RAZI Winery

RAZI Winery, not to be confused with Kazi Cellars in Sonoma County, is owned by former architect Fred Razi; he used to work with developer Bob Heisler in designing homes in Modesto, CA). Fred purchased this property in the late 1980s. Fred is one of the few Napa Valley winery owners with Persian (Iran) heritage. After his purchase he re-planted vineyards and built the cellar from scratch. The winery originally started out as a hobby during the first years as only noncommercial wine was made here. As it tends to happen in the wine industry, over time, wine related hobbies become more serious, and the winery grew; over the years, it also became a custom crush facility for several small Napa Valley wine brands.

RAZI Winery maintains a small but beautiful modern tasting room which opened for appointment only tastings in March 2009. Tastings are hosted from bar stools at the stainless-steel tasting counter. Because the winery is small and Fred lives on site, guests will primarily taste with Fred. The winery is located at the southern part of the east side of Silverado Trail almost across from Bread and Butter wines tasting room and winery. Visitors will enter the property by crossing a narrow bridge directly off of the Silverado Trail proceeding to the right side of the driveway at the fork in front of the metal RAZI winery sign. There is no turn lane or center lane on Silverado Trail in front of the driveway – so use extra caution when making this turn. Several parking spaces are located just outside of the tasting room and next to the outdoor vine covered patio.

Visitors may be drawn to a brightly painted metal yellow statue that looks like a cardboard cutout – located between the exterior patio and the edge of the vineyard. This is the original prototype for Benchman, a three-person indoor or outdoor metal bench designed by Carson, California based company, Stickmanpark. Fred’s son Bobak Razi is a co-founder of this company with former college roommate at California State University, Long Beach, Zaur Yevdayev. This particular design and several iterations of the original prototype are found in select indoor and outdoor spaces for some of their clients. Stickmanpark focuses on designing residential and commercial furniture.

During our initial visit to RAZI years ago, only a single wine was produced – a Chardonnay, which was the variety that Fred made as home wine before he founded RAZI Winery. Since those early days, RAZI Winery now produces a larger selection of wines including a Syrah labeled as Shiraz, a Zinfandel, a red blend and a Cabernet Sauvignon. Their wines tend to have extra age in bottle before being released and their prices are quite reasonable.

Razi’s Chardonnay is made from grapes grown on the property from vines bordering the eastern side of the winery and tasting room; however, in 2017 these vines were pulled out and replanted to Cabernet Sauvignon, although Fred did keep a 2-acre block of Chardonnay on another part of the property. Along with providing grapes for Razi’s wine, for a number of years, this 10-acre vineyard provided Chardonnay to Newton Vineyards (who popularized their “unfiltered” Chardonnay). Fred recalls Dr. Su Hua Newton, proprietor of Newton Vineyards walking through his vines every year marking off which vines would provide the grapes for Newton Vineyards.

And in another piece of random but important trivia; this is where Caldwell Winery got their start, leasing the winery from Fred and making their early vintages here before they had yet built their own winery and cave in Coombsville.

Select Wines
Chardonnay
Razi uses exclusively French oak on the red wines, but he prefers the characteristics imparted from American oak for his Chardonnay.

The 2021 RAZI Chardonnay is medium to deep gold in color; the highly aromatic bouquet offers scents of ripe pineapple, mango, yellow peaches, honeysuckle, melting butter and a generous contribution from its American oak aging, but its neither oaky nor overly buttery. Its secondary scents include a prominent thread of vanilla, butterscotch, creme Brule, ginger, a note of a Biscoff cookie cinnamon character and toffee. If California sunshine would smell like desert, this bouquet would be the perfect match. On the palate there are flavors of ginger, vanilla, apricot, coconut and papaya; it finishes with butterscotch and caramel and a lingering note of toasted oak and a related light spicy character. Its mouth feel is creamy, with an almost saline character, gentle on the palate, like running one’s fingers over the fur of a young puppy. Balanced acidity. 13.8% alcohol.

