Trinchero Napa Valley

Trinchero Napa Valley sits where Napa Valley literally ends and Sonoma County begins: a 230-acre ranch in the Mayacamas high country above Calistoga with the county line running through the middle of the property. The Napa side lies in the Calistoga AVA and the Sonoma side in Knights Valley, with vineyards climbing from about 850 to 1,300 feet. From the top, Mount St. Helena fills the eastern view and the coastal ranges of Sonoma roll away to the west; the nearest Napa neighbors are Theorem Vineyards and The Vineyardist.

Vines were first planted on the lower ranch in 1974, when the property was known as Bella Vista. Phil and Beth Rielly bought it from the Hayes family in 2016, renamed it Rielly Ranch, and began replanting in 2017, the same year the Tubbs Fire burned across half the property. Today roughly 40 acres are planted, primarily Cabernet Sauvignon with small blocks of Cabernet Franc, Malbec, and Sauvignon Blanc, across four soil types cooled by afternoon breezes funneling through the Chalk Hill Gap.

The people are as rooted as the vines. Winemaker Haley Wight is a sixth-generation Napan who has been making wine since 2006, with family farming history running through St. Helena's Lewelling Ranch. Her husband Erik Wight manages the vineyards, and Luis Robledo, who helped plant the ranch's first vines back in 1972, has stewarded this land for more than five decades.

Production is deliberately tiny and the presentation matches: each bottle of the estate Cabernet is hand waxed, wrapped in tissue, and packed in a custom wooden six-pack. There is no public tasting room; visits to the ranch are private and arranged through a tasting request on the winery's site, making this one of Calistoga's true hidden-gem appointments.

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