Vineyards

Conn Valley is located within Napa Valley three miles east of St. Helena. The vineyard consists of 26 acres in nine vineyard blocks planted on gently sloping terrain at the base of Howell Mountain. The Bordeaux varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc are planted on a selection of five different rootstocks. The soils are deep gravelly clay loam of the Bale Loam series - the same soils found in the Rutherford Bench.

The Vineyard The vines are densely planted with as many as 2,640 vines to the acre. The vines are trained on a trellis wire with either a unilateral or bilateral cordon. During the growing season the cane shoots are vertically positioned to give the best sun exposure to the fruit. The rows are planted north to south allowing the morning sun on the east side of the vines and the afternoon sun on the west. We remove leaves on the east side of the vines to allow sun exposure on the fruit in the morning, but remove little or none on the west side so the fruit is shaded from the hot afternoon sun.

Lake Hennessey is located just three miles south of the vineyard and each afternoon in the summer a breeze funnels up from the Lake at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It continues until 7 o'clock in the evening, cooling the vines, allowing the grapes to mature more slowly. We liken it to driving to the beach on a hot summer day in a car without air conditioning. When you arrive and stand on the beach with a breeze blowing off the water, you immediately feel cooled off and rested.

All great wines have a sense of place. The French call it terroir - the site, the soil and the climate. Our vineyards indeed give our wines a true sense of place!