Winter 2022 at Vine Cliff Estate an update It’s February at Vine Cliff Estate and we are all making our way back to the cellar after a short break for the holidays. The 2021 wines have finished fermenting in barrel and are all receiving their first rackings, which is also our first glance at the quality of the vintage. We’re very encouraged by how fresh and lively the wines are in their youth, and look forward to sharing them with you when they go to bottle in 2023.  In the vineyard, the vines are still dormant and the vineyard crew has spent the last weeks pruning all of last year’s ca ..read more

VINE CLIFF TEAM TRAINS ON ESTATE'S OWN FIRE ENGINE FOR FIRE PREVENTION Fire season means everyone is on alert and no more so than the team at Vine Cliff. With its own fire engine, the team has been trained to work with fire professionals in fire prevention. Training took place recently at the Estate with their own Big Red ..read more

2020 VINE CLIFF RIESLING ON WAY TO CLUB MEMBERS The 2020 harvest at Vine Cliff welcomed its first Riesling in over 100 years to the Vine Cliff wine portfolio. This wine remained in stainless steel its entire life outside the bottle. It was harvested prior to the 2020 fire season, cold fermented, and then held at cooler than normal temperatures until its bottling in January 2021.  The tasting notes describe it as 'bright, fresh Granny Smith green apples and lime zest, followed by white jasmine flowers on the nose. A lively palate consisting of lime, white peaches and apricots, with a hea ..read more

JOIN VINECLIFF ON SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23 ON THE HILLTOP We will be pouring our new release 2017 Private Stock '16 Rows' Cabernet Sauvignon and our 2019 Proprietress Reserve Chardonnay as well as a few of our library wines and invite members of the Vine Cliff Wine Club as well as all Vine Cliff afficionados to join us at our Silverado Trail Estate in Oakville for this special event. The wines will be complemented by small bites prepared by our own Estate Chef Tom Stafford. Come enjoy the views from our hilltop estate grounds, play a round of bocce ball or a game of horseshoes and sip on Vine C ..read more

WINEMAKER'S UPDATE - HARVEST 2021 We are approaching the final week of September, and the winery is beginning to hum as we slowly lean into another harvest here at Vine Cliff. We officially kicked off on September 1st with our first two Chardonnay picks from some lovely new vineyards in the Carneros AVA. The Zinfandel from our “Animal Crossing” vineyard was picked on September 9th and tells us that the rest of the ranch is soon to follow.  We are hopeful for a safe, smooth harvest this year without the unusual obstacles that 2020 seemed to repeatedly throw our way. Since we’re coming of ..read more

Winemaker Update - 2021 Bud Break Bud Break 2021 is in progress at Vine Cliff The arrival of bud break is a much-anticipated event here in the Napa Valley and at the Vine Cliff estate. It signifies the shift in seasons from winter to spring as the vines slowly wake up from their hibernation. We begin mapping out our irrigation and fertilization regimens to put the vines in their “happy place” as they begin the grand growth phase of producing chutes and leaves. There’s a sense of optimism that we all share on the heels of a very challenging 2020. We were lucky enough to avoid any smoke damage ..read more

What is a ghost winery in Napa Valley? VINE CLIFF'S ROLE IN NAPA VALLEY HISTORY. There are numerous wineries in the Napa Valley that have been designated 'ghost wineries' not because there have been sightings of anything out of the ordinary, but because these wineries were built between 1860 and 1900, when the first wine boom occurred. Vine Cliff Winery was one of these turn of the 20th Century 'ghost' wineries which had built a name for itself and its wines early in its history. In an article a few years ago, Kristie Sheppard, former executive director of the Napa Valley Historical Socie ..read more

Natural Farming and Sustainability Programs at Vine Cliff A respect for terroir Since 1990, all of Vine Cliff's vineyards have been managed according to the principles and practices of sustainable viticulture, with an emphasis on natural farming. This has meant that no commercial pesticides, herbicides or artificial fertilizers have been used, when possible, on the vines for more than two decades and longer. Additionally 10 tons of of organic materials are returned to the soil as compost annually. The vineyards have native species of grasses planted as ground cover between the rows of vines ..read more

What are wine diamonds? You chilled your special bottle of Rosé and now there are crystals in your glass. What’s up? In the wine industry those crystals are affectionately known as wine diamonds. What are they? The colorless, tasteless crystals are potassium bitartrate, which is the scary name for the Cream of Tartar (almost all of which is harvested from wineries) that you keep in your pantry. The reason that the industry calls these crystals in the glass wine diamonds is that it is a positive sign of a minimally processed wine that was made from fully ripened grapes. In the old-world cons ..read more

Goose Stuffing and Confit While turkey is the favorite bird for the Holiday table, there was a time when goose was the preferred Christmas meat especially in Europe. Chef Tom Stafford has decided to serve goose at his Christmas dinner this year and he shares this recipe for goose stuffing and confit with us. For The Goose Stuffing 0.4 oz celery seed 7 oz onions diced (1/8th inch) 7 oz fennel bulbs diced (1/8th inch) 3.5 oz celery diced (1/8th inch) 2 oz leeks dice (1/8th inch) 0.4 oz garlic minced 7 oz rendered goose fat 14 oz whole wheat bread, crust removed, cut into 1/2 inch dice 4 eggs 1 ..read more