Pahlmeyer Proprietary
"Anything worth doing is worth doing to excess."
Jason Pahlmeyer
Pahlmeyer Proprietary
Buy wines from Pahlmeyer Proprietary
Since the winery was founded, Pahlmeyer wines have followed the principles of Bordeaux Premier Cru: location, care and quality, paired with the characteristic richness, power and depth of the fruit from the Napa Valley mountains.
in 1981, newly qualified lawyer Jayson Pahlmeyer and his best friend John Caldwell set about realising their dream of a „California Mouton“. Pahlmeyer had become addicted to Bordeaux Cru early on and had smuggled Cabernet and Merlot from some of the best vineyards in the region to the USA.
His friend John, who ran the Caldwell winery, made a small, unused section of the Caldwell vineyard available to him in 1981. Word quickly spread about the excellent quality of the grapes, so that in 1986 none other than the famous Randy Dunn wanted to press the first Pahlmeyer wine. As payment, he wanted some of the grapes that had grown in the Caldwell Vineyard.
The first vintage of „Pahlmeyer Propriety Red“ immediately received 94 points from Robert Parker himself and the winery became famous. Big names in Californian viticulture such as Helen Turley and John Wetlaufer came calling and eventually persuaded Jason to acquire his own vineyards. That was at the end of the 1990s, and Pahlmeyer found the perfect location on Atlas Peak. The rocky soil with good drainage was ideal for producing intense, expressive Bordeaux wines.
Jayson commissioned California's most famous vineyard manager, David Abreu, to develop the site and Helen Turley and Erin Green, Helen's protégé and the Pahlmeyers' long-time winemaker, to select the clones. These included, of course, descendants of the vines he had once smuggled out of Bordeaux.
Today, the award-winning winemaker Katie Vogt presses the wines from the Antica, Stagecoach, Upper Range, Vangone and Waters Ranch vineyards. Pahlmeyer is no longer just known for its „Proprietary Red“, but also for one of the best Merlots and one of the best Chardonnays in the Valley.
© Images: Pahlmeyer Proprietary
