Somerston Estate produces limited production wines from the Somerston Ranch, a property well under the radar of most visitors and locals. While the location feels fairly remote, in actuality it is only about a 15 minute drive east of the intersection of Highway 128 and the Silverado Trail. The winery is accessed via a long gated private driveway off of Highway 128 (also known as Sage Canyon Road). This highway is always enjoyable to drive because there is usually little traffic out here, especially on the weekdays and one passes through undeveloped landscape. Sometimes on the weekends car clubs will use this road or groups of motorcycle riders. Few wineries are in this neighborhood; several nearby producers include Brown Estate and Nichelini, both of which are on the way if one is driving from Napa Valley on Highway 128.
The ranch is owned by Allan Chapman and his wife Kathleen. Allan works in telecommunications and is a real estate developer – while searching in Napa Valley for a place to build homes he discovered the 660 acre Priest Ranch and purchased the property in 2004. In 2006, he discovered one of his neighbors was selling a sizable adjoining parcel, the 955 acre Elder Valley Ranch also known as the Lynch Valley Ranch. Allan and Kathleen purchased this property and combined the two ranches which today are known as the Somerston Ranch, encompassing 1,682 acres. The inaugural vintage of Somerston wine was in 2006.
Elder Valley Ranch used to raise Galloway Cattle, a breed originally from Scotland. In 1967 some of these cows from the ranch were shown at the Great Western Exposition, the largest show at the time in Southern California; it was partly a fair and partly a livestock show. The first grape vines on the original Elder Valley Ranch were planted in 1947. None of these original plantings still exist.
Priest Ranch was named after Joshua James Priest (1826-1896) who came to California seeking his fortune during the gold rush in 1849. In 1863 he settled in this part of the Napa Valley historically called Soda Valley with Soda Creek running through the center. He purchased 638 acres. He was married to Sarah Francis Foster; they had 10 children together. Joshua used parts of the property for agriculture and running livestock. An article in The Napa Register dated June 26, 1891 mentions Priest was shipping soda water from his spring on his property to Calistoga Water to be bottled and sold. When he died his obituary mentioned he was one of the most reliable citizens of the county.
An article in The St. Helena Star dated May 10, 1929 indicates two cases of mineral water from the spring on Priest Ranch were being shipped to the White House for President Herbert Hoover to enjoy. In 1930, Pelican Pure Water Co., of Oakland secured long term leases on several mineral water springs in Chiles Valley including White Cliff Mineral Springs, Napa Rock Springs and the one on Priest Ranch. Old bottles marked with the words, Priest Napa or Priest Natural Soda can still be found on eBay.
This land was originally part of the 8,000+ acre Rancho Catacula land grant, owned by Joseph Chiles, the namesake of the Chiles Valley and the sub appellation of the same name. Incidentally the old adobe he built in the 1840s is still standing, now a private residence on the Dollar Ranch (about a 10 minute drive from Somerston Ranch).
It appears that grapes were growing on Priest Ranch well before the 1960s; an article in The St. Helena Star dated October 22, 1926 describes an accident on Sage Canyon Road involving several of the Nichelini family members with a truck that was, “loaded with grapes from the Priest Ranch”. An article in November in 1929, also from the St. Helena Star mentions that second crop grapes were being harvested that month from the Priest Ranch.
Magnesite mining occurred in the vicinity during various times in the 1900s. In 1916 an article in the Napa Journal dated March 4th described roads being built that year from Priest Ranch to service the mines so that greater efforts could be made to extract the ore. The property was also used for deer hunting over the decades.
Local newspapers for decades were dotted with mentions of Priest Ranch seemingly hosting an unending number of guests; they had a frenzy constantly printing the names of those who stayed on the property. One of the attractions was a large swimming pool which was very popular with young visitors to the ranch during the warmer months. Heirs of Priest continued to own and operate the ranch until at least the 1960s. In 1930 a Henry Blum and his wife from Oakland had a summer home on Priest Ranch. In 1957 Priest Ranch was part of a 4-ranch tour for local ranches and people from the University of California Agricultural Extension. One of the highlights of their visit to the property was seeing a range plant test plot growing over 60 varieties of range grasses. The ranch was owned by Walter Priest at that time.
In 1969 Walter died on on the property when his tractor overturned on a hill; his wife was witness to the accident. A year later another tragedy occurred when a father and his two sons crashed their Cessna 172 into Priest Ranch, all three dying instantly.
