Winery Story

Chappellet

Few estates are as inseparable from a place as Chappellet is from Pritchard Hill. Long before the ridge became shorthand for some of Napa Valley’s most powerful and age-worthy Cabernet Sauvignons, Donn and Molly Chappellet saw something in its steep volcanic slopes that others overlooked. What followed was not only the creation of a singular family estate, but a foundational chapter in the modern history of mountain-grown Napa Valley wine.

Signature

The story of Chappellet begins not in vineyards, but in imagination. Donn Chappellet was a collector of Bordeaux before he was a winegrower, acquiring first growths in the 1950s and early 1960s when they could still be purchased for eight or ten dollars a bottle. Wine was initially a passion rather than a profession. His...