A Family Ensemble

“When I was a little kid, both my mother and father came from musical families. My father was a great flautist, composer, and conductor and my mother’s father was a wonderful Neapolitan songwriter. Her brother was a fine trumpet player in the same orchestra my father played in. He brought his friend home to dinner one occasion, and that’s how my father met my mother.”
-Francis Ford Coppola

In 1992, Peirano Estate Vineyards began bottling and selling wine using their estate grown grapes. Until this point, Lance Randolph, fourth generation Peirano, produced wine simply for his enjoyment and that of his close family and friends. The rest of the grapes were sold to winemakers across the country. It was well-known amongst Lance’s family and friends that he had a knack for making well-balanced, elegant wines but was not interested in selling it to the masses. At their insistence, Lance began bottling and selling his wine to wine enthusiasts throughout the United States.

The Stanton family has been growing grapes in the Napa Valley since 1947. They began making their own wine in 1999. For this first vintage and the next three they used grapes exclusively from our Oakville vineyard. In addition to the Oakville property, the Stanton family owns two vineyards in St. Helena.

In 2002, acclaimed winemaker Dave Phinney, joined the Stanton team, lending his talented hands to the ’02 vintage, creating a wine that quickly captured the attention of critics and wine afficianados. A fan of Petite Sirahs, Doug decided to dedicate some of their Petite Sirah production to introduce their first vintage in 2004. 

Stanton Vineyards remains, and will remain, a boutique winery, producing about 800 cases total (625 cases of Cabernet Sauvignon and 180 cases Petite Sirah) under their Stanton Vineyard label. This small production, which accounts for less than 7% of the grapes grown on their properties, allows them to focus on producing both grapes and wine of great character. Because, as Doug, his father John, and grandfather Jesse all agree, the grapes and the soil come first.

Frog's Tooth Vineyard

Once upon a time, not so long ago, in a valley known more for cattle ranching than vineyards that the story begins. It was the Winter of 1999 when Frog's Tooth Vineyards began its life as a tadpole with the purchase of 67 acres of land in the Salt Springs Valley of Calaveras County. It slowly grew through infancy until the Spring of 2003 when it began its transition to adolescence with the planting of approximately 10 acres of premium wine grapes.

Image courtesy of Pixabay