In 1968 Priest Ranch was purchased by Carl Rose; he served in the Merchant Marines during World War II. In 1955 he received his real estate license and practiced for 20 years primarily brokering real estate and land on the peninsula south of San Francisco. He and his wife Marguerite lived in Palo Alto but would often drive up to their ranch in Chiles Valley.
By 1970 he had listed his 1,698 acres for sale. Apparently he never found a buyer then. He planted grapes on the property in 1971. Over the years he sold grapes to wineries as diverse as the Christian Brothers and Prager Port Works. He and Marguerite invested in race horses in 1989 where they raced at Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields. He passed away in 1998. His grandson Eric Tracy operates a tour company in Napa Valley called Vine View Tours & Transportation.
Allan’s family traces their business roots back to 1854 in England operating clipper ships and then later merchant/cargo ships and in 1968 diversified their business interests into real estate and property development. By 1975 the company was no longer in the business of shipping. The company is the Somerston Group and Allan is their Executive Director. A subsidiary of Somerston Group is Walnut Creek based Cambay Group (established in 1990) – which has overseen numerous real estate development projects including the epic in scope River Islands at Lathrop project, a planned community south of Stockton, Windemere in San Ramon and several other small projects in the Sacramento area. See our photographs of the River Islands community at the bottom of this review.
Vineyards
The ranch ranges in elevation from about 850 to 2400 feet with some vines planted above 2,000 feet. Our initial visit was about 18 months after this project’s inception and at the time major vineyard restoration and replanting was underway. Today the property is planted to about 230 acres of vines divided into some 90+ individual blocks with plans to continue to expand the vineyard footprint.
The majority of their vineyards are in the Napa Valley AVA – with a section of vines next to Highway 128 located in the Chiles Valley sub appellation. While the majority of their vineyards are planted to Cabernet Sauvignon a diversity of grape varieties grow on the ranch including red Bordeaux varieties, select Rhone varieties and even a rare for Napa Valley planting of Grenache Blanc. There are at least two other growers of this variety in Napa Valley including Gratus Vineyards in Pope Valley and Kenefick Ranch in Calistoga. One of their vineyard blocks often has slightly wet soils; it was planted to Cabernet Sauvignon but didn’t grow very well in these soils – Craig decided to replant that block to Grenache Blanc which was much better suited for the conditions.
With extensive vineyard acreage they do not use all the grapes for their own wines – selling a sizable portion to several well-known wineries over the years including Viader, Pahlmeyer, Orin Swift and Duckhorn among several others. The fruit for the Chapman’s other Napa Valley based wine brand, Priest Ranch is exclusively sourced from the ranch. Rather then outsource to a vineyard management company, all their vines are managed by in-house team of vineyard workers.
And other non human vineyard managers are the 300 sheep on the property (affectionately called the ‘lawn mowers”) – which are introduced into the vineyards at select times of the year to graze the cover crops.
An old 12,000 square foot barn on the property was expanded and converted to the winery (opened in 2011). Both the Somerston and Priest Ranch wines are made here as well as wines from select other clients. This winery is carbon neutral.
Not without hardships over the years, particularly in 2017, one of their prized vineyard sites succumbed to a slowly developing land slide and this entire section of their vineyard had to be replanted in 2019. Also in 2017, the vast majority of their grapes were still on the vine during the terrible fires of October burning in both Napa and Sonoma; unfortunately the fruit had smoke taint and could not be harvested. Even worse worse were the terrible fires which devastated vast swaths of eastern Napa Valley in 2020, including burning on and around Priest Ranch. The grapes again had smoke taint. The property has a history of fires; in 1934 a major forest fire started on Priest Ranch, quickly burning to what was called Berryessa Valley at that time, some 20+ years before Lake Berryessa was built.
And over the years, a mineral hot spring drained into a large flat area on the property increasing the soil’s magnesium levels higher than desired for growing grapes. The water had to be diverted with gypsum added to the soils so that grapes could be planted (primarily to Rhone white varieties).
Select Wines
Craig Becker was Somerston Ranch’s founding winemaker and partner and later was their General Manager); he died far too young in mid 2024. He began his career in the Napa Valley by working for Robert Mondavi Winery in 1996 followed by Spring Mountain Vineyards where he was promoted to winemaker at age 23. In 2003 he decided to focus on consulting and today makes wine for a handful of clients. Craig’s focus is on hillside grown single-vineyard produced wines striving to showcase the particular vineyard site or block as well as the varietal characteristics of the wine.
