Author: palomavineyard

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Harvest of 2019 was subject to another set of fires. This time strictly North/North West of Napa in the Mendocino and Shasta regions. Fire, smoke, and power outages made it a challenging year. However, the smoke was mild, relatively speaking, and we suffered no permanent damage. As always,

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Even though we had lots of smoke from the Shasta and Mendocino fires, the temperatures were moderate, so the berries were plump and beautiful, which made for a bumper crop for the whole valley. It was one of the five biggest crops we've ever had! Since Barbara's passing in

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In the winter of 2016/2017, we removed about 550 aging Merlot vines and replaced them with Cabernet Franc vines, a favorite varietal of Sheldon's. The 2017 growing season was fantastic, but due to years of drought, the fall brought waves of fires. From Northern California to North Bay

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  This year was a tough one. In May, at the age of 83, Barbara passed away due to complications from a stroke. It left a hole in the family that will take time to fill. She was the green thumb always reminding us that great wine starts with

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2013 was another great growing season, but 2014 and 2015 would not fare as well. After our fifth consecutive year of drought, in 2014, the effects began to show. The stress caused the grapes to raisin before they were ripe enough to harvest. We did so anyway, being

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The founders of Paloma Vineyard, Barbara and Jim Richards, dreamt of building a vineyard focused on sustainable farming that would highlight the grapes and terroir of their favorite region. This dream was realized in 1983 when a friend, Dan Duckhorn, called and told them about the property now

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We finally got back to normal growing weather in 2012. Many have proclaimed it the vintage of the deca­de, even though we are only three years into the decade. In October, we got some fantastic news about our 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon. It received an honorary mention from James Laube

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2010 was the first of two challenging years for farming and winemaking. It was unusually cool, which made getting the fruit as ripe as we like particularly difficult. The 2011 vintage was even more challenging; after a second cool season, starting in September, it rained throughout harvest. Because of

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For the third time in 6 years, the Paloma Merlot made the Wine Spectator's Top 100. Out of over 18,000 wines tasted in 2008, the 2006 vintage placed 65th. Aside from the usual farming and winemaking challenges that we face every year, Jim was diagnosed with cancer in late

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Sheldon finished building his home in late September, just in time to help with harvest. Finally, after two difficult years, we had a good crop; in fact, it was the best crop in term so of yield that we have ever had.