Wermuth Winery, Rancho de las Flores falls completely off the Napa Valley winery scale – this is not your typical Napa Valley Winery. If you are looking for sophistication do not stop here. If you are looking for a simple, down to earth experience, a visit in which you will probably be the only one here even on busy summer weekends, and meeting face to face with a long time winemaker then a stop here is a must.
The red modern bright looking sign just off of Silverado Trail might lead you to believe you will be tasting at another fancy tasting room – this is not the case as it is a complete contrast to the actual tasting experience. And this is one of the last remaining ultra small wineries in the valley where you can just walk in without needing a tasting appointment and meet with the owner.
There is no website (the only Napa winery with a tasting room not to have a website), so don’t even bother checking, the tasting room is very small and somewhat dusty; it is located next to the owners house, and this winery has no outside distribution whatsoever. There are maybe 3-4 Napa wineries who have this feel; it is not the “Napa sophistication” that you find up and down Highway 29 – that’s for sure. Recently the main winery phone number stopped working so the only way to contact Wermuth Winery is to physically be here when Ralph is open.
Compared to the more than 950 Napa wineries/producers we have visited with to date, a visit here is weirdly refreshing. Ralph is typically open from 11-4pm but it all depends on his schedule on any given day. The bonded winery is on site and Ralph is the owner and winemaker. A small dirt parking lot is adjacent to the tasting room and can accommodate no more than 3-4 cars at any one time! Due to space restrictions, back in for ease of departure.
If Ralph is not in the tasting room or you cannot visually spot him on the grounds, ring the bell at the tasting room or simply make a short beep or two with your car horn. When open, only Ralph pours his wines as he has no employees. The bearded bespectacled Ralph Wermuth is the aforementioned owner and he falls into the “character” very nice guy category. He has a chemistry background and is a physician. Ralph told us he’s been making wine on the property for at least 30 years, but the years are running together so he can’t really give an exact date. During another one of our visits we narrowed him down to find out that his first commercial vintage was 1982.
The vineyard you see in front of the tasting room is the source for his wine. Its less than an acre so as a result his wine is produced in quantities of under 200 cases annually. The wines are made in a small building adjoining the tasting room – definitely one of the smallest Napa wineries you will ever see.
Ralph can also tell you about the “old days” along the Silverado Trail, when grass grew through cracks in the middle of the pavement or the high cost of sending kids to college these days and will be happy to hit upon any topic you wish to discuss. It is extremely easy to spend an hour or more here talking with Ralph. Today he focuses on Cabernet Sauvignon – he used to make Gamay, Zinfandel and one year made a Cabernet Franc as those wines were sourced from area vineyards.
Tasting is $3 – not an amount you will see at any other Napa wineries. All tastings are poured in Ralph’s trademark small almost port like glasses. They won’t be the crystal clean glasses you are used to finding at area tasting rooms. As a result when we went to swirl, we spilled some right over the top, not being used to such small volume glasses. His wines have a very distinctive bouquet and a bit of a metallic almost tangy finish. The 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon is light to medium bodied. If you let them open up and breath there are some interesting fruit flavors on the palate. Wermuth’s wines are typically lower in alcohol than most of the Napa Cabernet’s you will find, typically they are in the low 13 percent range. Ralph doesn’t let his grapes get overly ripe before picking.
The price of his Napa Cabernet will be among the lower priced Cabernet wines in the valley. Look for the small black chalkboard hanging on the wall – this is supposed to be used to provide pricing; when we were there it looked like the prices had been crossed out a number of times so we couldn’t even read them!
Ralph will sign all purchased bottles. When he made white wine, his label simply read “white wine”! He also used to make a wine simply called “Amigo Viejo” translates from Spanish to English as ‘Old Friend’. Also of note his wife Smitty (an accomplished astrologer) also paints and her colorful cards are available in one corner of the tasting room. Besides wine, Ralph is interested in photography – he mentioned that its hard to get good film anymore; he will take a photo of you in his vineyards if you request.
Note: Contrary to what Yelp has said in the past, “closed” – this winery is still in business. Although – we drive by Ralph’s place every week and in early to mid 2018 we noticed that Ralph no longer hangs out the open sign – his tasting room has not been open at all for tastings throughout all of 2018 and so far into 2019. Note we heard Ralph has died – we will archive this review soon – waiting to hear more details about what will become of the property.
Hey Ralph, 25 May 2015, I have a Swedish Friend Jimmy Palmin who I told about you and your wine. He will travel there soon and I hope he gets a chance to chat with you a little.
Hope all is well with you and it looks like people are wising up to some of the things that are going on in medicine, you were right.
