The name Rutherford comes from Thomas Rutherford, who married Elizabeth Yount, one of George Yount’s three daughters in 1864 and planted grapes soon after. Home to Alpha Omega winery, Rutherford has a perfect blend of sunny, warm days and breezy, cool evenings along with well drained, benchland soils that’s produced many of Napa Valley’s most famous, sought after wines.
Named after Dutch Presbyterian pastor, Peter Veeder, reverend at the First Presbyterian Church in Napa during the Civil War, Mt. Veeder is known as “Napa Redwoods”, 85% of the Mount Veeder AVA is natural forest at the southern end of the Mayacamas. Rising 2,500 feet, many vineyards are located on steep hillsides, in dense forest with ideal proximity to San Pablo Bay.
The Coombsville AVA is named after Nathan Coombs, who came to the Napa Valley in 1845, purchased 80 acres of land and founded the city of Napa. East of the town of Napa in the southern flank of the Vaca Range, Coombsville is known for its rolling hills, gravelly, well drained loam soils planted primarily to high quality Cabernet Sauvignon.
Historically a stagecoach route that went eastward to the towns of Monticello and Sacramento, Atlas Peak is a huge open rocky amphitheater in the heart of the Vaca Mountains with vineyards located from 750 to over 2,500 feet planted in rocky, volcanic soils. The higher altitudes and nearby San Pablo Bay provide cooler nighttime temperatures that offset the warm, sunny days here.
A celebrated, pioneering viticulturist, Joseph Osborne planted some of Napa Valley’s first vinifera varieties on his Oak Knoll Ranch in the 1850’s, just north of the town of Napa. One of the wider valley floor appellations in the Napa Valley, Oak Knoll’s alluvial fans and proximity to San Pablo Bay provide cooling influences and ideal growing conditions for all five Bordeaux varieties.
