Castle Rock, Near Calistoga, View Of Napa Valley Palisades – 1910
Those spectacular, rugged volcanic rock cliffs jutting from the steep slopes overlooking the Silverado Trail just south of the Yountville Crossroad have been known as Stags Leap Palisades since the 1870s, and play a critical role in the local terroir. The bare rock facades absorb and reflect sunlight, enabling the vineyards below to warm up more quickly during the day than other parts of the valley. These same formations funnel cool marine air from the San Francisco Bay into the area at night, creating the extreme temperature swings that define the region’s wines, while their distinct volcanic soils result from erosion deposits from the cliffs onto the valley floor. Interestingly, wine growing never dominated the Stags Leap area in the early years, and following Prohibition, there were still more acres of prunes than of grape vines. Its conversion into a premium wine district began in the 1960s.
T. L. Grigsby, Occidental Winery, Est. 1878, Stag’s Leap District
In 1980, Irene Haynes, beloved chronicler of Napa Valley’s ghost wineries, described the three-story Occidental Wine Cellar as “one of the handsomest ghost wineries in the county.” Pioneer Terril Grigsby (1818-1892) brought his family to Napa Valley from Missouri by ox-team in 1850 and purchased a large tract of land in the eastern foothills suitable for cattle and winegrowing. When his cattle business was well established, Grigsby planted his vineyard of a reported 300 acres in 1872, and built his beautiful 60’x110′ wine cellar with a 250,000-gallon capacity and a distillery for brandy in 1878 using locally quarried volcanic rock of a tannish-yellow tone. Haynes continued, “The winery’s hand-cut stone facade, arched windows, and two-foot-thick walls are of lava stone, soft enough when first quarried to be cut with an axe or saw” — the first winery in the Stag’s Leap district. Following Grigsby’s death in 1892, winemaking continued until about 1900. The vines subsequently died, and the estate became a cattle ranch, while the winery, in its new role as a cattle barn, was remarkably preserved. Since the 1930s, five generations of the Gaetano Regusci family have owned and worked the historic property, and the landmark winery stands proud, with a major restoration in 1996, and vineyards all around.
Stag’s Leap Manor, Main Building & Grounds, Napa Co. 1934
The Birth of Stag’s Leap. In 1885, the Grigsby family consolidated a 700-acre parcel containing the site of present-day Stag’s Leap Manor wine estate and transferred the land to William Thompson, a wealthy Napa businessman who, the following year, deeded the north 465 acres to his nephew, Horace Blanchard Chase (1859-1945). In a “Very Fashionable Wedding” in July 1888, Horace Chase married Minnie Mizner, daughter of Senator Lansing Mizner, a two-term California State Senator in the 1860s. Their magnificent summer home of 6,000 sq ft. was finished in 1892, an imposing two-story English Renaissance manor house of gray cut stone, embellished with battlements and a stone turret. The massive front door, crafted of thick redwood planks, was finished with a black wrought-iron ram’s head knocker. The interior decor was Spanish Colonial, with carved Victorian accents, waxed redwood paneling throughout, and two massive fireplaces to welcome all who entered. A mecca for San Francisco society, the Chase family was royal hosts at Stag’s Leap for nearly twenty-five years.
Stag’s Leap. Vineyard View From The Manor, Napa Co. 1934
Horace and Minnie Chase named their beautiful estate Stag’s Leap — whether fancifully for a legendary noble stag seen leaping high across a narrow canyon to foil the hunt, or fashionably for the great numbers of deer seen in the surrounding hills and canyons that often visited their pastures for water at the trough. The regal name now defines two separate wineries, a wine appellation, and the rock cliffs that watch over it all. This postcard showing the vast Stag’s Leap vineyard in the background, behind the exotic palms, is one of only two vineyard views in a group of nine photo postcards of Stag’s Leap, c1934. Horace added 80 Wine grapes have been grown continuously on the property since Terril Grigsby planted his vines in 1872, and it is noted that from the early days, “below the terrace of the Manor, were 400 acres of vineyard almost entirely surrounded by hills with jagged rocky peaks,” and later described, in its “autumnal colors, the vineyard was a gladdening sight with its acres of short thick stumps, overflowed by graceful vines whose large leaves half hid the purple clusters that caught the sunlight through the green and painted foliage.” [1893]
Stag’s Leap Winery, Built 1893, Napa Co. c1934
A back road led to the winery that Horace Chase constructed, ready for the 1893 harvest. Beginning east of the Manor, the dirt road “ran along the base of the steep rock hills sparsely covered with oaks and pines on the east and north, and on the west along a low ridge covered with trees and brush.” Chase designed his winery in the style of the old Missions and used local quarried stone for its construction, carefully positioning the facility on a rise above the large vintage vineyard in front. Dug into the side of the mountain, his 100,00-gallon capacity, 80′ x 60′ winery was outfitted with all the modern winemaking equipment. He added a dramatic 40-foot tower and a large bell tower. A tall arched doorway and several window openings in the thick walls completed his beautiful winery. At the same time, Chase oversaw the excavation of the first wine cave on the eastern side of the Napa Valley, a 150-foot tunnel into the Stag’s Leap palisades able to store 40,000 gallons of his finest wines (and still in use today). From his new eighty-acre vineyard, the winery’s first crush in 1893 was 271 tons of wine grapes. By 1900, the wine estate was readily recognized as a famous vineyard by San Francisco papers. This photo postcard, made during Prohibition, shows not only winery inactivity but also the result of a winery fire that left only the roofless stone walls, circa 1914, just before or shortly after Stag’s Leap changed owners.
