Palmaz Vineyards

One of the most beautiful and interesting vineyards we've ever visited was Palmaz Vineyards.

Here's a little history off the Palmaz website:

The Palmazes bought a forgotten stone winery, a fine old house badly in need of renovation, and acres of land that had once produced fine Napa wines. The little valley had been the site of Cedar Knoll Vineyard and Winery, founded in 1881 by Henry Hagen, one of Napa Valley's pioneer winemakers.

Henry Hagen produced wines that garnered many awards, including a silver medal at the Paris Exposition of 1889. During that era, Cedar Knoll was one of Napa's premier wineries. The vineyards survived the Wine Country’s phylloxera infestation in the 1890s, but Prohibition was fatal. The winery fell into disrepair and the vineyards lay fallow for nearly eighty years.

Today, the vineyards are burgeoning, the restored Hagen house is a family home 
again, and the winery has been reinvented.


Brad was our tour guide through the underground cave of Palmaz.  Here's the description from the website of this one-of-a-kind winemaking facility:

Palmaz Vineyards' winemaking and aging takes place within the living rock of Mount George, in a flawlessly engineered maze of tunnels and lofty domes. The height of the wine cave is equivalent to an 18-storey building, providing the vertical range needed for true gravity-flow winemaking. Thus, the wine is never subjected to the violent agitation of pumping, which can change the wine’s intra-molecular structure. This gentle treatment allows the finest nuances of flavor to develop naturally—the result is a complex, elegant wine.

• The fermentation dome is the world’s largest underground reinforced structure. It is 72’ in diameter and 54’ high.
• Temperature stays constant at 60 degrees and humidity at 75%, the perfect atmosphere for aging wine.
• The cave houses its own water treatment plant built to comply with strict conservation guidelines.
• Fermentation tanks rotate on a custom-designed carousel.

Our tasting menu included:

2009 Napa Valley Chardonnay "Amalia"

2007 Palmaz Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon

2008 Palmaz Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon

2010 Muscat Canelli "Florencia"

2007 Cedar Knoll Cabernet Sauvignon

All of the wine was outstanding.  We were big Cedar Knoll fans before visiting Palmaz.  In fact, I had purchased 1/2 of a case before Christmas.  

It was hard to decide which was more wonderful - the 2007 or the 2008 Palmaz Cab.

Brad was a delightful and funny host.  The entire tasting experience was top notch.  We sampled smoke salmon canapés with wasabi infused caviar, smoked duck wrapped in cream cheese with fig preserves, a variety of cheeses and a chocolate Cabernet truffle.  The Muscat was paired with a shortbread cookie with 

mango and marcona almond cream cheese.

Don't miss Palmaz on your next trip to Napa.