Far Niente Vineyards is definitely a recognizable name in Napa Valley wine.  Her’es some history, the winery and location were created in the 1880’s during the first wave of immigration and construction of the wine trade in the valley, only to be left alone to fallow during Prohibition.

Gil and Beth Nickel along with Dick Sterling brought the winery back, but that amazingly didn’t happen until the late 1970’s.  I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s pretty amazing that in Napa, even a handful of years after the famed tasting of Paris, there were still historic properties readily available.  It’s something we won’t experience again.

The winery offers one of the best looks at perhaps, how a new Napa Valley winery might set itself up for success.  First, production if about 50,000 cases per year.  There’s plenty of entry level offerings to get people accustomed to the label, but then again they have kept their single vineyard offerings as high end, exclusive affairs, available to only their own wine club members (they do label it as Nickel & Nickel)

Well worth your money in most vintages, we can’t ship them in our wine of the month clubs simply because they’re too well known and distributed at this point, but that’s absolutely no comment on the quality of these wines. They’re good and they’re wines that I enjoy personally.