Picturesque Drive To Stag’s Leap Manor. Vineyard In Background – c1934
In 1913, financial difficulties had fallen on Horace and Minnie Chase. Soon after, their Stag’s Leap Manor & Winery estate, now designated the finest showplace in Napa Co., was purchased by Clarence and Frances Grange, a wealthy San Francisco banker and society couple who wanted a country home to entertain their friends in Stag’s Leap style. When Clarence died in a tragic horse accident nine years later, Frances turned the manor house into a small, deluxe country hotel, which quickly became a premier upscale destination for City elites and film stars. She was aided by Stanley Sackett, former Assistant Manager of the Palace Hotel, who acted as an unofficial majordomo of the Manor. The roofless wine cellar — which would not be restored for winemaking until 1978 — was decorated as a dance pavilion with a live orchestra providing music for Manor guests to ‘dance under the stars’ on Saturday nights, and quaintly referred to it as “the chapel” during the Dry years. It is noted that during Prohibition, the 80-acre vineyard was planted to shipper grapes, mostly Petite Sirah. Frances and her son Fred maintained the vineyards, selling their harvests to neighboring wineries, until her death in 1952 at age seventy, having successfully managed the five-hundred-acre property for some thirty years.
On The Luxurious Grounds Of Stag’s Leap Manor – c1934
In 1953, Stags Leap Manor was closed, and the estate began to sink into genteel ruin until 1970, when Napa vintner Carl Doumani and his wife purchased the estate and began a complete revival. Mrs. Doumani was instrumental in restoring the Manor, its gardens, and the fruit orchards, bringing all of the natural beauty of Stag’s Leap back into focus. The vines were replanted, eventually covering 125 acres, mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petite Sirah. Doumani even kept a few acres of the old Petite Sirah vines and established the varietal as their flagship wine. His first wines in 1972 were produced elsewhere, but in 1978 the old winery was rebuilt, and winemaking returned to one of Napa Valley’s grand historic wine estates. After almost twenty years, Stag’s Leap was sold in 1997 to Beringer Estates, now part of Treasury Wine Estates premium wine portfolio.
References
Haynes, Irene. Ghost Wineries of Napa Valley. 1980. (This invaluable little reference book, extensively researched by resident grape grower and historian Haynes, provides historical details and photographs of more than 65 wineries.)
Peninou, Ernest. History of the Napa Viticultural District. 2004. Online at Wayward Tendrils website. Sullivan, Chas. Companion to California Wine. 1998.
Whitehill, Theresa. Stags’ Leap Winery. A Guide to the Estate in Five Volumes. 2007. (Artist, printer, and poet Whitehill served as Poet-in-Residence at Stag’s Leap (1997) before she produced this five-part, magnificent edition of the estate and winery. The edition is limited to 100 spectacular copies.)
Willis, Joseph & Rose. Stags Leap. Biography of a Manor House. 1971. (Rose and Joseph, editor of the Napa Journal during the 1940s and early ‘50s, lived at Stag’s Leap for twenty-five years. This detailed account, now quite rare and dear, covers the early years of the Manor, illustrated with 20 full-page b/w photos, including the winery.)
Note:
Stags’ Leap Winery and Manor should not be confused with its neighbor, Warren Winiarski’s Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, founded in 1970, which gained international fame in the “Judgment of Paris” Wine Tasting in 1976. Also, please disregard any placement of the apostrophe in “Stags Leap” in this story. This persistent issue has created confusion for many years.
