RD Winery was founded in 2010 by Vietnam based entrepreneur Mr. Nguyen Van Dong; he decided to start a winery after visiting the Napa Valley and being inspired by the scenery, lifestyle and the wines. His winery, RD was the first Vietnamese owned winery in the Napa Valley, founded slightly before the other Vietnamese owned winery, Kieu Hoang. Mr. Van … [Read more...]

Celani Family Vineyards (pronounced 'Chelani') was founded in 2005 by Tom and Vicki Celani. They divide their time between Napa and their home in Michigan. Tom has led a diverse and remarkable entrepreneurial life centered on his varied business interests including in part, developing North American Native American gaming and casino properties (he used to … [Read more...]

Portfolio Winery is a joint venture between husband and wife Geneviève and Luc Janssens; all the operations for this winery are conducted in their "garage" located next to their home. The term for this type of winery is "garagist". We have visited a number of "garagist" wineries over the years in the Napa Valley as select cities within the county allow the … [Read more...]

ROAM Napa Valley. Founder and winemaker Mario Sculatti grew up in the Napa Valley influenced by a number of individuals from his parents' generation who were involved in the wine industry including his father Ron Sculatti who was one of several people who helped create the award-winning 1973 Chateau Montelena vintage along with Mike Grgich, Bo Barrett and … [Read more...]

Lawer Estates is a small family run producer operated by Betsy and David Lawer (he died in 2021); they are Duke alumni, which is where they first met and both have strong ties to Alaska. The First National Bank of Anchorage was founded in 1922 in Anchorage; Betsy's grandfather Warren N. Cuddy began purchasing stock in this bank in the 1930s and in 1941 … [Read more...]

The Debate. In today's fast paced world where conversations are often relegated to the digital space - especially so in cities around the world where it is a common site to see people fully engaged with their cell phones, the Debate was created as a platform to bring people together and to stimulate discussion about contemporary topics - ideally with glasses … [Read more...]

Greer Wines. The Greer Vineyard is 7 acres of which 5 acres are planted entirely to Cabernet Sauvignon. Located in western Rutherford on the lower edge of the Rutherford bench, the vineyard is planted on very slightly sloping soils - the tail end of deposits that have eroded off of the Mayacamas mountains over the millennia. This property was purchased in … [Read more...]

Forthright Wines was founded by four partners including Patrick McEvoy and Rafer Caudil who share the winemaking duties and Ed Stritch who lives in Chicago and Sel Fich who resides in London. Rather than simply being business partners, all four individuals are friends having known each other for many years - whose paths have crossed at various times in their … [Read more...]