About Ovid Napa Valley
Ovid Napa Valley occupies a 50-acre estate at 255 Long Ranch Road on the ridge between Howell Mountain and Pritchard Hill, one of the most coveted and least accessible stretches of elevated Napa Valley terrain. Founded in 2000 by Mark Nelson and Dana Johnson, the winery has built a reputation as one of the valley's most intellectually serious and critically acclaimed small producers, with wines that command attention from collectors and critics alike.
The estate sits at elevations between 1,700 and 2,000 feet on volcanic and iron-rich soils that bear no resemblance to the alluvial valley floor. The flagship Ovid is a Bordeaux-variety blend, predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon with Cabernet Franc and Merlot, that expresses the minerality, tension, and longevity that only the highest Napa Valley sites seem to produce consistently. Production is intentionally small, and the wines are allocated primarily through the mailing list.
Tastings are by appointment only at $150, reflecting both the exclusivity and the quality of the experience. The winery's Latin name, Ovid, the Roman poet of transformation, signals the philosophical ambition behind the project: wines that change and reveal themselves over decades in the cellar. For serious Napa Cabernet collectors, Ovid represents one of the valley's essential allocations.
"Ovid is what happens when serious minds and serious money meet one of Napa's most exceptional pieces of elevated terrain, a wine built for collectors with patience."
The remote Howell Mountain-Pritchard Hill ridge location is part of the Ovid experience, a reminder that the valley's most profound wines often come from its most inaccessible corners. Library releases and vertical tastings are occasionally available for long-standing mailing list members.
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Ovid Napa ValleyOvid Napa Valley is the most intellectually conceived and poetically named luxury mountain Cabernet Sauvignon program in the Napa Valley.
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Mark Nelson andMark Nelson and Dana Johnson, who established the estate on a volcanic ridge between Howell Mountain and Pritchard Hill in 2000, named the program for the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso, whose Metamorphoses explored the theme of transformation: the transformation of grapes into wine, of volcanic mountain terrain into vinous expression, and of the Napa Valley's raw geological energy into something refined and enduring.
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The Long RanchThe Long Ranch Road property occupies volcanic ridge terrain at significant elevation between two of Napa Valley's most celebrated mountain wine sub-appellations, Howell Mountain to the east and Pritchard Hill to the west, producing estate Cabernet Sauvignon from basalt and volcanic ash soils that reflect the specific geological character of the ridge's position between these two celebrated mountain terroirs.
"Mark Nelson and Dana Johnson's 2000 Howell Mountain-Pritchard Hill ridge estate, named for the Roman poet of transforma"
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Featured Wines
Cabernet Sauvignon
Ovid Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
Howell Mountain · Ovid Estate
The Ovid flagship from the volcanic ridge between Howell Mountain and Pritchard Hill, estate Cabernet consistently, known for the volcanic mountain mineral concentration and structural depth that Mark Nelson and Dana Johnson's Ovidian transformation philosophy produces from the most intellectually conceived and poetically named luxury Napa Valley mountain estate program.
Cabernet Sauvignon Blend
Experiment
Howell Mountain · Ovid Estate
Ovid's most conceptually ambitious expression, Experiment blending Ovid's finest estate Cabernet Sauvignon lots with Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot in the most comprehensively assembled and Bordeaux-inspired format of the Ovidian transformation program, consistently, known for the volcanic mountain terrain's most complete and harmoniously integrated statement.
Red Blend
Hexameter
Howell Mountain · Ovid Estate
Ovid's most poetically named blend, Hexameter (the meter of Ovid's Metamorphoses) combining the estate's volcanic ridge red varieties in the most literary format of the Ovidian wine program, a wine whose name honors both the Roman poet's prosodic mastery and the specific geological transformation of Napa Valley volcanic terrain into luxury mountain Cabernet.
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Poetic Mountain Appointment
Private appointment at the most intellectually and poetically conceived luxury mountain Cabernet estate, Ovid Experiment and Hexameter from the volcanic ridge between Howell Mountain and Pritchard Hill, named for the Roman poet of transformation. The most literarily ambitious and critically perfect mountain appointment in the Napa Valley.
From $150
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