Irreverent, irrepressible and incorrigable – that about sums up John Caldwell and Napa Valley wouldn’t be the same without him.  No other person outside of Napa City founder and Coombsville namesake Nathan Coombs is more closely associated with the Coombsville wine region than Caldwell, and it started really as opportunism to develop land as tony real estate in the emergent Napa Valley tourism destination in the late 1970′s.  He was flying high then with his successful shoe stores in the valley, he says, touring around in his Cadillac Seville ragtop …

The Coombsville AVA became official on December 14, 2011 but the region was always an integral part of high quality Napa Valley wines since the  1870′s and, more recently, has been high on the radar of insiders.  Considering its long history, volcanic effluvial soils and ideal climate, the granting of the formal AVA is a mere formality.
Coombsville’s low profile may have been a result of its location – about 1,360 farmed acres just east of the large city of Napa, obscured by a hill of residential homes which gives way …

After taking a back seat for decades to the more famous sub-appellations in the Napa Valley, Calistoga is quietly becoming the destination of choice for producers seeking terroir-driven wines in a down-to-earth environment.
Kelly Fleming could have invested anywhere in the Napa Valley for her namesake brand but chose to make Calistoga her home, seeing the potential for high quality winegrowing in Simmons Canyon off Silverado Trail.  The watershed here creates one of the few alluvial fans on the eastern side of the Napa Valley and her location, farther and deeper …

Kenzo Tsujimoto, Chairman of publicly held Capcom Co., Ltd., is the owner of Kenzo Estate, a 15,000 case production winery in the eastern mountains of Napa Valley.  His luxury cabernet sauvignon wines are made with the best talent money can buy but his goal wasn’t to create an exclusive wine that few can buy.  Like the successful video game products his company sells worldwide, his wines are approachable and accessible.
Tsujimoto wasn’t one of the those wealthy businessmen seeking to create a monument to himself in the Napa Valley.  While he …

Women don’t make better wine, or more feminine wines, they just have a different approach.  As I wrote last year, consortiums of women winemakers like Wine Entre Femme were “borne out of the desire to reach out to other women and do what we do so well – help each other.”
In France, there is an organization called Femmes de Vin (Women of Wine) which consists of regional groups of over 90 women winemakers from Burgundy, Beaujolais, Rhone, Provence and Languedoc, among others.  They forged a unified front at the recent …

 Beyond the cult cabs and posh brands, sometimes one comes across a cabernet sauvignon wine that is a reflection of what the Napa Valley is about, not just in terms of terroir, but in terms of history, friendships and families.  Trivium is such a wine.
Trivium is a 100% cabernet sauvignon wine created by three partners and friends who have left their footprint on dozens of prestigious Napa Valley wines over their long careers, Stu Harrison as a marketer, Jack Stuart as winemaker and Doug Wight, as a 5thgeneration grower.  All three …

Jonathan Maltus, producer of cult St.-Emilion Grand Cru Le Dome, released his inaugural 2008 Napa Valley wines last week under the brand name “World’s End,” an homage to the American wine lover. The red wines range from exclusive single-vineyard cabernet sauvignon wines from Oakville to regional Napa Valley wines.
Making Napa Valley wines was a natural move for Maltus, who was born to be a man of the world. Although English by citizenship, he comes from a family of expatriates going back to the …

One doesn’t need to drive far up Spring Mountain from Main Street Saint Helena before they reach a hidden property with beautiful formal gardens, majestic redwoods and bluebirds flying above. With its palatial Victorian home, Miravalle, one can imagine that the vast 845-acre estate looks very much like it did in the 19th century. Its earliest vineyards date back to 1873, while the Beringer Brothers planted their first vines there in 1882.
In such a natural setting adjacent to protected Napa Land Trust …

More than a century before Napa Valley became an official American Viticultural Area in 1981, the St. Helena Star wrote:  “If any grape growing region in California deserves to be called a well-defined district, it is Howell Mountain.”
For those of us who are used to Napa Valley’s easy traverses up Highway 29 or Silverado Trail, it’s difficult to imagine that in the 1870’s, hearty European immigrants were establishing homesteads 1,800 feet and above in the mountains high above Saint Helena, ascending on dirt roads and facing harsh winters.  But pioneers like Jean …

Had the chance to see Stephane Derenoncourt Friday night at Sweetie’s in San Francisco’s North Beach district.  The place was so Derenoncourt.  It’s a neighborhood bar in a residential area just south of Bay Street, where the counter is already packed on a Friday evening and patrons look up immediately when someone walks in to see if its a chum.  I strolled past the pool table and through the doors that said “no entry” and inside was a spacious room and garden beyond, with stylish guests already mingling around a table of Derenoncourt’s 07 Napa …