Gargiulo Vineyards

Gargiulo Vineyards is located on Oakville Cross Road in the heart of Napa Valley. They specialize in small case productions of premium wines from their two vineyards in the Oakville Appellation, Money Road Ranch located approximately a mile north of the actual winery and 575 OVX. The winery opened for visitors by appointment in January 2007; it sits on a prime piece of real estate on the top of a small knoll overlooking one of Napa’s most exclusive wineries including Screaming Eagle and their accompanying vineyards to the south. Other nearby neighbors include PlumpJack Estate Winery, Rudd Estate and Groth Vineyards & Winery.

Founders of Gargiulo Vineyards, Jeff and Valerie Gargiulo first began visiting Napa Valley in the early 1980s to see Valerie’s cousin, Ivabelle (Belle) Rhodes and her husband Dr. Bernard (Barney). The Rhodes were two of Napa valley’s most relentless supporters; their home on Bella Oaks Vineyard in Rutherford was the site of numerous parties and gatherings for friends, food and a remarkable wine cellar which numbered 10,000+ bottles. Chefs that cooked or attended their events included Michael Chiarello, Gary Danko and Julia Child among others. Treasured memories were created in their home for numerous residents of Napa Valley.

After their deaths, ownership of the property was transferred to the Gargiulos. For a single vintage, Gargiulo Vineyards bottled a Bella Oaks Vineyard designate. They sold the property in 2010 to art preservation specialist and advocate and Austin, Texas based Suzanne Deal Booth who oversees her own wine brand, Bella Oaks.

And it was Barney and Belle who introduced the Gargiulo’s to a 40-acre parcel of vineyard land for sale in Oakville. The Gargiulo’s purchased this property in 1992; it is now known as the Money Ranch Vineyard, named in homage to the road that borders their property. It is located at the far northern end of Money Ranch Road next to the southern border of the Rutherford Appellation. The property was already planted to grapes; they spent several years perfecting the site with the assistance of Danny Schuster, viticulturist most known for his work at Ornellaia. Today this vineyard is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese and a tiny block of Pinot Grigio. Prior to making their own wines, the Gargiulo’s sold grapes to other producers. Their inaugural vintage was in 2000 and featured three wines from the Money Road Ranch Vineyard.

In 2000, Screaming Eagle founder Jean Phillips (also a real estate agent) called the Gargiulo’s to inform them that a rare piece of property in eastern Oakville was for sale by a TWA pilot. And she needed an answer fast, requesting a yes or a no over the phone. Despite having never visited the site, the Gargiulo’s knew of its prime location including the fact there was only one property between this site and Screaming Eagle. This is the Gargiulo winery home, with the property named 575 OVX in homage to their 575 address on Oakville Cross Road.

The property was not planted to grapes at the time of their acquisition. They spent the next 3 years identifying appropriate rootstock, conducting soil tests, replanting and installing new trellising. The ever talented vine concierge, Hector Lopez oversees the management of their vineyard. Significant other additions were made to the property including building the winery and landscaping the grounds. The 575 OVX Vineyard is one of the few south facing vineyards in Oakville; during one of our visits it was described as being in the shape of a catcher’s mitt including ‘catching’ the late afternoon sun and breezes blowing from the south, especially noticeable in the afternoons.

The site is planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Despite the proximity of each vineyard to each other the soil types are dramatically different from one another. The soils of the 575 OVX are rust/red in color (iron rich and very rocky) in contrast to the dark grey clay loam soils of their Money Ranch Road property. Prior to making their own wines, they sold all their grapes to other area wineries. Their first commercial release was in 2000.

The winery is gravity flow, small yet functional and most everything is done by hand for the winemaking. They ferment in a variety of vessels including concrete ‘eggs’, stainless steel tanks and in French oak barrels including larger puncheons (with one of the heads removed). They use barrels from more than twenty coopers. And they often ferment more than 40 small lots and then later determine which lots make it into their final blends. Kristof Anderson was Gargiulo’s on site winemaker from 2004 through 2020.

Sue Negrini, who oversees Guest Relations developed a fun system of categorizing the origin of the lots. For wines from the Money Road Vineyard, she always assigns the barrels names related to sports. This has ranged from naming the barrels after major league baseball teams to individual names of players on the San Francisco 49ers. Wines from OVX Vineyard are designated names relating to music and have including names of 70s bands and hip hop artists. Lots of Sangiovese are always named with Italian themes including food, clothing and cities in Italy.

Along with wine and food, Jeff is passionate about music; visitor’s will note his vintage and handmade collection of guitars as well as other music memorabilia in the tasting lounge. He built a small outdoor amphitheater on the property for concerts; this is always used for Oakville Sessions, their annual wine club gathering. And a small recording studio is located to the east of the winery. Jeff plays lead guitar in a local band called The Silverado Pickups – along with a number of other mostly Napa vintner members including David Duncan, the proprietor of Silver Oak Cellars. This band has performed at numerous concerts from New Orleans to the annual music festival, Bottle Rock in the city of Napa. They have also opened for several big-name acts.

