School House Vineyard

School House Vineyard
3549 Langtry Rd
St. Helena, California
USA 94574
Phone: (707) 963-4240
http://www.schoolhousevineyard.com/

Contact: John Gantner

Production: < 1,000

The vineyard takes its name from the 1890s one-room school house which graced the property until it was consumed by fire in the mid 1980s. The School House has lent its name to this fascinating and unique vineyard property which has quietly produced very small quantities of some of the most sought after Napa Valley wines since the mid-1950s. Steeped in Napa Valley history, School House is the ultimate cult wine producer.
The original vines of which a few still produce red wine were planted in 1890s. This block was the classic mixed-black field blend, a very common vineyard planting technique of the times. Interplanted were Zinfandel, Carignane, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouchet and Grand Noir, and several other varieties which were picked together and vinified into deep dark red table wine. Today, a few of the 120-year-old vines commingle with younger vines as the field blend has been re-propagated to produce School House Mescolanza Mescolanza being a Spanish term for medley or harmony.

In the 1940s, Andre Tchelistcheff made one of his most significant contributions to the California wine industry when he encouraged local growers to propagate the Cabernet Sauvignon variety. He instructed John Daniel, owner of the famous Inglenook Estate, to replace his Pinot Noir vineyard in Rutherford with Cabernet which he felt was better suited to that growing region. Having brought the Pinot Noir bud wood from Burgundy’s Domaine de Romanee Conti, Daniel gave his close friend, John O. Gantner Pinot Noir bud wood which was used to propagate Gantner’s Pinot Noir Vineyard and planted in 1953. Thus, in 1957, the noble Pinot Noir variety from its most regal heritage began a its history of small production of very high quality wines, the School House Pinot Noir.

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