About
How it all Started!
This adventure began in 1998 on untouched land high up on Diamond Mountain, where growing wine grapes was not part of the initial vision. In 2000, learning that Diamond Mountain was gaining AVA status, we realized that growing grapes within that AVA should yield something truly unique.
The first vineyard was planted in 2001 and by 2004 the fruit was so extraordinary that a winery, with that vintage, started an eight year run making award winning, vineyard designated, “SummitVine Ranch” Cabernet Sauvignons.
The contract changed hands and it seemed the continuation of a “SummitVine Ranch” designated wine was in jeopardy. Over an early summer dinner in 2013, in the company of good friends and winemaker Brett Adams, we shared that disappointment. Talk was inspiring and, in the end, became the launch to making a limited production, single-vineyard wine from select blocks of the ranch.
After careful deliberation, we decided to label the wine “SummitVine”, a name that would continue on after we could no longer stay and work the steep hillside estate and would stand as a constant tribute to the land that started it all.
These are the roots to our, and now your, SummitVine experience.
WHO WE ARE
Winemaker Brett Adams
& Vintner Michael Klopka
agree that great wine starts in the vineyard and producing extraordinary wines requires sourcing exceptional grapes. Focused farming methods that can maximize each vintage’s potential are a critical part of that process, so we like to monitor operations in vineyards we source from. We believe close collaboration with growers is in their best interest and results in our ability to produce exceptional wines.
Michael has been deeply involved in day-to-day farming operations for 15 years, and has provided a great foundation to appling the best practices for growing the finest fruit possible.
Our focus will remain the same for every wine we craft: selecting the best fruit from select vineyards and drawing out the unique characteristics of those grapes. Each of our single-vineyard designated wines is very limited in production and a rare opportunity to experience what we call “SummitVine”.
Our Vineyards
SummitVine Ranch is the kind of project you would dream of, providing not only a wine country lifestyle but also the opportunity to be involved in the wine growing industry. Since the inception as a vineyard estate in 2001, SummitVine Ranch has grown into a successful farming operation with two distinctive hillside vineyards: Cori’s Vineyard and Sophie’s Vineyard, both named after two very special dogs that have their paw prints deep in the soil of SVR.
Located within the Diamond Mountain District in northwestern Napa Valley in the Mayacamas Mountains, the ranch is situated approx. 1450 feet above the valley floor. The steep slopes of SummitVine Ranch allowed only 6 acres planted to vines in this highly revered AVA. With porous volcanic soils and high-elevation climate, these vines produce distinctive earthy flavors, wrapped around rich, opulent and beautifully integrated tannins.
The two SummitVine Ranch designated wines we offer represent the unique climate, soils, exposure and elevation of the Ranch and are the foundation to our philosophy of making single-vineyard designated wines.
SummitVine Ranch fruit has been the source for highly acclaimed and award winning wines since the first harvest in 2004 and continues today under our SummitVine label.