageworthy.

Zinfandel
The 2022 Saddleback Cellars Old Vine Zinfandel, Calistoga Napa Valley is medium to deep ruby in color; smells ripe, sweetly fruited with plenty of sweet baking spices. Its scents include blackberry jam, boysenberry jelly, plum compote, black licorice and cinnamon stick, nutmeg and cloves. The palate tastes as ripe as the bouquet, with flavors including dark licorice, blackberry pie, cherry pie, boysenberry jam, raspberry jam. The tannins are ripe, resolved and rounded, persisting with a light dusty character. This is not an overtly spicy expression of the variety. As the hosts will tell you at Saddleback, this wine pairs the best with a second glass. Its listed ABV is 15.6%, fully ripe, this is not a ‘hot’ expression of the variety. Just a little warmth on the back of the palate.

The 2019 Saddleback Cellars Frediani Vineyard Old Vines Zinfandel is medium to deep ruby in color; ripe and sweetly fruited, with a jammy persuasion, the bouquet expresses notes of boysenberry spread – an aromatic that reminds us of enjoying boysenberry jam at Apple Farm Restaurant in San Luis Obispo during college on the weekends when parents were in town, raspberry compote, blackberry pie, accompanied by pretty baking spices including of cinnamon stick, cardamom and cloves. Equally ripe on the palate, this wine is a union of both fruit and spice including raspberry, strawberry, Santa Rosa plum, red cherry, red licorice, currant, sweet tobacco spice and a lasting note of white pepper. The ripeness and listed ABV (14.8%) is tempered somewhat by its bright acidity. Like wrangling cattle, the dusty and broadly dispersed tannins linger with a grainy and gravelly texture in tandem with the fruit. But in the mold of this analogy, they are nice cattle. Willing to be quickly corralled with time in the mouth. This old vine Zinfandel is wildly popular; they tend to pour this last and as one of our hosts indicated during one of our early visits, this wine wipes your palate clean and all you remember are the luscious flavors. Perhaps that is why this wine is so often sold out.

Over the years, Saddleback Cellars has produced wines from unique varieties, sourced from both within and outside Napa Valley including Albariño.

Saddleback, Orange County
Orange County’s iconic geographical feature, Saddleback can easily be seen from a number of cities in the county and while driving including some excellent views from the 73 freeway. The namesake for Saddleback Cellars features two peaks, the tallest in Orange County, Santiago at 5,689 feet (with a dusting of snow on top every once in a while, during winter) and Modjeska Peak, the second tallest at 5,496 feet. Santiago Peak is named for Santiago Creek, its headwaters begin on the mountain and eventually flow into the Santa Ana River. Modjeska is named for Helena Modjeska, a Polish actor who later in life lived in Orange County.

Hikers and bikers can access the tops of either summit – the Holy Jim Trail leads from the western side of the Santa Ana Mountains and is about 16 miles in length. The Holy Jim Fire closed this trail for two years from 2018 through 2020. Alternatively, visitors can access several dirt roads leading to the summits – including from Riverside County from off of the 15 freeway through a residential neighborhood just south of Temescal Valley. A semi-4wd road leads to a gate – from here it is about a 11-mile one way hike or bike ride to the summit of Santiago Mountain – with significant elevation gain on this steep forest-service road.

As part of our efforts to visit any place or space connected to any Napa Valley based wineries/producers we successfully reached the summit of Santiago Peak – biking in from the Riverside County side. This dirt fire road (Indian Truck Trail) is nearly all uphill for about 11 miles – the first several miles are very steep. Eventually one reaches Main Divide Road (simply referred to as Main by hikers and bikers), the summit saddle road. From here one turns left and can continue down Main Divide Road eventually reaching other Forest Service roads – or turning right will lead to the top of Santiago Peak.

Our ride was in mid-April and remarkably there were still some patches of snow on the north side of the road just below the peak (probably the only natural fallen snow in all of Orange County at that time!) Santiago Peak is covered with numerous antennas and radio towers – and due to its elevation provides radio coverage over parts of 5 counties. From the top and near the summit, on a clear day, there are excellent views looking far out over the Inland Empire including prominent mountains like San Gorgonio Mountain, San Jacinto Peak, and Mount San Antonio.

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We have visited Saddleback Cellars a number of times; once one of the hosts had just finished up being filmed in PBS’s version of “wine survivor” – lots of exciting stories from this TV production.

Want to be part of “The Posse” – join their wine club of this same name and get first access to the “small lots” – wines usually made in quantities of merely 50 cases. Choose from entry levels appropriately named Deputy, Sheriff or the Marshall.

The electric car plugin on the side of the winery sometimes works, or maybe it used work at some point.

Saddleback Cellars is one of the few Napa Valley wineries that legally can allow guests to picnic on the property. Guests should let the winery staff know ahead of time when making their reservation that they will be doing so. A very popular picnic option is to stop by the nearby Oakville Grocery prior to a tasting here. Sometimes we have actually seen all of the picnic tables completely occupied with guests who have Oakville Grocery bags in their possession!

For more information or to schedule an appointment, visit: www.saddlebackcellars.com