Wines

DANA Estates

Cole Rockwell
Rutherford, CA

Featured:
Wednesday, May 17th at the Congress Has Heart Reception and Collectors Dinner
Thursday, May 18th at the Embassy and Winemaker Dinner Series

Nestled at the base of the Mayacamas Mountains in the Napa Valley, Dana Estates is dedicated to making small lots of truly distinctive estate grown wines.  Dana Estates is the third winery to occupy this piece of vineyard land in the heart of the famed Rutherford Bench. First farmed and developed by German viticulturalist H. W. Helms in 1883, it was purchased in 1976 by John and Diane Livingston and served as the home for Livingston Moffett winery until proprietor Hi Sang Lee bought the property in 2005. The winery was re-designed by renowned architect Howard Backen, keeping the original stone walls as its centerpiece.  Hi Sang and Howard worked carefully with founding winemakers Philippe Melka to ensure that the space and facilities would enable the production of consistently world class wines. Winemaker Chris Cooney has further refined our winemaking and farming to carry on this tradition of excellence.

Dana Estates produces three single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, a single vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, Onda Cabernet Sauvignon made from our Crystal vineyard, and Vaso Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc, which utilize fruit primarily from Hershey Vineyard, accented with fruit with from each of the vineyards.

Each of the four vineyard sites are dramatically different from one another, and it is their goal to let the individuality of each site be the primary character in the finished wine. Their vineyards are all farmed organically at low yields to allow the unique qualities of each site to be expressed in the bottle.  Multiple passes through the vineyards are made during harvest, and only the purest expressions of fruit and most balanced lots make it into Dana wines. Depending on the character of each lot, blocks are fermented in either concrete tanks, oak uprights or small barrels to enhance vineyard characteristics and help produce wines of distinction and sophistication.