The Napa Valley is rightfully known for its cabernet sauvignon. Nature has endowed us with the perfect conditions to grow outstanding cabs, and our region has the knowledge and experience to craft these grapes into exquisite wines. However, to paraphrase the old saying, a wine drinker can’t live on cabs alone. Especially as the weather warms up, many of us look for lighter, brighter offerings.  While nothing can quite compare with a glass or two of Red Door with a grilled ribeye, a freshly caught rainbow trout calls for something different, and Hill Family Estate can provide that somethin ..read more

A significant part of the enjoyment of wine is the engagement of all of the senses. Smell and taste are obvious, but we also enjoy the color and clarity of the wine, the sound of the wine burbling into the glass, the feeling of the tannins as they gently caress our tongue and mouth. While each of the senses uses different receptors for input, our brains “fill in the gaps” so to speak. The entanglement of sensory data in our minds is a significant part of the total experience. So what happens when we remove one of those senses from the equation? Do our taste buds fumble about in the dark, searc ..read more

Hill Family Estate is proud to announce the release of our second vintage of Cuvée Charlotte. Hill Family Estate is proud to announce the release of our second vintage of Cuvée Charlotte. Like the inaugural vintage, this bottling captures the essence of spring in the Napa Valley, with its delicate floral nose, balanced by a crispness on the palate. In addition to the grape varieties used in last year’s vintage, we have added two more: muscat canelli and muscat blanc.  Visitors to our Yountville tasting room have wondered what the difference is between these two grapes. According to&nbs ..read more

NWSL_Spring2024c The post Spring 2024 appeared first on Hill Family Estate ..read more

Wine. Women. And Song. This famous hendiatris (humor me. I rarely get to use obscure rhetorical terms for figures of speech, and I literally live for this sort of thing) for a hedonistic lifestyle might seem quaint to the “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” generation, but there is something eternal about it. We will focus on the first and second thirds of the figure, however. The fact is, there are a ton of references to wine in song (even from some of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll set). More than we could list in a short blog post. So we will restrict ourselves to 10. A good, round, metric n ..read more

Thanksgiving is a notoriously difficult holiday for the oenophile. Turkey is one thing, but throw in tart cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes (sometimes cooked with marshmallows, if you must), and who knows what other sacrosanct family traditions must be upheld? Sweet! Tart! Delicate poultry! What is a serious wine drinker to do?  Let’s start with the turkey. Turkey is an interesting bird. Due to modern breeding practices, it is nearly impossible to cook a conventional turkey so that the white and dark meat are simultaneously perfect. Brining helps. Brining and deep frying helps even more (bu ..read more

NWSL_Winter2023 The post Winter 2023 appeared first on Hill Family Estate ..read more

NWSL_Fall2023 The post Fall 2023 appeared first on Hill Family Estate ..read more

NWSL_Summer2023 The post Summer 2023 appeared first on Hill Family Estate ..read more

NWSL_Spring2023 The post Spring 2023 appeared first on Hill Family Estate ..read more