The following are active Napa Valley based wineries or producers with oldest continuously operating vintage listed – and their first vintage listed if different (IE if there was a period of inactivity).
Quite a few Napa wineries originally founded decades ago are again producing wines after long absences, often these are restored ghost wineries but are operating as “newer” brands with different names and ownership.
Only three wineries produced continuous vintages since pre-Prohibition.
For a little outside Napa Valley winery perspective, the oldest winery in the America’s is Casa Madero (several hours west of Monterrey, Mexico) having been founded in 1597 and has produced wine continuously since then, the oldest ‘winery’ in the world found to date is Areni-1 Cave in Armenia at approximately 6,100 years old, the oldest continuously operating winery is Schloss Vollrads in Germany (more then 800 vintages produced to date) and the two of the oldest bottles of still filled with wine include a 2,000 year old urn from a Roman mausoleum in Spain and a bottled dated to approximately 1,700 years housed in the Historical Museum of the Palatinate in the town of Speyer about an hour drive south of Frankfurt, Germany.
We continue to work on this list and refine it. This is an ongoing work in progress, more details, footnotes, references continue to be added as time permits …
1970s (50)
Burgess 1972
Caymus 1972
Chateau Montelena 1972 Riesling (founded 1882)
Clos du Val 1972
Diamond Creek 1972 (founded 1968)
Rutherford Hill 1972
Silver Oak 1972
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars 1972 (founded 1970)
Stags’ Leap Winery (1972) (founded 1893 originally and modern 1971)
Cakebread 1973
Franciscan 1973 or 1974? (founded 1972)
Mt. Veeder 1973 (was there a period of inactivity???)
Trefethen 1973 (founded 1886, Eschol)
V Sattui 1973 (founded 1976)
Domain Chandon 1973
Joseph Phelps 1974
Raymond 1974 (Riesling)
Franciscan 1975 (wines still made in Napa?)
Tulocay 1975
Girard 1975??? (a few years no vintage between ownership??? more research needed)
Napa Cellars (1976 or 1968?, their own website states both years!!)
Green & Red 1977
Grgich Hills 1977
Robert Keenan 1977
Smith Madrone 1977
Buehler 1978
Conn Creek 1978 (founded 1973)
Duckhorn 1978 (founded 1976)
Flora Springs 1978
Grace Family (1978)
Markham 1978 (physical winery founded 1874)
Pine Ridge 1978
Robert Keenan 1978
Round Hill 1978 (founded 1976)
Shafer 1978
Summit Lake 1978
William Hill 1978 (founded 1976)
Calafia 1979
Chateau Boswell 1979
Dunn Vineyards 1979 (founded/bonded 1981)
Far Niente 1979 (founded 1885)
Hagafen 1979
Madonna Estate 1979 (Pinot Noir) – original winery founded 1922, sold in 1970)
Newton 1979 (founded 1977)
Opus One 1979
Prager 1979
Sky 1979
Turnbull 1979 (called Turnbull-Johnson at the time)
ZD Wines 1979 (1969, 1st 10 years winery was in Sonoma part of Carneros)
1960s (9)
Heitz 1961 (oldest vintage sold, 1959?)
Schramsberg 1965 (founded 1862)
Robert Mondavi 1966
Freemark Abbey 1967 (no wine made from 1959-1967, originally dates from 1886)
Chappellet 1967 (Chenin Blanc)
Mayacamas 1968? or 1951? or 1946? (founded 1889)
Spring Mountain Vineyard 1968/1969 blend – made in 1971
Cuvaison 1969
Sterling 1969 (founded 1964)
1950s (2)
Stony Hill 1952 (was this commercially released?)
Schoolhouse 1957 (has never owned a bonded winery)
1940s (2)
Sutter Home 1948 (roots date back to 1890)
Charles Krug 1944 (founded 1861)
1930s (2)
Inglenook 1933 (roots date back to 1879, 1st vintage 1882)
Louis Martini 1933 (1st vintage bottled under Louis Martini, 1936?)
1900s (1)
Beaulieu Vineyard 1909 (founded 1900)
1890s (1)
Nichelini 1890
1870s (1)
Beringer 1876
(TOTAL LISTED ABOVE: 68)
ADDITIONAL NOTES
Additional notes below are organized alphabetically by name of winery.
Beaulieu Vineyard: incorporated in 1904. First wines were bulk wines purchased from Wente Vineyards in Livermore. Were making wines for distilling. Also for Catholic Church. First vintage under Beaulieu Vineyard 1909. Beringer: made Sacramental wine during Prohibition and grape bricks. Burgess: original site of Chateau Sovereign. Original winery dates back to late 1800s. Domain Chandon: the 1973 vintage was kept to be used to blend into future vintages. 1974 was the first commercial vintage with majority of wines in their first release from this year. Conn Creek: purchased wine from bankrupt Lyncrest Winery for vintage releases in 1973 & 1974 – they made no wine in 1975 or 1977 – so since 1978 have produced continuous vintages. Dunn: unusual in that their first vintage predates their winery bond. Heitz Cellars: it should be noted that in the early days Heitz Cellars purchased finished wines in cask, primarily from Hanzell Winery in Sonoma County and then bottled it under the Heitz label. The earliest vintage purchased and sold in this manner was a 1959 Pinot Noir. Inglenook: brand has been sold several times over the decades. There may have been one or two vintages in the 1980s or 1990s where it wasn’t produced but by that time Francis Ford Coppola had already begun producing wines on the old Inglenook property again. Louis Martini: possibly 1936 when they bottled under Louis Martini brand. 1933-1935 bulk wines sent to their other winery in Kingsburg? Mayacamas: possibly continuously producing since either the 1946 or the 1951 vintage which was less then 100 bottles of Chardonnay. Conflicting dates in various sources. Possibly no vintages produced in 1966 & 1967??? If so, 1968 would be their earliest year in a continuous string of vintages until the present. Napa Cellars: need to still verify first vintage producing continuously since. Perhaps 1978? Nichelini: produced bootlegged wine during Prohibition. Opus One: until the winery was built, wines were made at Robert Mondavi Winery. Spring Mountain Vineyard: Most of vintages 1989-1991 were sold in bulk, noteworthy is the 1992 vintage was made but never released. Trefethen: some of the earliest vineyards in Napa Valley were planted on site of what is now Trefethen in the 1850s by Joseph Osborne who called the property Oak Knoll Estate. V Sattui. One of the few examples of a founding date *after* their first vintage. 1973 was first vintage from bulk wine purchased from Robert Mondavi Winery.
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