Whetstone Wine Cellars

Whetstone Wine Cellars. In 2013 Whetstone Cellars opened a tasting salon in an old French-style chateau building (dates from 1885) on a 2-acre property located on Atlas Peak Road (next to Del Dotto Winery) and a short drive from the Silverado Country Club. This was a significant upgrade from their prior shared tasting room in downtown Napa.

Tastings are by appointment; special experiences are also offered including lunches or vineyard tours (also by appointment). Their property and salon offer a number of options for tastings – when the weather is cold, private tastings can take place inside where you can cozy up next to their warm fireplace or in the Spring through Fall months, weather permitting, several simultaneous seated tastings are offered outside under the stately oak trees.

This is a very relaxed and quiet space to enjoy their wines. The hosts are welcoming and knowledgeable; they will walk you through the tasting at your own pace. Owners, Jamey and Michelle Whetstone live “around the corner” and Michelle is often in the tasting room.

This very historic building was founded by Morris M. Estee (a politician and the first president of the Napa Viticultural Society, serving in 1881). His winery was designed by noted architect, Hamden McIntyre, perhaps the Howard Backen of the time; Howard was a well-respected contemporary architect responsible for some of Napa’s most creative and innovative wineries (died 2024). He designed a number of prominent wineries including Far Niente (also dating from 1885), the wooden Eschol Winery (now Trefethen Vineyards), Inglenook and the Greystone building housing what is now the Culinary Institute of America.

The winery was in operation until the start of Prohibition and then again after, from 1934 until 1949 it was part of the Hedgside Winery & Distillery. The Del Dotto family operate the original Del Dotto Vineyards in the historical building next door to Whetstone Cellars; this entire complex of buildings was part of the Hedgside Winery & Distillery.

Remarkably the building that now houses the tasting room for Whetstone Cellars was vacant for about 15 years until Whetstone moved in. This was the “find of the year” in Napa in 2011; they spent 2 years cleaning, upgrading and moving into this space just prior to opening in 2013.

Whetstone focuses on Pinot Noir from neighboring Sonoma County utilizing the county’s top Pinot Noir producing regions of the Sonoma Coast and the Russian River Valley. They also produce a Viognier from the Russian River. The winery was founded by Jamey Whetsone (originally from South Carolina) – he is the winemaker and his wife Michelle who grew up in Napa, oversees the rest of their operations. All their wine is made at a custom crush facility located just north of the city of Napa.

Jamey was born in Florence, South Carolina. While living in Charleston, he was working for a restaurant group; it was here where he developed his early passion for wine. He moved to Calistoga in Napa Valley from Charleston in the mid 1990s; his initial job was a manager at Mustards Grill just north of Yountville before working at Turley Cellars where he met winemaker Ehren Jordan.

When one is passionate and focused about making wine sometimes any door into the wine industry will do; Jamey was hired to drive a tractor for Turley Cellars in 1998 where he accumulated invaluable winemaking skills. He helped plant and managed many acres of vines from Mendocino down to Paso Robles. After winemaker Thomas Brown (also from South Carolina)) left, Jamey became Turley’s assistant winemaker helping craft 8 vintages before leaving in 2005. Jamey also worked at Domaine Dujac in Burgundy, France in 2001 where he worked closely with Pinot Noir. Branching out on his own, he started Whetstone in 2002; eventually he also began consulting for other boutique producers.

Michelle was born in the city of Napa; in her twenties, she worked in sales for Thai Airlines and later Garuda airlines. She moved back to Napa Valley in 2002 and met Jamey through mutual friends that same year. She owned and operated several retail furniture stores focusing on importing furniture. The one in Napa was called Haven and the other one in Benecia was called Magnolia. She closed her business in 2008 and began to devote time to building Whetstone, pulling their wines away from distribution and focusing on a direct to consumer model including building a wine club. And for a short while, Whetstone Cellars operated a small tasting room in downtown Napa.

Whetstone Cellars produces food-friendly, balanced wines with acidity always a refreshing backbone in all of their bottlings regardless of variety, vintage or site. With that said, their choice of varieties and locations do favor a more restrained and elegant style of wines.

Select Wines
Whites
The 2021 Whetstone Cellars Viognier, Catie’s Corner, Russian River Valley is medium golden in color; the bouquet is immediately open-knitted. If it was someone at a party, it would be the person the center of attention. It offers tropical fruited aromas of papaya, mango, and pineapple with some ripe citrus aromas and a light crème Brule. The brightly lit acidity complements the richness and intensity of flavor. This is not a shy bottling of this variety and we like that. This vintage in particular shows a bit more brightness than other vintages, all from the same vineyard. Flavors include Golden Delicious apple, pear, pineapple and mandarin orange. The finish is intense and long lasting. A Whetstone recommended food pairing with this wine is salmon mousse. The oiliness of the salmon pairs well with the lively acidity. This wine has some life ahead of it and we would love to see its development in the 5-8 year window. It was was barrel fermented in neutral French oak and aged sur lees for 16 months before being bottled. This was the only wine they did not bottle from the 2020 vintage, due to having smoke taint.