The Somerston wines feature some of the best wines from the property focusing on single vineyard blocks (first vintage was 2007). Total production as of our latest update to this review is about 1,000 cases with plans to increase production, perhaps up to 5,000 cases. Priest Ranch wines are multi-vineyard block wines showcasing more of the property as a whole and the production is larger, currently around 12,000 cases with plans to grow this to 20,000 cases. It should be noted that wines used to be bottled under Priest Ranch under different ownership. During one of our visits we saw a 1976 vintage labeled Priest Ranch but produced by another winery.
Highflyer (while no longer produced) was Craig’s own wine brand and was made from vineyards throughout California. Highflyer was originally a label in another wine brand called Michael Austin, a partnership between Craig and his friend Patrick McNeil. The name is a result of Craig being a licensed pilot; he would often fly in his private plane to select California vineyards ranging from Santa Barbara to Lodi.
The 2016 Somerston Sauvignon Blanc spent 6 months in stainless steel barrels and 6 months in neutral French oak barrels where the lees were stirred 2x/month. Pale straw color, this wine is highly aromatic with plenty of floral notes including honeysuckle and passion fruit along with hints of toast. Somewhat tropical in its aromatic presentation. As the wine breathes further, aromas of lime are revealed. It is noticeably rounded, creamy and supple across the palate; the texture feels nice. Well layered, this wine sports flavors of apple, kiwi and a citrus nuance. It also features a soft finish without any tartness that sometimes shows in wines from cooler sites of this variety.
The 2014 Somerston Merlot Block IV was blended with 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and was fermented using non-inoculated yeasts (existing yeasts on the grapes). The bouquet features darker aromatics including blackberry, a sweetness of black licorice, fig, hints of cedar and a dry dust nuance along with notes of chocolate and mocha. This bottling is juicy and mouth watering with plenty of flavor lingering along with somewhat drying tannins.
The 2014 Somerston Cabernet Franc Block LXXII offers floral aromatics including violets and hints of dried sage. The bouquet is elegant featuring bright red fruit aromatics. More red fruit than darker fruit shows on the palate. The tannins are earthy, somewhat gravely in their texture. This is a nicely balanced wine. It was aged for 24 months in both new and once used French oak.
The 2014 Somerston Cabernet Sauvignon Block XCVI was fermented using non-inoculated yeasts. This wine initially offers savory and meaty aromatics focusing more on darker toned fruits. There are hints of mushroom and dark spices including white pepper. Everything is dark about this wine including its color. This wine needs time to breath, and as it does, the fruit aromatics come forward. It is well layered with flavors of blackberry, plum, dark olive and notes of tobacco showing, especially on the finish. The moderately grippy tannins are rounded and but course. A fine showing.
Hospitality
Visits to the ranch are strictly by appointment – open seven days a week. Allow about 90 minutes for a tour and tasting; each visit includes a drive around part of the ranch in an open air Polaris vehicle with strategic stops at some of their hillside vineyard blocks (all featuring excellent views of the property). The tour climbs to an elevation of about 1,000 feet. Returning to the winery, guests will taste through several current release wines – either inside or weather permitting outdoors on a terrace area. Special tastings can also be requested including additional food pairings.
A visit here is a unique opportunity to see an “older” Napa Valley with no crowds, no urban noise, no traffic, no large wineries – in summary, a very relaxing and scenic property to visit and taste wine. A pond is located on site featuring a peninsula that leads to a sit down area overlooking the surrounding hills. Like Jade Lake at Chateau Montelena but without the red bridges and visitors.
Because of the size of the property, they also welcome both private and corporate groups to the property. Somerston employs an estate chef and food options can be arranged through select outside vendors. One of their most unique offerings are the Winemaker Lunch Series, in which the estate chef prepares a full lunch in an intimate setting with members of their winemaking team hosting a tasting of some of their most limited production estate wines.
The Chapman’s also own the Priest Ranch tasting room in the south part of the town of Yountville which is open to the public without needing an appointment. The tasting room is located almost across from Hotel Villagio – parking is usually available on Main Street in front of or near the tasting room (although they do maintain their own small parking lot behind the tasting room). The focus of a tasting here is on the Priest Ranch wines but they also will taste select Somerston wines as well. And next door to the Priest Ranch tasting room is The Kitchen at Priest Ranch, a small restaurant with seating outside next to the entrance or on the roof (the only rooftop dining in Yountville).
For more information, to schedule an appointment or to join one of their allocation membership clubs, visit the direct to consumer estate website, www.somerstonestate.com or for trade information and tech sheets, visit: www.somerstonwineco.com
Vineyards
Winery
Hospitality
River Islands, Lathrop
Which wholesalers in Wisconsin and Illinois rep your wines?