Project Notes

We began research for the Napa Wine Project in 2006. This project involves personally tasting with all Napa Valley commercial wine producers as well as any Napa area businesses providing tasting experiences, (collectives and or certain wine shops) and providing extensive reviews on this website. Two requirements; we personally visit with a winery representative and taste the wines.

To date, we have personally visited, tasted and written about more than 1,200 commercial Napa Valley based wine producers. We taste at Napa Valley based wineries usually 8-10 months of the year and always take a good portion of the winter months for international travels and some much-needed rest and recovery from the intensity of working on this project.

Any wineries that we have not yet visited listed in our database (see directly below for complete database), are contacted by email or phone to request a visit and tasting.

A least once a year we perform a *major update* which usually takes 7-10 intense days to research and cross reference (using multiple sources, TTB, NVV, ABC among other references) – removing some of the non-active producers, updating contact information and adding new active producers. One of the most challenging aspects of updating this list is identifying active producers as often producers stop making wine but continue to sell older releases. We keep these ones listed for several years but eventually we remove them if we can determine they are no longer making wine commercially. And sometimes it can be challenging to determine where the wines are being made; sometimes wineries move their production operations outside of Napa County.

Also, of note is we have archived 300+ reviews written since 2006 (including some tasting rooms) and have removed several hundred listings from this database we never had a chance to review of producers who are no longer producing wine from and in Napa Valley for whatever reason. This equates to approximately 600+ unique Napa Valley based producer listings removed in 17+ years who are no longer making Napa Valley wine in Napa Valley commercially. The turnover on unique producers/labels is absolutely remarkable.

As of January 2021, according to the TTB (Federal: Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) there are 1,186 permits within Napa County for production, bottling, importation or distribution of beverage alcohol products and over 6000 permits in the USA – this means Napa County has slightly more than 10% of the countries’ permits. This public information is updated several times per year and can be referenced here.

Note that some of the producers in this TTB database appear to *no longer be actively producing wines*. A number of Napa wineries have multiple permits/listings often at nonphysical winery addresses. It should also be noted that a number of these wineries/producers in this list source all or the majority of their grapes from outside of Napa Valley but are making their wine in the Napa Valley for whatever reason. The bottom line is, there is NO perfect list out there.

Napa County has the most Type 02 licenses issued for winegrowers of any county in the State of California. As of June 2018, there are 1616 Type 02 licenses given by the ABC (State: California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control).

The County of Napa also maintains their own Napa winery list in a PDF download format – showing existing wineries and proposed wineries. But they constantly change the URL of this listing or no longer update it, so we have given up trying to keep the link updated here.

For those interested in how many unique physical winery facilities there are in Napa County – the best estimate we can come up with is around 500 unique physical bonded locations (a winery) within Napa County where wine is commercially made. We have personally visited and tasted at the majority of these. Many are in business and industrial parks in or near the city of Napa. We have also visited 140+ winery caves within the Napa Valley (although several of these caves are not bonded but are sometimes used for private events). Email comments, updates or corrections about any of this to info@napawineproject.com. Please do not phone in updates or corrections.

For our definition purposes – a “winery” constitutes a physical location with a winery bond while a “producer” or a “brand” makes wine commercially but does not own their own physical bonded location. In a general sense on parts of this website, we may use “producer” or “brand” to refer to both producers and physical wineries. Note: many of the listings in our database don’t actually own a physical winery and are producer wineries.

One winery may have multiple different labels or brands, especially the larger wineries – we do not list each label as its own entry in our database. Significant efforts have been made to list only unique Napa wineries and commercial Napa wine producers.

The master winery list above contains wineries who must make & bottle their wine in Napa County and in addition, must use grapes from the Napa Valley Appellation for at least one of their wines.

Of interest to those looking to visit Napa for tastings, out of all the wineries/producers on our list, we estimate about 40% are licensed to see walk-in or take appointments and the other 60% are private and do not see visitors.

Updating
The extensive list above is based on hours and hours of research and monthly multiple updates. We attempt to keep this lengthy list updated by referencing numerous lists of wineries and websites including the TTB and ABC. Furthermore, from time to time we physically visit wine shops in Napa County and note down any unfamiliar labels (or browse their online inventory). We also visit each one of the winery websites (if available). We subscribe to many email lists from Napa Valley wineries and related wine sites. Wine forums and social media are also an excellent resource for new releases and new Napa wineries. In addition, we attend select public and trade only tastings.

Frequently Asked Questions
For additional information please visit our Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) section.

Types of Wineries
In regard to visits, wineries fall into three categories:

1. Open to the Public – simply walk in during normal business hours;
2. Open by Appointment – there is a huge range in this category. Some wineries are setup to take larger groups and may offer tours, some are so small their county permits may be extremely limited to the number of visitors they can see a week. These producers generally do not encourage visitors unless they are already members. Some appointment only wineries offer tours where visitors are combined into small groups;
3. Private/Allocation List – the winery is not open to the public, and they typically do not receive visitors. We leave out addresses for private wineries unless they have P.O. boxes.

We clearly label the “private/allocation list wineries” in our reviews. When reviewing our winery descriptions under our “Quick Info” section, we note whether the winery is a walk-in, appointment only or private – if additional visit details are needed, these will also be provided in this section.

Winery Lists & Database
There are numerous printed and online Napa winery lists floating around. Two of the best updated independent overall list of Napa wineries and producers are published by Wines and Vines and American Winery Guide. Both companies also maintain excellent updated databases of all USA based wineries.

The best printed one we have seen to date is the Preiser Key which used to be available for free at select Napa wineries, restaurants and other retail locations in Napa Valley (but unfortunately is no longer being published).

It is extremely difficult to come up with an exact number of “wineries” in Napa Valley for many reasons. First one has to define what qualifies as a “winery”.

Consider the following types of wineries:

• Physically Bonded (an actual winery facility – may even be a house/garage winery). One winery may have multiple bonded locations.
• Alternating Proprietor – winery/custom crush facility has a bond that allows participating custom crush clients to have their own “bonded winery” within the main winery
• Custom Crush wineries – these “virtual” wineries do not have their own winery, rather they rent space from an actual winery.

Allocation List Wineries
We include all wineries whose production is so small that all or much of their wine is exclusively distributed via an allocation or mailing list. These wineries are generally not setup to receive visitors so we have not highlighted the actual ‘tasting experience’, rather we focus on their history, stories, viticulture, tasting notes, information about the winery and where you can find their wines. Our reviews of mailing list only wineries are exclusively posted on this website. Addresses are left out of the reviews and phone numbers may also be left out upon request.

Thank You
We want to thank all Napa Wineries who have been so gracious with providing tasting and winery information. By numbers 90 to 95% of Napa’s wineries/producers are small family owned.