Jeff met country singer Billy Dean while Billy was performing at the iconic The Bluebird Café in Nashville. They became friends have performed together at times over the years. Local culinary celebrity, Michael Chiarello (died 2023) filmed several episodes of the TV Show, Easy Entertaining on site in Jeff’s kitchen.

Gargiulo Inc
Jeff has been involved with farming his entire life having worked in the family business (originally tomatoes), Gargiulo Inc that his father Dewey started in the Naples Florida area. Dewey was a pioneer in tomato farming in Florida and was also partly responsible for creating two related organizations, the Florida Tomato Committee and the Florida Growers Exchange. He and his wife Janet (both deceased) were an integral part of Naples early history.

Eventually this business became the country’s largest tomato producing and packing business; by the time it was sold to Monsanto Inc in 1994, Gargiulo Inc was responsible for about 10% of the entire country’s fresh tomato production. Their operations eventually spread to other states and also internationally.

The company is still very much in business although long since under different ownership. They own and operate thousands of acres devoted to growing tomatoes and other agricultural products. They are located about a 50-minute drive northeast of downtown Naples, including their head field office and maintenance shop (a short drive from their farms). Since 2000, the company also supports the Gargiulo Education Center in Naples, with educational and entrepreneurial opportunities offered to children of migrant agricultural workers in the area.

The Gargiulo wholesale packing and processing plant is located in Immokalee, a small community about a 55-minute drive from Naples. We have driven in here before and watched truck after truck of tomatoes being delivered and processed all transported in Gargiulo branded trucks.

Jeff has also served as CEO of Sunkist Corporation. And through an investment group called Oakville Produce Partners along with Paul Fleming (Flemings Steakhouse) was a majority investor in Greenleaf Produce, a specialty high end and organic produce supplier based in the San Francisco Bay Area. This company is not to be confused with Greenleaf nurseries – founded by another Napa Valley winery owner family, the Nickels. Greenleaf Produce is based in Brisbane (south of San Francisco) and was founded in 1975. Hundreds of restaurants use their products including locally at Gotts Roadside in St. Helena. Greenleaf Produce was acquired in early 2023 by Chefs’ Warehouse, Inc.

Hospitality
Tours and tastings are for serious wine enthusiasts are hosted in a relaxing environment. And the gorgeous surrounding settings are certainly helpful in this regard. Music is always a part of an experience with speakers located in the winery, outdoors and in the tasting lounge. Visits are highly personalized with no more than two groups hosted at any one time. And weather permitting, visitors are accompanied to the edges of the closest vineyard rows for an up close look at the vines, are able to sample the grapes if they are ripe, followed by a walk through of the small winery and then a seated tasting.

A small barn/garage building dating from 1962 was constructed with rocks from the property. The previous owner used to park one of his vehicles here and access the upstairs via a ladder. This space was converted into what is now an inviting tasting lounge. Much of this building was made from recycled materials or with materials from other buildings that were being torn down including reclaimed wood flooring dating from the 1950s from the St. Helena High School gymnasium (used on both floors) and beams from a bridge in the city of Napa that was being dismantled. Local interior designer, Erin Martin curated it’s interior decor including chandeliers made from wine barrel staves and incorporated an existing pulley dating from the previous owner.

A circular rod iron staircase winds up to a small second story room; this private lounge serves double duty for quick “jam” sessions. It is also referred to as the ‘treehouse’ room, appropriate named from its elevated perch with views of the nearby oak trees.

The property features numerous places to taste wines, both indoors and outdoors. Weather permitting, we recommend tasting out on the deck or stone patio with gorgeous views to the south of the sprawling vineyards and hills. The inside tasting spaces are intimate and are meant for small groups. Bottles not available to the general public are only available for sale here including select library wines.

Based upon the location of their vineyards in Oakville, it might be tempting to showcase an opulence in their wines, but that is never the case. All these wines portray a beautiful balance and bright acidity; by this we mean, restraint as opposed to more hedonistic Napa Valley bottlings. Gargiulo strives to create Bordeaux style wines that are elegant but not overly fruit or oak driven. Their oak aging program is also shorter than many wineries, preferring instead to let the varietal characteristics show.

