Vineyards
The objective is always balance: healthy fruit at peak ripeness, with power and also with freshness. With balance comes the capacity for wine to age, fascinate and excite.
The objective is always balance: healthy fruit at peak ripeness, with power and also with freshness. With balance comes the capacity for wine to age, fascinate and excite.
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The Napa Valley is blessed with a dizzying array of soil strata, microclimates and exposures. We’ve sourced the fruit for our flagship Purlieu, and its sister label Le Pich, from a variety of top vineyard sites throughout the Napa Valley. We rely on our strong relationships with the best growers and our ability to walk the vines daily.
Winemaker, Julien Fayard, ensures that every cluster on every vine is treated as an individual and receives the precise amount of both nourishment and stress needed to produce perfectly balanced fruit.
A small vineyard in the Coombsville AVA, providing beautiful fruit for our Purlieu and Le Pich Cabernets. We also source grapes from the best vineyards elsewhere in Coombsville— including Meteor, Caldwell, and Blue Oak.
The Coombsville AVA — the newest (and arguably most exciting) AVA in the Napa Valley — benefits from a climate that is greatly influenced by the San Francisco Bay. On average, the days here are seven to ten degrees cooler than in St. Helena, just a few miles northeast. This means that the Coombsville growing season is much longer, so the grapes are allowed to ripen more slowly and evenly, translating to beautifully nuanced and expressive aromas in the finished wines.
There are two distinct soil types in Coombsville: The first contains colluvium deposits that are reddish brown; here, the Cabernet grape shows off its spicier, more structured side. The second soil type is composed of flaky volcanic ash; our Cabernet from these plots show a bright, elevated red fruit note along with distinct floral aromas and especially crushed violets.
We expect phenomenal things from the Coombsville AVA and look forward to wines that express Napa in its most dignified, beautiful, complex and ageworthy form.
In Greek, To Kalon means “most beautiful.” Within the Napa Valley’s Oakville AVA, this vineyard is widely considered a “Grand Cru” of California. We get our fruit from Andy Beckstoffer, a legendary grower in the Napa Valley who owns a large portion of this prestigious vineyard. Our single vineyard designate will be released along with our 2011 wines under the Purlieu label.
Each individual vine’s needs are uniquely tended to in To Kalon. The soil is mostly clay loam, which drains well and stresses the vines, thereby producing smaller and more concentrated grape clusters.
The resultant wines are phenomenally rich, dense and powerful with an incredibly layered, silky texture; they are alluring in their youth yet always reward patient cellaring.
Located in the heart of Rutherford, Napa Valley, George III Vineyard was acquired by the Beckstoffer family in 1988. They replanted the vineyard using new cabernet clones and advanced trellising which increased both the quality and yield.
Purlieu’s first release from George III is the 2015 vintage, which received a 96 from Robert Parker. The first of many exceptional vintages to come.
The Missouri Hopper Vineyard in Oakville has been owned by the Beckstoffer family since 1996. It’s namesake came much earlier in the 19th century when Charles Hopper gifted the property to his daughter, Missouri, who then planted a portion of the land under vine. It shines with rich heritage, history and produces exceptional, Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon and merlot.
We have sourced from this location since 2014 and continue to make a rich, multi-dimensional wine that brings to light the exclusiveness of Napa Valley cabernet.
The Sugarloaf Vineyard sits about 250-1050 feet above sea level on the rocky slopes of southeastern Napa, where San Pablo Bay’s maritime influence exerts a powerful cooling effect. This southwest-facing site was originally developed by Bill Hill in the late 1990s, when most people believed these hills were too cold to ripen Cabernet. The dense volcanic rock underpinning the vineyard acts as a solar panel, however, absorbing heat during the late afternoon and radiating it well past sunset. The combination of long, warm afternoons and cooler maritime air produces fruit with wonderful aromatics and freshness.
The Martinez Vineyard perches at the top of Pritchard Hill in the Vaca Mountains, 800-2,000 feet above sea level, looking out over Oakville from the east. The Sobrante-type soils here are rich with iron and red clay, and studded with boulders that make grape growing difficult. Thanks to the well-draining soils, the vines on this 16-acre vineyard produce small, concentrated berries with profound complexity. Owners Henry and Mayra Martinez have allowed only two winemakers access to their fruit: Julien Fayard and Philippe Melka.
The Platt Vineyard sits on a ridgeline above the Sonoma Coast fog line, about 800 feet above sea level and five miles from the Pacific Ocean. Originally planted in 2003, the 31 acres of vineyard here include Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling – all of which benefit from the bright acidity the site is known for. Sustainably managed by Eric Flanagan and his team, these Goldenridge loam soils from the ancient sea floor produce cool-climate fruit with tremendous focus and charisma.
