The Nine North Wine Company is located in the prestigious Stags Leap District. Owned and operated by Jim Gill and James Harder, two long time friends from Canada who have fulfilled their dreams by moving to the Napa Valley to produce wine. Working closely with Gill and Harder, is fellow vintner Jim Regusci. The three have developed a unique portfolio of small handcrafted wines.
Waterstone Winery makes a very pleasant, reasonably priced 2008 Merlot at $18 and a really nice 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon at only $24, with all of their other wines being quite decent for the money and most coming from vineyards in Napa Valley (The Pinot Noir is from the Sonoma side of Carneros.) Waterstone has no vineyards, but sources all of their grapes. Waterstone Wines are available for tasting at the new Taste at Oxbow. Taste at Oxbow wine tasting salon offers a complete downtown Napa experience, featuring Waterstone Wines, along with gourmet food and boutique retail items.
Some of the best pinots you will ever taste. It's not a huge winery but it definitely is about quality over quantity.
The Haynes family is proud of Whitford's top notch wine making team. Since 1997, Ken Bernards, formerly with Trouchard, has been making award winning Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and since 2002, Syrah for Whitford. Ken's wife, Teresa, formerly with Domaine Carneros, ably assists. Rob Fischer joined the team in July of 2004 after receiving an enology degree from Fresno State. Founded in 1983, Whitford Cellars has the distinction of producing award-winning Pinot Noir, Syrah and Chardonnay. The Haynes Vineyard on the estate is known as one of the most notable vineyards in Napa Valley, receiving rave reviews on the soil and temperature conditions. The wines are not far behind
Boitano Family Wines is operated by four generations of family. The Boitano family started growing Sangiovese grapes in their Mokelumne Hill vineyard in 1999. The six generation mother lode family comes together annually to prune in early spring and harvest in fall.
Broman Cellars is a lifelong dream realized by Bob Broman. After making wine for other folks for 31 years, Bob along with his wife Deborah, released their first Napa Valley wine, appropriately labeled, Broman Cellars. The inaugural release was 150 cases of a beautiful 1994 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Today, Broman Cellars is a family passion, with daughter Lisa also working side by side with Bob at the winery handling the sales, marketing and day-to-day duties. Production is now a whopping 1,300 cases consisting of ultra premium, hand-crafted lots of Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Sauvignon Blanc.
Churn Creek Cellars is a winery started in the Churn Creek "bottom", just outside the city limits of Redding, California, in beautiful Shasta County. Churn Creek Cellars is a local, family owned business. The principals are . Denise and Layne started started their venture in viticulture and winemaking by planting a small vineyard on their property and named the vineyard after their Basset Hounds, and it is known as Fat Basset Vineyards. This little winery is a family owned business and Denise Evans and Layne McLean have been growing grapes and producing wine for seven years. A must stop if you visit or are passing through the Redding area.
Two thumbs way up for this great "mom & pop" winery! On a recent trip to the Napa Vallery we enjoyed this place. It was also the only place we purchased wine at. The grounds, super vintage feeling and all the music related decor inside is a nice touch as well.
Located in the small, historic town of St. Helena (yes, part of Napa Valley) Bressler like many of its neighbors is a small lot, premium producer of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Bressler was started as many wineries do in Napa, with the retirement of an executive from nearby Silicon Valley. Bob Bressler spent his career at Sun Microsystems where he was a visiting scientist and advised the Sun executive team. Bob's wife Stacey is also intimately involved with the day to day operations of the winery and comes to the wine business after her own successful career in the Bay Area high tech market, although her focus was more marketing than it was the technology itself. Small production winery of approx. 500 cases.
This winery is pleasant and makes you feel like you are at home. Decor was very casual and warm. Staff was generous with their pouring. We had some reds and sweet wines. The sweet wine with plum and chocolate notes was one of the best. Their sherry was also very good. We even had some homemade lemon marmalade with crackers.