The 2017 RAZI Chardonnay is deep golden in color; offers aromas of orange marmalade, honeycomb, butter, caramel, Shenandoah pawpaw fruit, vanilla, Golden kiwi and hints of ripe Cherimoya. The wine offers a supple and slightly creamy mouth feel, complemented nicely by its brightness of acidity. Lingers with a liveliness including notes of butterscotch, caramel and vanilla along with mandarin, an orange peel zest and flavors of red apple. This wine drinks very well by itself.

The 2007 RAZI Chardonnay is a deep golden color that is darker than many Chardonnays on the market. This color is in part from the 9 months of 100% American oak barrel aging. The wine went through partial malolactic fermentation and was aged on the lees. Toasted oak along with pleasant tropical fruit overtones make up the bouquet followed by a clean and refreshing palate featuring notes of oak along with pear and red apple. The long finish is offers flavors of citrus and a lemon zest. Despite aging on the lees and being occasionally stirred on the lees, the wine is not overly creamy or viscous. This wine also has excellent acidity.

Zinfandel
The 2022 RAZI Zinfandel, Napa Valley is medium ruby/pale purple in color; the nose smells like the variety with a tangy sweet character. Its aromatics include plum jam, ripe blackberry, Persian mulberry (a nod to Fred’s heritage) and boysenberry jelly. The bouquet is certainly ripe and opulent but doesn’t quite cross into some of the over ripe jammy expressions made from this variety. And there are plenty of accompanying barrel influences at play including of vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, espresso and dark chocolate. Smells like dessert in the glass. On the palate there are generous flavors, focused more on the fruit rather than the barrel. These include plum, blackberry jam (reminds of of the jam sold at the Apple Farm in San Luis Obispo), boysenberry and Pakistani mulberry. The palate is surprisingly brightly lit and lifted from its energetic acidity. That alone helps mask the 15.5% alcohol; we noticed no warmth on the back of the palate. Lingers with lightly grainy and broadly coating tannins, a mouth watering juiciness, a lingering drying character and crushed pink peppercorn. Very youthful 3 years post vintage with lots of life ahead of it still. BBQ please.

The 2017 RAZI Zinfandel is dark ruby in color; the bouquet shows aromatics of chocolate coated dark cherries, plum, mocha and espresso, warm chocolate brownie and old toasted cedar wood. The fruit is certainly evident, but there are plenty of other non-fruit aromatic layers showing. Offers flavors of ripe dark cherry, black licorice, boysenberry, blueberry and brown chocolate. The tannins are plush and rounded and glide smoothly and easily across the palate. Lingers with just a hint of dried tobacco leaf, deeper into the finish.

Merlot
The 2020 RAZI Merlot Napa Valley is medium to dark ruby in color; the bouquet is a fruit-foward bowlful of cherries and or cherry pie. But there are additional fruit layers and plenty of barrel influences at play here including scents of blackberry, ripe Santa Rosa plum and boysenberry along with mocha, cocoa powder, cedar plank, dark chocolate and vanilla. And baking spices including cinnamon and nutmeg. The nose evolves quickly from smelling ripe, but not overripe, with its baking spices to becoming more dark and savory. The palate is slightly less expressive than the bouquet, and very balanced. It offers flavors of cherry, dark raspberry, blueberry and assorted plums. The tannins are polished and linger with a gravelly character and a light but persistent drying note. Additional flavors on the finish include toasted cedar, a meatiness/savory character, a hint of tobacco, and a barrel influenced spiciness including pepper. This is a highly BBQ friendly Merlot – perhaps paired with pork spare ribs covered in a spicy dry rub.

Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2018 RAZI Cabernet Sauvignon has no problem with color; this wine is deep purple in the glass. The aromatics are dark and include Satsuma plum, sweaty leather, pipe tobacco, black licorice and violets along with a meatiness and an iron nuance. As the wine evolves, offers hints of cardamom and clove. This bouquet offers some aromatic intrigue, and one needs to let it sit in the glass for some time to fully open. Dark fruit runs the breadth of the palate including flavors of spicy plum skin. The finish is savory with notes of crushed peppercorn, dried tobacco leaf, dust and old cedar box. The gravely and grainy tannins offer a noticeable grip and linger for quite some time. Still in the throes of youth, this wine is built to age. And its available at a rare price point as compared to most Napa Valley grown and produced Cabernet Sauvignon wines.