Select Wines
Whites/Rose
The 2023 Gargiulo Rosato di Sangiovese is light copper in color; the bouquet is elegant with aromas of strawberry, raspberry, strawberry guava, citrus blossom and a kiss of lime. Bright, balanced and minerally, on the palate, there are flavors of ruby grapefruit, not fully ripe raspberry, a light note of watermelon jolly rancher, especially noticeable on the finish and pink lemonade. The finish is clean, crisp and lingers with a mouthwatering brightness and a very light herbal note, similar to tarragon. This wine is a pleasure to drink and would be the perfect pairing with scallops or halibut. Or perhaps enjoyed in the company of country music singer Billy Dean’s hit, Billy the Kid. The grapes for this wine are always harvested early, prior to the grapes used to make their red Sangiovese, striving for low sugar levels in conjunction with a higher pH. These grapes were fermented whole cluster.

The 2022 Gargiulo Vineyards Chardonnay is consistently sourced from the same site on the Napa side of Carneros; this wine is deep golden in color. It did not go through malolactic fermentation. The bouquet offers aromas of melting butter, creme Brule, vanilla, ripe stone fruits including apricot, peaches in light syrup and mango. The aromatics are both honeyed and simultaneously sweet. The first word we noted to describe the palate was generic, yet quickly conveys the proper point: delicious. Brighter than anticipated based on its aromatic character, it offers rich flavors, yet is simultaneously buoyed by its lively acidity. On the palate there are flavors of apricot, peach, yellow nectarines, mandarin orange and mango. Its texture is rounded and supple; the finish is richly flavored. This is the only non estate Gargiulo produced wine.

Reds
Jeff has long collected Italian wines; when planting Pinot Grigio and Sangiovese he figured he would drink the resulting wines if he wasn’t able to sell them. That hasn’t been a problem, as consumer demand outpaces supply for these particular wines. The first Sangiovese produced was in 2000; these wines age remarkably well with even older bottlings holding on to their youth much longer than anticipated according to Sue Negrini who oversees Guest Relations. Their Sangiovese is always blended with a small dollop of Cabernet Sauvignon.

The Gargiulo Sangiovese is named Aprile, with an ‘e’ added to bridge the nomenclatural gap between their oldest daughters’ name (April) in English with the Italian equivalent as a nod to the Italian heritage of this variety. Also in the name is Super Napa, a play on words in regard to the Super Tuscan wines from Italy which are Sangiovese based, blended with other red varieties including those associated with Bordeaux. There is not much Sangiovese planted in Oakville; for reference, another producer, one of their ‘neighbors’, Villa Ragazzi Winery also produces a Sangiovese.

The 2021 Gargiulo Vineyards Aprile Super Oakville Blend is 95% Sangiovese and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon; this is the lightest red wine they produce. It is medium ruby in color. The bouquet shows some restraint with aromas of red cherry, raspberry and rhubarb with some lighter sweet baking spices, hiding more so in the background. On the palate there are red fruited flavors of raspberry, cherry, and strawberry. The tannins are super finely grained and linger with a light dusty character including a note of white pepper and dried herbs. They are well integrated into the seamless finish. This wine drinks nicely by itself but would pair well with a diversity of BBQed meats, tomato based sauces or for something in a completely different culinary direction, a variety of spicy Thai food.

The 2015 Gargiulo Vineyards April Super Oakville Blend is 96% Sangiovese and 4% Cabernet Sauvignon; it is 13.6 % alcohol. This wine is medium ruby in color; the bouquet initially offers a subtle earthiness accompanied by aromas of dried rose petals. This wine sports higher toned fruits on the palate including red cherry and red currant. This is a leaner style of wine that is very food friendly. Bright acidity. And Negrini who used to write the tasting notes for this wine, always tried to use verbiage to describe its flavors and aromas using red fruit descriptors, but always erring on their less ripe attributes.

The 2020 Gargiulo Vineyards Money Road Ranch Merlot is 100% varietal; this wine is deep ruby in color. The perfumy bouquet reveals primarily red fruited scents including of bramble, cherry and raspberry with a lighter sweet baking spice accompaniment. Brightly light across the palate, the flavors are more red fruited than dark. These include raspberry jam, red cherry and currant. The tannins sport an almost creamy character; they are rounded, resolved and ripe. The finish lingers brightly lit with a darker savory character including of white pepper. Medium acidity. Drinks well by itself, but if we were to pair this with something it would be roasted duck. This wine is balanced and showing well, four years post vintage at the time of our tasting.

The 2021 Gargiulo Vineyards Money Road Ranch, Cabernet Sauvignon (100% varietal) is deep ruby in color; for Gargiulo, this was a smaller than normal vintage. The first aromatic we noted was a dusty note similar to petrichor, with additional scents of plum, cherry, dark raspberry and blackberry. Balanced, yet it sports plenty of depth and complexity on the palate in terms of both flavor and texture. Offers flavors of plum, blackberry, and cherry, with a mouth watering finish. Savory notes include dried sage and crushed pink peppercorn. The tannins are gravelly and not yet fully rounded, an attribute we have noticed in particular from our early tastings of the 2021 vintage in general from Napa Valley. Their textural character ultimately outpaces the fruit on the extended finish. This wine is clearly built to age.

