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Owned and operated by our small family, Bart and Cynthia
Barthelemy and Jason and Angelique Ball, we are producing
our varietal ports at shared facilities in the eastern
hills of Napa Valley. Our small operation consists
of 1000 cases of port and four family members that
make it all happen!
After living among the many vineyards
in Napa Valley for 22 years, reaping the rewards of
living in such a beautiful place with a good bottle
of wine on the table each night, we took a leap into
the wine business in the fall of 2000. Although the
hundreds of Cabernets and Chardonnays produced in
Napa are excellent, we wanted to make something different
from the rest. Loving port and the style that results
when using grapes that Napa is famous for, we all
became excited with the thought (and challenge) of
creating a number of different ports from different
grape varieties.
While we cultivate our own vineyards dedicated to
growing grapes for our ports, we have forged relationships
with vineyard owners and growers in order to harvest
the best quality grapes at the ripeness levels we
seek. The hand-harvested grapes arrive at the winery
picked much later than grapes used for a still wine.
The longer “hang time” of up to one additional
month on the vine allows the grapes to develop higher
levels of ripeness and more intense flavors. At the
winery, the juice is tasted daily during fermentation
in order to determine the optimum time to fortify
with brandy. Combined with testing the wine’s
natural sugar content, we use taste as the main factor
when deciding to stop the fermentation process. We
then add aged brandy from RMS Caneros Alambic Distillery
to raise the alcohol level and halt the natural fermentation
of the wine. The wine, now a port, is then put into
oak barrels to age for 18 months.
To insure the purest product possible,
we filter all the water used for cleaning at the winery
with two Sun Water Systems EQ-300 "Rhino"
water filters.
At St. Barthélemy Cellars, we strive to make
ports that showcase the wonderful fruit flavors of
the many grape varieties grown in California. Our
goal is to produce varietal ports with lower residual
sugar levels (4% to 8%) so that the grape’s
natural and unique varietal characteristics are not
masked by an overly sweet quality. We have succeeded
in creating seven high quality ports; Barbera, Cabernet
Sauvignon, Merlot, Petite Sirah, Pinot Noir, Syrah,
and Zinfandel, each with their own distinct character,
flavors, and varietal traits.
Our limited production enables us to
handcraft a style of port that is unique and allows
us to accomplish our winemaking goal: delicious ports!
All of our ports can be enjoyed with a variety of
food pairings or simply appreciated on their own.
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