The 2014 Whetstone Cellars Catie’s Corner, Russian River Valley Viogner is one of the few 100% varietal wines of this variety produced from a Napa Valley based winery. With that said, the fruit source is from the Russian River in Sonoma County. Along with one of their Pinot Noir’s, this wine was one of the first two wines Jamey produced under the Whetstone label. It is always barrel fermented in neutral oak; this vintage was aged 16 months, sur lees. Shows a pleasing mix of citrus, tropical and stone fruit notes on the bouquet and the palate including apricot and peach with a lemon zest. Its mouth feel is rounded and along with ripe fruit, features assorted baking spice flavors on the palate. Clean and bright.

Reds
The 2022 Whetstone Cellars Grenache Rosé ‘Silvaspoons’ Lodi is light copper in color; the aromas show some citrus notes including citrus blossom, raspberry and a light flinty nuance. This wine is refreshing across the palate, both for its balance, fruit characteristics and texture. Refreshing it offers a light fruity sweetness of flavor including strawberries, raspberries, watermelon with a hint of rhubarb on the finish. The mouth feel is rounded and supple, with perhaps more weight one would expect from a rose. This wine drinks far too easily. Perhaps pair this with freshly caught ling cod, sea bass or scallops. This wine was fermented entirely in stainless steel vessels. The first vintage or Grenache rose by Whetstone was produced in 2019.

Whetstone Cellars produces several Sonoma County Pinot Noirs; the several bottling we have tried over the years have been more distinctive rather than similar. Their wines from this variety are good examples of the influence of terroir.

The 2021 Whetstone Cellars “Pleasant Hill” Russian River Pinot Noir is medium ruby in color; the focus of this bouquet is on the purity of the fruit rather than an influence of spice as this variety often expresses. Higher toned aromas include dark raspberry, red cherry, red vine licorice, red plum, cranberry and dried sage. Bright, elegant and red fruited across the palate it offers flavors of red cherry, currant and cranberry with a light but lingering tartness. The tannins are lightly grained and rounded. Seamless finish. Lingers with a note of dark pepper, dried bay leaf and a light dusty character. Patz & Hall Winery introduced Jamey to Bob Jenkins, the owner of this vineyard and Jamey has been working with this site ever since. Pair with lighter style meats including duck or lamb or according Michelle, mushroom based dishes. This wine was built from two clones (667and 115) and aged for 16 months sur lees in 25% new French oak barrels.

The 2021 Whetstone Cellars Pinot Noir ‘Walala’, Sonoma Coast is from a hillside site not far from Sea Ranch and Gualala in north western Sonoma County (almost to Southern Mendocino County). From top of vineyard you can see the Pacific Ocean. From Napa its a 2.5 to 3 hour drive; Jamey always times his weekday visits so that he doesn’t get stuck behind school buses on the narrow and windy roads. From the top of the vineyard one can see the Pacific Ocean in the distance, or its often fog covered waters. This wine is medium ruby in color; the character filled bouquet offers aromas of dark raspberry, bay leaf, pink peppercorn, freshly tilled potting soils, and dried rose petals. We noted more spice influence on the bouquet than the palate. The palate sports flavors of red cherry, currant, cranberry sauce, raspberry and strawberry. Sweetly fruited with some berry jam overtones. A light drying character persists on the finish along with a note of white pepper and dried herbs. Savory. The tannins are dusty, rounded and lightly layered. This particular Pinot Noir is paired with a pistachio/almond Foie gras at the tasting salon and immediately elicits an, “oh wow”. This wine is a blend of Dijon clones 828 and 113; it was fermented in stainless steel vessels and aged for 16 months sur lees in 35% new French oak barrels.

From 2007 through 2017 Whetstone produced a Syrah from the Phoenix Ranch located only about 1/4 mile north of the tasting salon off of Atlas Peak Road. This part of Napa Valley features a cooler climate in relation to the northern part of the valley. The vineyard experiences long hang times in part as a result of the cooling influences of the San Pablo Bay to the south.

