Porter Family Vineyards

Porter Family Vineyards is located in the hills on the edge of the Coombsville region east of the town of Napa. As a result the vineyards here are all hillside planted with great views looking north into the Napa Valley. This winery is owned and operated by Tom Porter, his wife Beverly and additional family members. The region is cooler here as it is in the southern part of the Napa area with marine influences coming from the relatively nearby San Pablo Bay. As a result hang time is often very long with harvest occurring in mid October to early November. This helps ensure a slow maturation providing well balanced ripe fruit with lots of flavor intensity. Their location is ideal, great terroir (volcanic), great views and the vineyards back right up against the Napa Valley preserve which ensures the surrounding land will never be developed and will remain in its natural state.A number of varietals are planted on site including Syrah, Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Cabernet Sauvignon, as well as Cabernet Franc and Malbec. Aside from the crush pad, the winery is entirely underground in their 17,000 square feet of caves. At the time of our visit, the caves were completed with additional inside work still in development. Also of note is during the tunneling of the caves a large piece of sandstone fell from the ceiling of one of the tunnels. It contained a bunch of fossilized footprints indicating this location was actually a shoreline millions of years ago.