Shiraz
The 2016 RAZI Shiraz offers pretty aromas including blackberry and blueberry, hints of cassis an interesting aroma of stewed tomato and as the wine breathes, baking spices. Dark in the glass, the wine is juicy across the palate with mouthwatering acidity. Layered yet approachable in its youth – still shows somewhat tightly wound tannins but these should soften with just a few years of age. Mostly dark fruit flavors on the plate – hints of bacon fat. A good food wine – perhaps with a BBQ or pizza.

Other Clients of RAZI Winery
Several other producers have rented or currently rent space inside the winery to produce their own wines. Previously some of these client wines were available for tastings in addition to the RAZI wines; today the RAZI wines are exclusively offered for tastings. During our first visit to the property, two now prominent brands under the same ownership, BRION and B Wise were making some of their wines here.

B Wise sources fruit from several premium vineyard sites including their own Sonoma Vineyard located just below the famed Martini hillside Monte Rosso Vineyard in neighboring Sonoma County.

The 2004 BRION Bennett Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon offers a rich very concentrated flavor profile. It is a dark wine with a nose full of intense fruit including blueberry and blackberry. A somewhat elegant vanilla undertone is also present. Mostly new French oak was used during the aging. The palate contains layer upon layer of flavor with a finish that is well structured, yet in balance while also showing notes of smoke and dust. It is a robust wine that while in its youth at the time of our tasting, still needed time to age and evolve additional complexities.

Another treat was the Lito Vin Santo bottled under the Monticelli Brothers label. Massimo Monticelli, a UC Davis graduate is a fourth-generation winemaker and former winemaker for RAZI Winery. He runs his own label with his brother, appropriately named Monticelli Brothers. The Lito Vin Santo is a blend of styles combining how dessert wines are produced in both Italy and France. Its winemaking was partially conducted in a French Sauternes style as well as the Italian Vin Santo.

Only 350 cases of the 1/2 bottles were made in 2003. This is wine that is well balanced between sugar and alcohol. It only has 2% residual sugar, and the alcohol is around 13 percent. As a result, it is a wine that Massimo rightly claims is for “drinking, rather than sipping”! In other words, it’s not going to overwhelm one’s palate, it’s not a sticky syrupy dessert wine. A number of white varietals are used in this wine including Malvasia Bianca. It is very dark amber in color with nice stone fruit flavors including peach and nectarine with honey undertones.

A Solera styled red wine called Rolando Rossa is also bottled under Monticelli Brothers. This wine is a non-vintage with no dominate varietal); it contains 50% current vintage wine and 50% of various older vintages. Out of more than 1,000 commercial wine producers in Napa Valley that we have visited and extensively written about, only several wineries produce a non-vintage table wine. This wine is made with love, passion and quality; for the most optimum results, drink it daily.

We have visited Razi Winery several times over the years and have reviewed two other brands that were originally produced here including Burly and Monticelli Brothers; see our separate reviews on this website for more details about these particular brands.

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Rather than create a specific logo, Fred chose to display numerous squares on his labels. Squares appeal to him because of his architectural background; he wanted to display something simple and easily understood.

RAZI Winery offers a highly intimate tasting experience. How many owners personally conduct tastings at wineries along the Silverado Trail? Fred typically hosts tastings himself. When visitors reach the end of the tasting, he will often pull out some extremely tasty chocolates (made with 70% cacao) to pair with his Cabernet Sauvignon.

On pleasant days, an outdoor patio is available for outside tasting; serious enthusiasts may request to try a barrel sample.The winery is located only a few minute drive from the city of Napa; a visit here is ideal as the first or the last stop of the day. For more information about Razi, to make a tasting appointment, to purchase wines or to join their wine club, visit: www.raziwinery.com