Tasting Room  |  Our Vineyard  |  The Winemakers

TASTING ROOM

We welcome you to come try our latest releases. Daily, from 10am to 4pm we offer two featured flights of wines for a $15 tasting fee each - one from PlumpJack and one from our sister winery, CADE Estate. Reservations are required for a group of 8 or more people.

PLUMPJACK WINERY ORDER FORM
Please contact PlumpJack Winery for details on Large Format and Library Wines.

OUR VINEYARD

The PlumpJack Winery's Estate Vineyard, founded in 1881, is nestled in the nape of the Vaca Mountain range on the eastern side of the Napa Valley. The main winery building, which is still in use, was completed in 1883. Vineyards have covered the Oakville site since the late 1800s.

In the more recent past, the facility where PlumpJack now makes its wine was the original home of Villa Mt. Eden Winery. Begun in 1973 by proprietors James and Anne McWilliams, the vineyard and winery rapidly gained attention for producing dynamic, long-lived wines, with particular emphasis on the estate and reserve Cabernet Sauvignons. Continuing in that tradition by producing the finest Cabernet Sauvignon is PlumpJack Winery's ultimate goal.

The keystone of this property's consistently hallmark Cabernet Sauvignon is the vineyard itself. PlumpJack Winery's winemaker credits the Oakville estate vineyard an estimated 85% for creating the historically great Cabernets for which the property has become known.

The Oakville Appellation vineyard for PlumpJack's Estate and Reserve Cabernet Sauvignons is situated 6/10 of a mile from the Silverado Trail on the north side of the Oakville Cross Road. Although generally classified as being in the Bale clay loam soil series, the vineyard has a wide diversity of soils reflective of its special position at the base of the Vaca range, where it transitions to the more level floor of the Valley, making the location a unique marriage of a hillside vineyard and classic valley floor site. The soils are well drained, with some creek bottom gravel, and only moderately fertile for the greater part — perfect for wine grape growing. The site is rated a Region 2.5, which is comparable to the area immediately surrounding Bordeaux (but without as much rain!).

The PlumpJack estate vineyard receives about 30 inches of rain annually and during the growing season the vines receive approximately 210 days of sunlight. The vine rows are oriented north/south, with the newer plantings on 6x8 foot spacing and vertical trellising and the older on 6x12 spacing and trained in a quadrilateral cordon. All are spur-pruned. The majority of the 48-acre vineyard was replanted in 1992 and currently produces about 3.5 tons/acre.

THE WINEMAKERS

Winemaker, Anthony Biagi

Anthony Biagi has been actively involved in the business and art of winemaking for more than a decade. A native Californian, Anthony has had a passion for wine since the age of ten, when he and his family helped some close friends who owned a vineyard and winery in Lodi. Strongly influenced by the rich extracted Cabernets that are so prevalent in the Oakville region, Biagi has found a perfect home at the PlumpJack Winery.

While studying for his degree in Fermentation Science from the University of California at Davis, Anthony worked as an intern at both Dry Creek Vineyard and the Hess Collection. He started his first official job in the wine business as a sales associate at St. Helena Wine Center, where he assisted in tasting and selecting wines for the store, as well as studying the sales and marketing materials of other wineries. He held this job while acting as an intern making clonal wines for Gloria Ferrer at U.C. Davis.

Upon graduation from the program, Anthony took a position as an enologist with Duckhorn Vineyards. For three years he was in charge of the lab work at the winery, as well general cellar work. During this time he worked alongside his mentor, and Duckhorn's resident winemaker, Tom Rinaldi, honing his skills and learning as much as possible about the craft, which paid off three short years later when first he was named assistant winemaker and then Paraduxx winemaker. (Paraduxx is an uncommon blend of Zinfandel, California's resident grape, and the classic Bordeaux varietals of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon). In these positions he oversaw all facets of production as well as all of the offsite winemaking at four separate facilities, taking a leader's role and responsible for the development of style for Paraduxx.

After three years at Duckhorn, Anthony took the winemaker/general manager position at Neal Family Vineyards where, in addition to being responsible for all components of winemaking, he headed the sales and marketing aspects of the business. He held this position until joining the PlumpJack family in the winter of 2003. Anthony has a passion for travel and is a self-described "genuine foodie." Some of his favorite wines, in addition to PlumpJack and CADE of course, are French wines including Right Bank Bordeaux, Red Burgundy and Southern Rhone.

Consulting Winemaker, Nils Venge

A nationally renowned vintner for more than three decades, Nils Venge has crafted some of Napa Valley's most outstanding and memorable wines. As consulting winemaker for PlumpJack Winery since its inception in 1995, he has continued to add to his legacy by producing luxury Cabernets of exceptional quality and distinctive character.

Venge earned a degree in Viticulture from the University of California at Davis, with a minor in Enology, after a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy. He began his career in the wine industry as vineyard manager for the Charles Krug Winery, moving to Sterling Vineyards in the early 1970s. Soon thereafter, Venge made the leap into professional winemaking when he took a position as the first winemaker and general manager for Villa Mt. Eden in Oakville, California (now the site of PlumpJack Winery). An outstanding run of exquisite Cabernets from 1975-1979 not only put the winery on the map, but also established Venge as one of the industry's new stars.

Another milestone year occurred for Venge in 1982. Not only did he become a minority partner with Dennis Groth in the newly-formed Groth Vineyards & Winery, but also established his own winery, Saddleback Cellars. It was at Groth that his 1985 Reserve Cabernet earned a 100-point rating from Robert Parker Jr. — the only perfect score ever awarded to an American winery. In 1994, Venge split from Groth to pursue his own endeavors at Saddleback and to act as a consultant to other wineries in the area.

PlumpJack founder Gavin Newsom, long impressed with Venge's reputation for producing exquisite Cabs, hired him as Consulting Winemaker to PlumpJack Winery. Venge's mastery had immediate effect at PlumpJack, most notably with the winery's first releases — the 1995 Estate and Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon — which received exceptionally favorable reviews. Venge's artistry and expertise continue to have demonstrable influence, extending beyond the Cabernets to PlumpJack’s other varietals, including Chardonnay, Merlot and Syrah.