Angwin Estate Vineyards was founded by Jon Larson (died early 2022) and his wife Angela Henszel with their first vintage from 2011. This tiny (approximately 2 acres) extremely rocky vineyard is located at about 2,150 feet on the slopes of Howell Mountain. This part of Napa Valley is special and an area I have always gravitated to for the views, the … [Read more...]

4 Winds Winery (not to be confused with Four Winds Cellars in Murphys, CA) was founded by the mother-son team, Jane (passed in early 2023) and Roy Chapin; incidentally based on their name, until more recently, this was the first listing in our database of nearly 1,100 Napa producers (reference 001 Vintners). Jane purchased 109 acres in the Stags Leap … [Read more...]

Lithology (formerly known as Alejandro Bulgheroni Estate). The founder of Lithology, Argentinian Alejandro Bulgheroni, has been extremely successful in a number of business ventures. His father founded Bridas, an oil and gas company in 1948. Along with his brother Carlos, Alejandro successfully grew and developed the company's assets. After selling 50% of … [Read more...]

Bunter Spring Winery is a small winery located just east of the Napa city limits. Founder Mark Bunter grew up in the south part of Napa Valley; his father purchased three acres in 1974 in what is now the Coombsville appellation although they did not plant grapes on site until many years later. Mark's introduction to wine began at Tulocay Winery, a small … [Read more...]

Acumen Wines. China born, and Paris college educated founder of Acumen Wines, Eric Yuan (not to be confused with the Eric Yuan who founded Zoom Video Communications) divides his time between the San Francisco Bay area and Wuhan, China where he owns a development company and employs about 500 people. He was introduced to French wines while studying and living … [Read more...]

Crane Assembly was founded in 2012 by three longtime friends in Napa Valley - winemakers Dave Phinney (of Orin Swift fame) and Kevin Fox and business partners Bryan Sandoli (married to Karen Williams the co-founder of ACME Wines in St. Helena) and Darryl Browman (Darryl is the co-owner of Cavus Vineyards in the Stags Leap District). The partners sold Crane … [Read more...]

Gro Wines was founded with the 2009 vintage by winemakers husband and wife, Lars Bjorkman and Molly Hill. Lars was born and raised in Fresno; within 6 weeks of his family moving from Sweden to California. They lived in a rural part of the southern central valley; he remembers their home surrounded by vineyards planted for quantity including raisin and table … [Read more...]

Shibumi Knoll Vineyards was founded by Don and Joann Ross (now Serafini) with the release of their 2005 vintage. Don was a former NASA engineer who worked on the Apollo Lunar Landing Project; later he was chairman of Louisville, Kentucky based Cardinal Shower Enclosures. He died in 2016 after a long battle with cancer. Joann worked in Television and Film, … [Read more...]

Mira Winery was co-founded by long time Napa winemaker Gustavo "Goose" Gonzalez and Jim "Bear" Dyke. Their story covers multiple parts of the country but is centered on the Napa Valley. Gustavo was in Washington DC in 2005 for some wine related events when he stopped by the upscale Off The Record Bar at the Hay Adams Hotel - a brilliant name for a bar … [Read more...]