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PORTER FAMILY VINEYARDS CAVE

Porter Family Vineyards Former IBM executive, Tom Porter, and his wife, Beverly, purchased a picturesque hillside Coombsville property with the intent to produce world-class wines. The views are spectacular – in the absence of fog one can see all the way to Mt. St.Helena. Fourteen acres are planted to Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Grenache, Malbec, Merlot, Syrah and Petit Verdot. The seventeen-thousandThe Sandpiper name comes from the five-million-year-old fossil of sandpiper footprints foot, state-of-the-art, underground cave facility houses hundreds of barrels in its found while digging the impressive underground cave. four large tunnels. The yields are capped at two to three tons per acre and wines are made in small lots. These include three Cabernet Sauvignons, Napa and Atlas Peak designates, and a special bottling called Time. They also make a Cabernet/Syrah blend, “Cave Dwellers,” a Chardonnay, the Cabernet/Merlot Sandpiper blend, Sandpiper Rosé, along with a Syrah.

Black Cat Vineyard Originally from the Midwest, Tracey Reichow began visiting Napa Valley in the early ’80s. Eventually, she and her husband, Rick, purchased a small piece of property in Coombsville. It wasn’t long before she enrolled in UC Davis winemaking classes as well as viticulture classes with Dr. Krebs at Napa Valley College). Most of her viticultural knowledge came from hands-on experience, as the lion’s share of her time was spent tending to her land. They planted a four-acre vineyard, and named the winery Black Cat (after a cat they adopted who became Tracey’s constant vineyard companion). In 1996 and 1999, she made the first of her wines. Although she hadn’t missed a vintage since, it was only in 2004 that she felt her wine’s quality was commercially sound. Tracey is an intuitive winemaker who is deeply connected to her land and the ensuing gifts that it delivers. She is a philosopher, a steward and a permanent student of her vines. To add to her portfolio of small lots of carefully crafted wines, she sources fruit from Rutherford AVA and Howell Mountain AVA as well. Tracey is as hands-on as it gets. She uses gentle techniques, fermenting a ton of fruit at a time in open-top fermenters and doing hand punch-downs. The characteristics of the wines include grace, poise, supple mouthfeel and well-integrated tannins. TRACEY REICHOW | BLACK CAT VINEYARD

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