Best wishes to you and your family for the summer, THM
Hello Ralph! This is Bill Smith . I hadn’t been there to visit for a long time but hope you remember , I had a PO Box in Bellaire, Texas that you would send me wine to and then kid me when I come visit you saying you knew I was the one who lived in a post office box. I plan to be in Napa the first week in June and hope to visit with you and I’ll be bringing someone special I’d like you to meet. Take care and I hope all is good for you and Smitty.
Best Can I’ve ever had.
Been buying wine from Ralph for 10 years via FAX!
No internet….,
Wineries like this are extremely RARE in the Napa Valley. Of the small producers who can legally see visitors of the currently 1,100 making wine commercially in Napa County, nearly ALL are by appointment. And a number of small producers who used to see visitors by drop in have now switched to by appointment only.
I’m not counting urban stand alone tasting rooms as mostof those are open by walk in. I’m referring to these small vineyard specific producers.
This really sucks for those who want a more personalized experience who want to have some flexibility when they visit the valley.
Dana – that is awesome. Ordering via fax for 10 years!
Ralph, you old scutter, it seemes impossible, but we hope your place survived the fires.We stopped by years ago when you were making the only Colombard in the valley. We’ve never forgotton your gracious welcome and your wild unconventional ways. All the best to you and your wife. Fingers crossed for the house and winery’s survival.
If there was anywhere to be in the valley during these latest fires, it was probably where Ralph’s winery is located – the places that were hit the hardest included north of Calistoga, Atlas Peak, parts of hillside Stags Leap District and Mt. Veeder.
As of mid 2018 something is up – for months now the closed sign has been hanging – never switched over to open.
We went to Ralphs place on our honeymoon 1991…when we told him its was our honeymoon, he hung up balloons and gave us a free, signed bottle – I still have it.
Great place, will never forget it. Hope all well with him!
Hi Ralph-
We found a long lost bottle of your 1990 Gamay while cleaning and crossing our fingers it was still in tact.
Just opened it and what a gorgeous surprise!!!!
Thank you for sharing your beautiful gift of wine making.
16 March, 2019
Helllo Ralph,
Just found a half bottle of 1989 Dry Colombard (signed by you). It was in the back of my cellar and the cork appears to have deteriorated. If you are still open I would like to drop by for a chat, and a taste of wine.
Orley Hatfield
San Mateo], California
I’ll stop by one of these weeks and see how Ralph is doing.
Hey Dave, I know this is a strange request, but I have been trying to locate Ralph’s wife, Smitty for a very long time. I used to live in the Napa Valley over 14 years ago. I grew up there! Smitty did a reading for me and astrological chart and she also did one for my then 1 year old daughter. She had told me that she had never seen a chart like my daughter’s before. My girl is 20 years old today and is a simply amazing woman! I just wanted to tell her that, so far, she was right on about my daughter! She is a college student at the University of Georgia and she is doing some amazing things with her life! I will never forget that reading or Smitty! I know she probably would not remember me, but my name is Deena Gonsalves and my daughter’s name is Giavanna. If you ever visit their winery in the near future, please be so kind to tell Smitty about my daughter and I. She never let me have my Astrological chart that she created for myself and my daughter. I can’t remember why? My email is gigipower99@hotmail.com. Thank you and God Bless!
I feel blessed to have experienced the spur-of-the-moment visit to Ralph’s estate. Driving by and seeing a name similar to mine, it was truly a pleasant surprise to drive in and see who we thought was a worker from the field turn out to be the most hospitable owner. We spent the entire afternoon learning the history of his land and family. This could have been filmed for a most fascinating documentary. All those who knew him will miss him.
Kind regards,
Robert Warmath
Unfortunately Ralph has passed away and the winery has been sold 🙁
What a great guy. We enjoyed our visit and still have the bottle he signed. Was it the best wine we had on our trip? No, but the experience was among the most memorable. We still talk fondly of that visit. He will be missed.
I was sad to hear of Dr wermuth’s death. My husband and I worked with him at the Veterns home in Yountville in the early 80’s. we were blessed to know him as a Doctor and a wine maker we were given one of his early bottle of wine. I still have a poster of his first label. I also have a picture of his first sign that was done in iron. He was not married at the time but it would have been nice to meet her. I looked him up because I found a picture of his winery.
I have a autographed bottle of a chenin Blanc 1992 It’s been in my pantry all this time would anyone be interested in this,I can’t remember when it was purchased but back then Napa Valley was are favorite place to be.
just had a 1986 gewürztraminer. still drinking good.