Completely unique wine tasting experience. You can hang out on leather couches or sit at your own dining table. Super chill, great music, and across the board I found the wines really good. Jean was our super smart and gracious host. The nicest in Napa. Great place to stop in for a chill tasting and pick up something special for lunch or dinner.
Hill Top Winery was created by a family in 2006, with a dream to turn their ranch into a destination that they could share with family and friends. Our mission is to plant, cultivate, and sustainably produce the highest quality grapes our terroir has to offer. With over 30 acres and 15 different varieties including reds and whites, we create varietals, blends and other libations to entice your palate.
Their passioned focus has been to work with the California Central Coast's best vineyards produce many Pinot Noirs, a couple Syrahs and a Cabernet Franc blend. With a cool marine-influence climate and unusually long growing season, many of these grapes make wines that drink well when young and had have shown the ability to improve and age gracefully for many years. Frank & Gray work with some of the best growers in Santa Barbara County, from the quality vineyards of Santa Maria Valley, Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Rita Hills and Los Alamos.
Kenny Likitprakong explains the name Hobo Wine Company; "Instead of becoming a hobo, I became a “Hobo Winemaker.” Of the two ways to make wine, with and without money, the first should probably be the only, but a few of us slip through the cracks and do it on the skinny. No winery, no vineyards, no truck, no warehouse, no employees…nothing. There are advantages. Making small lots comes naturally, the flexability to pick and choose grape type, vineyard, appellation, and winery on an ongoing basis, and a larger circle of people involved which means more ideas and expertise."
If you're interested in the workings of a true family run winery, please do yourself a favor and visit.John and Carri produce some great wines at great prices and always provide some fun at the tasting room. With an emphasis on Pinot they still produce two zins, two syrahs, and couple of deserts.
El Dorado's wine area is known for having great Zinfandels, Mourvedres and other reds, but at Holly's Hill Winery there's something there for the white wine lover. Holly's Hill Vineyards is a wonderful family owned and operated winery creating Rhone style wines. Their white wines are solid, dry and not overpowering with strong oakey overtones. You can easily eat food with them - especially the Roussanne and Viognier.
Homewood Winery is more personal and intimate. If you want a less touristy wine experience then you must visit this place. The owner is a 6'7" gentle giant with a warm personality and welcoming manner.
Personal attention in an absolutely breathtaking setting; what more could you want? Casey was very friendly & spent time talking with us about the wine & the vineyard. Oh, and their wine is fantastic, too! We enjoyed the outdoor patio area. Their Sauvignon Blancs were crisp & delicious. Their Cabs were dry & fruity. And, they had a Cab Rose (first I'd ever tasted) that was quite good.
In 1970, San Francisco firefighter Cecil De Loach and his wife Christine staked their claim in the wine grape business by purchasing 24 acres of old-vine Zinfandel in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma County. In the early seventies, the De Loaches decided to acquire additional vineyard land. For several years they watched others make notable wine from their grapes before making the decision to produce wine under the De Loach label in 1975.
The Hoopes Family Winery and Vineyard has been a labor of love. They were fortunate when selecting land for their new estate in Oakville by purchasing 14 acres that happen to be some of the greatest grape growing territory in Napa Valley. They first planted the land back in 1991 with the expectation of selling the crop to local wineries. The first mature harvest in 1994 was quite good and the people they sold the grapes to said these were the best grapes they had purchased. Hoopes continued to sell the grapes with the same input each year until 1999 when they decided to produce their own wine, with their own label. The results were better than they could have hoped.