The 2017 Whetstone Cellars Syrah Phoenix Vineyard is deep ruby and opaque; the bouquet offers a crushed peppercorn note but is not peppery, accompanied by dark plum skin, violets and a gamey nuance. Dark and savory would be appropriate descriptors to describe its characteristics on both the bouquet and palate. It offers flavors of currant, cranberry, tart cherry and Icelandic crowberry. This wine lingers with a red-fruited tartness and grainy but well integrated tannins. Their texture is felt more on the front of the palate than the back. A dusty and dark pepper character linger on the finish. The acidity on this bottling is like a spring, tightly coiled and compressed with energy, ready to be released. Fresh, vibrant and with a noticeable zing, it dances across the palate like two perfectly paired salsa dancers. This is a very youthful bottling at nearly 7 years post vintage at the time of our tasting; the Whetstone Sryah is perhaps one of the most age worthy wines from this variety in Napa Valley. The grapes were fermented in stainless steel and was then aged for 28 months neutral oak barrels before being bottled.

The Whetstone Cellars 2013 Syrah was fermented about 70% with stems and aged for 28 months in neutral barrels. As it opens it reveals an appealing complexity of aromas – a bouquet with character if you will. Very savory, shows aromas of crushed pepper, cedar box and smoked meat. While it has all these other characteristics, it also shows plenty of fruit both on the bouquet and the palate. Reveals flavors of plum along with red and darker cherry flavors complemented with slightly chalky tannins (not out of balance).

The 2006 Whetstone Cellars Syrah shows powerful aromatics straight from the bottle into the glass. It features a beautiful bouquet, a union of wild berries and floral components; the integration of the fruit and floral driven aromas make this an inviting wine to smell. It is dark and inky and was bottled unfined and unfiltered. Pleasant spices show from the mid palate to the finish including black and white pepper and vanilla. The finish is well integrated with smooth tannins and notes of brown chocolate. The mouth feel is rather soft and rounded with good acid balance. Merely 250 cases of the 2006 Syrah were produced.

The 2021 Whetstone Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon is blended with 25% Cabernet Franc; this wine is dark ruby in the glass and nearly opaque; the elegant bouquet reveals floral aromas including violets, with its fruit scents focused on primarily aromatics rather than secondary scents. It offers aromas of blueberries, dark raspberries, huckleberries and dried herbs. The oak is very much a complementary character, staying in the background. Vivacious without being boisterous, the acidity dances vibrantly across the palate. This wine offers flavors of red cherry, currant, blueberry and red plums. The tannins are light to moderately textured, rounded and lightly gravelly. The finish is bright and mouthwatering; describing this wine as refreshing is one of the best complements one can bestow upon a contemporary Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. There is loads of life ahead of this beauty.

Hospitality
Several tasting options are available including their classic pour featuring current releases, a Pinot Noir only tasting, or a tasting/bottle pour of a specific one of their wines. Some of the tastings are paired with delicious rosemary almonds (sourced from a local Napa company, SMOKE (the owner is a friend of the Whetstone’s) and bags of these tasty treats are available for sale inside the salon.

Visits are by reservation or if space permits, walk-ins will be accommodated.

The winery maintains their own parking lot accessed via a driveway just north of the tasting room. Whetstone also maintains several parking spaces next to Atlas Peak Road adjoining their neighbor, Del Dotto Winery’s front parking area. And two bathrooms – one upstairs above the tasting room and a stand-alone next to the path leading from their own parking lot.

Spotlight on Florence, South Carolina
Florence, Jamey Whetstone’s birthplace, has a population of around 39,000; it is located about a 2 hours’ drive from either Charlotte, North Carolina or Charleston, South Carolina. Other cities of this size (or even 2 and 3x this size does not normally support such an infrastructure and variety of attractions. Florence has a prominent performing arts center (Francis Marion University Performing Arts Center), a symphony and several museums including the sizable Florence Museum of Art, Science & History. And Francis Marion University is located a short drive from downtown.

The historic downtown has plenty of character and is easily walkable. Arguably among the best restaurants in town, is called Town Hall (not to be confused with the same name of the restaurant in Jacksonville Florida). Also known for being the hub city on the South Carolina Pecan Trail – focusing on establishments that use pecans in their products.

Florence was also the site of a prominent civil rights sit-in in 1960 in which high school students marched up to the lunch counter at the former S.H. Kress store but were refused service. As part of the same protests, 48 protesters were arrested simply by walking up to store.

Jamey was also CEO and co-founder of Manifesto! Wines. Whetstone maintains a library of older wines bottled in magnums; these are for sale directly thorugh visits to the tasting salong. For more information, to purchase wine, to join one of several wine club offerings and or to schedule a visit at Whetstone Wine Cellars, visit: www.whetstonewinecellars.com

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