Oakville Vineyards, Tasting Room, Oakville. Est. 1971
The postcard invites all to come “taste the wine where the Flags are flying.” Oakville Vineyards Winery was next door to the 1877 stucco-fronted Brun & Chaix Winery on the Napa highway at Oakville, south of Rutherford — a premium wine enterprise launched in 1970 by a group of connoisseurs headed by Wilfred E. (Bud) van Loben Sels of Carmel, an affluent asphalt company executive. The grand entrepreneurial undertaking became one of the major California winery failures of the 1970s. Van Loben Sels huge 400-member partnership acquired the Andrea Bartolucci Madonna Winery, originally built in 1892. It was large, with a capacity of 600,000 gallons and three hundred acres of vineyard. In late 1972, Van Lobel Sels also acquired, from the estate of John Daniel in Rutherford, the 1600-acre Niebaum Ranch, including the 1890 mansion and 110-acre prime Cabernet vineyard. The grapes were contracted to Oakville Winery. Inexplicably, even though the wines were a critical success, the partnership collapsed in 1976. When the Bartoluccis reclaimed their winery, they sold it to Heublein (who owned Inglenook). Robert Mondavi acquired the wine inventory and brand, while Francis Ford Coppola bought the Niebaum home and vineyard.
Oakville Vineyards, Premium Wines On Display – c1970s
The first winemaker for Oakville Vineyards was Peter Karl Becker, who had his own winery in Germany before coming to this country to manage Almaden Cienega Vineyard winery near Hollister, where he stayed for eleven years. The new proprietors converted the still house into a pleasing tasting room, where winemaker Becker was usually on hand to greet visitors. At one point, Bud van Loben Sels mailed a Tasting Room postcard to wine retailers: “Dear Retailer, Yes! …We’re very much alive and kicking at Oakville! The enclosed retailer/restaurateur wine list shows our new availability, wines still in good supply, wines in short supply, and future releases. A subsequent communication will follow in three weeks, along with counter-top wine lists for your customers if you request them by filling in and returning the other enclosed postcard to us at the winery. Thank you!” It is delightful that he used his colorful winery postcards to transport such messages.
Bartolucci Mont St. John Winery, Carneros, Est. 1977
The Bartolucci family, today in its fifth generation of winemaking, is one of Napa Valley’s oldest. Yet, its story is often unknown. Italian-born patriarch Andrea Bartolucci (1884-1966) arrived in San Francisco in 1913, where he immediately found work at the bustling site of the upcoming 1915 Pan-Pacific International Exposition as a brick mason in the construction of the French Exhibition Building and the Palace of Fine Arts. He soon ventured north to the Napa Valley and by 1922 was able to purchase a 24-acre vineyard and a vintage 1892 winery in Oakville, “under the shadow of Mt. St. John.” He named his winery Madonna. The Bartolucci family winery would prosper in Oakville for almost fifty years. During Prohibition, the family made sacramental wines (most likely for Beaulieu Winery, which had received the permit to produce altar wines) and sold railcarloads of their grapes to San Francisco home winemakers. In 1946, Andrea’s son Louis took over the family business and developed the Mont St. John label, while his two brothers soon became partners. The next year the winery was recognized as the 12th largest in California. During the 1950s and ‘60s, they enlarged the winery and purchased additional vineyard acreage, establishing some of the first varietal vineyards in the Valley. By 1967, Buck Bartolucci, Louis’ son, was made assistant winemaker to his father. When they sold their Oakville Madonna Winery and vineyard to the Van Loeben Sels group, the Bartolucci family tradition re-established itself in the Carneros.
Mont St. John, Now Madonna Estate Winery, Carneros, Est. 1977
That same year, Buck Bartolucci, in his grandfather’s image and deeply dedicated to continuing the family winery, purchased 160 acres of land in the Carneros region — virgin rolling hills off Duhig Road — and named it Madonna Vineyards. Here they first planted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes, adding later Pinot Grigio, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Dolcetto, Barbera, Riesling, and Muscat Canelli, all to be their estate-bottled wines. In 1977, eager to return to winemaking, Louis purchased a 4.5-acre piece of land not far from the vineyard, where they constructed Mont St. John Cellars and opened their tasting room four years later. By 1990, the winery had been expanded twice to reach its current 15,500 square feet and 100,000-gallon capacity. In 1999-2000, the winery saw further renovations and the re-adoption of Madonna Estate Winery as the family winery name.
References
Adams, Leon. Wines of America. 1973; 1990.
Bartolucci Family (online). Excellent historical information, including a Chronology. Lapsley, James. Bottled Poetry. Napa Winemaking from Prohibition to the Modern Era. 1996.
Sullivan, Charles. Companion to California Wine. 1998.