The 2014 Gargiulo Vineyards Money Ranch Road Cabernet Sauvignon (100% varietal). The elegant bouquet is built upon its core of fruit rather than being overly influence by its oak aging. As the wine continues to breath some influence from the oak shows but is more subtle then pronounced. There are aromas of blackberry, violets and a hint of white pepper. It is very balanced for being a young wine at the time of our tasting; the tannins are noticeable but already well integrated into the finish. Features a light note of toasted cedar. Again, very bright acidity.

The 2021 Gargiulo Vineyards OVX G Major Seven Study; this wine is named in homage to a 4-note musical cord and is always led by Cabernet Sauvignon, followed by Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Merlot, with the percentages of each variety differing depending on the vintage. This wine is deep ruby in color; the bouquet offers aromas of blackberry, dark chocolate, clove, baked plums, dark cherry and boysenberry. The bouquet is clearly about the fruit with the oak contributing a light toasted character. On the palate there are flavors of dark raspberries, cherries at the peak of their ripeness, blackberry and boysenberry. Ripe but simultaneously showing restraint, this wine delivers loads of flavor but without the influence of heavy tannins. Rather, their texture is grainy and gravelly and lingers in parallel with loads of flavor and a subtle woodsy spice on the extended finish.

The 2014 Gargiulo Vineyards OVX G Major Seven Study Cabernet Sauvignon is deep ruby in color. The bouquet reveals aromas of black cherry, hints of caramel and black licorice and eventually evolves to a sweeter aromatic note of dessert spices. On the palate there are flavors of blackberry and boysenberry. What is striking about this wine is the mouth feel; it is soft but powerful at the same time with long lasting tannins. While we haven’t tasted this wine since soon after its release, in 2024 many of Napa Valley’s premium red wines from 2014 were showing in a sweet spot. This wine most likely would be included in that list.

The 2019 Gargiulo Vineyards 575 OVX Study Cabernet Sauvignon is 100% varietal and is their most limited produced Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine is deep ruby in color; sweetly fruited, the bouquet offers aromas of cherry, raspberry, strawberry and red licorice with a light note of sage, appearing more in the background. This wine is showing in a sweet spot 5 years post vintage at the time of our tasting. It reveals flavors of red cherry, raspberry, strawberry and blackberry. The oak is complementary character here both on the bouquet and the palate. We particularly love how its texture is showing at this age, with the gravelly and grainy tannins playing in tandem with the fruit on the long finish. This wine lingers bright, juicy and mouth watering. And it persists with a dusty character, which fully coats the palate. It is drinking very well now but is also built to age. This is a standout bottling that should be on the list of any Napa Valley serious Cabernet Sauvignon collector.

Vintner’s Daughter
In 2014 Jeff and Valerie’s daughter April created Vintner’s Daughter; its first product was an Active Botanical Serum™ (chemical free). The company is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. Smelling this immediately transported us into a world of relaxation, to numerous times over the years enjoying spas in Bangkok during our annual break from all things wine related. This product includes 22 active natural ingredients and is for sale at the winery or by visiting: www.vintnersdaughter.com.

The product line has since expanded to include Active Renewal Cleanser™ and Active Treatment Essence™; these products are primarily sold at selected retail outlets across the U.S., including at Gargiulo Vineyards and in Europe – with limited distribution in Asia. Vintner’s Daughter also offers a direct to consumer, subscription program. A special limited perfume oil is also produced, to date bottled as Understory Vol. 1 & 2. And 2% of all sales are donated to a variety of charities focused on women and children around the world.

Naples Wine Auction
Gargiulo often donates wine to high profile auctions including their hometown annual Naples Winter Wine Festival which has become the largest wine charity in the country having raised well over 200 million since their inception in 2001. Board members front the cost of operating the annual auction, with all money raised from the event supporting underprivileged and at-risk children in Collier County. Jeff and Valerie were the founders of this now extremely prestigious event and Jeff served as the Chairman for their first auction in 2001. Both continue to serve as trustees.

This auction is a big deal with prominent Napa Valley vintners always present and or playing an integral role in the festivities. In 2016 a Gargiulo Vineyards led experience was sold as the highest winning bid.

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Total annual production is usually between 5,000 and 6,000 cases although this may drop during periods when parts of their vineyard are being replanted. As of our latest update to this review, distribution spans seven states. Some of their more limited production wines are only available for sale through visits to the property and or through their mailing list membership. For more information, to join their mailing list or to request an appointment, visit: www.gargiulovineyards.com

Hospitality

Winery

Grounds

Money Road Ranch Vineyard